I honestly was similar (a vegetarian). If I'm being honest, it was cheese that was preventing me from turning (it makes me disgusted to use this as justification for contributing to torture of animals but I'm being honest). I think what really pushed me toward veganism was an attitude shift; instead of viewing them as a punching bag, which many people do + mock them, I decided one day to just sit down and think about what they were saying, watching some videos and reading, and looking at the dairy industry in particular. That's what helped me convert. Even simple videos like Earthling Ed's speech really made me just think about what I was contributing too and whether or not that was good or bad.
I´m at exactly that point right now. When it comes to milk, a lot is just thrown away as excess. A byproduct of the meat industry much like leather. Industrial animal farms are horrifying in their own right and need to be abolished, but they do exist and me using the milk will not change one thing. At the same time, chicken that my grandmother has are all living rather good lives. They are bred to lay an egg a day already and the world could not sustain the exponential growth rate of chicken population.
What would the solution be? Try to reverse breed them? Killing them all? Nature is cruel and humans are a particularly good example of that. Just like there is no etical consumption under capitalism, I don´t think there is a fully ethical solution here. Phasing out the meat industry sounds like a good step, it is perpetuating unneccessary suffering.
Our entire civilisation is build on the exploitation of animals if it comes down to it. From animals that helped plow the fields, transport things, the wool, the fur, the bones, everything was usefull and neccessary at some point. I think phasing this out is good, I just dont thing being puretant about it is the way to go.
I totally get where you're coming from (in fact I basically believed exactly what you're saying here it's uncanny). For milk, I'd recommend this video just to see what really happen to get a glass of milk (CW: it might be upsetting/has explicit scenes https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UcN7SGGoCNI). Rather than milk merely being a byproduct, the industry functions separately and rampantly.
With regards to chickens, and cows for that matter, more and more people becoming vegan will necessarily reduce how many chickens are bred; it won't happen overnight so the situation you mention about exponential growth rate of chickens wouldn't really occur.
For the fully ethical solution I think not eating animal products/using them is the baseline, seeing as those contribute to worlds of suffering to animals. I don't think it would fully be phased out unless people fully reject using the products: people eating less meat etc. is obviously preferable than doing nothing at all, but unless people reject the products, there will still be a demand for them and thus will be produced at scale + continue the suffering. In terms of a resource that just made me think about it more, I liked this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z3u7hXpOm58& (no explicit scenes!).
Interesting. I guess I will have to inform myself more on the consequences each product brings with it and wether that is worth it. I dounbt I would call myself a vegan after that, but it would probably limit my consumption more. I fully agree with limiting unneccessary suffering as much as possible.
That's awesome to hear, good luck with your journey! For what it's worth, I said "I could never become vegan" probably hundreds of times, yet here I am :).
I honestly was similar (a vegetarian). If I'm being honest, it was cheese that was preventing me from turning (it makes me disgusted to use this as justification for contributing to torture of animals but I'm being honest). I think what really pushed me toward veganism was an attitude shift; instead of viewing them as a punching bag, which many people do + mock them, I decided one day to just sit down and think about what they were saying, watching some videos and reading, and looking at the dairy industry in particular. That's what helped me convert. Even simple videos like Earthling Ed's speech really made me just think about what I was contributing too and whether or not that was good or bad.
I´m at exactly that point right now. When it comes to milk, a lot is just thrown away as excess. A byproduct of the meat industry much like leather. Industrial animal farms are horrifying in their own right and need to be abolished, but they do exist and me using the milk will not change one thing. At the same time, chicken that my grandmother has are all living rather good lives. They are bred to lay an egg a day already and the world could not sustain the exponential growth rate of chicken population. What would the solution be? Try to reverse breed them? Killing them all? Nature is cruel and humans are a particularly good example of that. Just like there is no etical consumption under capitalism, I don´t think there is a fully ethical solution here. Phasing out the meat industry sounds like a good step, it is perpetuating unneccessary suffering. Our entire civilisation is build on the exploitation of animals if it comes down to it. From animals that helped plow the fields, transport things, the wool, the fur, the bones, everything was usefull and neccessary at some point. I think phasing this out is good, I just dont thing being puretant about it is the way to go.
I totally get where you're coming from (in fact I basically believed exactly what you're saying here it's uncanny). For milk, I'd recommend this video just to see what really happen to get a glass of milk (CW: it might be upsetting/has explicit scenes https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UcN7SGGoCNI). Rather than milk merely being a byproduct, the industry functions separately and rampantly.
With regards to chickens, and cows for that matter, more and more people becoming vegan will necessarily reduce how many chickens are bred; it won't happen overnight so the situation you mention about exponential growth rate of chickens wouldn't really occur.
For the fully ethical solution I think not eating animal products/using them is the baseline, seeing as those contribute to worlds of suffering to animals. I don't think it would fully be phased out unless people fully reject using the products: people eating less meat etc. is obviously preferable than doing nothing at all, but unless people reject the products, there will still be a demand for them and thus will be produced at scale + continue the suffering. In terms of a resource that just made me think about it more, I liked this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z3u7hXpOm58& (no explicit scenes!).
Interesting. I guess I will have to inform myself more on the consequences each product brings with it and wether that is worth it. I dounbt I would call myself a vegan after that, but it would probably limit my consumption more. I fully agree with limiting unneccessary suffering as much as possible.
That's awesome to hear, good luck with your journey! For what it's worth, I said "I could never become vegan" probably hundreds of times, yet here I am :).