It’s about reducing harm. Are all crops grown the way I would like? No. But farm animals also have to be fed these same crops, so when you eat meat you not only contributed to the animal cruelty and substantial amounts of the crop-harms you identified, while a vegetarian or vegan only contributed to a lesser amount of the crop-harms.
It’s not practical to live without causing any harm somewhere, but that’s not an excuse to pretend that all lifestyles are equally harmful.
animals are mostly fed plants or parts of plants that people can’t or won’t eat: cows graze on grass, or are fed silage which includes things like cotton seed and corn stalks. you can eat the corn and wear the cotton and eat the cow.
Maybe in some narrow cases but I’d take issue with your use of ‘mostly’. Here’s an article about a study that looked at the environmental damage of different diets and a vegan diet is significantly, significantly better for the environment - and that’s not even considering animal welfare.
that study depends on a number of other studies with dubious methodology. i wouldn’t trust that study just based on the studies on which i know it relies.
a vegan diet isn’t any better for the environment at all. producing the parts of a vegan diet INSTEAD of the parts of some other diet WOULD be better but that’s not what happens: the omnivorous products continue to be made in growing amounts while vegan products are ALSO increased.
It’s about reducing harm. Are all crops grown the way I would like? No. But farm animals also have to be fed these same crops, so when you eat meat you not only contributed to the animal cruelty and substantial amounts of the crop-harms you identified, while a vegetarian or vegan only contributed to a lesser amount of the crop-harms.
It’s not practical to live without causing any harm somewhere, but that’s not an excuse to pretend that all lifestyles are equally harmful.
animals are mostly fed plants or parts of plants that people can’t or won’t eat: cows graze on grass, or are fed silage which includes things like cotton seed and corn stalks. you can eat the corn and wear the cotton and eat the cow.
Maybe in some narrow cases but I’d take issue with your use of ‘mostly’. Here’s an article about a study that looked at the environmental damage of different diets and a vegan diet is significantly, significantly better for the environment - and that’s not even considering animal welfare.
that study depends on a number of other studies with dubious methodology. i wouldn’t trust that study just based on the studies on which i know it relies.
a vegan diet isn’t any better for the environment at all. producing the parts of a vegan diet INSTEAD of the parts of some other diet WOULD be better but that’s not what happens: the omnivorous products continue to be made in growing amounts while vegan products are ALSO increased.