M777 -- I wish OC.Net would get back on line so you would go home!
Christian vegetarianism?
This pretty much condenses what I've been saying...
Factory farming: A moral issue
For low meat prices, the animals, the environment and rural neighborhoods pay steeply.By Peter Singer
...40 million represents less than two days' toll in America's slaughterhouses, which kill about 10 billion animals each year. The overwhelming majority of these animals have spent their entire lives confined inside sheds, never going outdoors for a single hour.... Sows and veal calves are confined in crates too narrow for them even to turn around, let alone walk a few steps. Egg-laying hens are unable to stretch their wings because their cages are too small and too crowded. With nothing to do all day, they become frustrated and attack each other. To prevent losses, producers sear off their beaks with a hot knife, cutting through sensitive nerves.
Chickens, reared in sheds that hold 20,000 birds, now are bred to grow so fast that most of them develop leg problems because their immature bones cannot bear the weight of their bodies. Professor John Webster of the University of Bristol's School of Veterinary Science said: "Broilers are the only livestock that are in chronic pain for the last 20 percent of their lives. They don't move around, not because they are overstocked, but because it hurts their joints so much."
Sometimes their legs collapse under them, causing them to starve to death because they cannot reach their food...
Opposition to factory farming, once associated mostly with animal rights activists, now is shared by many conservatives...
No less a religious authority than Pope Benedict XVI has stated that human "dominion" over animals does not justify factory farming...
Some people think that factory farming is necessary to feed the growing population of our planet. The truth, however, is the opposite... Far from increasing the total amount of food available for human consumption, it reduces it.
...Because the animals, even when confined, use much of the nutritional value of their food to move, keep warm and form bone and other inedible parts of their bodies, the entire operation is an inefficient way of feeding humans. It places greater demands on the environment in terms of land, energy and water than other forms of farming. It would be more efficient to use the cropland to grow food for humans to eat.
Peter Singer is a philosopher and professor of bioethics at Princeton University and laureate professor at the University of Melbourne. Please send comments to letters@mndaily.com.
http://www.mndaily.com/articles/2006/03/21/67620
Peace.
Pensees wrote:TomS wrote:M777 -- I wish OC.Net would get back on line so you would go home!
I don't plan on posting on OC.net anymore.
Peace.
Yeah! Me either 
Why aren't you planing on posting on OC.Net anymore?
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They say that I am bad news. They say "Stay Away."
Pensees wrote:Ebor wrote:I'm sorry, but this reads like another way to be different from other people and to look down on them.
Where did you get that idea?
I got that impression by reading the 2 exact same postings here and on "Eastern Orthodox Forums".
http://www.orthodoxforum.com/topic.asp? ... hichpage=1
You asked the question on both sites. You got replies that didn't agree with the idea. You replied with the quotes, then later wrote about treatment of animals. It looks like you didn't really want the answers that other people gave that don't agree with your (possibly already established) opinion. You haven't addressed other peoples posts, such as Mykael's here, so much as posted support for your own preference. You present your view as the correct/right/proper way and don't consider the ideas that don't go along with it.
The same thing has happened with your asking about praying with other Christians.
http://www.orthodoxforum.com/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=424
This gives the impression that you might be using the various fora as your "sounding boards" to get your ideas out.
Forgive me, but there are many many people who are working to improve the food supply and animal treatment and feeding hungry people. Many more then you are aware of situations; it's not a New Idea, though it might be new to you personally. Just how much experience have you had with raising crops or livestock to know what labour is involved?
Does it make economic sense to comsume food which takes much more food to be produced, food that could have fed human beings?
Well, that depends on many factors, including where people live. In some parts of this world "Cows are how people eat grass." Not everyone has a climate or soil that can grow all lots of fruit or vegetables. If you are speaking of just the US, there is alot more to it then just feedlot cattle.
Do you really want to eat a cow that was too sick to even walk, when you could have just eaten the corn instead?
That reads rather rhetorically. One answer might be "Neither one" as this adds complications of personal likes and dislikes among other things. Then there's the ability to digest things (some people can't eat corn or some other grains.) and "Is the kind of corn used for cattle feed the same that Humans eat as, for example corn on the cob?" (I'd have to look that up as in Montana cattle tend to graze in pasturage).
However, just to be clear, animals should not be abused and treated cruelly.
Ebor
Pensees wrote:As Christians, we have a responsibility to feed the hungry. Much more people can be fed by plant food, than by meat, because of just how much plant food it takes to prepare farm animals for consumption.
In much of the world, the diet does mostly consist of plant food with meat/poultry/fish as a smaller part. (Btw, how does dairy fit into your idea here please?) How much have you read about what goes into feeding others. Just growing lots for grain and veg doesn't solve the problem, there are other factors. I knew a person who was part of the State Departments Aid to other countries section. One of the areas he worked in was Ethiopia. As I recall, during a famine there wheat was sent to help the starving. But in that area, people eat T'ef a seed that is high in protein and iron. So feeding the hungry isn't a "one diet fits all" kind of thing.
Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) is a growing idea in the US. I belong to one. It supports local farmers, and gets fresh local produce to the consumer. Just a point of information, that others might find interesing.
Ebor
edited for bad quoting
One other thing that occurred to me, just to bring this down to the real human being/personal level: Who is buying and preparing the food that you eat? Do you use your own money to sustain yourself? Or are other people supposed to feel obligated to extra effort and trouble to suit your tastes and ethical feelings?
Ebor