jorats said:
Godmother said:
Well this is very disappointing. I'm saddened to think that we are barely making a dent in helping the animals.
I need to remember that at least I'm not a hypocrite and I'm not taking part in any animal suffering and extreme cruelty all for the sake of my taste buds.
Oh Jo, I wouldn't be too disappointed if I were you. The studies sited were very small, and not very scientific either (calling people and asking them what they ate?? seriously? that's not a reliable way to collect data)
there's clearly a large online movement toward veganism and that alone is very encouraging, at least to me, because social media is pretty powerful these days.
also this reminds me of something my HS history teacher said, when it comes to news or any thing else, for that matter, consider the SOURCE of the information (he was talking primarily about the media at the time, who controls the media?)
there's so much money involved in getting people to continue to eat poorly, from the sales of the meat and the garbage that passes for our overpriced, over processed "food" to the marketing of that crap (they have a financial stake) to the packaging of it, and on and on and on.
then there's treating the diseases and conditions that result from our poor diets.
it was even mentioned on the news recently that the amount of money that a hospital gets paid if there are complications after a surgery is so out of proportion to what they get paid for a normal surgery without complications, it wasn't unreasonable to worry that hospitals are not as careful about avoiding these complications, because of their financial gain.
Horrifying to think about, but sadly, all too true that money and financial gain are trumping ethics left and right in our society/societies.
so, don't be too discouraged. the word is getting out there, the pieces are all coming together, about how the production of meat is ruining not only the environment but causing suffering and starvation across the globe.
the health benefits of a plant based diet are getting a lot of exposure too. The total package is hard to ignore.
so, I have a lot of hope that people will turn on the meat industry the same way they did the tobacco industry, it might take a little longer, but I really think it will happen.
People seem to know, on some deep level, that eating animal flesh is somehow not quite right.
No one I know has ever apologized to me for being vegan, but virtually ever meat eater I know HAS been either defensive, or apologetic, or will outright say, I'd love to be vegan, but I can't imagine giving up meat.
It's up to us to help them to imagine it.
=)
ETA- just checked the date on that article, it's OLD lol Sept 2011