Bacon

[avevale_intelligencer]

A while back, in that haven of reasoned discussion and dispassionate debate we call Facebook, I advanced the argument (in response to a quoted statement that the world would be better if we all became vegetarian) that if we all became vegetarian (which I think is unlikely) then all the animals in the world would suddenly be between us and the food, which historically has not been a very good place to be. I was roundly chastised for daring to argue with a Self-Evident Truth, and specifically for erecting a straw man.

Well, I'm not sure. I think there were bones in that straw. However, I went away and thought about other things, and then this morning what do I see but a basket of adorable little piglets and the caption "Seven reasons to ditch bacon."

Okay, let's try erecting this man one limb at a time, like Hangman in reverse, and we'll see if he's all straw or something a bit more solid.

Left Leg: Every person who ditches bacon is one less person buying bacon.

Right Leg: Every person not buying bacon is one less reason for shops to stock bacon.

Left Arm: Every shop not stocking bacon is one less reason for suppliers to pay for bacon.

Right Arm: Every supplier not paying for bacon is one less reason for farmers to raise pigs.

Torso: Farmers, believe me, do not do anything they do not need to do, i.e. that will not support the farm and their family. Farming's bloody hard work enough, no room for passengers.

Head: The more people ditch bacon, the fewer farmers will raise pigs, the fewer pigs there will be.

So those seven adorable little piglets (unless they are some family's pets, which would be absolutely marvellous as long as they know a pig is for life and not just for Christmas) are actually seven reasons not to ditch bacon.

I am very strongly in favour of animals being more humanely treated. I sign petitions to that effect, if I had spare money I would give to appropriate charities, when I buy meat I look for meat from farms that adhere to standards of animal welfare. And I continue to love pigs and to eat bacon, because whether it's a straw man or a slippery slope or an excluded middle or any other logical buzzword, I do not trust my species to keep animals alive just because some of us think they look nice.

So that's that.

Comments

[the-alchemist.livejournal.com]

I'm voting 'straw'.

If everyone became vegetarian, the varieties of animal bred for human consumption would die out, and that would be a thoroughly good thing, since they have been bred to have gross deformities that are convenient for us, but make life horrible for the animal.

Instead, there would be wild animals, who don't need humans to keep them alive, but can survive very well without us. And if humans decided to kill *these* animals, then they would starve, because the ecosystems that support our crops need animals.*

Also, WWF, RSPB and RSPCA are among the UK's most donated-to charities. People pay LOTS of money to keep animals alive because they like looking at them.

Animals are already 'between us and the food', and would become less so if everyone were veg*an. In the US (can't find UK figures to hand), 60% of the grain farmed is fed to animals. It takes much more land (about five times as much) to feed a human by growing crops, then feeding some of them to animals, then killing the animals for food than it does to simply feed the crops (only) to the human.



* And out of this you *can* make a pretty good argument against everyone becoming vegetarian, since manure is important in arable farming, and I can't quite see a sensible way of obtaining it from wild animals!

Another good argument is that not all land is suitable for arable farming: you can raise sheep on hills, but you can't grow corn there.

As far as I'm aware though, there aren't really any good arguments against any particular individual becoming vegetarian, or against everyone eating less meat.

[nelladarren.livejournal.com]

THANK YOU.
I think it's kinda obvious but so far haven't heard it considered anywhere else - except in the Temple Grandin biopic, actually.

So... would we still produce and kill livestock to make catfood and dogfood then or wouldn't that be WRONG and we should just kill all carnivorous pets and make them extinct? How about we just nuke Earth and be done with it because we know so much better than nature.

[eoforyth.livejournal.com]

Can I just add, about pigs in particular, that pigs are large and intelligent omnivores, much like ourselves. They also have a tendency to run in packs and tear up and destroy their immediate environment before moving on to the next patch *whistles* They don't stay a basketful of cute pink things for long, so what do we do, create a preserve?

From previous experiments, the pigs will root up everything, rut with impunity and produce large litters, and take out any kind of fencing that is put up if a constant check and repair system isn't adhered to.

I mentioned omnivorous - have you ever considered the teeth and jaw of a pig? I'm not kidding when I say the average sized animal is quite capable of severing a human limb or crushing a skull with a single bite - and will enjoy snacking on it, too.

And just to put the lid on the can - shall we start the mass euthanasia of all those cwute widdle kittens and puppies, the majority of which really can't produce the necessary enzymes and the like to digest a totally vegetarian diet - is it somehow more humane to keep animals for slaughter so long as we only feed them to the animals we choose to keep in our homes, gardens, and handbgs?

Cutting back on meat and encouraging general humane treatment is a far more sensible attitude than showing a basket of pigs, especially as they'd like to chow down on a nice hamburger or something themselves.

[legoline.livejournal.com]

There is a reason that in quite a few tv shows I've seen bodies disappeared because they were fed to pigs. I love pigs, I think they're wonderful, intelligent creatures, but they're not half as cutesy as people make them out to be.

[willibald.livejournal.com]

"A pig is not just for Christmas. Carved carefully MIT can see you into the new year.

[sibylle]

Reminded me of this XKCD comic.

[janewilliams20.livejournal.com]

This is why I try to eat meat from animals that have lived happy lives and been killed in a humane manner. Yes, it's more expensive that way, but I feel I ought to at least make the attempt.

Cuteness is not, to my mind, a relevant criterion when judging whether or not avoiding suffering is a priority. Don't hurt cute ickle lambs and bunnies, don't hurt cockroaches either.

Also, I object to the idea that animals should always be kept alive for the sake of if. If a home for "rescued" dogs is short of dog food (which is meat), then it would make perfect sense to my mind to butcher some of them to feed the others. Clean kill, obviously, but what's the difference between that and killing some other animal for the meat that would go into a can of dog food, other than cost?

[thnidu.livejournal.com]

Makes sense to me.

[legoline.livejournal.com]

THANK YOU.

[dickgloucester.livejournal.com]

With you, Zander, both on the bacon and the not trusting our species to protect any others.

Badgers, anyone? Apparently badgers now bite cats, giving them TB which they pass to humans. FFS - badgers biting cats?

[howeird]

I was liking your logic until it occurred to me that pigs produce far more than just bacon. And if everyone stopped buying bacon, farmers would find some other way to sell that part of the pig.

[armb.livejournal.com]

I don't think pigs produce much that is of use to vegetarians. Pigskin, but you can make leather from dairy or draft animals, and I doubt there's much if anything where only pigskin will do.
If people give up bacon, but not ham, pork, gammon, etc.., then pigs will still be farmed, but that's not an "if we all became vegetarian" scenario. Or even an "if we were all observant Jews or Muslims" one.

[zanda-myrande.livejournal.com]

Since the object of the propaganda is to stop the farming of pigs, one presumes that by "bacon" they mean all pig-related products.