There's something deeply sad about this. Speaking as someone that regularly eats meat (I had bacon this morning), the prospect of animals have emotional inner lives is the #1 thing that makes me consider vegetarianism.
For reference, an estimated 99% of all farmed animals in the US live in factory conditions [2].
[0]:https://youtu.be/8gqwpfEcBjI
[1]:https://youtu.be/dvtVkNofcq8
[2]:https://www.sentienceinstitute.org/us-factory-farming-estima...
You mean veganism? Egg chickens and milk cows generally don't have a life much better than this (in industrial operations).
I would love to have higher quality, better treated meat than what's normally available in the grocery store. In some cases it's possible to get it at a local farm. Pork is tough to find that way. Chicken can be tough to find at a good price. Beef is actually pretty common and a fairly decent price. Although as a side note, they still have to endure the trip to the slaughter house to be USDA inspected.
"If slaughterhouses had glass walls, everyone would be vegetarian."
I don't know if it is 100% true, but I am certain most people would turn into vegetarian. As time has passed due to ruthless industries, I think we should replace vegetarianism with veganism.
I think I can relate to this with war. If people see war with their eyes they would empathize it. But, if US media shows how they are doing some favor to humanity (like how media show how animal are important for human diet blah blah) many people are oblivious to war.
I still hold my opinion that if human see the egregious violation of animal industry in real time, or they have to kill animal themself for food, most would abstain meat for sake of emotions.
Just search for it. There are articles and videos about it on various networks like NBC, fox, etc.
"... or they have to kill animal themself for food, most would abstain meat for sake of emotions."
Well, there are about 15 million hunters in the US. It's also reasonable to expect that many more people would start/return to to hunting if that were the only way to get meat. And for areas like cities where it's impractical, I think many people would not be bothered by having to kill a domestic animal for meat if it was the only way.
84% of vegetarians and vegans return to eating meat. Seems like pretty strong evidence to support the idea that a majority of people would still eat meat, even if they had to witness or perform the killing. Would a significant majority stop eating meat? Probably, but current levels are 2% vegetarian or vegan in the US. I don't see that going beyond 49% even if you had to kill the animal yourself.
Any evidence to even tentatively support your side?
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/animals-and-us/20141...
https://wanderlust.com/journal/new-study-illustrates-plants-...
FWIW I don't really bother trying to make ethical arguments for vegetarianism/veganism because of these tricky definition problems. I think it's a bit easier to argue for reduced meat consumption for ecological reasons, or to reduce the need for factory farming, etc.
Animals feel pain in part to learn in a dynamic environment, for example to run away from the source of pain. What evolutionary advantage would there be in a plant that feels pain or emotions?
So unless only some plant species have emotions, veganism is nevertheless the best one can do (short of synthesizing food from scratch at a molecular level)
From an evolutionary perspective, I don't see why plants would have emotions. In animals it makes sense as a mechanism to steer our actions in a more survival-prone direction.
But AFAIK plants have extremely limited agency, so I don't see why evolutionary pressures would favor the development of emotions in plants .
Why would you think, they have none in the first place? Because they cannot talk? Babies can't either. But they show their emotions. Just like any (higher) animal.
1. I've spent very little time around farm animals
2. I've always eaten meat, so assuming lack of inner life is an easy way to make sense of that behavior ethically
3. Given their inability to communicate and comparatively small intelligence, it isn't clear how much awareness they possess.