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Comment on I gave up meat and gained so much more | A tale of one person's life, culture, and growing up in ~life
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Comment on I gave up meat and gained so much more | A tale of one person's life, culture, and growing up in ~life
InsertNameHere Link ParentGlad to hear that other people found liked this story / found that it resonated well with them!Glad to hear that other people found liked this story / found that it resonated well with them!
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Comment on I gave up meat and gained so much more | A tale of one person's life, culture, and growing up in ~life
InsertNameHere Link ParentAh, I took your earlier comment to be implying that the given reason alone was sufficient to justify farming and killing of non-human animalAh, I took your earlier comment to be implying that the given reason alone was sufficient to justify farming and killing of non-human animal
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Comment on I gave up meat and gained so much more | A tale of one person's life, culture, and growing up in ~life
InsertNameHere (edited )Link ParentHumans also behave in all those horrific ways too. Because that behavior can exist in humans, then following that logic, one could use it as justification to farm and kill humans? Edit: Oh yes...Humans also behave in all those horrific ways too. Because that behavior can exist in humans, then following that logic, one could use it as justification to farm and kill humans?
Edit: Oh yes that definition is certainly subject to a lot of discussion. Many people who are vegan don't like the "as far as is possible and practical" wording and argue for differing definitions for exactly how subjective it is
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Comment on I gave up meat and gained so much more | A tale of one person's life, culture, and growing up in ~life
InsertNameHere Link ParentIt's really not a monolith at all. What people eat will vary dramatically depending on who you ask and where in the world they live. People with cultures that do large dishes will generally still...It's really not a monolith at all. What people eat will vary dramatically depending on who you ask and where in the world they live. People with cultures that do large dishes will generally still do plenty of large dishes and those use to small dishes will generally do small dishes.
It can be as simple or complex as you want. For instance, you can still make a quick sandwich, peanut butter and jelly, hummus, plant-based meats, etc. Or you can make a more involved dish like Koshari (Egyptian street food that's really good and traditionally fully vegan)
One great way to find recipes that you never would have thought of is looking up "traditionally plant-based food in XYZ country". I love doing that, just pick a random country and give it a go. You'll for instance, find that say Ethiopian Injera bread is great and that are a lot of good split-pea and lentil based stews among many other dishes in Ethiopian cuisine
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Comment on I gave up meat and gained so much more | A tale of one person's life, culture, and growing up in ~life
InsertNameHere LinkHighly recommend reading this article in full before commentingHighly recommend reading this article in full before commenting
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I gave up meat and gained so much more | A tale of one person's life, culture, and growing up
38 votes -
Revealed: Tyson Foods dumps millions of pounds of toxic pollutants into US rivers and lakes
43 votes -
The dairy industry really, really doesn’t want you to say “bird flu in cows”
21 votes -
Comment on The best way to help bees? Don’t become a beekeeper like I did. in ~enviro
InsertNameHere LinkFor a short summary: ...For a short summary:
But what I didn’t know was that by keeping bees I would only be helping one species of bee – the domesticated honeybee, which doesn’t really need saving – and possibly harming others.
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If you want to help a variety of bees, the best way is to plant flowers that bloom sequentially from early spring to late autumn – even if you only have a window box or pots on a patio. Avoid gardening with chemicals, and leave areas undisturbed where solitary bees and bumblebees can nest. But don’t take up beekeeping
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The best way to help bees? Don’t become a beekeeper like I did.
34 votes -
Comment on Consider the lobster in ~food
InsertNameHere LinkIf you want to read in a non-pdf format, the article is also archived here:...If you want to read in a non-pdf format, the article is also archived here:
or
http://www.gourmet.com.s3-website-us-east-1.amazonaws.com/magazine/2000s/2004/08/consider_the_lobster.html (though this link still makes you have to go through page by page)
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Consider the lobster
32 votes -
Comment on What should kids know about factory farming? in ~food
InsertNameHere Link ParentHowever, one should ask what purpose that serves in practice. For one, it would create a false sense of what the meat industry looks like. Keep in mind that in the US ~98.7% of animals are factory...However, one should ask what purpose that serves in practice. For one, it would create a false sense of what the meat industry looks like. Keep in mind that in the US ~98.7% of animals are factory farmed and the figure is similarly high globally
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What should kids know about factory farming?
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Comment on US federal grants will replace tunnels beneath roads that let water pass but not fish in ~enviro
InsertNameHere Link ParentAh that makes sense now, thank you for that!Ah that makes sense now, thank you for that!
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Comment on US federal grants will replace tunnels beneath roads that let water pass but not fish in ~enviro
InsertNameHere LinkIs the complicated part here mainly that putting something blocking fish might also lead to a backup in debris, in turn stopping water flow? Or is it that whatever's blocking fish flow can wear...Is the complicated part here mainly that putting something blocking fish might also lead to a backup in debris, in turn stopping water flow? Or is it that whatever's blocking fish flow can wear away if the ground it's connected to wears away? Both? Wasn't completely clear to me from the article
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Comment on The pork industry’s forced cannibalism, explained in ~food
InsertNameHere Link ParentPerhaps not in the area you are (maybe the diseases circulating there have sufficient vaccines at the moment?), but there are plenty of articles out there talking about how it's been in widespread...Perhaps not in the area you are (maybe the diseases circulating there have sufficient vaccines at the moment?), but there are plenty of articles out there talking about how it's been in widespread use over the past decades.
There's someone who even wrote an entire PhD thesis on it:
Oral exposure with herd-derived animal materials has been widely used in swine production
over the years to stimulate herd immunity as a method to control and prevent diseases[...]
Despite wide use of controlled oral exposure over in swine the past 40 years, there is a
general lack of scientific information available supporting this intervention other than E. coli
and Transmissible Gastroenteritis (TGE) virus control. This lack of scientific data and mixed
results in the field when attempting to control other pathogens has generated much
controversy among practicing veterinarianshttps://dr.lib.iastate.edu/server/api/core/bitstreams/f250c158-3e9a-4059-b78d-87bd76bf566a/content
Here's another article looking at another timeframe where it was common in the US
The most common practice used to initiate herd immunity in US pig farms during the 2013–2017 epidemic when no PEDV vaccines were available, was use of whole-herd feedback using a load-close-expose protocol
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0168170220301209
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Comment on The pork industry’s forced cannibalism, explained in ~food
InsertNameHere Link ParentIt is indeed significantly higher in GHG emissions because ruminants produce large volumes of methane from digestion https://ourworldindata.org/food-choice-vs-eating-local/It is indeed significantly higher in GHG emissions because ruminants produce large volumes of methane from digestion
The most important insight from this study: there are massive differences in the GHG emissions of different foods: producing a kilogram of beef emits 60 kilograms of greenhouse gases (CO2-equivalents). While peas emits just 1 kilogram per kg.
Overall, animal-based foods tend to have a higher footprint than plant-based. Lamb and cheese both emit more than 20 kilograms CO2-equivalents per kilogram. Poultry and pork have lower footprints but are still higher than most plant-based foods, at 6 and 7 kg CO2-equivalents, respectively.
[...]
Whether you buy it from the farmer next door or from far away, it is not the location that makes the carbon footprint of your dinner large, but the fact that it is beef.
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Comment on The pork industry’s forced cannibalism, explained in ~food
InsertNameHere Link ParentI agree this thread is unusually hostile, but I see the hostility originating from the opposite direction than you might. It's hard to look at what goes on in the meat industry. It's...I agree this thread is unusually hostile, but I see the hostility originating from the opposite direction than you might. It's hard to look at what goes on in the meat industry. It's uncomfortable. Most people feel things they'd rather not, so there is a large temptation (not even consciously or intentionally) to apply some of our feelings to the messenger talking about it.
It takes no one with bad intent for that to happen. Statements merely asking people to reflect on contradictions between action and belief can become seen as deeply personal attacks. The result is harsh claims directed back; that someone is just trying to shame them or be morally superior when that's not their intent
To respond to some of the other claims, it's worth noting that factory farming is the vast vast majority. Even with labels like "free-range", they are extremely likely to come from factory farms. [1] In the US it represents well over 99% of animal agriculture as per the article here from earlier
Globally the picture is quite similar at around 90%. [2] Keep in mind that this includes lower-income countries that produce at lower quantities/densities due to lower consumption. Higher-income countries are going to be even higher
The kinds of consumption reductions you need to make anything but factory farming exist are likely much higher than you may think. For instance, the US would need a 4x reduction in beef consumption just to use grass-fed only production just to have enough land to do it. That'd also come away with 8% higher methane emissions due to longer grazing times and kill ~23 million more cattle due to lower slaughter weights [3]. If we wanted to get rid of those other impacts, we'd need further reductions.
Advocacy for reductions alone is unlikely to achieve that level of drop. Whatever position is being advocated will likely be compromised on. If one compromises from a position of compromise, it's not likely to get very far. If one advocates for a stronger position, you're more likely to see the compromise position be a large reduction rather than something like a say 5% reduction
[1] Free-range just requires technically having access to the outside light which companies will interpret to just mean "they can have the tiniest sliver with no roof but everything can still be extremely crowded". Here's one Tyson employee calling the "free range" label meaningless. Even at that those loose requirements aren't even followed all the time. Here's one example of a "certified free range " operation that turned out to not be free range at all, here's another, another, and so on
[2] https://www.sentienceinstitute.org/global-animal-farming-estimates
[3] https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/aad401
The other person replied with some more specific suggestions, but in more general terms I do recommend looking up "traditionally vegan dish in XYZ country" and pick a random country from all over the world. You'll end up with a lot of really good recipes you never would have thought of. It's a lot of fun to make things that way