I'm stuck between 2 antinomich and dogmatic sides. On one hand, some of my friends are telling me that being vegan has 2 advantages: 1) positive effects on the planet, 2) positive effects on your body.
Yet, I'm told by others that it would be really bad for my body and catastrophic for the planet (in terms of waters supply etc.) if the whole world was to become vegan. The problem is that both sides defend their opinion religiously without any form of nuance. I am looking for the grey area...
I hear this argument. Economic matters need to be taken care of before implementing structural policies. But societies are not built around economic models but around a normative ideology - here, I consider liberlism or communism to be more that mere economic model, there are a conception of the world and the human condition.
Economic leverages evolve and are to be adapted to modern circumstances - cars replaced horses as the main form of transport for people. Sometimes, those changes are due to the improvement of technology. In other cases, it's because our perception and values have evolved, they're not rigid. I believe this could be the case regarding veganism.
You're right, beef cattle represent a huge part of the economy. However, the status-quo won't remain because the ethical consideration for animals is rising.
In that sense, culture will adapt and embrace this new trend. Culture is a society's mirror.
I would to make an analysis on this subject but only on the economics point of view because it is a field where I have some good knowledge.
Firstly, it is important to know what is the weight of the breeding industry for instance in France in 2019, 18 % of jobs are in agriculture sector with more than 2 000 000 of people. The cattle breeding represents a great majority of these jobs. The fact that vegans want to destroy all these jobs in a such economics situation is for me shameful.
Furthemore, the breeding has a strong relationship with the culture of some countries such as in France, UK or Italy. I think many vegans are disconnected of this rural world because they live in big cities and they are the winners of the globalization.
Farmers are the best people to take care of these animals because they have the true respect of these animals and because they know that is the fruit of their labor.