Re: The Untold Costs of Confined Animal Feeding Operations

What you are saying about how vegans cannot contribue anything to the
quality of life nor the quantity of life slaughtered is nieve.  While
you are correct in your assertation that even vegans cannot live a
life free of harm it is the purpose of veganism to minimize that
suffering.  To that end i am doing my part.  The nation is run on a
supply and demand concept the more people who become vegan or
vegetarian the less production of meat will be needed.  While again it
is true that animals raised in factory farms are owed their life to
that process it is the question as to the quality of life that is
owed.  We have comodified animals with feelings and social patterns in
order to sustain us, which based on your ideological beliefs is either
right or wrong.  The one thing i think we can agree on as both
omnivore and herbivore is that the system is out of whack.  The mere
production of meat is more costly than the production of vegetables.
The only reason currently that Americans are not paying 15 dollars a
pound of meat is because the government subsidizes these farms in
order to cut the final cost absorbed by the purchaser.

(see article here:
http://www.celsias.com/2008/02/22/why-eating-a-big-mac-is-cheaper-than-eating-a-salad
)

The government uses .37% of its subsidizing budget on fruits and
vegetables while it uses 73% of its budget on meat, this in turn
creates an imbalance.  I could quote all the negative aspects of meat
production in America including but not limited to green house gas
emissions, spoilage of land based on animal waste,  the fact that meat
production costs more water per lbs of meat than vegetable production
as well as the case that the rising incident of starvation due to
poverty could be lessened by a more plant centric diet and subsidizing
share.

Undoubtedly i will hear in response that my reasoning argue for the
destructions or lessoning of the numbers of factory farmed animals
which can in turn be construed as a desire to kill animals in
confinement.  I think the most logical step would be to gradually
decrease the dependency on farm animals which would also decrease the
amount of livestock bred so that in a few generations time the amount
of suffering and slaughter could be minimized.  While i have the grand
hope that the world would adopt compassionate eating habits i am a
realist when it comes to the likely hood of that within my lifetime.
There are many things ingrained into the social consciousness through
memetics and old world thinking that will continue to perpetuate the
myth that animal based diets are needed and one cannot succeed on a
plant based diet.  So it is my hope that by adopting a wellfarist
outlook seeking better conditions for livestock and advocating
concurrently for people to consider a vegan lifestyle will make the
most impact on the care and well being of animals.

So in conclusion while it is one thing to say that being a vegan does
not exempt you from the tangential abuse or harm of animals it is
quite another to say that being a vegan does not help Decrease the
amount of suffering caused by the meat and dairy industry.  It is more
an argument about semantics than it is about facts.  Everyday i learn
of something that i can do or change that helps directly my role in
the needless torture and killing of animals for my wellbeing or
entertainment, and everyday i try my best to reflect on the nature of
my choices in order to understand fully my impact.   This is truly
conscious consumerism.