[basetop]

Simply not true because humans can't process vegetation like cows can. It's why we feed animals vegetation and we eat the animals.

Also, even if what you said were true, that only applies to human raised livestock. Even under you assertion, eating wild animals ( elk, moose, bison, etc ) would cause far less animal harm than a vegan diet which destroys thousands of animals for each bowl of salad.

So I'm guessing every Vegan Society member is a hunter?

[aoeusnth1]

Factory farmed animals aren’t primarily fed on harmless waste products. They require production of corn or other plants to efficiently feed them. Do a google scholar search for land use of various diets. https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal...

Personally, I don't mind eating hunted meat. It's just inconvenient because I don't like to hunt, nor could I do so conveniently.

Regardless, you seem to be assuming that vegans care about minimizing the number of organisms harmed. I don't think that's generally true - most people care about subjective understanding of suffering. Personally I like Brian Tomasik's writings - he tries quantify suffering explicitly based on functional complexity of brain function (https://reducing-suffering.org/the-importance-of-insect-suff...).

[rasengan0]

>Simply not true because humans can't process vegetation like cows can. It's why we feed animals vegetation and we eat the animals.

http://chemistry.elmhurst.edu/vchembook/547cellulose.html

Er...this was basic high school biology, but I'm living proof that my gut biome can process vegetation. You're right though it won't break down the beta linkages in cellulose. So I stay away paper jerky.

[basetop]

You forget the key words in my comment. "Like a cow". I know you can process some vegetation. I eat a lot of vegetables. But your gut biome can't process vegetation like cows. Go try eating grass or vegetation exclusively and see how well you do.

Lets put it this way, you cannot survive on a locally sourced vegan diet. This is true whether you live in alaska or the amazon. The only way you can survive on a vegan diet by shipping vegetation from all over the world ( tons of environmental destruction and oil use for transport ).

Maybe some vegans have good intentions, but as they say, the road to hell is paved with good intentions. While vegans virtue signal and pat themselves on their backs about being pro-environment, anti-oil, pro-animals, pro-health, pro-local source, pro-natural, their diet is the worst for the environment, kills 1000X more animals than any other diet ( admittedly "small" animals ), needs tons of oil for petrochemical fertilizers and transportation, is anti-local source ( there isn't a place on earth where locally produced vegetation can sustain you ), is anti-natural ( since you need lab produced supplements ), etc.

If you rather kill 1000 billion animals rather than 1 billion animals, then veganism is for you. If you'd rather use 1000X more oil, then veganism is for you. If you'd rather eat a globally sourced oil dependent diet rather than locally sourced diet, then veganism is for you.

Vegans are the worst people pretending to be the best. But that's not exclusive to veganism. It's true for most people who pretend to be the best. Every cult claims to save the world while being vicious and illogical.