Various Meats

While some people have no ethical objections to eating certain types of animal meat, others object to the act of killing and eating an animal and/or the agricultural practices surrounding the production of meat. Reasons for objecting to the practice of killing animals for consumption may include animal rights, environmental ethics, certain religions, or an aversion to inflicting pain or harm on other living creatures due to conscience. Some people, while not vegetarians, refuse to eat the flesh of certain animals due to cultural taboo, such as cats, dogs, horses, or rabbits. In some cases, specific meats are forbidden within religious traditions. Some people eat only the flesh of animals who have not been mistreated, and abstain from the meat of animals reared in factory farms or from particular products such as foie gras and veal. Others believe that the treatment which animals undergo in the production of meat and animal products obliges them never to eat meat or use animal products. Killing other people for food (cannibalism) is also unacceptable in most human cultures. Image File history File links Download high resolution version (881x639, 113 KB) File links The following pages link to this file: Meat Image:Meatfoodgroup. ... Image File history File links Download high resolution version (881x639, 113 KB) File links The following pages link to this file: Meat Image:Meatfoodgroup. ... For other uses, see Ethics (disambiguation). ... Intensive agriculture is an agricultural production system characterized by the significant use of inputs, and seeking to maximize the production. ... For the album by Moby, see Animal Rights (album). ... Environmental ethics is the part of environmental philosophy which considers the ethical relationship between human beings and the natural environment. ... “Hurting” redirects here. ... For other uses, see Life (disambiguation). ... François Chifflart (1825-1901), La Conscience (daprès Victor Hugo) Conscience is an ability or faculty or sense that leads to feelings of remorse when we do things that go against our moral values, or which informs our moral judgment before performing such an action. ... For animals adapted to eat primarily plants, sometimes referred to as vegetarian animals, see Herbivore. ... This article is about cultural prohibitions in general, for other uses, see Taboo (disambiguation). ... Modern dairy farm Industrial agriculture, also known as factory farming, refers to the industrialized production of livestock, poultry, fish, and crops. ... Pâté de foie gras (right) with pickled pear. ... Veal is the meat of young calves (usually male) appreciated for its delicate taste and tender texture. ... “Cannibal” redirects here. ...

Ethics of killing for food

Philosopher Peter Singer believes that if alternative means of survival exist, one ought to choose the option that does not cause unnecessary harm to animals. With the exception of a small world minority of people, such as traditionalistic nomadic hunting and herding societies, those who live in agricultural (as opposed to hunter/gatherer) societies are usually free to choose not to eat meat or use animal products. For other persons named Peter Singer, see Peter Singer (disambiguation). ... The definition of a minority group can vary, depending on specific context, but generally refers to either a sociological sub-group that does not form either a majority or a plurality of the total population, or a group that, while not necessarily a numerical minority, is disadvantaged or otherwise has... Communities of nomadic people move from place to place, rather than settling down in one location. ... This article is about the hunting of prey by human society. ... A man herding goats in Tunisia Herding is the act of bringing individual animals together into a group, maintaining the group and moving the group from place to place—or any combination of those. ... A society is a group of people living or working together. ...

Most 'ethical' vegetarians argue that the same reasons exist against killing sentient animals to eat as against killing humans to eat - the animal does not want to die and is given no choice; the family and friends of that animal will suffer as a result; the animal has expectations of future enjoyment which are denied; the animal enjoys living, and the animal experiences varying levels of fear and pain in the process of being killed. Ethical vegetarians also believe that killing an animal, like killing a human, can only be justified in extreme circumstances and that consuming a living creature for its enjoyable taste, convenience, or perceived nutritional value is not sufficient cause. Another common view is that humans are morally conscious of their behavior in a way other animals are not, and therefore subject to higher standards.

As noted by John Webster, a professor of animal husbandry at Bristol: "People have assumed that intelligence is linked to the ability to suffer and that because animals have smaller brains they suffer less than humans. That is a pathetic piece of logic, sentient animals have the capacity to experience pleasure and are motivated to seek it, you only have to watch how cows and lambs both seek and enjoy pleasure when they lie with their heads raised to the sun on a perfect English summer's day. Just like humans." ^[1]

Author J. Neil Schulman contends that "If human beings are no different from other animals, then like all other animals it is our nature to kill any other animal which serves the purposes of our survival and well-being, for that is the way of all nature. Therefore, aside from economic concerns such as making sure we don't kill so quickly that we destroy a species and deprive our descendants of prey, human animals can kill members of other animal species for their usefulness to us. It is only if we are not just another animal -- if our nature is distinctly superior to other animals -- that we become subject to ethics at all -- and then those ethics must take into account our nature as masters of the lower animals. We may seek a balance of nature; but "balance" is a concept that only a species as intelligent as humankind could even contemplate. We may choose to temper the purposes to which we put lower animals with empathy and wisdom; but by virtue of our superior nature, we decide ... and if those decisions include the consumption of animals for human utilitarian or recreational purposes, then the limits on the uses we put the lower beasts are ones we set according to our individual human consciences."^[2] Joseph Neil Schulman (born April 16, 1953 in Forest Hills, New York, USA) is an author, screenwriter, journalist and radio personality. ...

Treatment of animals

Modern slaughterhouse technique

Ethical vegetarianism has become popular in developed countries particularly because of the spread of factory farming, which has reduced the sense of husbandry that used to exist in farming and led to animals being treated as commodities. Some believe that the current mass demand for meat cannot be satisfied without a mass-production system that disregards the welfare of animals, while others believe that practices like well-managed free-ranging and consumption of game, particularly from species whose natural predators have been significantly eliminated, could substantially alleviate the demand for mass-produced meat. Cattle restrained for slaughter just prior to stunning. ... Cattle restrained for slaughter just prior to stunning. ... The factual accuracy of part of this article is disputed. ... In general stewardship is responsibility for taking good care of resources entrusted to one. ...

Defenders of factory farming claim that the animals are better off in total confinement. According to F J "Sonny" Faison, president of Carroll’s Foods: "They're in state-of-the-art confinement facilities. The conditions that we keep these animals in are much more humane than when they were out in the field. Today they're in housing that is environmentally controlled in many respects. And the feed is right there for them all the time, and water, fresh water. They're looked after in some of the best conditions, because the healthier and [more] content that animal, the better it grows. So we're very interested in their well-being — up to an extent."^[3]

Animal consciousness

Peter Singer in his book Animal Liberation developed a list of qualities in sentient creatures that gave them consideration under utilitarian ethics and this has been widely referenced by animal rights campaigners and vegetarians. Reasons included the animal does not want to die and is given no choice; the family and friends of that animal may suffer as a result of its death; the animal has expectations of future enjoyment which are denied; the animal enjoys living, and the animal experiences varying levels of fear and pain in the process of being killed. Utilitarian philosophers would say that killing an animal, like killing a human, could only be justified in extreme circumstances and that the creation of a meal for its taste, convenience or nutritional value is not sufficient cause. This article discusses utilitarian ethical theory. ...

Cow in a field

Eugene Linden, author of The Parrot's Lament cites many examples of animal behavior and intelligence that surpass what most people would suppose to be the boundary of animal conscious. Linden contends that in many of these documented examples, a variety of animal species exhibits behavior that can only be attributed to emotion, and to a level of consciousness that we would normally ascribe only to our own species. Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ...

Philosopher Daniel Dennett counters that: "Consciousness requires a certain kind of informational organization that does not seem to be 'hard-wired' in humans, but is instilled by human culture. Moreover, consciousness is not a black-or-white, all-or-nothing type of phenomenon, as is often assumed. The differences between humans and other species are so great that speculations about animal consciousness seem ungrounded. Many authors simply assume that an animal like a bat has a point of view, but there seems to be little interest in exploring the details involved."^[4] Daniel Clement Dennett (b. ...

It can also be said that humans have evolved to a point where the basic survival needs are not enough, and that we demand more.^[5] This is not the case for most other animals who can be happy with having shelter, food, etc.

Environmental issues

Main articles: Environmental vegetarianism and Anthropocentrism Environmental vegetarianism is the practice of vegetarianism based on the belief that the production of meat by intensive agriculture is environmentally unsustainable. ... Anthropocentrism (Greek άνθρωπος, anthropos, human, κέντρον, kentron, center), or the human-centered principle, refers to the idea that humanity must always remain the central concern for humans. ...

Some people choose to follow a vegetarian or vegan lifestyle for environmental reasons.

The use of large industrial monoculture that is common in industrialized agriculture, typically for feed crops such as corn and soy is more damaging to ecosystems than more sustainable farming practices such as organic farming, permaculture, arable, pastoral, and rain-fed agriculture Monoculture describes systems that have very low diversity. ... This article is about the maize plant. ... Binomial name Glycine max Soybeans (US) or soya beans (UK) (Glycine max) are a high-protein legume (Family Fabaceae) grown as food for both humans and livestock. ... A coral reef near the Hawaiian islands is an example of a complex marine ecosystem. ... Organic farming is a form of agriculture which avoids or largely excludes the use of synthetic fertilizers and pesticides, plant growth regulators, and livestock feed additives. ... Permaculture Mandala summarising the ethics and principles of permaculture design. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... Titians The Pastoral Concert Pastoral refers to the lifestyle of shepherds and pastoralists, moving livestock around larger areas of land according to seasons and availability of water and feed. ...

Animals fed on grain and those which rely on grazing need more water than grain crops ^[6]. According to the USDA, growing crops for farm animals requires nearly half of the U.S. water supply and 80% of its agricultural land. Animals raised for food in the U.S. consume 90% of the soy crop, 80% of the corn crop, and 70% of its grain. ^[7]. In tracking food animal production from the feed through to the dinner table, the inefficiencies of meat, milk and egg production range from a 4:1 energy input to protein output ratio up to 54:1. ^[8] The result is that producing animal-based food is typically much less efficient than the harvesting of grains, vegetables, legumes, seeds and fruits, though this might not be largely true for animal husbandry in the developing world where factory farming is almost non existent, making animal based food much more sustainable. “USDA” redirects here. ... Motto: (Out Of Many, One) (traditional) In God We Trust (1956 to date) Anthem: The Star-Spangled Banner Capital Washington D.C. Largest city New York City None at federal level (English de facto) Government Federal constitutional republic  - President George Walker Bush (R)  - Vice President Dick Cheney (R) Independence from... A glass of cows milk. ... An egg is a body consisting of an ovum surrounded by layers of membranes and an outer casing of some type, which acts to nourish and protect a developing embryo. ... Varieties of soybean seeds, a popular legume Pea pods A legume is a plant in the family Fabaceae (or Leguminosae), or a fruit of these plants. ...

Anthropocentrism, or human-centredness, is believed by some to be the central problematic concept in environmental philosophy, where it is used to draw attention to a systematic bias in traditional Western attitudes to the non-human world ^[9]. Val Plumwood (1993, 1996) has argued that anthropocentrism plays an analogous role in green theory to androcentrism in feminist theory and ethnocentrism in anti-racist theory. Plumwood calls human-centredness "anthrocentrism" to emphasize this parallel. Androcentrism (Greek ανδρο, andro-, man, male, χεντρον, kentron, center) is the practice, conscious or otherwise, of placing male human beings or the masculine point of view at the center of ones view of the world and its culture and... Ethnocentrism is the tendency to look at the world primarily from the perspective of ones own culture. ...

Defenders of anthropocentrism views point out that maintenance of a healthy, sustainable environment is necessary for human well-being as opposed for its own sake. The problem with a "shallow" viewpoint is not that it is human centered but that according to William Grey (1993: 473) "What's wrong with shallow views is not their concern about the well-being of humans, but that they do not really consider enough in what that well-being consists. According to this view, we need to develop an enriched, fortified anthropocentric notion of human interest to replace the dominant short-term, sectional and self-regarding conception."

Ethics discussions between vegetarians and meat eaters

Beef steaks on the grill

Some meat eaters suggest that vegetarianism and veganism doesn't actually reduce the number of animals killed, although as a group, vegetarians must reduce the demand for meat. For example, critics like Steven Davis, professor of animal science at Oregon State University, argues that the number of wild animals killed in crop production is greater than those killed in ruminant-pasture production. Whenever a tractor goes through a field to plow, disc, cultivate, apply fertilizer and/or pesticide, and harvest, animals are killed. Davis gives a small sampling of field animals in the U. S. that are threatened by intensive crop production, such as: opossum, rock dove, house sparrow, European starling, black rat, Norway rat, house mouse, Chukar, grey partridge, ring-necked pheasant, wild turkey, cottontail rabbit, gray-tailed vole, and numerous species of amphibians. In one small example, an alfalfa harvest caused a 50% decline in the gray-tailed vole population. According to Davis, if all of the cropland in the U. S. were used to produce crops for a vegetarian diet, it is estimated that around 1.8 billion animals would be killed annually.^[10] Image File history File links Download high resolution version (1024x768, 106 KB) Summary A steak on the grill. ... Image File history File links Download high resolution version (1024x768, 106 KB) Summary A steak on the grill. ... Zoology (Greek zoon = animal and logos = word) is the biological discipline which involves the study of animals. ... Oregon State University (OSU) is a four-year research and degree-granting public university, located in Corvallis, Oregon in the United States. ... This article or section should be merged with Virginia_opossum The word opossum (usually pronounced without the leading O, or with only a very slight schwa) refers either to the Virginia Opossum in particular, or more generally to any of the other marsupials of magnorder Ameridelphia. ... Binomial name Columba livia Gmelin, 1789 The Rock Dove (Columba livia), or feral pigeon, is a member of the bird family Columbidae, doves and pigeons. ... Binomial name (Linnaeus, 1758) The House Sparrow (Passer domesticus) is a member of the Old World sparrow family Passeridae. ... Binomial name Sturnus vulgaris Linnaeus, 1758 The European Starling or Common Starling, Sturnus vulgaris, is a passerine bird in the family Sturnidae. ... Binomial name Rattus rattus (Linnaeus, 1758) Black Rat range The Black Rat (Rattus rattus), also known as the Asian black rat, Ship Rat, Roof Rat or House Rat, is a common long-tailed rodent of the genus Rattus (Old World rodents) and the subfamily Murinae (murine rodents). ... Binomial name Rattus norvegicus (Berkenhout, 1769) The Brown Rat or Norway Rat (Rattus norvegicus) is one of the most well-known and common rats, and also one of the largest. ... Binomial name Linnaeus, 1758 The common House Mouse (Mus musculus) is one of the most numerous species of the genus Mus equivalent to the common term mouse. ... Binomial name Alectoris chukar (Gray, JE, 1830) The chukar, Alectoris chukar, is a gamebird in the pheasant family Phasianidae of the order Galliformes, gallinaceous birds. ... Binomial name Perdix perdix (Linnaeus, 1758) The Grey Partridge (Perdix perdix) is a gamebird in pheasant family Phasianidae of the order Galliformes, gallinaceous birds. ... Binomial name Phasianus colchicus Linnaeus, 1758 The Common Pheasant (Phasianus colchicus) is a gamebird in the pheasant family Phasianidae of the order Galliformes, gallinaceous birds. ... Binomial name Meleagris gallopavo Linnaeus, 1758 For other uses, see Wild Turkey (disambiguation). ... Type species Lepus sylvaticus Bachman, 1837 (=Lepus sylvaticus floridanus J. Allen, 1890) Species 16, see text The cottontail rabbits are the 16 lagomorph species in the genus Sylvilagus, found in the Americas. ... For other uses, see Vole (disambiguation). ... For other uses, see Amphibian (disambiguation). ...

Gaverick Matheny, a Ph.D. candidate in agricultural economics at the University of Maryland, counters that Davis' reasoning contains several major flaws, including distorting the notion of "harm" to animals, and miscalculating the number of animal deaths based on areas of land rather than per consumer. For example, currently nearly 10 billion animals are killed each year in the U.S. for food, more than five times greater than Davis' estimated 1.8 billion for crop harvesting. Matheny says that "After correcting for these errors, Davis’s argument makes a strong case for, rather than against, adopting a vegetarian diet." ^[11]

Another suggestion is that because meat eating is (1) a natural behavior (other animals eat meat), (2) a traditional behavior, and (3) in some cases necessary for survival, it is excluded from ethical consideration.^[12] Vegetarians and vegans usually respond to the first argument that many natural behaviors of animals would be appalling if exhibited by humans, for example, rape,^[13] intra-species killing, ^[14] and cannibalism.^[15] They argue that other animals should not be looked to as a model for an ethical lifestyle. However, some meat-eaters think it is appropriate to eat different animals because they believe that these animals are not moral agents; that is, these animals are not capable of carrying out moral reasoning about their actions. This lack of moral agency means both that it is inappropriate to morally praise or blame such animals for their behaviour, and that people need not treat these animals as being of equal moral worth. Appeal to nature is a simplified type of naturalistic fallacy in argument form. ... Appeal to tradition, also known as appeal to common practice or argumentum ad antiquitatem or false induction is a common logical fallacy in which a thesis is deemed correct on the basis that it has a long standing tradition behind. ... Agency considered in the philosophical sense is the capacity of an agent to act in a world. ...

Hens in a barn

In the case of tradition, vegetarians and vegans argue that most major human traditions that have ever existed have eventually been abandoned, as an understanding of science and a perception of culture and ethics grew within human society. Examples of such abandoned traditions are slavery, human sacrifice, ritual cannibalism, female genital mutilation and many other practices which people's heightened sense of understanding has resulted in a direct prohibition against, in most developed countries. ^[16] Hardy Meyers chicken operation near Petal, Mississippi. ... Hardy Meyers chicken operation near Petal, Mississippi. ...

Regarding the necessity of animal consumption, vegetarians and vegans contend that meat eating is rarely necessary for survival in the modern world, when agricultural advances have significantly increased the availability of vegetables and vegetable products.^[17]

However it should be noted that human biology shows that several essential nutrients are far easier to obtain from a diet that includes meat and meat products. Furthermore, many scientists have concluded that the human small intestine is far too short to indicate a solely herbivorous diet, as compared with other primates such as the gorilla (which is almost solely herbivorous).^[18] Chimpanzees eat portions of meat (approximately 4-10% of their diet, mostly coming from termites) and will organize hunts to catch and eat prey such as colobus monkeys.^[19]

The sociologist Max Weber emphasized the basic fact that people are not satisfied to just engage in behavior but also need to believe that what they do is good or right. Thus some people, both meat-eaters and vegetarian alike, will respond with defensiveness, intolerance, or hostility towards the other, interpreting the other's behaviour as calling their own behaviour into question. Vegetarians often associate their calls for giving ethical consideration to animals with other movements that have attempted to expand the range of beings given this consideration such as the anti-slavery movement, the women's liberation movement, opposition to racism, child labour, colonialism and others. All of these activities have at some point been defended on the basis that the suffering incurred is legitimate, natural, necessary, or just. For the politician, see Max Weber (politician). ... Slave redirects here. ... This box:      The sign of the headquarters of the National Association Opposed To Woman Suffrage Sexism is commonly considered to be discrimination and/or hatred against people based on their sex rather than their individual merits, but can also refer to any and all systemic differentiations based on the sex... Racism is the prejudice that members of one race are intrinsically superior or inferior to members of other races. ... Child labour or labor is the phenomenon of children in employment. ... It has been suggested that Benign colonialism be merged into this article or section. ...

References

Arne Dekke Eide Næss (born January 27, 1912) is widely regarded as the foremost Norwegian philosopher of the 20th century[1], and is the founder of deep ecology. ... A digital object identifier (or DOI) is a standard for persistently identifying a piece of intellectual property on a digital network and associating it with related data, the metadata, in a structured extensible way. ...

See also

• Animal rights
• Animal welfare
• Meat
• Emotion in animals
• Factory farming
• Food guide pyramid
• Economic vegetarianism
• Environmental vegetarianism
• Speciesism
• Veganism
• Vegetarianism
• Animal Chaplains

For the album by Moby, see Animal Rights (album). ... Animal welfare is the viewpoint that animals, especially those under human care, should not suffer unnecessarily, including where the animals are used for food, work, companionship, or research. ... This article is about the food. ... Emotion in animals considers the question, do animals feel, in the sense we understand it? Different answers have been suggested throughout human history, by animal lovers, scientists, and others who interact with animals, but the core question has proven hard to answer since we can neither obtain spoken answers, nor... The factual accuracy of part of this article is disputed. ... This 1992 food pyramid diagram can still be found on much of the food packaging in the United States The improved American food guide pyramid, informally known as the food pyramid, was a nutrition guide created by the USDA. Released in 1992, the food pyramid suggested how much of each... An economic vegetarian is a person who practices vegetarianism from either the philosophical viewpoint that the consumption of meat is expensive, part of a conscious simple living strategy or just because of necessity. ... Environmental vegetarianism is the practice of vegetarianism based on the belief that the production of meat by intensive agriculture is environmentally unsustainable. ... The relevance of particular information in (or previously in) this article or section is disputed. ... “Vegan” redirects here. ... This article refers to human nutrition and diet, for plant based diets in the animal kingdom see herbivore A variety of vegetarian food ingredients Vegetarianism is the practice of a diet that excludes all animal flesh, including poultry, game, fish, shellfish or crustacea, and slaughter by-products. ... Animal chaplains provide a wide array of services to the community, including pet loss grief support, animal memorial services, praying for animals who are sick or injured, comforting bereaved family members, holding hands with pet owners during surgery or euthanasia at a veterinary clinic or animal hospital, and performing animal...

External links

• The moral basis of vegetarianism (1959) e-book by Mahatma Gandhi
• The Ethics of Eating Meat: A Radical View Charles Eisenstein