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for all the natural landscapes that have to be destroyed, including the disastrous effect on the flora nd fauna, to make the fields to grow the vegetables that they eat?
I've wondered and contemplated this a lot for a few years.
Obviously, for the meat eaters, there is also the issue of changing the landscape to have the pastures for the livestock that need it; and to raise the crops that the animals eat - crops which could, indeed, be better and more efficiently and more environmentally soundly used to feed people. I'm certianly not saying that the vegetarians have a greater, negative effect on the environment than those who eat farm-raised meat. But I think we have to be honest and say that even a vegetarian lifestyle has essential and necessary negative effects on animals and the environment.
It seems to me that the truest and purest form of ecological and ethical food consumerism is gathering. Maybe hunting/gathering, but that is debatable, especially if we want to take into consideration not causing suffering to animals. Gathering, I posit, is the only truly environmentally friendly method of getting food.
Agriculture is also environmentally damaging, in the sense of disrupting the natural order of a local area. Trees are cleared out, prairie grass is removed, etc. in order to make the field to grow the soybeans, rice, beans, tomatoes, corn, whatever. That cuts down on the natural territory of the animals who used to be there.
Having those crops also means that we have then start paring down the wildlife who might eat those crops - I think of Wisconsin, where I grew up, where deer populations can get so large they are dangerous to themselves, to people, and to the very crops that vegetarians want to eat. And of course, people don't want dangerous predators around (vegetarians and meat eaters both), so they've mostly been killed, so they aren't around to thin out the deer herds. So the deer have to be killed. In which case, it would be a waste not to eat them. So what's a person to do? If we want to bve vegetarian so we don't have to harm animals and hurt the environment, can we in good conscious kill the animals who will ruin our crops, and if we decide that we can kill them, then how can we in good conscience not eat them?
To say nothing of the land we destroy to build houses, roads, and shopping malls, in which to eat, ship, and buy all those vegetables.
So we're left with one important conclusion: while eating farm-raised-meat is more than likely a more environmentally destructive act than eating only vegetables, the truth is, even the vegetarians, unless they're growing their own or gathering, will have a greater impact on the environment even than a person who hunts all his/her own meat and grows their own veggies.
As one who is very concerned about the environment, and the future viability of our planet, this is an issue I've wrestled with for years. Many times I wish that we would just go back to hunting and gathering, and stop all agriculture and farm raising of animals.
I don't know. I've been vegetarian at times, for environmental and not ethical reasons, and for the most part I can do it - I love vegetables and could happily eat them all the time, and give up meat. But I also love butter, cream, and eggs, which mean I'm still supporting the caging and raising of animals. What's a guy to do? I don't know, especially since even a vegetarian diet has a significant impact on the environment.
Neither option is sin free.
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