[rzimmerman]

A counter philosophical take:

As a human, I can live a perfectly happy, healthy life without eating animals. Statistically it’s healthier, cheaper, and has no downside other than taste (meat tastes good, no argument here).

So ethically, how is eating meat any different than torturing and killing animals for pleasure?

[eadmund]

> I can live a perfectly happy, healthy life without eating animals.

That’s completely false: a life without bacon is less happy than a life with bacon, and thus imperfectly happy.

> So ethically, how is eating meat any different than torturing and killing animals for pleasure?

The former involves deriving pleasure from eating flesh; the latter involves deriving pleasure from inflicting pain.

[000ooo000]

>The former involves deriving pleasure from eating flesh; the latter involves deriving pleasure from inflicting pain.

Not all that different to an animal, though.

[pallas_athena]

When we will be able to grow meat in a lab, indistinguishable from real meat, with the same nutritional values, etc..., I will stop eating real animals.

Exactly 0% of my enjoyment of eating meat comes from inflicting pain to animals.

[000ooo000]

>Exactly 0% of my enjoyment of eating meat comes from inflicting pain to animals.

Exactly 0% of why you eat animals changes the pain inflicted on animals.

[myshpa]

Tradition, habit, convenience, taste. No other reasons exist.

[eadmund]

You omitted health. Meat is a package of pre-processed vitamins, minerals and energy sources.

Other than health, taste, tradition, habit and convenience, what has meat ever done for us?

[myshpa]

> You omitted health

But we don't need meat for health.

American Dietetic Association

"It is the position of the American Dietetic Association that appropriately planned vegetarian diets, including total vegetarian or vegan diets, are healthful, nutritionally adequate, and may provide health benefits in the prevention and treatment of certain diseases. Well-planned vegetarian diets are appropriate for individuals during all stages of the life cycle, including pregnancy, lactation, infancy, childhood, and adolescence, and for athletes."

NHS UK

"A vegetarian or vegan diet can be suitable for everyone, regardless of their age."

British Dietetic Association

"[I]t is possible to follow a well-planned, plant-based, vegan friendly diet that supports healthy living in people of all ages, and during pregnancy and breastfeeding."

> Meat is a package of pre-processed vitamins, minerals and energy sources.

In addition to saturated fats, cholesterol, and common additives like nitrates and preservatives, meat consumption can also entail exposure to antibiotics, hormones, bioaccumulated pesticides and herbicides, and ethical concerns related to cruelty and mistreatment in the meat production industry.

> Other than health, taste, tradition, habit and convenience, what has meat ever done for us?

If everyone on Earth adopted the American or European diet, we would require more than five Earths to feed everyone [0]. Animal agriculture is already the leading cause of deforestation [1], biodiversity loss [2] [3], and water pollution [4]. Our current agricultural practices are pushing over a million species towards extinction [5].

Switching to plant-based diets could free up an area equivalent to the combined size of both Americas [6], allowing us to reforest it and promote biodiversity recovery. By reforesting this vast area, we could sequester enough carbon to potentially reverse climate change [7] [8] (assuming a simultaneous phase-out of fossil fuels, of course) [9].

This approach represents the only sustainable way to feed a population of 10 billion [10] while reducing our agricultural land requirements from 4 billion hectares to 1 billion hectares [11]. Animal agriculture is one of the major culprits pushing six out of nine Earth boundaries beyond safe levels [12] [13].

So ... it does a lot.

[0] https://css.umich.edu/publications/factsheets/sustainability...

[1] https://ourworldindata.org/drivers-of-deforestation

[2] https://www.unep.org/news-and-stories/press-release/our-glob...

[3] https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26231772/

[4] https://blogs.ubc.ca/makingwaves/2017/02/07/cows-pigs-and-po...

[5] https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-019-01448-4

[6] https://ourworldindata.org/uploads/2013/10/World-Map-by-Land...

[7] https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/10/8/08...

[8] https://journals.plos.org/climate/article?id=10.1371/journal...

[9] https://ourworldindata.org/emissions-by-sector

[10] https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/917471

[11] https://ourworldindata.org/land-use-diets

[12] https://www.stockholmresilience.org/research/research-news/2...

[13] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planetary_boundaries#Nine_boun...