RE: 1 Egg = 5 Cigarettes - True or False? / Does Animal Injustice Taste Good to You?
I'm a Le Cordon Bleu graduate. I've been a chef for over thirty years. I know food...period. Part of the curriculum in school was meat fabrication. In this class we watched videos that showed and explained in great detail how the animals are processed from transportation to slaughter, to the packing plants. The two main concerns of the slaughterhouses are sanitation and keeping the animals calm. Fear can cause the animal to lose up to 25% of it's usable weight, so it is rendered unconscious and never sees it coming. It's very humane, and every single part of the animal is used. Nothing is thrown away, not even the blood which is used to make fish food.
Also, I live in the heartland, and if there are sadistic farmers who take pleasure in abusing their livestock, I've never met one. Stressed animals produce less, so abusing them is bad for the bottom line. I also have many children, and I can tell you from experience that the life of a chicken means less than zero compared to the life of a child. I will say in absolute terms that abusing animals to satisfy some sadistic desire is unacceptable, but it's rare among farmers (that I've experienced). As long as the process is humane, there is nothing unethical about using animals for our benefit. They are not human. They have no capacity to reason why they are where they are, and neither can they imagine or long for a different life. So relax and enjoy some steak and eggs once in a while. Too much of anything is no good for you. All things in moderation.
I ask you to challenge yourself and take the time to watch this speech, you can skip about a minute into it to get to the speech if needed:
I make it a point to challenge myself by studying opposing views so of course I'll watch it. I'll be very disappointed if it turns out to be just another passionate appeal to emotion from a person with a disordered sense that somehow the lives of animals are equal to the lives of humans. I'm also very familiar with PETA videos that use 50 year old films from before regulations were in place with the intent of (again) evoking and emotional response rather than present the whole truth.
Oh, and I never mentioned that I love animals and have always had pets that were well loved and cared for.
Fair enough. I will soon provide you with a few other videos when I get a chance to find them that are more science-backed. :)
I appreciate the notion. Understand, however that my family is of southern Italian decent. We had pasta, and one or the other of beef, veal, pork, or chicken with almost every meal! Grandma used only lard for frying, and there was bread. Many, many loaves of bread. That didn't stop my grands from living well into 90's.
I appreciate the fact that we can discuss this as information fairly rationally. I thank you for that. I will provide a few videos...there is a lot out there with studies (I am not going to dig them all out) but they are there. The reason I use "Mic the Vegan" because he includes the actual studies in his videos. I can possibly get more later, but here are a few.
Thanks for taking the time to post these videos. It certainly does pay to watch what we put into our bodies. Just like nurses are known to have some of the worst health habits, chefs often have some of the worst diets. Many times it's because by the time we're finished feeding everyone else it's late, and the only thing open on the way home is fast food!
I also know food, and the basic history of how we came to understand the procedures and combinations that we enjoy today. It has always been about temperance. Again, my grandparents on both sides ate everything under the sun that's supposed to be killing us. Well, they all lived well into their 90s. I knew a vegan girl who suffered renal failure and had a transplant. It doesn't take a phd in physiology to understand that too much of anything can harm our bodies.
I'm glad you noticed that I'm not hostile towards the vegan diet. I love talking food, and vegan cuisine is the most challenging due to the limited scope of usable ingredients. Personally, I lean towards vegetarianism, except I have no problem eating red meat and pork. Maybe I'll start a new fad diet called the inverse lent veganimal diet! It's where you eat all vegetarian throughout the week with the exception of three meals that can have poultry or fish. But on Fridays, one meal with red meat or pork is permitted. Every Sunday is vegan only. That sounds like the best of all worlds, no? If any extreme diet went up against this more moderate diet, I'd bet on moderation every time. It always seems to win in the end.
I forgot to mention, that Gary Yourofsky speech inspired me to start creating a detailed post concerning his language and methods. If you truly believe that veganism is the way to go, I applaude you for speaking out what you believe. I would also warn you to abandon Yourofsky and those of like mind. People like him may be able to dupe college aged kids who never knew their food wasn't grown at the grocery store, but anyone wise to his tactics know that said tactics are used only when the information is vapid and unverifiable. Essentially, he's merely an evangelical preacher with a different set of scriptures. And just to define terms (which he never does in the video you showed me), I memed Yoursofsky and my fifth child:
This is not up for debate. I respectfully check my watch and excuse myself from any conversation once someone tries to say that my cat's life and my children's lives are of equal value. Anyone who would attempt to defend this point is either ignorant, unreasonable, or just plain stupid, and those happen to be the only types of people that I refuse to argue with. This speciesist shtick is objectively wrong, and Yourofsky knows it. That's why he has to use emotional appeal and shock value to make an impression. We can all agree that livestock should not be unnecessarily harmed or intentionally tortured. But trying to convince people that a cow chopped up in their burger is equally tragic as their baby chopped up for a burger is counter productive to your cause. Be blessed on your journey, friend
I started the video and was preparing a commentary while it was playing. I realized somewhere around "speciesist" and "rape" pertaining to animals (which have no dignity to violate) that my thoughtful, rational response will only be a waste of my life (which actually is precious). It would be a waste because the intended audience does not exist in the realm of reality. So I am just going to put this clown's video up as a post of it's own and explain everything that is wrong with his entire argument in great detail.
I hope you never have kids. I'd hate to read about how a family died in a house fire because the vegan parents couldn't decide whether to save the kids or the pets first.
Good luck.