From: Natasha Vita-More (natasha@natasha.cc)
Date: Thu Jun 07 2001 - 08:52:36 MDT
At 02:23 AM 6/7/01 -0700, Samatha wrote:
This is how it goes I believe:
Zero wrote:
>> >Is eating other creatures really that bad of a thing? I know that there
>> could be much more humane ways of doing it than raising a calf to be
trapped
>> in a cage for its whole life before being killed by a blow to the head.
But
>> that aside, most creatures that we eat were made to be eaten. Its called
>> the food chain. If we don't eat them other predators will.<
>The above was misattributed I think. I've lost count.
>Most creatures were not "made to be eaten" by us. That is a
>funny sort of telelogical argument. We eat them so they were
>made to be eaten. Some of the things we eat are not necessarily
>good for the type of creatures we are and there being this many
>of us who eat some of these things is not necessarily good for
>the ecology and food dynamics we live within.
This is from Natasha:
>> I certainly do not think cows were designed to be herded together for
filet mignon or beef Stroganoff. The food chain explains the arrangement
of organisms of our ecological community according to the order of
predation in which each life form eats the other or lower member as a food
source. It isn't a set of rules governing a menu of whom should eat whom.
>We did not design cows that much. They are certainly not just
>walking food factories. The factory farms we raise most milk
>and beef cattle in in industrialized nations shorten the cows
>life by around 80% and keep a milk cow pregnant that entire
>time. We crowd them to very unhealthy levels then feed them
>massive anti-biotics to keep down disease. That and massive
>levels of hormones to increase milk production lead to more
>deleterious food value and imho a more immoral means of feeding
>ourselves.
>
>I think we can do better than eat other major lifeforms or raise
>them just to be eaten by us.
Natasha:
>> Why should transhumans refuse to die but expect lower members of the
animal kingdom to not require, demand or be given the same respect and
freedom to live as humans or transhumans?
>Good question. If a vastly more capable and more intelligent
>species comes along, say one so intelligent that we are nearly
>as dumb as cows in comparison, and they develop a taste for us,
>should we not object to being eaten or being factory farmed for
>that purpose?
Natasha:
>> I understand that some people enjoy eating meat. I certainly would not
want to push my views on others regarding such a personal choice (we are
what we eat). But, I would rather it be volunteered that the taste of meat
is something that folks crave and enjoy, or that it is a substantial
protein source, rather than it being the purpose of an animal to be eaten
by another animal higher up on the chain.
>I agree.
Thanks.
Natasha
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