I find it easy to follow a strictly vegan diet outside of eating at restaurants. At restaurants (which I don’t go to that often) and on family holidays I concede to eat whatever is available. For the past few weeks and for another few weeks I will be eating animal products because I am volunteering for a study that requires me to be on a meat-eating diet. The study is studying a benzodiazepine drug. I am only doing this because the study will pay between $3,000 and $15,000. I am compromising my vegan diet as a one time thing. To me, it seems that compromising the vegan diet for a short amount of time is worthwhile if I will get a few thousand dollars.
Regarding animals’ lives, it seems that their sentience and their experience is an extremely hard mystery to solve. I don’t even remember what I was experiencing when I was in the womb and the first few years of my life, let alone what another creature is experiencing during the same first few years of their lives which for them comprises the entirety of their lives (in the case of chickens).
Maybe a useful way to think morally about this is this hypothetical scenario:
We have found an arcane gas station in the middle of the desert. The pump itself and the ground around it is impenetrable and unable to be taken apart. Therefore, its inner workings are inaccessible. The gas from it is incredibly efficient. A gallon of it amazingly will power any car or truck on the road for 100,000 miles. Every time gas is pumped from it, the sound of humans screaming in immense pain can be heard. We don’t know whether humans are suffering at the expense of us having the miraculous gas. It is bothersome because it seems like we should be able to figure out what is going on. However, because this is an arcane gas pump seemingly left for us by some magical power, that is much easier said than done. Should we keep using the pump?
PS: I can easily go without eating food from restaurants. I only go for social reasons. Strategies to avoid meat at restaurants could be only ordering a beer (and perhaps having a nutritious snack beforehand) or ordering salads that are comprised only of vegetables.
I find it easy to follow a strictly vegan diet outside of eating at restaurants. At restaurants (which I don’t go to that often) and on family holidays I concede to eat whatever is available. For the past few weeks and for another few weeks I will be eating animal products because I am volunteering for a study that requires me to be on a meat-eating diet. The study is studying a benzodiazepine drug. I am only doing this because the study will pay between $3,000 and $15,000. I am compromising my vegan diet as a one time thing. To me, it seems that compromising the vegan diet for a short amount of time is worthwhile if I will get a few thousand dollars.
Regarding animals’ lives, it seems that their sentience and their experience is an extremely hard mystery to solve. I don’t even remember what I was experiencing when I was in the womb and the first few years of my life, let alone what another creature is experiencing during the same first few years of their lives which for them comprises the entirety of their lives (in the case of chickens).
Maybe a useful way to think morally about this is this hypothetical scenario:
We have found an arcane gas station in the middle of the desert. The pump itself and the ground around it is impenetrable and unable to be taken apart. Therefore, its inner workings are inaccessible. The gas from it is incredibly efficient. A gallon of it amazingly will power any car or truck on the road for 100,000 miles. Every time gas is pumped from it, the sound of humans screaming in immense pain can be heard. We don’t know whether humans are suffering at the expense of us having the miraculous gas. It is bothersome because it seems like we should be able to figure out what is going on. However, because this is an arcane gas pump seemingly left for us by some magical power, that is much easier said than done. Should we keep using the pump?
PS: I can easily go without eating food from restaurants. I only go for social reasons. Strategies to avoid meat at restaurants could be only ordering a beer (and perhaps having a nutritious snack beforehand) or ordering salads that are comprised only of vegetables.