BBQ Ethics

80% of this country live in urban areas and there would be no way to feed these people without factory farming for both meat and produce. Since farming started being mechanized about 150+ years ago the population has increased 700% partly because of the abundance of food from mechanized farming. As a result we have developed a society that is so dependent on this technology that a major portion of the worlds population would probably die if it were shut off.

James Burke called this the “technology trap” when he presented it in the first episode of “connections” tv serious back in the 1978. Here is the episode. https://youtu.be/XetplHcM7aQ

Chris
 
Shadowdog500 said:
80% of this country live in urban areas and there would be no way to feed these people without factory farming for both meat and produce. Since farming started being mechanized about 150+ years ago the population has increased 700% partly because of the abundance of food from mechanized farming. As a result we have developed a society that is so dependent on this technology that a major portion of the worlds population would probably die if it were shut off.

James Burke called this the “technology trap” when he presented it in the first episode of “connections” tv serious back in the 1978. Here is the episode. https://youtu.be/XetplHcM7aQ

Chris
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Yep. We live about three days from barbarism. Only species to put ourselves in this position for the sake of efficiency.
 
ssv3 said:
This is why I love you. :becky: Not in that way.:tsk::tsk:

Well said.
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Yer making me blush :icon_blush:


Well that’s just the way I see it.


I think there is a price to pay for just mindlessly shoving another mammal down yer gullet...
 
lol I don't want to hear any complaints next time I post pics of processing chickens, deer, pigs, rattlesnake, etc.. :laugh:
I like to know my critters were fed well and lived the best life possible. A happy critter is a tasty critter. :grin:
 
Thanks for the thoughtful replies. Gonna read more about the "technology trap." Also been looking forward to learning to kill and butcher my own food.

For the rest of you, there's an excerpt from one of our greatest American forefathers, Benjamin Franklin, that I think is relevant here. In it, he describes how difficult it can be - despite having previously taken up vegetarianism - to turn down a good fish fry.

I believe I have omitted mentioning that, in my first voyage from Boston, being becalm'd off Block Island, our people set about catching cod, and hauled up a great many. Hitherto I had stuck to my resolution of not eating animal food, and on this occasion I consider'd, with my master Tryon, the taking every fish as a kind of unprovoked murder, since none of them had, or ever could do us any injury that might justify the slaughter. All this seemed very reasonable. But I had formerly been a great lover of fish, and, when this came hot out of the frying-pan, it smelt admirably well. I balanc'd some time between principle and inclination, till I recollected that, when the fish were opened, I saw smaller fish taken out of their stomachs; then thought I, "If you eat one another, I don't see why we mayn't eat you." So I din'd upon cod very heartily, and continued to eat with other people, returning only now and then occasionally to a vegetable diet. So convenient a thing is it to be a reasonable creature, since it enables one to find or make a reason for everything one has a mind to do.

I guess what I'm getting at is that given what I know to be true about the negative effects of factory farmed meat, I'm looking for better reasons than a fat, full belly and dogpiss cider to continue enjoying the delicious bounties of modern human civilization.
 
arianimal said:
How do you justify your support of the factory farming industry?
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Because it tastes good on the pit! :nod:

I understand the ideas about big farming operation and ethics. I have watched documentaries, and have even almost thought about trying to convince myself to possibly go with a lighter on the meat product, heavy on the vegetable and grain product diet. :noidea: However...those farmers are feeding their families, providing America with food, doing the best they know how AND there aren't enough benefits for meat production companies to change their practices so they accommodate the animals feelings. I am not going to worry about local farmers raising their pigs or turkeys in a barn, where they don't free range. I know those farmers, and they are some of the best people I know. So the shortest long answer I can give you is:

If it tastes good, and you aren't murdering or harming a person to eat it, it is ethical to eat!
 
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