I heard something to do with Nitrogen and …cow farts(?) I am really unsure of this and would like to learn more.

Answer -

4 Parts

  • Ethical reason for consuming animals
  • Methane produced by cows are a harmful greenhouse gas which is contributing to our current climate crisis
  • Health Reasons - there is convincing evidence that processed meats cause cancer
  • it takes a lot more calories of plant food to produce the calories we would consume from the meat.

Details about the answers are in the comments

  • neuralnerd@lemmy.world
    2·
    11 months ago

    you can’t prove plants aren’t sentient.

    And you can’t prove something is sentient. But scientists have criteria that help determine whether a species is sentient. See this review for example.

    even if you could, why should sentience matter?

    I already answered. If something can’t be harmed there no need to prevent harming it.

    what ethical system even accounts for sentience as a factor of right behavior?

    About all animal welfare:

    Respect for animal welfare is often based on the belief that nonhuman animals are sentient and that consideration should be given to their well-being or suffering, especially when they are under the care of humans.[4]

    • commie@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
      11·
      11 months ago

      If something can’t be harmed there no need to prevent harming it.

      i don’t really like your use of harm here to exclude everything but sentient beings, but as a term of art, for the purposes of this discussion, i will indulge you.

      why does it matter if something CAN be harmed? what creates a duty to NOT HARM something?

      • neuralnerd@lemmy.world
        2·
        11 months ago

        what creates a duty to NOT HARM something?

        About all ethics is about reducing harm. If you don’t know that harming is bad I don’t think we can have a discussion.

        • commie@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
          11·
          11 months ago

          deontological ethics are explicitly not about that. divine command theory is unconcerned with that. can you name an ethical system that does concern itself with that?

          • neuralnerd@lemmy.world
            2·
            11 months ago

            deontological ethics are explicitly not about that.

            I guess it depends on the philosopher, but at least one includes “doing no harm” in the obligations[1]:

            Ross [20] modified Kant’s deontology, allowing a plurality of duty-based ethical principles, such as doing no harm, promise keeping, etc.

            can you name an ethical system that does concern itself with that?

            Probably all consequentialism and at least utilitarianism (harm decreases the global well being). Negative consequentialism is more specifically focused on reducing suffering/harm.

            • commie@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
              1·
              11 months ago

              I’m not a consequentialist at all, and Ross is not using harm in the same sense as we are. even if he were, his is not a very common strain of ethics.

              your ethical theory seems to be on dubious footing to me.

              • neuralnerd@lemmy.world
                1·
                11 months ago

                So in your ethical theory, harm doesn’t matter at all?

                You seem to follow some kind of deontology. There’s no obligation in your system to not cause unnecessary harm? I guess you have some obligation not to hurt your dog even if you like doing that. Isn’t that obligation related to the fact the dog would be harmed if you did?

                Maybe it’s just a difference between consequentialism and deontologism, but I was convinced deontologists generally had some rules that prevent unnecessary harm. They don’t?

                There’s at least Tom Regan who was a deontologist (at least in his book The Case for Animal Rights) and talks about harm:

                In Regan’s view, not to be used as a means entails the right to be treated with respect, which includes the right not to be harmed.

                • commie@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
                  1·
                  11 months ago

                  I take a view pretty close to kant: cruelty is wrong to practice on other creatures or on people, but for different reasons. it’s inherently wrong to be cruel to people, but being cruel to animals is only wrong In that it conditions you to practice cruelty, and you might subsiquently be cruel to people