As an anthropologist-in-training:
I am anti-vegan. Not only is it unsustainable and just as harmful (to both animals and humans) as the meat industry, but it actively advocates for slave labor and the deforestation of forests in places like Brazil and Argentina. Plants like soybeans are monocroped in Brazil and Argentina, and because of the pesticides used on those fields, it leads to birth defects and cancer in the indigenous populations. These people are also being pushed out of their land, or simply murdered if they chose not to leave. You can read about this in an article by Raj Patel called "Glycine Rex".
Yes it's true that, here in America and all over the world, the meat industry is absolute shit. The animals are forced to grow at rapid and unnatural rates and are kept in enclosed pens so close together they can't even move. But I believe that it's possible to reverse this and go back to traditional ways of raising and keeping animals for meat. To vegans out there, would you really tell an Indigenous person that their traditional ways of hunting is "wrong", and that they're evil for killing animals for sustenance? I'd hope not. There are farmers all over the world that raise animals for meat that they absolutely adore. Vegans can be so disconnected from where their food comes from, which is why I believe they are so misinformed. that and they all live in an echo chamber.
One thing I have heard over and over again from vegans is that they don't eat animal products because it 'hurts the animal'. Lemme tell you something: no it doesn't. Cows, sheep, goats all need to be milked. Chickens and other egg-laying poultry can't care for every egg that hatches into a chick so some of them need to be used as eggs in meals, otherwise they would just go to waste. Again, before you come at me, I know that the current industrial meat and milk industry is horrendous and cruel. And yes, most people aren't able to process lactose after puberty because milk is "for babies", and evolution has deemed that we don't really need that gene anymore. But that doesn't negate the fact that those animals still need milking.
It's unfortunate that so many people aren't willing to open their minds to other options and the realities of their unethical practices. I want this post to be educational, while firmly standing my ground and stating facts.
