If you’re at all aware of what goes in farming in Australia you know it’s a massive horror show. From chicken macerators to pig gas chambers animals suffer massively to end up on your plate.
Every Australian I’ve ever spoken to describes themselves as loving animals, and is horrified at things such as whaling. Most of us even find activities like puppy milling or hunting upsetting.
In light of this; and the knowledge that a few decades ago whaling was a-ok, monkeys didn’t matter, and elephants certainly didn’t feel pain; what makes you confident that what you were raised to consider beneath consideration actually is?
Eating animals is neither necessary nor nice, so why do it?
My health doesn’t hold up (have a couple of issues that can interfere with my ability to absorb nutrients). I was vegetarian for a long time though not vegan. Now I seek out regenerative farming practices and eat the odd bit of meat…a serve of red meat a week and daily yoghurt make a big difference to me.
That also sits well with my ethics - I’ve seen many broad acre oat/legume/wheat farms with practices that destroy ecosystems and soils and I’ve seen small scale permaculture based mixed farms that include animals in the mix. People like to argue in black and white but there’s a lot more to it. I do my best to be an informed consumer regardless.