Why aren't you vegan?

The definition of animal cruelty is not a testable concept of facts, but rather a personal belief. So, it isn't an issue of logic or data, but of nebulous "faith".

One person believes that any domestication of animals or any use of animal products is "cruelty". Another, a person of their own moral and ethical standards, sees no problem with meat, cheese, eggs, leather, fur etc.

Person one sees cruelty everywhere. Person two has a different definition.

Environmental degradation is a qualitative concept, not quantitative. The presence of humans changes the environment. If we all ate only kale and sat around campfires in hemp shirts, we still affect the physical property of the planet. The production of a plant diet for billions of people is not an innocuous process, free of influence.

Until I am convinced that changing the human diet that we've had over millennia is remotely meaningful at anything greater than a self-righteous gesture, I'll keep raising, butchering, cooking and eating my cattle, swine and fowl.

/r/AskReddit Thread Parent