Graham Hill: Why I'm a weekday vegetarian

http://www.ted.com We all know the arguments that being vegetarian is better for the environment and for the animals -- but in a carnivorous culture, it can be hard to make the change. Graham Hill has a powerful, pragmatic suggestion ...

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[acousticatmosphere]

Seriously? Give this guy some credit. I've only been a vegan since the beginning if the year but I've been vegetarian for 7 years. Getting other people to follow a veg way of life (for health, environmental and ethical reasons) is difficult. It's difficult to be a "perfect" vegan-- everything you eat harms some animal in some way. If he can inspire people to change, even slightly, then I have nothing but respect and love for him.

[IWantSoundKnowledge]

Vegan!!!!!!

[TheAxis456]

Patrick Bateman: I'm on a diet.

Jean: What, you're kidding, right? You look great... so fit... and thin.

Patrick Bateman: Well, you can always be thinner... look better.

[crudhousefull]

Probably did more to reduce meat intake than all the pure veggie presentation. I was a vegetarian for 3 months and now I started eating meat again. Wish me luck folks...the next time will hopefully be for much longer

[NeutralExistence]

@void110

Who said we have to keep breeding/killing them, you seem to be missing my point.... I am all for us searching for less harmful solutions to our food problems, but I am stating that it needs to be a gradual process, otherwise everything is going to be effected. One cant change 100+ thousand years of diet in a couple years time, we need to think of alternatives, and maybe instead of risking loosing these species, we could help them back into nature slowly.

[NeutralExistence]

@void110

That "piece of chemistry" is the building blocks for all life as we know it, one cant really even try to contrast our newly formed consciousness to DNA, which has taken many a millennium to reach its state of perfection. You think its better to moralize, then rationalize? I think the definition of intelligence is quite subjective frankly, for I know cellular life can problem solve, and personally consider the pro-creation of life in itself to be intelligence.

[void110]

@NeutralExistence Survival and reproduction is all that matters to a piece of chemistry which can accurately be described as a virus (DNA).

Unlike DNA we have intelligence and the ability to empathise. Surely the greatest thing ever to be produced by blind natural forces.

Killing (or preferably neutering) the last remaining factory cows would be worse than continuing to breed and kill them in far greater numbers and keeping the factory farms going? I think not.

[NeutralExistence]

@void110

Well existence is a good one, living... On a biological level, the only thing that matters is creating more successful copies of one's cell's. To take it above that can hinder a species existence, we have proven this many a time...

I suppose you assume we wont find some other purpose for the millions of cows we have if we just all of a sudden stopped eating them? I don't even want to imagine what all the "cow factories" would figure out as a good solution...

[void110]

@NeutralExistence What value is there in keeping species going from the point of view of the members of a species? Do you think the last two pandas on earth will know or care that they are the last of their kind?

99% of the species which have ever existed are now extinct.

The welfare of conscious beings (human and otherwise) is all that matters. Conservation is a massive waste of time and resources.

[NeutralExistence]

@void110

In no way was that an argument supporting the treatment of domesticated bovine, but one must consider how to best go about changing the mentality of man gradually, as to reduce the risk of destroying entire species. Like I said look how we treat the things we don't eat, simply turning into vegetarians isn't going to stop the suffering of these animals, nor will it change the mentality that made us think these actions are okay.

[void110]

@NeutralExistence If we didn't eat cows there would be less of them bred. Less of them to suffer needlessly and die largely for human desires, not needs.

Extinction means nothing to extinct species since non-existent beings can't suffer or be deprived of anything.

It's down to human vanity why we arbitrarily keep species going, not animal welfare.

I could torture you for the rest of your life but it's okay because I'd be keeping you alive, right? That's your logic.

[masusomasuso]

lame & TED unworthy