57 replies to this topic

[Bling]

If every human stopped eating meat, what would happen to the species of animals which make up a large part of our everyday diet? Would pigs, cows, sheep, chickens and turkeys etc become extinct? What would be their place in the world if we don't eat them? Is it their destiny to provide us with food? Would they become a wild species, endangered or domesticated?

Is eating meat a responsible thing to continue doing? Are meat eaters helping a species continue to live in this world? Instead of stopping eating meat would it be better to campaign for better conditions for these animals and only eating organic meat?

I'd hate a whole species of animal become extinct just because I couldn't be bothered to speak out on their behalf and press for better conditions for them from birth to slaughter. I was a vegetarian for 10 years by the way...

[Grey14]

Humans were designed as an omnivore. We are meant to eat meat. I have no issue eating meat i enjoy it immensely. Go STEAK!

[The Mule]

Yeah Im pretty much a fan of cow...its not like we'd set them all free and let them road the streets....cant exactly set them out into the woods to be slaughtered by wolves and other preditors.

[Dr. D]

The Mule, on 27 September 2012 - 10:25 PM, said:

Yeah Im pretty much a fan of cow...its not like we'd set them all free and let them road the streets....cant exactly set them out into the woods to be slaughtered by wolves and other preditors.

We'd be up to our ass in chickens in about six months

[The Mule]

Dr. D, on 27 September 2012 - 11:02 PM, said:

We'd be up to our ass in chickens in about six months

Pakistan...

[Hilander]

Most of the animals we raise for food would probably survive.  Then the environmentalists would complain about the damage they were doing to the environment.

[SpectralEdge]

Dr. D, on 27 September 2012 - 11:02 PM, said:

We'd be up to our ass in chickens in about six months

So really, eating chicken is self defense?

"It was him or me Sara"

Edited by SpectralEdge, 27 September 2012 - 11:51 PM.

[sunshaker]

I think we are guardians, we where given time to grow, enough natural resources to figure out what we have to,  meat to eat when we needed extra protein while we grew, but now we are at a pivitol time in our evolution , we no longer need the meat we have shops where you can get all the protein you need , to me all life is precious, if we sort ourselfs out the rest will follow. 2by2 ark

[Hippycrite]

A large part of the economy would go right down the toilet. Massive unemployment of agricultural workers/livestock producers and processors, shipping companies, truck drivers, and so on. Each industrys decline would lead to the reduction of need for another.

[Render]

Bling, on 27 September 2012 - 09:30 PM, said:

If every human stopped eating meat, what would happen to the species of animals which make up a large part of our everyday diet? Would pigs, cows, sheep, chickens and turkeys etc become extinct? What would be their place in the world if we don't eat them? Is it their destiny to provide us with food? Would they become a wild species, endangered or domesticated?

Is eating meat a responsible thing to continue doing? Are meat eaters helping a species continue to live in this world? Instead of stopping eating meat would it be better to campaign for better conditions for these animals and only eating organic meat?

I'd hate a whole species of animal become extinct just because I couldn't be bothered to speak out on their behalf and press for better conditions for them from birth to slaughter. I was a vegetarian for 10 years by the way...

Good set of questions!

I would assume the majority of those animals would be annihilated. The same happened recently and is still going on all over the world (approximately it will go on until the first quarter of 2013):  a mass slaughter is going on where millions of pigs and cattle are being liquidized because the farmers cannot afford food for them at the time (because of the many failed harvests the prices went up too high for them). This in turn will cause prices of meat to go up the coming months, approximately by 14%.

So the carnivors are in turn helping to keep many alive, ironically.

I wouldn't assume all of them would be eliminated when everybody would be a vegetarian. Partly because we use animals for other things than meat too. But about 80% of them would be rendered useless and too expensive to keep alive.

[redhen]

Bling, on 27 September 2012 - 09:30 PM, said:

If every human stopped eating meat, what would happen to the species of animals which make up a large part of our everyday diet? Would pigs, cows, sheep, chickens and turkeys etc become extinct?

I've seen this fallacious straw man argument before. The only difference is your post is in the form of a question not a proposition. So my first response is that your imagined situation is just not going to happen overnight, and you can stop worrying about what will happen to all the cattle.

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What would be their place in the world if we don't eat them? Is it their destiny to provide us with food?

Destiny? If it was their destiny, it came really late. They managed to survive for millions of years without any "management" by our species.

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Would they become a wild species, endangered or domesticated?

The trend is for greater meat demand and production. Unless there is an overnight, world-wide, cultural paradigm shift, your scenario is not a live option.

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Is eating meat a responsible thing to continue doing? Are meat eaters helping a species continue to live in this world? Instead of stopping eating meat would it be better to campaign for better conditions for these animals and only eating organic meat?

See above, these species survived just fine without human intervention. When you say better in regards humane treatment what specifically do you mean and how is it more humane? Despite recent propaganda campaigns there is no such thing as "happy meat". http://www.humanemyth.org/

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I'd hate a whole species of animal become extinct just because I couldn't be bothered to speak out on their behalf and press for better conditions for them from birth to slaughter. I was a vegetarian for 10 years by the way...

Again, better conditions. How are these better conditions humane? Would these animals die of old age under your better conditions?

[Br Cornelius]

Why ask questions which can never come to pass.
It would be better for us all if we were less dependent on meat, but any such change would be gradual and easy to adapt to without undue consequences for farm animals.

Just a waste of brain - try thinking before asking stupid questions.

Br Cornelius

[glorybebe]

I believe that we need to eat meat in order to have a well balanced diet.  Humans have been eating meat for thousands if years- you can't just change our diets and expect no health issues to arise.  But, that being said, I have been tempted to adopt a vegetarian lifestyle due to all the crap fed to the animals and what is injected into it before we see it on the shelves.

[Hippycrite]

Production-bred animals are mostly hybridized creatures and would have a difficult time surviving on their own. Feral survivors might likely become nuisances, foraging through farm fields. Feral pigs have already become destructive and can be dangerous if encountered.

[questionmark]

Depends on the animal. Most of our stable animals would become extinct because they are bred for a certain set of circumstances giving a certain performance. A modern milk cow would probably succumb really fast to mastitis as there is no calf that can consume all the milk it produces. Modern pigs die of heart attacks at the slightest disturbance, a price for the fast growing we have bred them to.

Then we have to consider that even semi-feral like a Texas long-horn cow are completely dependent on being treated against certain diseases with lots of anti-biotic, most due to the fact that they have been given that type of medicine not because they were sick but because it sped up growth. Naturally that decreased their natural immune system to the point that they can't survive long without them anymore.

The best chance of survival and re-adaptation to the wild would be for goats and half wild pigs (i.e. Spanish Serrano pigs) and some species of ground kept chickens, for the rest I don't see much of a chance.