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Comment by sidlls | Hacker News Reader

One can also choose to consume meat that is not treated with cruelty. It’s more expensive, but does exist.

The “less violence” argument doesn’t hold sway with some. That’s a purely subjective assessment that not everyone agrees with. For example, I don’t consider the slaughter of animals for food to be particularly more violent than the wholesale shredding of plant fibers at harvest.

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> I don’t consider the slaughter of animals for food to be particularly more violent than the wholesale shredding of plant fibers at harvest

You probably think of "violence" differently than most people then.

There is no such thing as slaughter without cruelty. The animals do not want to die, and they are killed. That is _always_ cruel.

There is such a thing, for example the slaughtering of an animal for food.

If you watch the footage of pigs being half-stunned, throats slit, and then drowning in a vat of hot blood, and can earnestly tell me you don't see that as cruel, I promise you I will never make that argument again.

As if that were the only way to slaughter an animal.

It’s how virtually all factory farms do it, which is the vast vast majority of meat that human beings eat. We should make sure we’re comfortable with it before saying it’s humane.

Plants don't want to die either, and they do their best to evolve specifically to avoid death.

Personally I would love to have a device that would pull carbon out of the air and produce proteins. We are not there yet, so plants are the next best thing.

You don't need a device. It already exists, and has existed for hundreds of thousands of years. It's the ruminant-grass-soil-microbe energy cycle.

Suicidal behavior in humans and other animals suggests that this is not always true.

I think we'll eventually be able to recreate "meat" that is equal to or even better than meat that came from an actual animal. We'll reach a point where "fake" meat tastes better, is healthier for you, and, most importantly of all, is more profitable.

Curiously, where would you draw the line for violence?

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