Lewis, great article! Some points reminded me of “In Defense of the Certifiers,” which I also really enjoyed.
I’m thinking about two other possible approaches to this problem. I haven’t fully thought these through, but I thought it might help just to put them out there.
The first has to do with encouraging people to buy from small farmers in their area. My perspective on this might be a little different because, I think unlike most people on this forum, I don’t live in a big city. I personally know several farmers in my area, and am acquainted with a few others through seeing and talking with them at the farmers’ market, etc. In general, I think their standards for how they treat their animals exceed the standards set by certification organizations—and sometimes by a lot. Additionally, I think supporting local farming (including vegetable farming) has huge social/community benefits, as well as environmental benefits.
The main counterargument to this approach is probably that local farmers can only supply a small fraction of the demand for animal products. Still, I just wanted to put it out there.
Second, I see a possibility that the demand for meat will decrease as the general public learns more about the role of the microbiome in health. I have been studying the microbiome for the last several months in an attempt to make progress against a supposedly “incurable” immune disorder I’ve been dealing with… and the results of working on my microbiome have been absolutely wild. I’ve regained more of my health than was supposed to be possible. Meanwhile, I’ve learned that (1) diseased microbiome states are associated with so many of the conditions that are on the rise, from cardiovascular disease to anxiety and depression, and (2) a high-meat diet is not healthy from a microbiome perspective. If consciousness of these two points increases over the coming years, could this reduce meat consumption and therefore animal suffering?
Lewis, great article! Some points reminded me of “In Defense of the Certifiers,” which I also really enjoyed.
I’m thinking about two other possible approaches to this problem. I haven’t fully thought these through, but I thought it might help just to put them out there.
The first has to do with encouraging people to buy from small farmers in their area. My perspective on this might be a little different because, I think unlike most people on this forum, I don’t live in a big city. I personally know several farmers in my area, and am acquainted with a few others through seeing and talking with them at the farmers’ market, etc. In general, I think their standards for how they treat their animals exceed the standards set by certification organizations—and sometimes by a lot. Additionally, I think supporting local farming (including vegetable farming) has huge social/community benefits, as well as environmental benefits.
The main counterargument to this approach is probably that local farmers can only supply a small fraction of the demand for animal products. Still, I just wanted to put it out there.
Second, I see a possibility that the demand for meat will decrease as the general public learns more about the role of the microbiome in health. I have been studying the microbiome for the last several months in an attempt to make progress against a supposedly “incurable” immune disorder I’ve been dealing with… and the results of working on my microbiome have been absolutely wild. I’ve regained more of my health than was supposed to be possible. Meanwhile, I’ve learned that (1) diseased microbiome states are associated with so many of the conditions that are on the rise, from cardiovascular disease to anxiety and depression, and (2) a high-meat diet is not healthy from a microbiome perspective. If consciousness of these two points increases over the coming years, could this reduce meat consumption and therefore animal suffering?