No, No, No Johnny. Discernment is needed here. Animals and vegetables are NOT the same. Vegetables do not have a nervous system. It is a mis-categorization to put them together. The rise of corporations in farming has created a factory situation for animals ... But neither plants nor animals are the same as chairs and tables. They are not objects. Yet, vegetables do not have a central nervous system and it is a mis-categorization to put them together with animals who do have a central nervous system. Of course, agri-business has created a factory for animals as if they are nothing but commodities and /or objects. But animals are not the same as chairs and tables. They are not objects. We are talking about beings who can feel pain and distress. We are not talking about objects. And yet they have been treated as such.
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Things are in a natural order and to feed living things, other living things must die, sometimes with pain, hopefully brief.
Of course! But not how we are doing it now .... The human race has never seen anything like this before. We have NEVER treated animals like this. Not ever. And how we are treating both animals and each other is reflected in how we are treating our environment which includes your pet topic .. over population. We cannot select the issue of overpopulation, which is a fact, without looking at how we are treating each other, animals, and the environment. They are connected.
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The cruelest thing people have done is over-breed and take over the biosphere in destruction, depleting, polluting ways.
We didn't and don't know that having babies is cruel. Most of us, in developed nations, aren't even having a lot of babies. Usually, the birth of a baby is cause for celebration. But now we are many and yet it is the least populated countries that are using the most resources.(Such as Europe, the US and Canada). We are having fewer but using more. Yet, over population is still a big concern and the best remedy to reduce population is to empower women and girls through education and the availability of resources. Give her the power, and she knows exactly what to do with it, because she is invested in it. Monsanto and their ilk are not the answer. In fact, technology in general, is not the answer.
Have GMO's created an answer to the under-nourished children in the US yet? Let me know when they do, because feeding hungry children is supposedly part of their mandate.
Technology is so helpful, but until we shift our consciousness, technology will only create more complications around ownership and profit and shareholders. Technology without heart = profits for some. Is that what it's supposed to be about? Or are mothers having a different idea?
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The number of support species we need is in the many thousands, in hundreds of ecological niches.
Depopulating humans and stopping AGW with a 90% drop in EVERYONE'S greenhouse gases, ASAP, is MUCH more important than being cruelty free.
This is the fragment I mentioned before. It is not MUCH more important because overpopulation is a result of the same consciousness that has created an equally abysmal situation for animals and how they are treated. Both are cruel and both are the result of a consciousness that is incoherent. We are over-populated because we are cruel. Same-same. The two are connected. In fact, nothing is separate from the whole.
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Dropping green house gasses, depopulating
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Add to this what you said, "Things are in a natural order and to feed living things, other living things must die, sometimes with pain, hopefully brief." ........
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While this is 100% true for some species, it is not true for ours. We have used other species as an excuse for our own selfish desires. The need to consume animals is dependent on geography and climate. Humans have some degree of dependence on animals for food, depending on geography and climate, but we have turned it into a part of the entire economic system. We are trapped in this system, and we have dragged animals along for the ride.
And so we have carnivorous teeth just in case the need arises, ... as it sometimes does. This makes us adaptable. And yet, we have created an entire industry on the backs of animals and we justify it with economic reasons .... just as we justify polluting the environment. the degradation gives us jobs. And through that ability to rationalize, we have created a dismal situation for ourselves, for animals, and for the environment. It's all connected. Over population is part of that same cruel rationalization. You may simply choose only one aspect of the manifest confusion, but that is just a fragment. We need to look at the entire thing, which includes our treatment of each other and of animals and of the environment.
In smaller communities, we used to look after each other. We have risen in population and in confusion ... like the Tower of Babylon. But we have certainly never treated animals in this way just as we have never had these environmental problems, which includes over-population and climate change. They are part and parcel of the whole. You cannot name one without naming the other. They are connected. Everything is.
Social justice, animal rights/welfare, population, climate change, etc. are all connected.
And so you seem to want to ONLY ever address over population, which is a big issue for sure. But you seem to want to separate it from everything else. Not possible as far as I can see! It's a chaotic mess and animals have been victim to our confusion.