Top meat companies are copying tricks also used by fossil fuel firms to ultimately “confuse and delay regulation” of their planet-harming activities, according to the environmental investigations outlet Desmog.
Such tactics include routinely downplaying their own greenhouse gas emissions, attacking established science on how livestock farming is driving the climate crisis and casting doubt over the benefits of plant-based alternatives to meat, the investigation said.
For us, going and staying vegan and (re-)asserting our stance of veganism, is an act of liberation, it’s a process of cutting through the cognitive dissonance that is inherent in the unnecessary exploitation and killing of animals. It is an* assertion of our deepest held values: That all life is valuable and that any harm should be minimised as much as possible. That instead, we should improve and enrich each other’s lives as much as we can!
We live in a world that, by its very structure, makes it impossible to fully live these values. This is why practising veganism is sometimes difficult (and can not be done “perfectly” by anyone!), often more difficult the less privileges someone has. Every fight against structural and societal injustice and violence is hard for the same reason. The powers-that-be don’t want to give up their power. Life today is built on foundations of exploitation and violence so that the path of least resistance is to just participate in the violence. Trying to even just extract oneself from that violence to the best of one’s abilities (to say nothing of actively fighting it!) is not only difficult, but already seen as an attack on the status quo, and met with some amount of social stigma. A society built on structures of violence and exploitation can not allow better alternatives to exist alongside it, it wouldn’t survive the competition! So the alternatives are gobbled up, faught, slandered, forbidden, invisibilised or co-opted. Veganism especially suffers from cooptation – it’s now mostly presented as a wellness diet (something really harmful! Diets kill.) instead of a political struggle for liberation, one that attacks the very foundations of capitalism and hierarchichal and extractive societies. We oppose the commodification of living beings.
The fact that it’s not exactly easy doesn’t mean fighting and advocating for justice is somehow an expression of privilege! On the contrary, the fight to revolutionize society so that it is less violent and exploitative is a fight against unfair privileges. This is what the societal liberation of animals is about, just like other social liberation struggles. Yes, we are against cages. But more importantly, we are against structural violence and systems of “morality” and law and “common sense” that make those cages possible in the first place.
We especially oppose the myth that it it somehow necessary to structurally exploit and violate (breed, cage, slaughter - for profit! not to meet anyone’s needs! It’s capitalism after all!) anyone! It’s not necessary to exploit animals this way. It’s not necessary to find the one group of beings that’s even lower than us (exploited and marginalised humans) on the social ladder and to kick down to hold ourselves up. On the contrary – we can never have a truly free and liveable society if the idea and practice of exploitation and subjugation survives. Even if it were “only” animals.
We have to rip all exploitation out by the roots! All of it!
And no we’re not shaming anyone for not being able to live 100% animal-products free this very second. I’m also not making any statements about indigenous peoples (or any culture but my own western industrialised one).
We’re just stating how important and necessary veganism as movements and as a liberation struggle is for this western industrialised society!
4 minutes: Rowdy Girl Sanctuary helps animal ranchers and farmers transition to plant-based veganic agriculture to sustain their livelihoods and give them the space to speak about how they feel about their connection to their animals and the land they live on.
Hey! Zoology Msc student anon here. Thank you for being open to discussion. I do firmly believe animal rights is unscientific, and I stand by that. The main reason being that the movement is built largely on anthropomorphism. Animal rights relies on attributing human emotions to animals who are incapable of feeling them. In contrast, the welfare movement prioritizes the actual needs of the animals by assessing behaviours in accordance with existing ethograms in order to reduce stress and increase husbandry for animals. At the end of the day, zoology, conservation, and animal behaviour are all scientific disciplines. That’s why I, as a scientist in training, am inclined to learn about these things from scientists rather than activists. As humans we have so much to learn from animals - but if we project our emotions onto them, we are actually hindering our own education, because we are creating “feelings” that aren’t there.
Hi! (I have my bachelors and honours in Environmental Science and I’m a practising Ecologist in research over the last 4 years). I definitely see your point of reasoning, but as someone who considers themselves part of the animal rights movement, and who is also a scientist, I don’t believe it’s inherintely antiscience.
Rather than arguing that animals feel complex human emotions, I argue that they feel pain (there is definitely enough evidence for that) and fear. That is good enough for me. And that’s why I am in the animal rights movement for moral reasons. I don’t project my emotions onto them. I just give them my respect, and would like to give them back their rights to not be used by humans. Morally, I think humans should leave animals alone unless we are helping them. That has nothing to do with science
I also believe being pro-science and pro-animal rights is not mutually exclusive. The fact that I am pro animal-rights will never interfere with me being pro-science. Science was, after all, the reason I looked into animal rights to begin with, when I learned about the environmental effects of eating animals in highschool geography (modern industrial society I mean).
I think what you’re trying to say is that there are antiscience people within the animal rights movement. This I can agree with. I do get extremely frustrated with animal rights activists who DO argue with things that can come off as very antiscience or offensive to human rights issues, spilling out incorrect facts, etc. I always address these issues when they show (which is a lot of the time, ugh). It’s tough when these people are seen as the poster children of the movement too.
Anon your blatant denial of animal emotions and sentience is unscientific shut the fuck up.
Soon graduating with an Environmental Science bachelors and 3 years of research in ecology, sustainable development, and Indigenous environmental justice, so I’ll also say Anon is full of it
Environmental sociology really digs into how anthropocentrism is a greater danger than anthropomorphism, because at the root of it this allows anyone to oppress those they don’t perceive as people. This has enough colonial and racist implications for a whole article, but for the topic, this is a major cause of industrial agriculture, environmental destruction, global warming, and every human made calamity.
If you take away the inherent value and personhood of individuals, they become objects in your eyes and it is now easier to exploit them. If you have a financial stake in it (husbandry), then welfarism is perfect because it centers your interests. This is why I defected from veterinary agriculture because the space is so human-centered and behind every “humane” practice was still the promise of making money.
It’s far more unscientific to to claim that cows and pigs are unable to feel sadness, happiness, fear, and pain. These feelings already exist.
“The welfare movement prioritizes the actual needs of the animals in order to reduce stress”… so long as they can still be exploited for human gain.
Yeah I also took a college program in animal husbandry in agriculture and anon is the one being unscientific here.
What anthropormophism is: “the horse likes to play dress-up in pink” / “This chicken thinks it’s a dog” / “wild python wants to give tourist kisses for saving it”
What anthropomorphism isn’t: a sentient animal feeling fear, pain, stress, anguish, anger, and/or confusion over being abused physically or psychologically
If you honestly believe that veganism and plant-based diets are only for rich/white people, you must just occupy a completely different world than I do. It is just so contrary to literally everything we know about poverty and global food choices.
What do the global poor primarily subsist on? Beef? What do you most aid organisations use to feed malnourished populations? Do you think it’s meat and dairy? Where do you find the greatest range of plant-based options - is it American and white European food, or is it traditional Asian, Indian, Mexican, African and Middle Eastern cuisine?
Have you researched the history of plant-based eating and animal ethics, in buddhism, hinduism, jainism? Are you aware of the history of the animal rights movement and who spearheaded it? The intersections veganism shares with civil rights advocacy and class struggle? Have you looked at the demographics that actually make up the vegan community? Have you looked at anything other than the instagram accounts of rich, white celebrities?
Worldwide, agriculture represents 70% of total blue water use and 86% of blue + green water use (World Water Assessment Programme, 2009), whereas livestock farming uses 15% of the evapotranspiration of irrigated crops, 33% of that of rain-grown crops, and 68% of that of permanent pastures and rangelands.
The consumption of animal products contributes to more than one-quarter of the water footprint of humanity. The water needed to produce feed is the major factor behind the water footprint of animal products. Reviewing feed composition and the origin of feed ingredients is essential to find ways to reduce the water footprint of meat and dairy.
The water footprint of any animal product is larger than the water footprint of a wisely chosen crop product with equivalent nutritional value.
In industrialized countries, moving toward a vegetarian diet can reduce the food-related water footprint of people by 36%.
Reducing the water footprint of meat and dairy requires an international approach and product transparency along the full supply chain of animal products.
AND a race one since the most affected regions will be
Africa, Asia and Oceania
as a friend pointed out, this headline makes it sound like supply will be dwindling. supply is fine. people will be *priced out*.
this is fucking MURDER.
insulin has been mass produced (from animal extracts) since -1923-. slow acting insulin has existed since the ‘50s, and ‘human’ genetically engineered insulin (derived from E. coli bacteria) has existed since 1982.
insulin treatment for diabetes is not some new or ‘unproven’ treatment. according to beyondtype1, “Humalog rapid-acting insulin came on to the market with a list price of $21 a vial in 1997.” adjusting for inflation, a vial these days should cost about $34 at most. instead, it costs over $300. there is NO reason for it to be steadily gaining in price to the point that diabetics are unable to afford their lifesaving medication, other than the sheer inhuman greed of pharmaceutical manufacturers.
let me reiterate: life without insulin (for Type 1 diabetics in particular) is a slow and painful death sentence. the ability to treat diabetes is a relatively modern phenomenon that has allowed countless people to live full, healthy lives. we should be expanding full covereage and access to insulin to diabetics the world over, and it should be FREE.
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We’re a team of biohackers with a variety of backgrounds, and skills, and relationships to insulin and diabetes from many cities and countries around the world, including Oakland, California; Baltimore, Maryland; Paraiba, Brazil; Dakar, Senegal; Yaounde, Cameroon; and Puerto Rico. We’re working to develop the first practical, small-scale, community-centered model for insulin production to make insulin accessible to all. We envision a world in which communities in need have local sources of safe, affordable, high-quality insulin, and where people living with diabetes and their communities can own and govern the organizations that produce the medicine they depend on to survive.
What We Do
We are creating an open-source (freely available) model for insulin production that centers on sustainable, small-scale manufacturing and open-source alternatives to production. We are developing protocols to produce short-acting (lispro) and long-acting (glargine) insulin, working on developing open-hardware equivalents to traditional production equipment, are researching sustainable regulation pathways to bring our insulin to the public, and are building capacities for local, small-scale manufacturing.
How Do I Participate?
Our work would not be possible without the support of volunteers, interns, and community advisors. We welcome people of all backgrounds from all over the world to bring their enthusiasm, time, connections, and experiences, both in life and in work. Our volunteers promote us on social media, build equipment, run experiments, write reports and blog posts, facilitate meetings, connect with other organizations and groups, meet with experts in the field, run virtual events, and contribute in designing tools, resources, and methods of all sorts.
Potential Partners
We welcome collaboration with other groups that share our mission―community labs, academic institutions, patient advocacy groups, and NGOs.
Donate
Your donation will help us get closer to our goal. With a healthy financial situation, we can pay for lab supplies, acquire lab equipment, recruit scientists, and pay for consultation fees for regulation and manufacturing experts.”
Infectious diseases are a matter of collective, rather than personal, responsibility. As a society, we could choose to keep in place mask-wearing, some physical distancing and supported isolation of cases and contacts. We could choose to invest in ventilation in business and school buildings – a long-term public health benefit and a key mitigation against Covid. We could choose to suppress this virus over winter and protect our population and our NHS and so provide far more freedom to go about our daily lives. The current government position is that it’s not even going to try.
“And will the vegans then demand that animals be given POWER over us humans? You mark my words, it might start off with that lot saying they just want to eat a plant-based diet but it’ll end up with the MONKEY POLICE FORCE KICKING DOWN YOUR DOOR AND DRAGGING YOU AWAY FOR NOT EATING ENOUGH BLOODY TOFU, MAUREEN! THAT’S WHERE WE’RE HEADED!”
the idea that you shouldnt go vegan because its “bad for the environment” strikes me as, like, incredibly similar to ecofascist talking points? the idea that x group must die in order to protect the environment, as if animal life is meaningless and sacrifice-worthy when its “inferior” to other life. its honestly really disturbing, and even more disturbing how willing people are to attach themselves to the most outlandish and inaccurate sources in order to justify their ignorance to suffering.
veganism isnt even bad for the environment, for the most part. if it was, it wouldnt negate its importance. but ha ha stupid vegans plastic leather, amirite?
A global shift away from animal products would also be objectively better for the environment, there is an overwhelming scientific consensus on that. To be anti-vegan on environmental grounds is, at this point, just climate science denial.
4,000 former racehorses have been slaughtered in Britain and Ireland since 2019 - those are just the ones reported, and the ones who aren’t culled before adulthood. Thousands more disappear from public record once they are no longer profitable. Undercover footage shows us that their deaths are far from painless, and that, like many farmed animals, they are killed in full view of one another.
