Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-5853437-20121212192239/@comment-1038387-20140411103551

Thisismyrofl wrote:

My personal opinion is that the production and consumption of meat is ultimately something that needs to be reduced, and the rights of animals respected. The extent to which this can be achieved today is limited - some day perhaps we can find more adequate ways to fill the dietary deficiencies vegetarians are more likely to suffer from, and perhaps we might even develop an efficient manner of lab-grown meat.

I agree. The only argument I can find for not eating meat (not veganism, not vegetarianism, just not eating meat) is that it's a very inefficient industry. Farmers have to pump a huge amount of money and work into an animal, and then it gives a relatively limited supply of food, much of which isn't even used. And the CO2 output that cowpoop gives is enormous. Lab-grown meat or (shudder) bugs are considerably more efficient, even though they might not be as appealing. Soy and other replacements have the downside that it needs a lot of room to grow, which usually leads to deforestation.

Will we ever stop eating meat in the future? Possibly. Will it be because people keep reminding us we're cruel and meat is murder? Probably not.