Humans can be weird about these facts or simply indifferent to the known effect that raising these animals for meat has on the environment. Additionally, I think the antagonistic message of a few vocal vegans triggered a powerful foolishness in the heads of certain people who are prone to acting hedonistically upon being told not to do something. A combination of apathy, chasing profits, taste for beef, and spite which fuels the industrialized beef production business. Another issue is that most of us simply won’t be around to experience the consequences of the unchecked corporations responsible for this willful harm the meat industry is causing Earth’s climate and surrounding environment. I believe in moderation, eating as little of all the meats as possible (those industries have a big impact on the environment). As an American, I see a weird pride that certain people have about eating as much meat as possible; loudly shunning and making fun of those who have either a mostly plant-based, vegetarian, or vegan diet. It’s such a selfish outlook that happens in societies that focus on the individual over the many.
Why do people still eat beef when we know it's terrible for Earth?
Submitted 2 years ago by 3volver@lemmy.world to [deleted]
Comments
LostWanderer@lemmynsfw.com 2 years ago
vividspecter@lemm.ee 2 years ago
Another issue is that most of us simply won’t be around to experience the consequences
I think most people middle-aged or younger will experience the consequences (in fact, we already are with the increased frequency of severe weather events) it’s just that those consequences will get worse over time.
LostWanderer@lemmynsfw.com 2 years ago
The youngest of people certainly will be I could have worded this thought better, but I didn’t. Severe weather is certainly a consequence as well as increased extremes in temperature which are currently happening. Everyone already feels the impact of irresponsible environmental decisions made by the oil industry and industrial agriculture/animal husbandry. Millennials, Gen X and Gen Z will be around to experience the worsening of conditions on Earth. I do genuinely believe that people don’t consider the fact that they aren’t going to experience the climate outcomes based on irresponsible decisions. However, based on the current growing political instability of the USA; I wonder if people are beginning to feel a desire to indulge as they don’t know if they’ll come out unscathed from the blowup which is bound to happen at some point. A bad outlook to have in a way as that will only magnify future issues, however, humans aren’t always rational! 🤪
Asclepiaz@lemmy.world 2 years ago
Tastes gud
Pat_Riot@lemmy.today 8 months ago
Oh, that’s an easy one to answer. It’s because it’s fucking delicious and easy to grow.
Chocrates@lemmy.world 2 years ago
You really triggered some folks 🤣
3volver@lemmy.world 2 years ago
Good, discussion has gotten stale as fuck on the internet. I don’t want to see Lemmy become some censored smooth brained shit pool like Reddit.
MedicPigBabySaver@lemmy.world 6 months ago
Cause, I wanna. Moooo = Yummo.
commie@lemmy.dbzer0.com 6 months ago
eating beef is not terrible for the earth
I_Has_A_Hat@lemmy.world 2 years ago
[deleted]Snowpix@lemmy.ca 2 years ago
It’s almost like being extremely antagonistic and smug doesn’t convince people of your arguments and just puts them off…
Specal@lemmy.world 2 years ago
It also doesn’t work if you’re not “antagonistic and smug”. People don’t like to change, so they aren’t going to change their eating habits.
It has nothing to do with how people talk to you and everything to do with you just liking meat.
Flagg76@lemmy.world 9 months ago
The same reason they still have children.
Digit@lemmy.wtf 5 months ago
It’s life, Jim.
Chivera@lemmy.world 10 months ago
Because it tastes good and because people are so far removed from where their food comes from. Why eat vegetables that use illegal immigrants as workers and are treated harshly?
samus12345@lemm.ee 1 year ago
Why aren’t you living out in the woods eating nuts and berries? Whatever device you’re using to post this, it’s terrible for Earth!
theywilleatthestars@lemmy.world 10 months ago
Tasty
Regalia@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 years ago
I have a eating disorder so most vegetables make me retch, so I kind of don’t have a choice.
Also companies do way more emissions than I ever will, yet I’m asked to stop.
msokiovt@lemmy.today 6 months ago
I take it you’re on a carnivore diet of some sort due to your eating disorder?
Regalia@lemmy.blahaj.zone 6 months ago
Carnivore diet is a weird way to phrase it, it really depends on the consistency of the food, but I do mostly eat meat because it causes the least problems.
Drusas@kbin.run 2 years ago
I have food sensitivities which make it so that I can't eat most leafy greens, most legumes, mushrooms, large amounts of carbs....
I'd be on the toilet 24 hours a day if I went vegan.
njordomir@lemmy.world 2 years ago
Beef is one of the least-woke proteins. /s
Today@lemmy.world 2 years ago
We only eat the fascist cows. And the homophobic chickens at Chick-fil-A.
ThrowawayPermanente@sh.itjust.works 2 years ago
What if rolling coal were a sandwich?
Akareth@lemmy.world 2 years ago
Because:
- Ruminants like cows repair our depleating topsoil via regenerative farming (our current approach of using petroleum-based fertilisers is not sustainable)
- A single cow’s life can feed a human for 1 to 2 years, compared to the many incidentally killed animals (insects, rodents, frogs, birds, etc.) during the growing and harvesting of crops, plus the destruction of entire ecosystems to create the mono-crop farms in the first place
- Humans need to eat lots of fat to be physically and mentally healthy, and beef provides lots of fat (the low-fat high-carbohydrate diets recommended by various agencies — starting with the US’s department of agriculture in the late '70s via the food pyramid — are making us sick, with once-rare diseases such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes, depression, and dementia now commonplace)
YaBoyMax@programming.dev 2 years ago
This is ignoring the fact that raising a cow for consumption requires ~10 times the amount of crops per calorie compared to just eating the crops directly. Also, I don’t think I’ve heard a single health expert recommended eating more beef - the universal understanding is that red meat consumption is generally a net negative in terms of overall health.
GrayBackgroundMusic@lemm.ee 2 years ago
requires ~10 times the amount of crops per calorie compared to just eating the crops directly
Kind of, kind of not. If fed corn, yes. If pasture raised, no. Humans can’t eat grass. Cows convert grass into food.
nutsack@lemmy.world 2 years ago
Because they’re lazy and comfortable and stupid and they don’t give a shit about anything.
Ultragigagigantic@lemmy.world 2 years ago
You haven’t made vegan food free yet. Make it free, people will naturally eat more of it. Solve hunger at the same time.
You do care about reducing beef consumption right? Well start here.
BearOfaTime@lemm.ee 2 years ago
Begging the question
TypicalHog@lemm.ee 1 year ago
It’s very, very simple. It’s cuz shit’s tasty AF and most people care more about themselves and their tastebuds than climate.
Reddfugee42@lemmy.world 2 years ago
Meat yummy
then_three_more@lemmy.world 2 years ago
In my country at least beef consumption peaked around 2012 (theguardian.com/…/uk-meat-consumption-lowest-leve…)
I think post WW2 there was a drive towards the idea that we’d never need to go without. This combined with lifestyle changes (more people working longer hours) gave birth to the rise of fast convince foods and the mass growth of places like McDonalds and Burger King.
Why don’t people just stop? Ideas within society have a lot of momentum, they take a lot of energy to get started and a lot to turn or stop again.
p5yk0t1km1r4ge@lemmy.world 2 years ago
Because we are carnivores and that’s how nature works?
chetradley@lemmy.world 2 years ago
The word you’re looking for is omnivores
p5yk0t1km1r4ge@lemmy.world 2 years ago
Alrighty!
decivex@pawb.social 1 year ago
I’m not a vegetarian by any stretch but even I know there’s nothing natural about how the bio industry works.
canadaduane@lemmy.ca 2 years ago
I appreciate your question, but I think “we know” is problematic:
- who is “we”?
- how do we “know”?
- can some people know one thing while others know the opposite?
I’m not trolling, either, just asking questions from a philosophical point of view. I’ve changed my mind about several things I took very seriously and thought I was 100% right about. Could others be dealing with similar changing-mind-through-time processes? Could you?
3volver@lemmy.world 2 years ago
“We” are informed individuals who care about proven scientific facts.
“Know” is the fact that methane is a strong greenhouse gas.
No, when it comes to something factually proven time and time again. Anyone can “know” anything but that doesn’t mean they’re correct.
I’ve gone through many mind changing events in my life time, so has everyone else.
canadaduane@lemmy.ca 1 year ago
“We know better than you” has never been an effective way to change other peoples’ minds, in my experience.
psion1369@lemmy.world 2 years ago
Beef makes money. Just like cars, oil makes money.
Digit@lemmy.wtf 5 months ago
The margins on good beef are slim (to non existent, and in need of subsidizing).
Verrrrry different beast to oil.
Kurtagag@lemmy.ca 1 year ago
Cause beef is good Cows taste good
hedhoncho@lemm.ee 10 months ago
A classic burger is delicious! Just watch The Menu
kandoh@reddthat.com 2 years ago
Big money involved
iiGxC@slrpnk.net 2 years ago
Because people are selfish, stuck in their ways, and speciesist. Some are also ignorant