Obviously this question is only for people who eat beef regularly.
But I just was wondering, what IQ/ability would make you swear off beef? If they could speak like an 8 y.o, would that be enough to cut off beef? If they got an IQ of 80, would that do it?
I think your should stop eating any meat the moment you don’t feel like you have what it takes to look at the animal in the eye while you kill it for consumption.
If you think you can’t do that, then you should reconsider your meat consumption.
I’m approaching this point in my life and reducing consumption accordingly.
Cows can be moderately smart when raised as such. It’s humans who selected the specific traits we considered more convenient for our needs, and breed them like that.
Would that philosophy extend to other parts of life? I feel like at the surface this sounds great, but when thinking why this sounds great i cant help but wonder if its even possible to look at choices with these kind of angles.
It’s a good question. I don’t know. There are many reasons why I like meat. And there are many reasons why it’s problematic.
I think this is a potentially applicable philosophy. It won’t solve the “problems” but at least will make it a more consistent experience for everyone involved (except the animal perhaps)
No smarter than they are now.
Do you eat beef regularly? If so, then you would stop, and if you’ve already stopped you were precluded from this question so really shouldn’t have answered.
I do currently, but I was vegetarian for over a decade and vegan for part of that. I never buy beef and only eat it because I work in a restaurant and eat for free.
But the intelligence isn’t really at issue, the ecological impact is why I don’t buy beef. That and the taste: it’s a C-grade meat at best, way below pork and most poultry, especially given the higher price point.
Intelligence has nothing to do with it. Intelligence isn’t even well defined or measurable. Things like IQ are designed for humans, so they would not be applicable to other beings. They’re barely even useful for human applications.
It’s an interesting question though. First, I’ll ask myself why I eat beef in the first place.
- It’s tasty
- It’s relatively cheap
- Very nutrient dense, so it’s easier to consume
Why do I not eat dogs or cats?
- They are not socially acceptable to consume
- They contribute positively to my life in other ways than being a food source
I’m pretty sure that a dog/cat could be dumb as a rock and I still wouldn’t eat them because I’d still enjoy their company.
Now I do try to reduce the amount of beef I consume, but it’s mainly for environmental reasons.
Well, some people believe that pigs are as smart as toddlers. So a cow would, at a minimum, have to be smarter than a pig.
Well, some people believe that pigs are as smart as toddlers. So a cow would, at a minimum, have to be smarter than a pig.
Kind of an interesting thought process. It seems like the assumption is “I’m doing it, so it has to be fine”.
The problem with thinking that way is people have flaws, and if you think like that you’ll just take it as a given whatever you’re doing is already correct and never fix any personal issues.
Have you met a toddler? They’re fucking stupid
Cows could launch a spaceship past Warp 1 and I would still want a cheeseburger. I could make do with a well marinated portabello burger at the same price.
What I eat is already dead. I’ve never decided to eat something in such a way that it contributed to the harm of any lifeform. So it’s not a matter of intelligence, but if it was, it could be as intelligent as a snail and I still wouldn’t eat it.
Us deciding to eat meat contributes directly to the harm of cows
Us deciding to heat meat contributes directly to the ham of pigs
If all of those typos were a joke, I salite you
Unless it’s already dead, at which point there is nothing to harm. Vegetarianism is a spectrum.
Have you ever heard of demand and supply? You are being willfully ignorant or playing dumb
It’s not demand and supply if you don’t “demand” the supply of anything. Sure, I buy meat, but it’s not something I look forward to the existence of.
If someone strikes an animal while driving, or a natural disaster takes its life, and someone decides it might as well be eaten, is that supply and demand? If I stop over at someone’s house, and they have hunted an animal they’re about to eat, but I neither hunted the animal nor knew they would eat the animal for dinner that night as I visited, is that supply and demand, or did I just happen to be somewhere where someone else’s guilt of having killed an animal is in my favor?
It’s a spectrum, hence the link.
That’s a no on your link dawg. I like the magical land you live in tho, where meat just appears for you to consume
Meat doesn’t magically appear. It comes from animals who have just died. But the deaths do not necessarily come via a single means, nor does the consumer necessarily have any bearing on the suffering of the animal or future animals.
I am surprised that anyone would mention “supply and demand” at all given Lemmy has a largely (including myself, just not from a Marxist viewpoint) anti-capitalist demographic, which would mean supply and demand shouldn’t be seen as a necessary factor.
nor does the consumer necessarily have any bearing on the suffering of the animal or future animals.
That’s absurd. So if I hire an assassin to kill you, I have absolutely no responsibility if you’re killed by an assassin?
Companies won’t kill animals to produce meat unless there’s demand. If you buy meat, you’re creating demand. There is a causal link between your consumption and what happens to the animals. Therefore, you have at least a share of the responsibility.
I am surprised that anyone would mention “supply and demand” at all given Lemmy has a largely (including myself, just not from a Marxist viewpoint) anti-capitalist demographic
Being anti-capitalist doesn’t mean one is incapable of understanding how capitalism works. There are rules that govern it, and those exist whether you’re in favor of it as a system or not.
you’re contributing to demand if you buy meat
It depends on the circumstances of its origins, as I explained below.
“what if”
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I eat meat, but this is a dumb fucking take. The meat industry exists because we eat meat. If people didn’t eat meat, then cows wouldn’t be slaughtered. Therefore, if we all didn’t eat meat, that cow that you ate wouldn’t be dead.
The meat industry exists because we eat meat.
But not all meat-eating leads to the perpetuation of the meat industry. Not all exchanges involving meat are fuel for said industry.
The goal of pro-animal ethics is “do no harm”, not “do not eat them”. There are several workarounds to the former. I’m not pulling these out of my ass, there are century-old industries around these too.
Sorry to inform you, but plants are lifeforms.
What’s a plant going to object to if it’s eaten? I doubt there are any as intelligent as a snail.
To be fair, cows don’t object to it either.
So should I not eat plants either? What should I live off of, Lemmy crowd? Photosynthesis? Gravitosynthesis?
You can eat whatever you want.
They’ll basically need to become smart enough to sue for their right not to be eaten and win before I stop eating them.
My personal limit is recreation, or having fun. So no cows, or pigs, horses or dogs or cats, mostly no mammals really. But also i wouldnt eat like a crow, or octopus.
