Is it ethical to eat vegetables?!
There are many more animals killed brutally compared to killing one single cow as far as calories consumed. Cows do not consume gophers yet to sustain one vegan, hundreds of sentient beings are slaughtered brutally every year.
P.S. Before you ask, cows are fed with grass and hay. So no animals are killed while producing food for the cattle.
Answers:
in a sense, humans need there vegetation, it's survival. we were smart enough to make farms and all that for our wheat, veggies, etc, and to top it, we can avoid predators from sabotaging our food. it's survival laws. we work on our food for us and not for the unknown. i understand rodents have a life too and serve a purpose, but they shouldn't be attacking human's food. it's only natural that we bug 'em off. not with poisons and all that mind you.... what is unnatural is tricking nature with genetically modified cows and pigs and chickens and so on, to "help better serve" the community (which sometimes is half-way around the world), EVEN THOUGH, we know that meat does nothing good for us except replaces some vitamins and minerals that we can get in other saner foods. in foods where you don't have to excercise major deviant homicidal practises. just survival basics.
Cows are fed corn...actually. Calves are also fed animal blood as well. Not to mention that the small field animals that are killed in the process of vegetable farming isn't the same as caging an animal, jacking it up on anti-biotics, steroids, growth hormones, and pesticides, and then taking it through a stressful travel to a slaughterhouse where they are killed, tortured, and injured in horrid ways.
The idea of being vegan isn't about perfection or purity. If you think so, you've missed the point. It's about standing against animal exploitation in the most practical ways possible.
---EDIT---
"Hypothetical" doesn't mean the majority. The majority of cows are being fed grains like corn. Not grass and hay. Grain is cheaper and this game is all about profit for the meat industry.
---EDIT 2---
If I had the choice to die with some gut wrenching poison like Shakespeare's Romeo or go through a horror fest of blades, scaulding tanks, and pokers like the movie Saw, I think I'd rather be poisoned. No one said vegans approved of farmers using pesticides or poisons on their food or near their food to keep rodants out either. I buy mostly organic. But it doesn't matter because people like you try to have some "clever" little response to everything. People are different. Deal with it.
Vegan
Cows are not fed just grass and hay, but corn and other byproducts as well. Also, let's recall the source of mad cow disease. And all that grass and hay is being harvested as well, so we're still spraying and killing the mice, rats, moles, and billions of insects that we're killing in the making of vegetables as well.
Many vegans not simply vegans, but activists for organic, locally produced foods. Essentially, they're on the same page as you. They don't want pesticides or herbicides, they don't want rats or gophers, or even little gnats killed in the name of their vegetables.
But, let's have a little sense as well. A gnat can fly away. A prairie dog can run to another field. When a cow or a pig is born for slaughter, there is no escape whatsoever.
Where do the cattle (because you don't just eat the females) live? They live in fields that are the natural habitat of many other animals and plants. They weren't always fields to begin with. The trees get knocked down and animals have nowhere safe to live.
Plus VERY few cows are actually fed only grass and hay. They need sweet feed to taste better. Theoretically grass and hay fed cows wouldn't be as bad but the habitat destruction is still a problem. And grass and hay fed cattle just isn't common! Theoretically people who are peaceful live longer because if no one fights in a war, no one would die in a war. But wars will happen whether we like it or not and so will grain fed cows.
Sorry to destroy you ideas. It would be great if we could all just eat whatever without hurting the planet.
Eating a well-rounded diet and still being environmentally responsible aren't mutually exclusive. Grass-fed beef is raised in more natural conditions and local growers can be found in all 50 states (see link below). If you're concerned about your vegetables I would recommend gardening yourself or shopping at a local farmer's market. At the farmer's market you can ask how the vegetables are being grown and buy from farmers that don't use poisons.
www.grassfedbeefdirectory.com
www.bradysbeef.com
Hello
Nothing is ever 100% vegetarian/vegan, people do the best they can - SO WHAT ARE YOU DOING MEAT EATER!!! Nothing, exactly.
the only ethical thing to do in this life is to end it as quickly as possible
I often wonder the same thing! I am not a vegan, and I am glad too see someone who shares my beliefs (or non-beliefs). The fertilizers that are used on vegetables come from animal manuer from factory farmed animals. There are also worms in the soil that die and fertilize it, and how about the poor amebas living in the water we drink? With every sip, we kill millions of single-celled lives. Lastly, gasoline comes from oil that is on the earth because of dinosaurs dying, so true vegans should not even drive cars.
we all live in a food chain. besides rats are dirty animals that transfer diseases.Killing them would make us a favor. we have to eat something...we cant just not eat vegetable just to save animals that are just really not healthy for us...
PS im not vegetarian.