The Food Chain

I have no wish to cause unnecessary pain or suffering to animals, but there is a food chain on this planet and herbivores are the food source for carnivores and omnivores. Not eating any meat is robbing our omnivorous systems - which have enabled us to evolve to our current state - of half their designed fuel. We haven't been on the top of the chain very long and it doesn't take much to knock us back down - a flat tire in bear country for example. Like us, they are omnivores. And they will eat the sheep that we decide not to. Something will - that's the purpose of a sheep.

Our diets are meant to be balanced, not overloaded with meat or confined to vegetables. As is true throughout nature, we should practice moderation and take only what we need.

I detest industrial farming and wish the animals to live more natural lives, ended with quick painless deaths when they are mature. We need to reduce, not eliminate, our consumption, and treat our food animals - as well as our food plants - with respect, as was done on farms and by native peoples for millennia.

For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. Our disrespect for other life forms has widened to include ourselves and their revenge comes in the abundance of factory food that is killing us.

We are part of nature, no matter how much we convince ourselves that we are distinct or disconnected. We must work within it, not against it.