Are you a vegetarian or do you eat meat, and why? I'm a vegetarian because I believe slaughtering animals is wrong and that meat is unnecessary for humans. You can disagree with me, as long as you actually have something interesting to say. For example, don't say something dumb like "meat tastes good".
Cows: Rather than have them for meat, you could use them for dairy products and keep them alive for longer to establish rather than killing them as calves. Furthermore you can keep them and use the fertilizers to grow more vegetables. Keep them alive for longer for there byproducts rather than eat them when they are young.
That would do several negative things. First, it would still use the land so you would have to go back to chopping down forests for your veggies. Second, it would not solve the methane problem as they would still spew it- except for now in large quantities do to there longer life span, defeating the purpose of not eating them for the environment and creating a larger problem than what is there.
If you want to stop the increase of CO2, then stop using petrol. It's freeing fossil CO2 in a cycle that has already enough. Gases produced by cows etc. are part of the current cycle, they are harmless compared to fossil gases.
And anyway who cares? It's not like we are going to a hot era, we are rather recovering from the small cold era anno some milleniums, so..^^
Acctually, I have read some studies that do sugest animal flatulance to be just as bad of a pollutant as driving an internal combustion engine car. They say that mthane is a worse greenhouse gas than CO2 and therefore, when the vast amounts of sheep, goats, pigs, cows, chicken, geese etc. flatulate they have just as big of an impact on the environment as the whole of North and South America, driving cars.
Well being the son of a butcher you probably won't be surprised to know that I love to eat meat. I can't really think of a reason why I shouldn't eat meat. I might as well put cattle to good use.
I love meat and sure as hell dont think it's wrong to eat meat. However, I can understand if someone just doesn't think they would have it in them an animal and thus don't want to eat meat.
Reasons people convert to vegetarianism: 1. They don't like animal cruelty, if you want to call it that. 2. They convert because you can feel more people with the amount of grass a cow would eat than just eat the cow. I.E Cow = hamburger = Roughly feed around 20-30 people. Grass that cow eats = vegetables = 30+ That's what my science teacher in 5th grade told me anyway. >.> Personally I don't care as long as the food doesn't get me sick, I'll eat anything. Besides bugs.
Second, they're animals. I hate to be the bad guy here but seriously, animals are not on the same level as humans.
You do of course realize that human beings are animals...right?
I understand the point you're trying to make, but that was not the way to go about it. You make yourself seem uneducated, and your argument loses much of its credibility.
I eat meat because I enjoy it and I personally have no problem with the fact that an animal has been killed for it. However, I do see the problems with eating meat. Firstly, with the levels of meat consumption today many farmers are growing crops to feed animals, crops that could be used to feed the 1 billion malnourished people worldwide which I do have a problem with.
I can also understand why there are vegetarians in the world. First off there's the obvious reason that many people think it ethically wrong to meat. But the lesser known fact is that vegetarianism is also much more efficient as the human body gains much more energy from vegetable products per pound than it does from meat and it has been theorised that if an alien race that was capable of space travel came to Earth they would most likely be vegetarian due to its efficiency as a diet. (Just thought I'd throw a curve ball in there)
[quote]Second, they're animals. I hate to be the bad guy here but seriously, animals are not on the same level as humans.
You do of course realize that human beings are animals...right?[/quote] We're African great apes, to be exact. Anyway, carnivores are animals and they eat other animals too, so your "comparison" between animals and humans doesn't make sense. We're animals and as such it is natural that we also eat meat (considering we're omnivorous and descend from hunter-gatherers).
I really have no ethical dilemma with eating meat other than the fact that the food used to raise them could feed billions. As pointed out Simmonz pointed out. In my opinion if one wishes to eat meat they should have to hunt for it. Of course there would be restrictions, and hunting seasons as to keep from wiping out the various populations.
And in quite a few cases a now, including my self, the only reason for being vegetarian is that I've never had anything else. I've been a vegetarian from birth, so meat's always been something I don't bother with.
I think that it is only wrong if the animals are tortured. In my opinion, vegetarians are like super-missionaries. They (at least the ones I have met) push that meat is bad and the methane gas from the cow poop causes global-warming garbage. One time I went on a trip to Canada and rode a gondola up to a restaurant on Grouse Mountain. After the dinner, the groups tour guide (went on some trip with People to Peopole...pardon my French, but the leaders were real b****y) went on and on about how eating meat is bad and all that other garbage for 2 hours!!!
