Millions of Tiny Cows to Regenerate the Soil - CounterPunch.org
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Earth Day comes and goes every year but nothing seems to ever really change. We are still headed for climate catastrophe, we are still in the midst of a mass extinction, we are still losing our topsoil at an alarming rate. It is time to center food systems, and especially agriculture, in our efforts to More

Plant based foods systems and degrowth are necessary to combat climate change. Failure to recognize this is soft climate denialism based in profit or self interest

    • pocket_tofu [she/her,fae/faer]
      ·
      4 years ago

      Are you asking environmentally or ethically? Are they native or are they displacing native animals and plants? Are they pet goats allowed to live out their natural lifespan or are they exploited for their labor, their secretions, and/or their corpses?

        • DirtbagVegan [he/him]
          ·
          4 years ago

          I mean, it sounds like the situation you're describing is really a pet rather than an actual productive farm animal?

          If they're to be slaughtered, it doesn't matter if they have a nice life frolicking in daisies all the time, that can't erase the fundamental violence and exploitation of the relationship. It's like a hipster workplace where they have cool hangout sessions and hammocks in the office. It may be nicer than normal, but it is still exploitation no matter what veneer you put on it, nor is it representative of the actual conditions of most people working under capitalism.

          • D61 [any]
            ·
            4 years ago

            I mean, it sounds like the situation you’re describing is really a pet rather than an actual productive farm animal?

            Not really a difference is there?

            What is considered productive probably doesn't need to be related the scale of the farming.

            • DirtbagVegan [he/him]
              ·
              4 years ago

              Comments, deleted now, but they said they don't know if their neighbor uses the goats for meat or milk, which can sometimes mean they are just literally pets.

              • D61 [any]
                ·
                4 years ago

                I read the comments, but having had a pack of brush goats, "pets" doesn't mean "not productive".

        • pocket_tofu [she/her,fae/faer]
          ·
          4 years ago

          You're enslaved for your secretions, raped so you'll reproduce and produce milk (mammals don't produce milk without pregnancy), have your kids taken from you so your milk goes to your owner, not your child, then murdered when you're still young for your flesh? Sounds rough, Diestar. You deserve liberation.

            • pocket_tofu [she/her,fae/faer]
              ·
              4 years ago

              So because you're exploited, that means it's okay to exploit and murder others. Cool solidarity, comrade

              https://animalliberationpressoffice.org/NAALPO/2018/08/22/new-publication-18-theses-on-marxism-and-animal-liberation

                • pocket_tofu [she/her,fae/faer]
                  ·
                  4 years ago

                  Nature is cruel so it's fine if we are too? We literally breed these people. These domesticated individuals wouldn't even be in the wild, so it's non-sequitur to bring the wild up. We shouldn't breed them at all.

                  Yes, please read the Marxist theory I just linked (it's not a book. It can be read in a sitting). Please also read the article about avoiding climate catastrophe (that has nothing to do with ethical veganism btw) that this comment thread is under. No offense, but your question about the ethics of goat farming has nothing to do with the article I shared. If you wanted to debate the merits of veganism, you should have posted to struggle sessions.

              • pocket_tofu [she/her,fae/faer]
                ·
                4 years ago

                Love to salute rape, it's not at all fucked.

                Goat farms are not sanctuaries. The goats are there to be used for profit. They only produce milk when they are pregnant or after giving birth, just like human animals. They are continually inseminated so they keep producing milk. Their children are stolen from them and either raised for their milk and flesh or killed so that they can't have their mother's milk, otherwise the farmer will lose profit. When the goat is no longer produces as much milk, she is killed. Letting her live her natural lifespan is costly, and her body will not be worth much if it is old or diseased. Farmers are meat capitalists, and they will always put profit before ethics.