Quote:
Originally Posted by peter12
Unnecessary from what perspective? Certainly not in terms of scaled economies or even aesthetics. If you mean that we can get by on a diet composed primarily of supplements and vegetables and beans, then sure, but it doesn't really take choice into account, does it.
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Unnecessary in the literal sense. In the past, meat has been an important source of food. It's not anymore.
The demand for choice is a fundamentally narcistic argument that really has nothing to do with ethics. The whole point of ethics for a very large part can be summed up as "stuff that we don't do even though it'd be nice because it'd be bad". For example, animal torture in numerous forms (from straight up torture to setting up animal fights) is an age-old form of entertainment that we have largely stopped doing because we as a culture have mostly decided it's bad. (Or unethical.)
The argument that you should be allowed to eat animals if you like it is the exact same as arguing that you should be allowed to torture animals if you find it funny. Ethically there is no real difference, the only difference comes from what is considered normal and what is not.