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To agree with and add just a little to what Nick Dippie had to say on this contentious subject, not only is
suffering an inevitable part of living but so is inflicting suffering on
others. Our responsibility is to
minimise unnecessary suffering we inflict but we can never regard ourselves as
pure and innocent, much as we would like to project blame only onto others. Growing cereals and vegetables also involves
the mass killing of even greater numbers of animals than livestock farming but
this is not considered by most people in our culture because the animals
involved are not fluffy, cute, pretty and it is hard
to really identify with them because they are beetles, aphids, earthworms and
so on. I foresee objections based
on the assumed lack of emotions, central nervous systems and so on, but there
is really no evidence that such creatures do not suffer or that their lives are
so inferior to ours that they need not be considered. The very fact that they take avoiding
action in potentially harmful situations is evidence of their will to survive. Many of them hunt for food, search for a mate
and rear their young in ways that suggest a sophisticated awareness of their
surroundings (though perhaps not of themselves – but that is another
argument). For all we know their
awareness is comparable to ours. Anyone
who has attempted to grow vegetables must have noticed the carnage every time a
fork is put in the ground, to say nothing of the chemical warfare that
commercial farmers have to wage against these small beings who want to share
our food. Some Tibetan Buddhists say it is better to eat a large
animal like a yak since the death of only one animal can feed many people, than
to eat something like shellfish where many deaths provide one meal, or to grow a
vegetable crop which involves mass slaughter. Hilary Easton -- |