Some valid points. At the end of the day, until the governments around the world reign in the offenders with regulations and potential jail time (GDRP and such), nothing is going to change for the masses.
Just like every other cycle in the human history - abuse until a breaking point is reached, regulations come in, find some other niche ripe for "disruption", repeat the cycle.
Unrelated to the main topic - writing about the surveillance economy in a Medium post, which itself is a textbook example of the surveillance economy devaluates the core message a little bit for me.
If you want to drink milk or cheese that is cruelty-free, you drink a plant based milk and eat plant based cheeses.
Just because there are a couple of cows that might look like they are living the dream cow life (for 4 years out of 20, because they don't produce enough milk to be economically viable and kept alive after that) and still the calves have to murdered early on to get all that milk (it is originally made for calve consumption, not people).
Not OP, the reasons for eliminating diary are so many - cholesterol, hormones( most notably estrogen), IGF1 which is cancer promoting, antibiotics, casein morphine( which makes milk products addicting), the dairy industry is extremely cruel and the huge environmental impact due to all the resources needed to bring up a cow
That is an oxymoron. You can not have respect for the animal and fully support killing it and all this without a hint of remorse or empathy. I can not comprehend how that would work.
For the sake of argument lets imagine there is such thing as "humanely" slaughtered cow. For example this one here, enjoying the sun: https://i.redd.it/9v0shahwsh921.jpg
First of all, cows live around 20-25 years and are slaughtered between 18 months and 3-4 years when it comes to dairy cows (which live a live full of misery and are disposed of, once they stopped producing enough milk to be economically viable). Best case scenario, you steak was a child/teenager in cow years.
Second, even the the most "humanely" slaughtered cow has to bleed to death for you steak - we don't want our precious meat to be soaking in blood don't we.
Third, your steak almost certainly didn't have a good live. If you want to see what humanity looks like at its worst, look no further then any industry involving humans and animals that can be economically exploited. Dairy, meat, eggs, fur, wool - it is all horrors beyond your wildest dreams.
Forth, last time I checked - if you eat a lot of meat, cholesterol still blocks your arteries. Heme iron still causes a lot of oxidative stress, aka you age faster. And animals are filled to the brim with antibiotics and hormones and all that good stuff accumulates in the meat, so you get a good juicy concentrated dose.
Fifth, that steak also hurts humans. Nobody in their right mind wants to work in a slaughterhouse, only the most desperate an financially vulnerable choose this field of work and are scared for life afterwords.
All this misery for 15 minute of sensory pleasure. In a time where we have the impossible burger, beyond meat and a plethora of other options, if we want meat without all the suffering and misery.
"Meat processed in a humane way" - there is no such thing. "Humane meat" is an oxymorone. 1) What is the definition of humane 2) Whatever that definition is, i really doubt it includes killing a sentient being that does not want to die.
Also moral stand is - an injustice is happening and you refuse to support it- in this case innocent animals are killed, the environment is trashed for future generations. etc. Ideological stand - I personally belief in A and B. An Ideological stand or belief is by definition subjective. A moral stand - there is a victim involved.
Aka, the company wants to take a moral stand for once and I am going to retailate with an immoral posturing and kill some innocent animals and shove my immoral views in their face, before i leave.
> Once you are financially secure, living in Germany makes no sense.
> How so?
A personal preference. The quality of life is not high, considering the bureaucratic hurdles you have to overcome on a daily basis - dealing with any Amt/Behörde(agency), Schools, Kindergarten, etc. And on top of that - you get penalized for working hard. There is this Goldschnitt situation(golden edge, breaking point), where the taxes get way too high and makes no sense to work above that level.
> They are going to have to be extraordinarily shitty to be worse than what I have already in the UK.
I spent a couple of years in the UK and the services in Germany are way worse. Banks are better in the UK, transportation is better in the UK, at least in major cities(options where you don't have to rely on your car), doing business is easier and cheaper in the UK. Maybe if we compare the NHS vs the german health system, Germany has a slight advantage, at least when it comes to waiting times.
> the insane apartment situation in any major city
Here again - bureaucracy and the car lobby, which gets in the way of any sort of public transport development/investment. So there is space, but people have to bundle around the well connected spots. For example: East Berlin is vast and empty, no transport connections developed for 30 years - only tram and the occasional buses.
> Shitty weather
> To me, constant heat and sunshine is shitty weather. I prefer a temperate/boreal climate. I find it far more pleasant.
It is 50/50 - I would not want to be in Spain in June, July, August and I don't want to be in Germany in January, February, March
Once you are financially secure, living in Germany makes no sense. Shitty weather, the insane apartment situation in any major city, shitty services(any company with Deutsche in front - Deutsche Bahn, Deutsche Bank, Deutsche Telekom, Deutsche Wohnen), the beurocratic burden in your day to day live - everything takes forever to get done here. Spain is not perfect, but oh my god is Germany overrated
When you are looking at health related studies, look for the following magic keywords: "Double-blind, placebo-controlled randomized study"- ideally, not funded by the meat, egg or diary industry. The more plant based whole organic foods you eat, the better.
If you don't feel in an optimal state - don't guess, dont listen to "your body", dont follow random advice from people on the internet - find people who a actually medical professionals and(or) certified nutrionists. Do a blood, SIBO, gut microbiome tests to see where you stand.
[7] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2716748/ is only 24 week period, following obese patients, which already have extremely high levels of LDL by default. First of all - 24 weeks is not that long of a period, second - if you just put obese people on any kind of diet that restricts calories or reduces the amount of processed foods they eat - it is only natural that they LDL will be lowered as a result
Going vegan or drastically reducing our animal product consumption might be the biggest impact we can make on a personal level. It slashes the energy impact we have on the environment by a factor of 10 - less polution, water usage goes down, forests are not destroyed (90% of the amazon deforestation is to raise livestock). As a bonus - it is good for our health
Reduce or completely eliminate animal products (way too many toxins), boost the antioxidants ( amla, berries), eliminate processed food and switch to whole foods, exercise regularly, sleep well
https://academic.oup.com/aje/article/161/7/672/70862
"The Nurses' Health Study was initiated in 1976 when 121,700 female registered nurses aged 30–55 years completed a mailed questionnaire about their lifestyle"
The same for the other paper done with the male population - mailed questionnaire.
The problem with both - these are population studies, you don't have a control group for correlation and people can report whatever they want.
Just a quick note on Ronald M. Krauss, which is mentioned in this article. He has been working for the National
Cattleman's Beef Association and the National Dairy Council since 1990, so his "research" is heavily biased towards his sponsors. https://www.drmcdougall.com/misc/2014nl/mar/140300.pdf
Just like every other cycle in the human history - abuse until a breaking point is reached, regulations come in, find some other niche ripe for "disruption", repeat the cycle.
Unrelated to the main topic - writing about the surveillance economy in a Medium post, which itself is a textbook example of the surveillance economy devaluates the core message a little bit for me.