I’ve been thinking about this topic a bit lately, as I’ve been changing my diet to try and control my blood sugar a little better. I’ve been trying various foods, and looking at a lot more meatless products, and receiving some great suggestions from board vegetarians and others.
I sat here today and realized that maybe a lot of the reason that many people react so negatively to PETA speciically and vegetarians in general is the fear of a slippery slope. I’ve had a couple long e-mail exchanges with others over my fear of a slippery slope w.r.t. gun control, and lately I’ve realized that that concept is at the heart of a lot of my negative reaction towards PETA, and animals rights activists.
What I mean of course is a scenario where laws are passed first restricting certain methods of raising animals and preparing them to be eaten, then barring eating certain types of meat or animals, then barring whole classes of animals and meat, and finally a ban on meat altogether?
I worry what happens if one day the mainstream liberal media decides that the elimination of meat (and fur, and animal testing) is now their new cause of the decade. And then we start getting bombarded daily with Peter Jennings et al clucking their tongues and smirking as they broadcast story after story along the lines of “A 60-year old man died of a heart attack today in Scranton - most likely from eating meat, sources allege…”
PETA says a lot of things that are hard to argue with. Few people want animals to suffer needlessly, or at all. Few people IMO want to eat animals that are essentially kept as “bio-factories” in tiny pens, gorging on hormone-laden swill until death. I would support them, and many other groups like them, if I knew there was not going to be the inevitable slope towards a total ban on meat.
Because I like meat, I like it a lot. But I think PETA and animals rights groups and vegetarians would connect with more people if the fear of the slippery slope was not there - just like, IMO, many firearms enthusiasts would support some gun control measures if they were not really leading towards the inevitable ban and house-to-house sweeps by swat teams.
Is there a debate here I guess, or is this IMHO? Is the slippery slope what we meat eaters really fear the most, and not really PETA’s advertising, or their protests, or their message overall?
And PLEASE! Please let’s not make this another “Those PETA whackos are screwed!” thread! We have way to many of those, and the point has been made! I just want to know to what extent the feeling of meat eaters are based on the fear of the future, as opposed to dislike of the present.
And since my premise might be weak, here is a second thought for vegans.
In many cyberpunk and sci-fi novels, there is often the concept of “vat grown” meat, which is essentially meat cloned from cells of living animals, then grown in organic vats to produce meat product. I understand that several Japanese companies are conducting experiments along these lines as well, although they are 10-15 years away from yielding anything. Vat grown meat could potentially open huge opportunities for supplementing diets (and allowing people to eat all sorts of different animals - imagine Buffalo Penguin wings, or Lion steak - with no animals killed or injured?)
So the question to vegans is - if vat-grown meat existed, with “starting cells” harvested from animals with insignificant or no discomfort to them, would you eat it?