A Critique of Vegetarianism in the 21st Century (long)

The New York Times Magazine ^ | November 10, 2002 | Michael Pollan

[purple haze]

The first time I opened Peter Singer's "Animal Liberation" I was dining alone at the Palm, trying to enjoy a rib-eye steak cooked medium rare. If this sounds like a good recipe for cognitive dissonance (if not indegestions), that was sort of the idea. Preposterous as it might seem, to supporters of animal rights, what I was doing was tantamount to reading "Uncle Tom's Cabin" on a plantation in the Deep South in 1852....

link to article

[purple haze]

I'm interested to see how this flies here. I think it's one of the most objective pieces on this topic I've yet read.

[Drango]

Germany became the first nation to grant animals a constitutional right:

BHA HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA ~ouch my side...~snort HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA ~snicker HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

[Kaiwen]

A tension has always existed between the capitalist imperative to maximize efficiency and the moral imperatives of religion or community, which have historically served as a counterweight to the moral blindness of the market. This is one of ''the cultural contradictions of capitalism'' -- the tendency of the economic impulse to erode the moral underpinnings of society.

Fantastic article. Really thought provoking.

[JoJo Gunn]

If we eat animals, then we limit Peter Singers options for sexual partners.

[Pinetop]

That's right. Peter Singer is trying to equate homosexuality with animal husbandry, i.e., non-procreative sex. He is a defender of zoo couples or zoophililia--the next step for civil libertarians. "She's not a whopper with cheese, that's my wife."

(See:www.Nerve.com/Opinions/Singer/heavy/Petting)
If you don't like ruff sex--don't read this.

[Hank Kerchief]

If we don't eat animals, where will we get meat?

Hank

[briant]

Wow, somebody else actually bother to read it. It's a great article and the author even has singer in a bind in regard to condemnation of meat eating per se. these arguements, however, are not new and I assume well known to many here. It is disgusting that the PEAT type groups are given inordinant respect in many circles without having to defend against this kind of logic.

[briant]

PEAT=PETA

[briant]

The types of farms mentioned here as a substitute for the current factory farms will probably increase in number. I think many people are offended by the images of factory farming, but are still going to desire meat. The PETA/Singer approach is simply antithetical to human and animal nature.

[purple haze]

I think and hope you are correct.

[HetLoo]

I didn't read it. Don't have a NYT account but I'm willing to bet he didn't include this argument against vegetarianism...

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Stop Big Vegetation!

Yes, that’s right. Just like every piece of paper you consume hastens the death of a tree in a forest, so every mouthful of vegetable matter you ingest takes food away from a hungry animal. True animal lovers are slowly waking up to the fact that vegetarianism is the BIG LIE and instead of “helping” animals, actually costs more lives than ever thought imaginable. The single, true, animal friendly eating practice is consuming only animal carcasses that died of natural causes and nothing else. Too many animals starve to death each year, for want of adequate vegetation… greedily ingested by so-called animal lovers. Every animal in the food chain has been affected by our selfishness, either directly or indirectly. A majestic mountain lion will go hungry tonight because the deer he would have eaten died of starvation yesterday because you were selfish and ate oatmeal for breakfast. Shame on you!
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[purple haze]

He actually discusses a similar argument, suggesting that the crop requirements of a mainly vegetarian population would result in the deaths of many more field mice and various other creatures that wind up in the wrong part of the tractor. I'm not sure I buy it, though, since a meat-eating population has to plant many crops just to feed its livestock before eating them.

Nevertheless, it is an interesting argument that is often overlooked.

[briant]

I'm not sure I buy it, though, since a meat-eating population has to plant many crops just to feed its livestock before eating them.

Not if they graze. You may need to get them hay, but not all year.