From: spike66 (spike66@attbi.com)
Date: Tue Apr 29 2003 - 19:54:29 MDT
Lee Daniel Crocker wrote:
>>(gts <gts_2000@yahoo.com>):
>>
>>I've seen only two theoretical arguments for vegetarianism:
>>1) the argument that humans have a moral obligation to minimize
>>suffering in the world, including the suffering of animals, and
>>2) the argument that humans are best genetically adapted to a
>>diet limited only to plant foods.
>
> There's a very obvious third argument, which is that a vegetarian
> diet is beneficial to health in the present environment with the
> present availability of foods, whether we're "adapted" to it or not.
> That (plus a bit of #1) was certainly my reason for being vegetarian
> for 3-4 years. Later research didn't support the idea, so I'm back
> on the beef now, but I never for moment bought the argument that we
> were datapted for vegetarianism.
This can turn into a very complicated question. My
notion is that some life is better than no life, so
if we devour beef, we create a market for it, giving
cows life that they would not have otherwise had.
Hunting wild animals is not so simple either. As Mike
points out, the population of wild game is controlled
by both predation and food sources. By slaying some of
the deer, the others have more food.
Still more complicated is the fish scene, for most fish
are caught from the wild, thus ending their lives when
they were presumably neither starving nor brought into
existence solely for my enjoyment. So given a choice,
I would opt for farm raised fish.
Turns out the government is cooperating. Legislation
has been proposed to allow wild-caught fish to be
labelled organic, whereas farm fish cannot, unless
special expensive measures are followed. Regardless
of the soundness of the logic, the ethical sushi
devourer would select non-organic fish. This choice
would also create a bigger market for farm fish,
giving us a ready-made market for all those turkey
scraps and other bio-waste. Everyone wins in that
deal, eh?
spike
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.5 : Tue Apr 29 2003 - 20:04:37 MDT