Tuesday, November 20, 2007
Vegeterianism (and also Veganism) - The extinction of (and not only) farm animals.
First of all, an introduction to to the concepts and terms that I will use in this article:
Animal Husbandry - also called "animal science", stockbreeding or simple husbandry, is the argicultural practice of breeding and raising livestock. (wikipedia)
–noun
the science of breeding, feeding, and tending domestic animals, esp. farm animals. (dictionary.com).
Natural Selection - is the process by which favorable traits that are heritable become more common in succesive generations of a population of reproducing organisms, and unfavorable traits that are heritable become less common. (wikipedia)
–noun
the process by which forms of life having traits that better enable them to adapt to specific environmental pressures, as predators, changes in climate, or competition for food or mates, will tend to survive and reproduce in greater numbers than others of their kind, thus ensuring the perpetuation of those favorable traits in succeeding generations. (dictionary.com).
Domestication - refers to the process whereby a population of animals or plants become accustomed to human provision and control. (wikipedia).
At first, human beings relied on the food that was scattered around their locale; wild plants and wild animals (a part of them also carnivores) were their only source of food.
Human beings are in fact not natural carnivores, soley due to the fact we cannot digest uncooked meat (we can, of course, digest freshly picked vegetables and fruits), however, when fire was discovered (in the sense of making it), it was our primary step towards the top of the food chain, not only due to mental supremacy, but also due to the ability to cook and eat meat.
Just for the information, any natural carnivore, including a domesticated pet (cat, dog), can well digest fresh meat.
At the peak of civilization; human beings faced the problem of sufficient nutrition.
The number of persons per an organized group raised and the wilderness was naturally incapable of supporting them.
The solution: Animal Husbandry and Plant Domestication.
Here we will talk mostly about Animal Husbandry, but it must be noted that Plant Domestication was a very close relative to the process (also because animals required human controlled food themselves).
The process of animal husbandry was developed by sheperds, and later on farmers: Sheperds rely on a natural habitat of animals and their sense of direction while farmers, created artificial habitats which included the animal's nutrition base and of course the process of human controlled breeding.
Also to be noted, another form of animal husbandry in addition to vegeterian animal husbandry, was of course, carnivore animal husbandry (wolves were domesticated and renamed dogs, also cats, etc..).
The vegeterian animals with the vast exception of mount animals, were butchered and eaten by humans and their pets (dogs, cats, naturally lost their sense of hunting as they relied on human given food).
With the process of animal husbandry, domesticated/farm animals switched their evolutionary dependence.
Prior to human interference, those animals had natural, ecological feeds to their evolution and afterwards, their entire evolution process (both gene based and culture based) was handed to the control of human beings.
At first, an animal would naturally become more domesticated in the presence of human beings; that is to say, it's enough for the animal to grow with humans in order for it to get used to their presence and their leadership.
Later on, a new form of natural selection controlled the evolutionary process of those animals (being artificial, it was of course a lot faster than natural evolution).
Human beings noticed that by breeding a male and a female with certain desired traits, they will produce an offspring that had very similar desired traits; a process that was discovered in the form of science only in the 16-18th century... then evolution and darwinism in the 19-20th century.
And so, the desired traits that humans should look for were the mass of the animals (more mass, more food), greater life expectancy, lack of inclination to wilderness, and a lot more.
During that process, domesticated vegeterian animals became totally dependent on human control, and were frankly evolved into ingenious individuals in the form of human edible food.
Today, after many a millennia of human control, domesticated animals lost almost entirely their ability to survive in the wilderness.
And to our main topic of this article; Vegeterianism, Veganism and farm animal extinction:
A vegetrian or a vegan, should they expect everyone to follow suit and become Vegeterian or Vegan (due to moral reasons) would therefore expect the extinction of (and not only) farm animals.
That is because with the lack of requirement for those animals, if not kill them ourselves, we will have to release them to the wilderness; a habitat they would not stand a chance in due to carnivore threats and most importantly, lack of nutrition.
Also, pets, who are carnivore themselves and are physically unable to digest any form of vegeterian food or at least highly reliant on meat would also extinct, they are surely unable to go and hunt for the same reasons their vegeterian counterparts cannot forage for food in the wild.
Therefore, Vegeterianism (out of ideology) and Veganism are only moral as long as the majority of the population keeps eating meat, that is to stay, they are not a stand alone group and cannot compose most of society.
This brings up the question: What is more moral for us to do, cause farm animals (and not only) to extinct or butcher (a.k.a murder) and exploit them?
I don't know, but from an evolutionary point of view, I can definitely tell it's more important for a species to survive and pass on its genes than not bear any pain.
I do not judge anybody for their decision of diet, but I think being a carnivore myself at the time being, it is only fair to address Vegeterians and Vegans this very important moral dilemma.
It's not as simple as you think!
From other points of view, vegeterian diet can be very healthy and also very unhealthy... a carnivore diet can also be as long as some meats are avoided.
Meat factories around the world are very polluting.
People are individually disgusted from eating meat.
Personally I feel that meat in general should be eaten less frequently, as most of our diet should consist of vegetables and fruits.
Meat factories (and farms thereof) should focus on less pollutiing alternatives in their product and also aim to be a bit less pain inflicting towards animals.
Thanks for reading, any comments are welcome.
Animal Husbandry - also called "animal science", stockbreeding or simple husbandry, is the argicultural practice of breeding and raising livestock. (wikipedia)
–noun
the science of breeding, feeding, and tending domestic animals, esp. farm animals. (dictionary.com).
Natural Selection - is the process by which favorable traits that are heritable become more common in succesive generations of a population of reproducing organisms, and unfavorable traits that are heritable become less common. (wikipedia)
–noun
the process by which forms of life having traits that better enable them to adapt to specific environmental pressures, as predators, changes in climate, or competition for food or mates, will tend to survive and reproduce in greater numbers than others of their kind, thus ensuring the perpetuation of those favorable traits in succeeding generations. (dictionary.com).
Domestication - refers to the process whereby a population of animals or plants become accustomed to human provision and control. (wikipedia).
At first, human beings relied on the food that was scattered around their locale; wild plants and wild animals (a part of them also carnivores) were their only source of food.
Human beings are in fact not natural carnivores, soley due to the fact we cannot digest uncooked meat (we can, of course, digest freshly picked vegetables and fruits), however, when fire was discovered (in the sense of making it), it was our primary step towards the top of the food chain, not only due to mental supremacy, but also due to the ability to cook and eat meat.
Just for the information, any natural carnivore, including a domesticated pet (cat, dog), can well digest fresh meat.
At the peak of civilization; human beings faced the problem of sufficient nutrition.
The number of persons per an organized group raised and the wilderness was naturally incapable of supporting them.
The solution: Animal Husbandry and Plant Domestication.
Here we will talk mostly about Animal Husbandry, but it must be noted that Plant Domestication was a very close relative to the process (also because animals required human controlled food themselves).
The process of animal husbandry was developed by sheperds, and later on farmers: Sheperds rely on a natural habitat of animals and their sense of direction while farmers, created artificial habitats which included the animal's nutrition base and of course the process of human controlled breeding.
Also to be noted, another form of animal husbandry in addition to vegeterian animal husbandry, was of course, carnivore animal husbandry (wolves were domesticated and renamed dogs, also cats, etc..).
The vegeterian animals with the vast exception of mount animals, were butchered and eaten by humans and their pets (dogs, cats, naturally lost their sense of hunting as they relied on human given food).
With the process of animal husbandry, domesticated/farm animals switched their evolutionary dependence.
Prior to human interference, those animals had natural, ecological feeds to their evolution and afterwards, their entire evolution process (both gene based and culture based) was handed to the control of human beings.
At first, an animal would naturally become more domesticated in the presence of human beings; that is to say, it's enough for the animal to grow with humans in order for it to get used to their presence and their leadership.
Later on, a new form of natural selection controlled the evolutionary process of those animals (being artificial, it was of course a lot faster than natural evolution).
Human beings noticed that by breeding a male and a female with certain desired traits, they will produce an offspring that had very similar desired traits; a process that was discovered in the form of science only in the 16-18th century... then evolution and darwinism in the 19-20th century.
And so, the desired traits that humans should look for were the mass of the animals (more mass, more food), greater life expectancy, lack of inclination to wilderness, and a lot more.
During that process, domesticated vegeterian animals became totally dependent on human control, and were frankly evolved into ingenious individuals in the form of human edible food.
Today, after many a millennia of human control, domesticated animals lost almost entirely their ability to survive in the wilderness.
And to our main topic of this article; Vegeterianism, Veganism and farm animal extinction:
A vegetrian or a vegan, should they expect everyone to follow suit and become Vegeterian or Vegan (due to moral reasons) would therefore expect the extinction of (and not only) farm animals.
That is because with the lack of requirement for those animals, if not kill them ourselves, we will have to release them to the wilderness; a habitat they would not stand a chance in due to carnivore threats and most importantly, lack of nutrition.
Also, pets, who are carnivore themselves and are physically unable to digest any form of vegeterian food or at least highly reliant on meat would also extinct, they are surely unable to go and hunt for the same reasons their vegeterian counterparts cannot forage for food in the wild.
Therefore, Vegeterianism (out of ideology) and Veganism are only moral as long as the majority of the population keeps eating meat, that is to stay, they are not a stand alone group and cannot compose most of society.
This brings up the question: What is more moral for us to do, cause farm animals (and not only) to extinct or butcher (a.k.a murder) and exploit them?
I don't know, but from an evolutionary point of view, I can definitely tell it's more important for a species to survive and pass on its genes than not bear any pain.
I do not judge anybody for their decision of diet, but I think being a carnivore myself at the time being, it is only fair to address Vegeterians and Vegans this very important moral dilemma.
It's not as simple as you think!
From other points of view, vegeterian diet can be very healthy and also very unhealthy... a carnivore diet can also be as long as some meats are avoided.
Meat factories around the world are very polluting.
People are individually disgusted from eating meat.
Personally I feel that meat in general should be eaten less frequently, as most of our diet should consist of vegetables and fruits.
Meat factories (and farms thereof) should focus on less pollutiing alternatives in their product and also aim to be a bit less pain inflicting towards animals.
Thanks for reading, any comments are welcome.
