If I care about animals, but still eat animal products, isn't better to buy "humane" animal products"?
The animal-using industry has a decades-long track record of misleading the public, on everything from the health benefits of consuming their products to the living conditions and mode of death of the animals who are killed to create those products. Positive-sounding labels are guaranteed to increase sales of more expensive "humane" products, but the evidence suggests that this is where the guarantees end. Click to continue reading...
Aren't "humane" animal products more sustainable?
Quite often, those promoting "humane" animal products suggest that these products are more sustainable than animal products from large industrialized operations. At first glance, this may seem to be true. When one pictures a traditional small-scale farm with large open pastures, and then, in contrast, a huge industrial facility surrounded by giant lagoons of waste products slowly leaching into the countryside, it seems clear that producing animal products on a small scale is better for the environment. However, the reality is far more complicated than these simple images may suggest. A more fundamental question to ask is whether any form of animal agriculture, if practiced on the scale needed to meet existing demand for animal products, is good for the environment, or sustainable. Click to continue reading...
What about indigenous people who kill and eat animals, but do so in a way that respects the animal's spirit?
While only a miniscule percentage of the people eating animal products are members of indigenous cultures still living in the traditional way or under subsistence conditions, this question is one that comes to the minds of many people. Click to continue reading...
