I was wrong about veganism. Let them eat meat – but farm it properly

Guardian ^ | Monday 6 September 2010 | George Monbiot

[nickcarraway]

The ethical case against eating animal produce once seemed clear. But a new book is an abattoir for dodgy arguments

This will not be an easy column to write. I am about to put down 1,200 words in support of a book that starts by attacking me and often returns to this sport. But it has persuaded me that I was wrong. More to the point, it has opened my eyes to some fascinating complexities in what seemed to be a black and white case.

In the Guardian in 2002 I discussed the sharp rise in the number of the world's livestock, and the connection between their consumption of grain and human malnutrition. After reviewing the figures, I concluded that veganism "is the only ethical response to what is arguably the world's most urgent social justice issue". I still believe that the diversion of ever wider tracts of arable land from feeding people to feeding livestock is iniquitous and grotesque. So does the book I'm about to discuss. I no longer believe that the only ethical response is to stop eating meat.

In Meat: A Benign Extravagance, Simon Fairlie pays handsome tribute to vegans for opening up the debate. He then subjects their case to the first treatment I've read that is both objective and forensic. His book is an abattoir for misleading claims and dodgy figures, on both sides of the argument.

There's no doubt that the livestock system has gone horribly wrong. Fairlie describes the feedlot beef industry (in which animals are kept in pens) in the US as "one of the biggest ecological cock-ups in modern history". It pumps grain and forage from irrigated pastures into the farm animal species least able to process them efficiently, to produce beef fatty enough for hamburger production.

[ConservativeMind]

A good article! It’s especially fun to hear a liberal eat his own words, 1,000-fold over.

[Madam Theophilus]

Another interesting book written by a former vegetarian is THE VEGETARIAN MYTH by Lierre Keith. Vegans so hate her that they follow her around to disrupt her speaking engagements. I don’t agree with everything she says about modern agriculture, but it was eye-opening just how sick (literally) the vegetarian movement really is.

[irishtenor]

Haha. The reason I HAVE the cajones is due to the MEAT DIET!!!!!!!!

:>)

[HungarianGypsy]

I realized the egg part after it was already shooting into cyberspace. But, I do require animal products. There is something about cheese that if I do not have it for a week, I have definite mood swings.

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks nickcarraway.

[Arthur Wildfire! March]

Funny how people too ethical to eat meat are more likely to be in favor of abortion:

Does pain dictate whether an Unborn Child is alive?
http://emergingcorruption.com/?p=1180

... But Dr. Benjamin Nathanson did something in the 1980s that turned the science of fetology on its ear. Nathanson, a former abortionist himself, obtained a Realtime ultrasound video of a 12 week suction abortion.

The film, elucidated by Nathanson, is commercially available as the Silent Scream, now over 20 years old. It factually shows the preborn continuously dodging the suction instrument used in the abortion. Heartbeat of the baby doubled. One can see its mouth opening wide while its body was being dismembered, and its appendages were torn off. No sound—since its body was encased in embryonic fluid.

For all indications available at the time, it was obvious the baby could feel incredible amounts of pain, and was scared literally to death. The baby was only 11 weeks old. [snip]

[thecodont]

Isn’t amazing to find you can eat a big STEAK dinner and step on the scale the next morning and find you’ve maintained or even lost weight? Some of us just metabolize protein more efficiently than we do carbohydrates.

[irishtenor]

I know that MEAT is the best food for me, regardless of what the “experts” say.