There’s been a growing movement towards radical solutions regarding the moral quandary of eating meat. Many advocate for the rejection of meat altogether, but this seems a bit too simplistic an answer to a complicated problem.
There are ways to make your diet more eco-friendly without cutting out the meat industry entirely. Less extreme measures are the better way to go, as they are more helpful for both consumers and the farmers who depend on them.
The Agricultural Community
Understandably, there is a pushback against the rejection of meat. However, the pushback isn’t merely a result of personal interest or concern for profit. Agricultural workers have a better understanding of how the industry works, and its affect on those who work in other, closely-connected fields. Farming is not a lonely business, and changing one part of it will affect many other aspects in turn.
Different Farming Practises
The first thing consumers should consider is the variety of farming and grazing practises at your disposal. If your main concern is the affect grazing has on soil and plant life, there are alternatives to grazing that can be done in an eco-friendly way.
If your concerns are about humane treatment of animals, you can also find farmers who take great care of their livestock, treating their animals gently throughout the entire process.
Meat Substitutes
Meat substitutes have become quite popular lately, seen as a solution to all issues troubling the meat industry, as well as those who want their diet to be meat-free, but can’t quite break the habit. However, these alternatives pose problems of their own.
For instance, it is not always possible to know what goes into these substitutes, and the practises used to produce them. Production methods may be less eco-friendly and less ethical than you would imagine.
More Vegetables
Plant-based diets can produce new problems in terms of your own environmental impact as well. It will mean you will need more plants in your diet, increasing your carbon footprint. This is especially true if most of your vegetables come from industrial farms and homesteads.
Obviously, this is a problem only if cutting out meat is done all at once, on a major scale. Unfortunately, this is precisely what advocates of the movement are proposing.
The Transition Period
There’s no doubt that something must be done about our environmental impact, especially in regards to our daily lives and diets. However, taking action without a transitional period could prove counterproductive, if not catastrophic. It could negatively affect farmers above all else, and it is vital for sustainable advocates and farmers to view one another as allies. Otherwise, the transition toward eco-friendly practises will be much more difficult to accomplish.
Allies
Moving on to new methods is inarguably a political issue, requiring the hearts and minds of the public as well as those within the industry.
Conclusion
There are calls as of late to abandon the meat industry altogether. To do so would prove far too radical: the transition is one that requires careful, deliberate change.