Marxist Animalism
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Rabies in India
India’s stray dog population has grown. It is estimated to be between 35–40 million.
I have direct experience of the issue. Friends ran a dog rescue charity which did vaccinate and sterilise the local beach dogs. It was successful compared to the government projects of killing them.
If you kill dogs, you create vacant territory for others to move into. If you sterilise, they become healthier and drive out the weaker dogs who are more susceptible to disease and the population stabilses and eventually goes down.
Direct and indirect emissions from the livestock sector — which includes cows as well as goats, sheep, pigs and poultry — are responsible for the equivalent of 7.1 gigatons of carbon dioxide every year, roughly 14.5% of all human-caused emissions.
That’s according to estimates from the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), which points out that about 65% of the sector’s emissions can be linked to cattle in the form of beef and dairy production.
But it’s not just emissions that are a problem for the planet: Animal husbandry dominates about three-quarters of agricultural land, pollutes water and drives deforestation, particularly in the Amazon rainforest.
The case for meat
“In these areas where we see significant hunger, livestock are integrated into the farm production: the cow creates manure, which fertilizes the maize, which both the humans and the livestock eat. Livestock is a key piece of maintaining this system,”
Livestock also allow millions of farm workers, pastoralists and smallholders with limited access to land to make a living, said Baltenweck. This critical support, along with the recognized nutritional benefits, make animals an important part of the efforts to eliminate hunger and malnutrition.
With more productive cattle, herd size could be limited — as could the levels of methane, a potent greenhouse gas also produced by cattle that is responsible for nearly half of all livestock emissions.
https://www.dw.com/en/meat-livestock-important-fight-hunger-climate-change/a-55294367
https://popularresistance.org/solidarity-across-species/
Vegetarians should not be too smug about what they eat, since those who harvest vegetables are also mistreated and underpaid. But meat-plant and slaughterhouse workers endure particularly horrific and dangerous working conditions. Meat factories are staffed largely by low-income immigrants and the majority have no health insurance or sick leave. Workers are quickly fired and replaced for being sick or injured. These facilities process thousands of animals a day with hundreds of employees standing shoulder to shoulder conducting grueling, repetitive, and hazardous work…
<p class=”p2″>…Some leftists maintain that sustainable animal farming practices can solve the meat crisis, but that is akin to the climate movement demanding reforms of the fossil fuel industry instead of its demise. There are compelling epidemiological, economic, and ecological reasons to abolish meat, but more fundamental ethical concerns merit reflection. Socialists quick to question private property rarely interrogate the ownership of animals. As leftists, we have a duty to ask what entitles human beings to treat our fellow creatures like mere things. What gives our species the right to commodify other sentient beings and relentlessly dispossess them?…</p>
…we need to broaden our political imaginations. Our conception of solidarity must cross the species barrier.Many Buddhist monks in Thailand are no longer vegetarian. And unlike before when they could not directly handle money, many now have ATM cards.
Yes. Japanese monks did not even eat fish for centuries.
Few Buddhists today are vegetarians, but more to the point, they not only eat meat: they tolerate the most public displays of unimaginable cruelty, where animals are cooked alive.
Certain western tourists (to avoid any charge of racism in this conversation btw) make a point of ordering outrageous dishes when in the Far East, so as to boast: such as live mice and live fish.
But my point is, all the three big classic cults – Taoism, Buddhism and Confucianism – expressly forbid injury to living beings.
Those of you who have followed this tediously long topic thread will be aware that i am not supportive of pet-ownership, viewing it akin to zoos, circuses.
Here is an article on the catastrophe of having a cat.
Cats kill at least 1.3 billion birds and 6.3 billion small mammals each year in the US alone.
Pet cats in the Netherlands kill almost twice as many animals as their feral counterparts.
The UK Health Alliance on Climate Change (UKHACC) includes 10 Royal Colleges of medicine and nursing, the British Medical Association and the Lancet, representing the doctors, nurses and other professionals says the climate crisis cannot be solved without action to cut the consumption of food that causes high emissions, such as red meat and dairy products. But it says that more sustainable diets are also healthier and would reduce illness.
The UK’s health professions has called for a climate tax to be imposed on food with a heavy environmental impact by 2025, unless the industry takes voluntary action on the impact of their products.
Those of you who have followed this thread understand that i view the culture of pet ownership as detrimental to the well-being of the planet.
This article also highlights the problems of pets
“Our love of pets is contributing to what is arguably the greatest environmental crisis faced by global ecosystems.”
The meat industry remains what it always was – the Jungle
Tyson Exploits Consumers Just Like Its Animals and the Workers Who Raise Them (truthout.org)
For too long, the unethical, avaricious practices of the meat industry have been hidden from view. The scandals surrounding Tyson and other major producers are making clear that vulnerable workers, abused animals and a rigged system are the foundation of an unethical and destructive business model.
Sustainable cows and holistic grazing?
The European meat industry hits back
Beefatarian
‘Become a beefatarian’, urges odd EU-funded advert for European beef | The Independent
Cultured meat, produced in bioreactors without the slaughter of an animal, has been approved for sale in Singapore which could open the door to a future when all meat is produced without the killing of livestock. Eat Just’s product are grown in a 1,200-litre bioreactor and then combined with plant-based ingredients. The cells used to start the process came from a cell bank and did not require the slaughter of a chicken because cells can be taken from biopsies of live animals. The nutrients supplied to the growing cells were all from plants.
130 million chickens are slaughtered every day for meat, and 4 million pigs. Of all the mammals on Earth, 60% are livestock, 36% are humans and only 4% are wild. A series of scientific studies have shown that people in rich nations eat more meat than is healthy for them or the planet. Research shows cutting meat consumption is vital in tackling the climate crisis and some scientists say this is the best single environmental action a person can take.
The global consultancy AT Kearney predicted that most meat in 2040 would not come from dead animals. Cultured meat would replace cuts of traditional meat, but that plant-based products, which were less expensive, were more likely to replace burgers and sausages.
Cultivated meat was unlikely to become mainstream for some years, until it matched the cost of conventional meat.
No-kill, lab-grown meat to go on sale for first time | Meat industry | The Guardian
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