Believe it’s okay to eat animals?
We are all born loving animals until we get slowly and discreetly yet steadily conditioned through an invisible destructive belief system which introduces animals as products, commodities and tools for entertainment.
This unquestioned belief system distorts our perception of what is natural, normal and necessary. We argue that eating animals is given and never a choice. We have been brainwashed into the conviction that our particular institutional system is morally right, superior etc. We subscribed to the belief that some lives do not matter or inferior to others.
It was the reason for holocausts because some people’s lives were thought to be inferior. It was the reason for slavery as black lives were considered inferior. It was the reason that women have been considered “property” as they were not worth anything. It is the same reason that people oppress animals now. Gay and transgender people are thought to be inferior and so it is okay to deny their rights.
“It seems to me that killing animals for eating is not very far away from killing human beings. They differ only in their body, in their shape, but it is the same life that you are destroying. With new technology the earth is perfectly capable of giving you food. You can make it as tasteful as you want, and you can give it any flavor that you love. Just for taste, destroying life is simply disgusting. And destroying life, you are destroying many qualities in you. You cannot have that purity of consciousness, that sensitivity.”
~ Osho
We rationalize eating animals and justify it, because it’s either necessary (“ meat, dairy and eggs are essential to human health ”), normal (“Most people eat animals, and most people can’t be wrong”), natural (“Our human ancestors ate animals”), or simply nice (“Meat, egg and dairy are delicious”) And the more we believe in these rationalizations, the more likely we are to turn a blind eye toward suffering or to assume animals are less intelligent and feel less guilt about our dietary choices.
Animal-based food releases opiate-like substances just like sugar does. These compounds are responsible for many of our cravings, including that feeling of not being able to live without these foods. Not all cravings are physical; eating and food carry memories, associations, traditions, and emotions. Every food we miss comes with a memory – time spent with family or friends, food that offered comfort and expressed love, outings that were fun and a part of our life. So, when we have cravings for food, we might also be having craving for the people, places and experiences that those foods just happened to be a part of.
Each culture has it’s own myths, traditions and beliefs
The brutal ritual at “Adha” is not necessary these days, especially in a religion that preaches compassion, love and understanding for all living beings. We can offer anything we deem valuable to those less fortunate without compromising the life of an innocent animal and inflict pain and suffering where it is not needed.
We’re not living 1400 years ago, and the world is continuously changing.
On Thanksgiving, Americans get together to pretend that families are the source of all comfort and happiness and to stuff themselves with dead turkeys and dead pigs; all those kind-hearted people who feel good about themselves feeding turkey to homeless people on Thanksgiving are mindlessly contributing to animal cruelty.
Two and a half million South Korean dogs are electrocuted, hanged, and killed in the cruelest ways imaginable each year because of the ritual known as ‘Bok-Nal’
Meat production causes immense animal suffering
The intensive farming often results in appalling animal cruelty up until the animals are killed – being kept in crowded and filthy conditions, injuries left untreated and with no access to outdoors are all commonplace.
Fish are raised in ponds, pools, or concrete tanks which are filthy and cramped. They suffer from parasitic infections, diseases, and debilitating injuries. In the wild, billions of fish—along with “nontarget” animals, are caught each year in ocean-ravaging nets or dragged for hours on long-lines for the commercial fishing industry. These intelligent, complex animals are impaled, crushed, suffocated, or cut open and gutted, all while they’re fully conscious.
Dairy production also involves terrible animal abuse
Female cows are artificially and repeatedly and forcibly impregnated year after year. After giving birth, their babies are taken away from them, which causes both cow and calf extreme distress. Male calves are removed from their mother at birth and killed or exported for veal production. Female calves are kept to become the next generation of milk-producers. Cows spend the rest of their lives as milk machines. Painful inflammation of the mammary glands is common among cows which are forced to produce 4.5 times what they normally would for their calf. Most dairy cows’ overworked bodies begin producing less milk at around 4 to 5 years of age, at which point they are slaughtered.
Egg production involves as much cruelty and killing as meat and dairy do
A hen spends her life crowded in a space about the size of a file drawer with several other hens, unable to lift a single wing. These “spent” hens are shipped to slaughterhouses, where their fragile legs are forced into shackles and their throats are cut. Male chicks are worthless to the egg industry, so every year, millions of them are suffocated or thrown into high-speed grinders while they are alive.
These industries have got one thing in mind and that’s to sell as much of their products as possible to the consumer.
Farmed animals are fed a highly unnatural diet of grain and corn which is designed to fatten them up quickly. They are also regularly dosed with drugs such as antibiotics to make them grow faster and keep them alive. Drug-resistant bacteria found in cattle feedlots can become airborne and cause hard-to-treat infections in humans.
Fish and shellfish live in increasingly polluted environments, toxins from the water accumulate in their bodies. Most of the fish throughout the world contain dangerously high levels of mercury and chemicals.
Meat is high in cholesterol and saturated fat and contributes to a person’s risk of suffering from heart disease, cancer, diabetes, and obesity. Cholesterol is found only in animal products, including meat, fish, poultry, dairy products, and eggs. Obesity is highest in the poorest socioeconomic sectors of society, further hobbling already disadvantaged kids. The rise of obesity has paralleled the rise of fast food, laden with animal-based products. Ischemic heart disease was the leading cause of death in 2016. Stroke is a leading cause of serious long-term disability. Cancer and Diabetes also cause millions of deaths each year.
We most certainly do not need dairy to live a healthy life.
Cow’s milk is meant for her baby that shares its mother’s immune system and gets the right balance of fats, proteins, vitamins, hormones, and enzymes for development. however, the amounts of these components in human breast milk are not the same.
All mammal species including Humans, experience a dramatic reduction in the activity of the enzyme after weaning.
75% of earth population are lactose intolerant because it is perfectly natural.
Dairy can contain measurable quantities of herbicides, pesticides, dioxins, powerful antibiotics, blood, pus, feces, bacteria and viruses.
The nation’s leading health organizations and the mainstream media will never tell us the real story.
The advertisers are the meat, dairy, egg and pharmaceutical industries. Their advertising expenses are huge comparing to the total expenses of organizations that promote plant-based food.
The collusion and corruption in governments and big businesses are costing us trillions of healthcare dollars, and keeping us sick .
Raising animals for food requires massive amounts of land, food, energy, and water.
As these animal agricultural industries fund more and more marketing campaigns, maybe the real time bomb and threat is the industry’s effect on the planet accounts for more greenhouse gas emissions than all of transportation combined. Cattle-breeding is taking a major factor for greenhouse gas emissions.
The vast amount of grain feed required for meat production is a significant contributor to deforestation, habitat loss and species extinction.
Soy cultivation is a major driver of deforestation in the Amazon basin. Seeds from the soybean plant provide high protein animal feed for livestock, and 80% of Amazon soy is destined to feed animals; smaller percentages are used for oil or eaten directly.
Meat production from grazing animal calculated as energy or protein yield per hectare is very inefficient when compared with plant products.
Factory farming has become one of the filthiest industries – producing an ocean of fecal matter every year. Water degradation and human health is a major concern when considering the disposal of large quantities of animal waste.
Overfishing – the disappearance of fishing – is contributing to fatal negative environmental change.
We will be healthier today if we stick to a plant-based diet.
Researchers have shown that a more plant-based diet may help prevent and even reverse chronic diseases.
Being a human omnivore in contemporary times simply means we have the luxury of choosing from plant-based foods and animal-based foods. Since all the nutrients (including Protein, Omega-3 fats, Calcium) can be obtained from plant foods, there is no justification for the pointless violence and suffering that underpin eating animal-based food, particularly when we could so easily avoid it. We only need to supplement Vitamin B12 because it comes from the soil and we don’t eat dirty vegetables.
However, according to many biologists and anthropologists who study our anatomy and our evolutionary history, humans can eat meat yet, they are not designed to. Animals flesh – which contains cholesterol and saturated fat – was never intended for human beings. Humans lack both the physical characteristics of carnivores and the instinct that drives them to kill animals and devour their raw carcasses.
Our ancestors of million years ago were totally fruitarians. Early humans were simply acquiring enough calories to survive and reproduce. They used stone tools to de-flesh the animal and cooking to eat its meat and yes, they developed communication skills that contributed to our evolution but our anatomy didn’t change and modern humans are not endangered species anymore. The fact that humans have eaten meat and drinking milk is no argument that we should, unless we had to (we don’t). Plant-based food is now widely accessible especially in developed countries.
At this point, these facts can propel us to begin looking at the world with new eyes, and actually confront the beast in the room. If that means eating non animal-based food, well, that’s a sacrifice we should be willing to make.
BONUS: Download>>Socrates Poisoned Again After 25 Centuries – Osho Sourceshttps://www.carnism.org/
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Great reads! I’m definitely sharing.
Why is it ok for an animal to eat another animal, but not ok for me to do it? I am an animal as well.
Thank you for your comment. Humans are animals but not carnivores. Our ancestors acquired calories from other bodies and milk in order to survive. Unlike today, we can thrive and survive solely on a plant based died and it is adequate, healthy and appropriate for our bodies (According to the largest dietetic associations in the world, the American and the British) We are not meant to digest flesh and milk in the first place (milk is intended for babies. Cow’s milk its baby calf).
I love what you have put together here and would love it even more if we could be in contact to work together to broadcast this to the whole global population or just enough to boost the change our earth severely needs
Thanks! it would be amazing really. Let’s keep in touch