How to Respond: Natural Life Cycle/Support Local Farms
“It’s the circle of life. They lived, and now they provide sustenance to us.”
The Natural Life Cycle
The heart of this argument is an attachment to a romantic, antiquated view of agriculture.
What most people imagine as “free range.”
Most people agree that factory farming is cruel and don’t support it. They want to believe that animals are grazing happily, have a good life, and one day they meet a quick end.
The key to dismantling this argument is to get someone to agree that the way we produce animal products in the modern era does not resemble any sort of “natural life cycle.”
The first checkpoint that we need to hit is that factory farming is not natural. The second checkpoint is that factory farming is the way that the majority of animal products are produced.
The reality of “free range.”
Start by asking them if they believe that factory farming is natural. Most people will say no, so that checkpoint is accomplished very easily. In the unlikely scenario that they say yes, you can list the following practices and ask them if these practices resemble nature:
Eating cultivated feed crops (wheat, corn, soy, oats, etc)
Artificial insemination
Antibiotics
Steroids
Nutrient supplements
Bodily mutilations
Extreme confinement
Slaughterhouses
Factory farming is, indeed, not natural. It involves crowding thousands, sometimes tens of thousands of farmed animals together in small spaces, pumping them full of drugs, and slaughtering them in factories.
Any reasonable person would agree that those practices do not resemble nature. If they still don’t agree, it’s best to end the conversation gracefully, because it just won’t be productive.
Then, deliver information on the prevalence of factory farming. We must divorce them from their false idea of what agriculture is.
In the US, 99% of farmed animals live on a factory farm.
By species, it breaks down like so:
70.4% of cows are factory farmed
98.2% of egg laying hens are factory farmed
98.3% of pigs are factory farmed
99.8% of turkeys are factory farmed
99.9% of broiler chickens are factory farmed
How 98.3% of pigs in US begin their life.
So at this point, they’ve already agreed that they don’t support factory farming. They’ve already agreed that factory farming isn’t natural.
Now, with the knowledge that 99% of farmed animals in the US are raised on factory farms, by their own admission, they can’t support animal agriculture.
Because if they oppose 99% of an industry, they cannot logically support the industry.
Then, give a summary of the situation as it stands.
“We both agree that factory farming can not be characterized as part of the ‘natural life cycle,’ (checkpoint one) and we both acknowledge that the overwhelming majority of farmed animals in the world are raised on factory farms (checkpoint two). Therefore, the current food system is not a reflection of the natural life cycle.”
The conversation could end here. But most likely they’ll try to argue that supporting local farms is a logical and ethical solution.
Support Local Farms
This is a very common retort to both ethical and environmental concerns. Just like the “natural life cycle” argument, this argument stems from an emotional attachment to an idealized form of agriculture.
Start by disarming their defensive position. Agree with them.
Agree that locally and organically produced food is certainly ideal. A lot of waste, emissions, and overall climate impact would be vastly reduced if everyone sourced all of their food locally and organically.
If all food was local and organically produced, this would be a huge improvement from the current system. Even better if we only ate local and organic plants (no animals)!
You can also concede that in general, small, not industrialized farms are an improvement in animal welfare from factory farms. Of course, we know that there is still a great deal of abuse and violence and suffering and death. We’re not saying that small farms are justified in what they do. But it is a fact that quality of life on a small farm is an improvement from a factory farm.
These two points of agreement go a long way in disarming the other person.
Next, I like to ask the person if they source 100% of their food from local/organic farms.
More often than not, they don’t. This highlights their hypocrisy. They’re advocating for something that they themselves do not follow, simply because they (incorrectly) think it can dismantle a vegan.
If they do not source all of their food from local/organic farms, try to resist pointing out the obvious hypocrisy. It feels good to point out how wrong they are, it really does. But this will just make them hostile. Let that hang in the air. As soon as the words come out of their mouth, they know they’re a hypocrite. It’s best left unsaid.
You can reassure them with something like, “Yeah, in today’s industrialized world, it is difficult for anyone to source their food 100% locally and/or organically. I totally understand.”
You are reassuring them, letting them save face, but also clearly asserting that their idealized image of getting everything from the local farmer just isn’t possible in modern society.
In the very unlikely case that they source 100% of their food locally (even if they say this, I still wouldn’t really believe it), just simply commend them. Something like, “that’s great. I really admire that you’ve taken the steps to vote with 100% of your dollars for the system that you want to support.” It’s no use to fact check their own choices. Just use this as another opportunity to disarm their defenses and create rapport.
Then, swoop in with facts.
Reiterate that in the US, 99% of farmed animals are factory farmed, and globally, 90% of animals are factory farmed. If we wanted to keep up with current meat production using pasture raised/local systems, we would need 3 planet earths.
A shift to locally produced/grass fed meat is not possible on our current planet. In order to produce all meat that way, it would require a drastic reduction in global meat consumption.
There simply isn’t enough land.
Grass fed/pasture raised animals also produce more emissions than animals raised in factory farms. Grass fed/pasture raised animals gain weight more slowly, and therefore take longer to reach slaughter weight. So over their lifetime, grass fed/pasture raised animals emit more emissions than factory farmed animals.
From an environmental perspective, the idea of locally produced meat sounds nice. But it is not scalable to the entire world population, and it actually produces more emissions than factory farmed animals. It’s just not a viable or realistic solution.
From an ethical perspective, many people try to argue that grass fed/pasture raised animals have a good life and “one bad day” - i.e. the day they’re slaughtered.
For vegans, this is a laughable argument.
Killing is killing is killing.
And yes, I believe that. You probably believe that. But they do not. We have to see things from their perspective in order to dismantle this argument.
The belief that a good life ending with “one bad day” is justified is predicated on a fundamental internalization of speciesism. They believe that it’s okay for cows, pigs, chickens, ducks, goats, and sheep to be killed for food, but it’s not okay for cats, dogs, dolphins, etc to be killed for food.
We have to individualize farmed animals. We have to highlight the sentience and intelligence of farmed animals. We have to dismantle speciesism.
I like to start by reiterating that small/local farms are an improvement in animal welfare from factory farms. Again, we know that there is still a great level of abuse and violence and suffering and death. But it is a fact that the quality of life is improved on a small/local farm. And this point of agreement goes a long way in disarming them.
Next, I present the dissenting opinion that killing someone who does not want to die is never humane.
Then, I list 2-3 examples of the incredible intelligence and sentience of farmed animals:
Pigs are smarter than all dog breeds and outperform 3-5 year old children in cognitive tests
Cows form preferential friendships and can remember people or events for up to 10 years
Goats can read and interpret facial expressions and prefer to spend time with happy people
Sheep can read and interpret facial expressions and can remember a individual person for 2 years
Chickens have a complex social hierarchy and can remember and categorize up to 100 different individuals in the group social dynamic
Turkeys have a language all their own with over 30 different vocalizations, each with a unique meaning
Ducklings communicate with each other while still inside their eggs and coordinate hatching together
Then I pose the question, “if pigs are indeed smarter than dogs and even outperform human children in cognitive tests, and we wouldn’t kill our dogs or children for food, is it justified to kill pigs?”
The phrasing of this question is very important. I don’t ask why it’s justified to kill pigs. If I asked why, the person is positioned to search for justifications. It implicitly attaches them deeper to their original opinion.
Instead, I call the entire system into question: “is it justified?” Now, the person is positioned to determine a yes or no response. Not seek to justify the status quo.
If you like, you can also mention here how artificial insemination is still used on small farms, which involve forcibly impregnating females against their will, and separating mothers and babies. This causes a great deal of physical and psychological trauma for the animals.
This is a good point in the conversation to shift the heat off of the person you’re talking to and onto the “system.” We are conditioned by society and corporations to believe that certain animals are food, certain animals are clothes, certain animals are vermin, certain animals are friends, and so on. It’s not this person’s fault. We were taught to arbitrarily categorize animals.
But we can shed this antiquated perspective and infuse all our choices with compassion.
Confirm their morality, “I know that you are a compassionate/kind/etc person…and I know that you don’t want to cause harm to any other living beings.”
Summarize the evidence, “Even though local farming is an improvement in the quality of life for farmed animals, it still causes harm. It’s never humane to kill someone who doesn’t want to die, and farmed animals are just like our companion animals. They are sentient, they are intelligent. In some cases, they’re even more intelligent than our companion animals. If it’s not morally justified to do this to our companion animals, it’s not morally justified to do it to anyone else.”
I end with another affirmation of their original point. People often say to “support” local farms. Meaning, vote with your dollar for the local farm system instead of the factory/industrialized farm system. The sentiment of voting with your dollar is good common ground.
I end with, “going back to your original point about how voting with our dollars is important, I totally agree with that. And the best way we can create a better, more compassionate, more sustainable future is to vote plant based and vegan with our dollars everyday. Plant based and vegan foods minimize harm and maximize good. They are the best way we can vote with our dollars for a kinder food system.”