I heard something to do with Nitrogen and …cow farts(?) I am really unsure of this and would like to learn more.

Answer -

4 Parts

  • Ethical reason for consuming animals
  • Methane produced by cows are a harmful greenhouse gas which is contributing to our current climate crisis
  • Health Reasons - there is convincing evidence that processed meats cause cancer
  • it takes a lot more calories of plant food to produce the calories we would consume from the meat.

Details about the answers are in the comments

  • Synthead@lemmy.world
    63·
    1 year ago

    This is kind of a straw man argument. I don’t feel guilty at all eating a carrot I pulled out of the ground.

    • AA5B@lemmy.world
      4·
      1 year ago

      So we can all agree that it’s morally ok to eat a carrot, but not to eat a human. The difference is sentience. The hard part is where exactly to draw the line. Which side of the line is a cow on? A fish? A bug?

    • ragusa@feddit.dk
      3·
      1 year ago

      I don’t believe this is a straw man argument, I never claim that they believe these conclusions. Quite the opposite, I am showing how their argument, not their conclusion, is not good. As I understand their argument, it is basically this:

      (i) If something does not want to be killed, it is morally wrong to kill it. (ii) Animals do not want to be killed. Thus, it is morally wrong to kill animals.

      I do not agree with (i), which I try to explain by reductio ad absurdum, arguing that if (i) is true it leads to obviously incorrect conclusions, thus (i) must be false.

      • Synthead@lemmy.world
        51·
        1 year ago

        The straw man argument comes from your point about combining plants and animals as food, and stating that they were both living. If you compare a cow to parsley, it is silly to say that we shouldn’t eat parsley for the sake of it being a living organism. With cows in the same argument, they get dismissed since they’re in the same group as plants.

        Plants are the straw man in this case because it’s easy to dismiss the argument that we shouldn’t eat plants, for some reason. Animals are conscious creatures that experience suffering. Plants don’t experience the same pain.

        • ragusa@feddit.dk
          2·
          1 year ago

          A straw man argument is when the other person believes A and you act like they in fact believe B, so you argue against B.

          I am not claiming they believe it immoral to kill plants. Quite the opposite, I don’t think anyone believes this in general. Therefore, it is not a straw man.

          • Synthead@lemmy.world
            2·
            1 year ago

            Not quite. From https://www.logicallyfallacious.com/logicalfallacies/Strawman-Fallacy:

            • Person 1 makes claim Y.
            • Person 2 restates person 1’s claim (in a distorted way).
            • Person 2 attacks the distorted version of the claim.
            • Therefore, claim Y is false.

            With this in mind:

            • Someone spoke about the ethics of food.
            • You claimed that plants are food like meat (both living), and it is unethical to eat them: “[…] all life has a right to not be killed or abused. Yet human life is impossible without killing and consuming other living organisms, be it plants, animals og fungi. Thus it is unethical to continue living.”
            • It’s silly to say that it’s unethical to eat plants.
            • Therefore, the claim about food ethics is silly.
            • ragusa@feddit.dk
              1·
              1 year ago

              You are misunderstanding my argument. I am not arguing against their conclusion, “it is morally wrong to kill animals”, I am arguing against the validity of their argument, “If something does not want to be killed, it is morally wrong to kill it”. Therefore, I am not restating their claim, I am saying that their argument leads to this absurd conclusion, thus it must be wrong. I have already explained this in a previous comment. You appear to be ignoring what I am writing.

    • mapro@lemmy.world
      38·
      1 year ago

      And others don’t feel guilty for eating meat. Than you for recognizing that people have different feelings.

      • Kerfuffle@sh.itjust.works
        111·
        1 year ago

        And others don’t feel guilty for eating meat.

        Carrots are incapable of feeling anything: they can’t be affected in a morally relevant way. Animals have emotions, preferences, can experience suffering and can be deprived of positive/pleasurable experiences in their lives.

        Than you for recognizing that people have different feelings.

        Obviously this isn’t a sufficient justification for harming others. “I don’t care about people with dark skin, please recognize that different people have different feelings.” The fact that I don’t care about the individuals I’m victimizing doesn’t mean victimizing them is okay.