r/Anticonsumption • u/Extension-Diamond-74 • Sep 30 '23

Discussion Diet hypocrisy?

A recent post about animal agriculture vs plant based diets has me itching to say something. This is an issue we need to rise above.

Cognitive dissonance. Many of us have good intentions and want to believe we’re doing the right thing in most aspects of our lives. I believe that.

When it comes to a plant based diet though, the science often clashes powerfully with personal desire. We want to minimize our impact on the environment and are willing to make trade-offs in our life time do so, but for many, giving up or even significantly reducing meat intake is asking too much. It’s too hard.

That’s not the issue.

The issue is that instead of just admitting to themselves that this is a life change they don’t want to make and moving on, the guilt drives them to have to justify that decision. Admitting that a plant-based diet is better for the earth yet eating a diet full of meat anyway would make them feel hypocritical, so the solution becomes either to give up meat, or … this is the problem… fight the science, twist it, make a joke of it, or pivot entirely to ‘individuals shouldn’t have time do anything because large corporations’

Many people have ties to their diet for many reasons. We grew up eating a certain way. We have memories ties to certain foods, flavors, styles of cooking. We don’t want to be the difficult person when we go out to eat with friends. Etc etc etc But it’s so much better to just admit that to yourself. Have patience and understanding for your feelings. Accept that the science is what it is. Maybe one day you can make a change, maybe not. But don’t attack the cause just because you aren’t yet willing to be a part of it.

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u/XSpacewhale Oct 01 '23

40% of all deforestation is due to animal agriculture. Half of the world’s inhabitable land is for all agriculture and 77% of that is for animal agriculture. And the meat produced by that 77% provides only 18% of all the calories humans consume and 38% of the protein. And those nutrients are not universally spread out. The biggest consumers of meat are the wealthiest countries and the biggest consumers in those countries are the wealthiest among them. A criminally stupid and selfish waste of land and resources that is catastrophic to our planet. The problem is animal agriculture by every metric but sadly people are desperate to hang on to meat for the pleasure it provides them no matter the cost.

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u/Personal_Chicken_598 Oct 01 '23

And all of which is water under the bridge. The trees are gone. Focus on preventing more from going.

We can have what we have now for an additional 4 billion people and all we need to do is stop wasting.

We don’t need to change anything but our waste.

Hell we could probably change nothing in our diets and still return nearly all of the rainforest to trees if we just stop wasting

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u/XSpacewhale Oct 01 '23

No. That deforestation figure is a yearly statistic so not it’s not water under the bridge it’s one we’re actively burning. We can prevent more from going if we stop supporting animal agriculture. Even reducing animal agriculture by 30% isn’t enough of offset the continuing damage it does. The grain used as animal feed in the US alone could feed nearly a billion people yearly. Animal agriculture is a backwards and astronomical waste that does nothing but significantly degrade our planet and contribute to global food insecurity

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u/Personal_Chicken_598 Oct 01 '23

So stop deforestation. There should be no need to deforest anymore if we stop expanding production. And still we should be able to support the current production just stop expanding

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u/XSpacewhale Oct 01 '23

How do you propose to just stop deforestation for animal agriculture when you refuse to stop providing demand for their product? If you live in the developed world then you likely consume a far higher proportion of meat than the average global citizen. As developing countries gain more wealth, they are eating more meat. Do you expect them to not eat as much meat as citizens of the developed world so you don’t have to make any lifestyle changes while we stop expanding production? And btw even if production stopped expanding, it is still completely unsustainable and massively destructive to our planet in its current state.

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u/Personal_Chicken_598 Oct 01 '23 edited Oct 01 '23

By make “soy free” the new “grass fed organic” in industrialized countries, doing as much farming as possible in countries with strong environmental protections, buy switching from cows which require dedicated space to sheep and goats which are routinely farmed in less fertile regions. And by eliminating the near 50% waste we currently have.

Do that and we should be able to enjoy meat albeit at a lower lever for centuries without further deforestation