I Lost an Argument with a Vegan. Here’s what I Learned.
Backstory
As happens from time to time, I was presented with the accusation from a vegetarian about meat = murder and the ethics of the vegetarian diet. This accusation was made, as it usually is, in the form of a ghoulishly graphic shock video of industrial livestock slaughter. This happens so often that I’ve more or less developed a form letter as a response (a version of which you can see here), based on my own experience of the similarly graphic — but far less publicized — animal brutality that results from the vegan/vegetarian diet.
This particular response made its way to my farm’s Facebook page (the dialog is still there, you can scroll down to read it), where it was shared and eventually got into the hands of a vegan, who responded with three points.
- My response to PETA gore videos is full of nirvana fallacies.
- The vegan diet uses the least amount of land to feed everyone.
- Mimicking ecological patterns — including the use of animals to replicate their ecological function — is an unscientific appeal to nature.
We argued at length about each of these points. Here’s what I learned from each.
My response to PETA gore videos is full of nirvana fallacies
