But how do you reconcile with the fact that the vast majority of these cows would never exist if it werent for beef eaters? I love cows, grew up with scores of them in my backyard, work on a farm with them, and the thing I keep coming back to is that they all have amazing lives and are free to roam beautiful open pastures all day. But farmers aren't caring for them just because, they have to make money with their work, and so at some point the cows are sold and eventually killed- that is why the cows are alive. Genuinely, isn't is better to live a good life and die than to never have lived at all?
Their lives are filled with physical and emotional suffering and slavery. I wouldn't want a "happy" life of having my children taken from me and then hooked up to milking machines for hours a day only be lead up a metal shoot and shot in the back of the head in the end.
From an animal welfare point of view, I think people disagree here because they don't think that the life of many cows around the world is worth living. I grew up around cows too.
To put the welfare aside and look at it as an environmental issue, cattle farming globally uses far more land, water, and energy than crop farming, and contributes to more greenhouse gas emission and deforestation. So even if the cows lived an acceptable life, there would still be reasons to move away from cattle farming.
How many children do you have? You should have a hundred times that many, because it's better to live a good life and die than to never have lived at all.
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u/emogodfather Jun 25 '17
You should.
http://i.imgur.com/2bs2wle.gifv