Ethics: Veganism

Started to put this in Health, but thinking of the angle this seemed more appropriate.

Had a dream the other day, and while the subject of it has nothing to do with veganism, for whatever reason it led to this train of thought: If we ever encounter intelligent aliens (so we could exchange information,) will our being omnivores negatively effect our standing in their eyes? We'll likely introduce ourselves as the 'dominant lifeform' of this planet...So dominant we enslave lesser lifeforms and use them for food. Shouldn't the dominant lifeform act as stewards of everything else taking care of them? Not enslaving, skinning, and eating them like ogres?

Along with this question, what if the aliens have the means to detect intelligence or sentience we lack and inform us organic foods we didn't think were sentient actually are as with fruits and vegetables? We know they're alive, but we don't consider them intelligent or sentient. What if they were, and we simply lacked the means of determining it?

I tried an ultra-strict vegan diet several years ago. Only made it for about 6 weeks though. Grocery shopping was excruciating reading labels to ensure no dairy or other prohibited things. Though I felt better (other than tremendous gas from all the veggies and fiber,) growing up my father was a butcher for supermarket chain so we always had a variety of meat n seafood so I think I got used to it. And when I finally quit, it was in large part due to missing my baked paprika chicken Kinda thinking about giving it another go though of late.

 

You more likely suffer from vaganism.

 

(wonders what a vagan is.)

 

plants clean eat up CO2, keeping global warming in check.

animals produce methane, a green house gas.



eating more veggies means you are allowing more CO2 into the air. Why do you hate the planet?

 

It's a type of meat that comes with it's own sauce.

 

True, but if we added up how ever much methane from human flatuation is produced if everyone was vegan, and subtracted how much is produced by animals raised as livestock, I'd think there'd be a net savings.

 

You make a common mistake. You assume that any alien being that comes will be more like the Vulcans, or ET, or any other benevolent fictional alien and not like the Klingons, or the ones in Independance Day or Fallen Skies.

IMO, any alien race is less likely to be benevolent simply due to the fact that an aggressive nature leads to more advances than a passive one. It would take aggressiveness to accomplish space travel. If the find we're vegans they may assume we're inferior and passive and therefor no obstruction to collecting of our planet's resources.

 

True. Most species which evolve and advance are predators (like us with eyes in front enabling stereoscopic vision making pursuit and aquisition of prey easier.) Thus aliens capable of interstellar travel would likely have evolved from a predatory animal too. A 'plant-eating' peaceable creature is less likely to evolve sufficiently to perfect space travel.

I actually spend rather a lot of time thinking about first contact. I'm not very optimistic. But if the aliens feel they need an excuse to wipe us aside, our treatment of our lesser animals, and indeed our own species might be all the justification they need.

 

There are three reasons to go veg-

Ethical: you decide you don't want to contribute to the horrible, truly mind-numbing cruelty inherent to the meat industry. I shake my head at those who say they're "animal lovers" and against cruelty to animals and yet eat meat. And its not like they can pretend they don't know the truth and they are not the cause of that cruelty.

Environmental: No one factor contributes more to global climate change. You could drive gas guzzlers but do less damage than if you're also vegan.

Your own health: We all know the health ramifications of a meat centered diet. For myself, I don't have the familial risks I was born with. My whole family is sick with diabetes, cancer, heart disease, kidney disease and obesity. I'm the oldest surviving sibling and the only one is good health. The only difference is lifestyle - I quit smoking, I'm active and I've vegetarian. They are none of those things.

I've been vegan - that was my healthiest time. I haven't eaten any meat for more than 30 years and can't imagine ever eating it again. The less you eat, the less you want to and as you feel so much better, you just don't want to go back to how you felt when you ate meat.

Dairy is especially bad for us and I definitely avoid it. I can't say I'm vegan because I do eat eggs we get from a farmer who has chickens. If I had to buy them from a grocery store, I wouldn't eat them.

 

About a decade ago, I read a book called "Rare Earth". It is a well thought out and logically backed book on the Rare Earth Hypothesis. That hypothesis claims that while there may be billions and billions of planets har boring life in the universe, complex life forms are extremely rare and sentient life so rare as to be non existant outside of the earth.

I think that we are the single most advanced life form in the entire universe. Why not? Someone has to be #1.