A video has recently exploded on the internet of Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates speaking about the potential worldly benefits of veganism. In it, Gates discusses a future in which science will allow the production of vegetarian “meat”. Gates notes that the product will likely be cheaper, more efficiently produced and better for the planet.
Examining our issue-ridden food system from a business-oriented perspective, it’s interesting that Gates comes to the same conclusion that many ethically-minded vegans and vegetarians come to: eating meat is harming everyone and everything, and a meat-free diet will help the world tremendously.
It’s a short clip but worth watching.
Anjali is the creator and Editor-in-Chief of Intellectualyst, as well as a vegan and lawyer in NYC. Read about her life adventures on her blog, Anjalism.com. She loves trying new vegan recipes and meeting new people! Email her at anjali@intellectualyst.com or find her on Facebook and Twitter today!
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This is by far the greatest thing I have ever seen. Not eating meat automatically creates such a stigma. Vegetarians/vegans are constantly accused of thinking they’re superior to meat eaters and although that occurs occassionally, from a pure business/economic point – what they are doing is helping the greater good tremendously. People should stop complaining about it being such a sacrifice and direct their energy into researching what they can do to contribute to the world’s health and efficiency.
Eating meat is an inherently arrogant act. Indeed, “arrogant” as a word is not nearly severe enough to capture the hubris of believing that other animals and the environment should be condemned simply because the condemner is a member of homo sapiens.
It isn’t arrogant to point this out—it’s reckless not to.
Damn those arrogant tigers!
No, damn those lazy rationalizing meat eaters who conflate animals preying in nature with humans breeding animals (into a lifetime of torturous confinement, separation from family, mutilation before killing) for food. The former doesn’t justify supporting the latter.
Exactly — factory farming is not remotely comparable to animals hunting other animals in the wild — and yes, it’s reckless not to point out the damage that meat-eaters are doing to the world, to humans, and of course to animals.
Lions are not SELF-actualized and neither are you Mr. Ftard Webster. I hope your aneurysm is the size of your house and you choke on the next piece of bacon that you inhale…but that would be too easy. Carry on in your piggy lil way.
Vegetarians – The most tolerant people on earth ………
I am very glad such an influential person like Bill Gates is finally starting to talk about the tremendous benefits of plant-based diet. I hope he can continue expounding and promoting this issue.
Are vegans considering the bees as potential to plants growth.
Yes, because the practices used in raising bees for honey is causing widespread colony collapse. When humans take bees’ honey, which is their food, they replace it with high fructose corn syrup, which is often laden with insecticides. You can read more here: http://www.examiner.com/article/bees-dying-from-high-fructose-corn-syrup
Vegans don’t eat honey, which means that we boycott the industry that is killing the bees. Allowing bees to participate in cross-pollination of plant growth is completely vegan; it’s what they’d be doing anyway.
Yes, but you do benefit from bee rental, bees that are used to pollinate the plants of food you eat. These are not used for honey and they still suffer from CCD. That’s why CCD is such a mystery.
And some vegans do eat honey since it is not made from an animal. It is cooled and concentrated nectar. Honey is a natural and powerful anti biotic.
I would love to see the day when we can eat cruelty free meat! I just am concerned that people won’t go for it because it isn’t natural. Even if they can be convinced that its the same as regular meat, just produced differently and actually more healthy, I’m just not sure it’ll fly. I hope it does.
Cruelty-free meat is already available – it’s called Halaal!
Check it out: http://www.greenzabiha.com/
Halaal or Halal is anything but cruelty-free.
http://www.natalt.org/2012/03/29/animal-cruelty-and-kosherhalal-slaughter/
Thank you Bill Gates! People will listen to you with an open mind due to the respect you command and you won’t be considered “an animal rights person” looking to take away “our right to use animals”. Finally, “other people” are beginning to understand the consequences, and there are many, to eating animals and what it is doing to our bodies and our planet. Perhaps there is still time to save our planet.
I eat meal but the meat and eggs I choose to eat is organic or free range, I drink soya milk and eat soya marg as i dont like the taste of milk or butter. About once a week I have a vegan dish and once a week a vegiterian dish I do not consume large amounts of meat I do eat it but I don’t believe I am gusling down loads. Also I personally I can see the benefits of veganism but its easier said than done and its got to be somethink a individual wants to do. However I’m sure vegans get sick of close mind comments about their diet and what veganism is so I think some people should stop making rude comments about ” meat eaters” . Why do we have to label everything if you want people to change and look into veganism you can’t insult people by calling them ” arrogant tigers and lazy rationalizing meat eaters ” and then expect people to listen and look into veganism. Childish name calling isn’t going to move veganism into becoming a mainstream thing in society, I rather listen to someone who wasn’t already judging me because I eat meat and would just give me the facts of veganism in a friendly was as possible.
“lazy rationalizing meat eaters” isn’t (childish) name calling, it’s a description, and a very apt one.
This programme explains it in a friendly way;
http://lovemotionstory.wordpress.com/tag/open-door/
It can also be found by putting vegan video 1976 into google.
Some comments;
Great video! So happy to see this out in the world! Anarathoth 23 hours ago
Wow, Ahead of their time..wonder if the gov had them killed off to shut them up…I never heard of vegans till I met my husband in 1997. How crazy is that? Now, I am happy and proud to promote it and be a fruitarian myself! Help yourself and the planet!vicky2c 1 day ago 2
I would love to speak to the Bray or Bland families for a future edition of “The Vegan Option” (monthly internet radio programme) and find out how they are now.So, if you’re a family member looking who happens to be looking at this, or know them, please do get in touch. I’m ian at the Vegan Option dot org.ianveganoption 2 days ago
I agree with you that we shouldn’t judge people.
Please consider this: “Gary Francione: I mean that our thinking about animals is very confused. On one hand, we claim to regard animals as members of the moral community. We claim to embrace a moral and legal obligation not to inflict “unnecessary” suffering or death on animals. We can, of course, debate the meaning of “necessity,” but whatever it means, it must rule out suffering and death imposed for reasons of human pleasure, amusement, or convenience. If it does not do so, then the exception would completely swallow the moral rule.
The problem is that 99.99% of our animal use cannot be justified by anything but human pleasure, amusement, or convenience. For example, we kill more than 12 billion land animals every year in the United States alone for food. No one maintains that it is necessary to eat animals to lead an optimally healthy lifestyle and an increasing number of mainstream health care professionals tell us that animal foods are detrimental to our health. Animal agriculture is a disaster for the environment because it involves a most inefficient use of natural resources and creates water pollution, soil erosion, and greenhouse gasses. The only justification that we have for the pain, suffering, and death that we impose on these billions of animals is that we enjoy eating animal foods, or that it is convenient to do so, or that it is just plain habit.”
The only way to stop respecting animals, and their inherent moral value, is to stop exploiting animals and stop treating them as resources is to go vegan. I recommend http://www.vegankit.com
Hail to Bill Gates. A genius!! Everyone should listen to him and become a Vegan. Thank you Bill for voicing your opinion to the public. I’m a vegan for the animals sake but any reason to become a vegan helps the animals.
Sincerely,
Dianne Rochenski
I think Bill Gates is softening everyone up to the idea of using genetically modified plant products as a substitute for meat. He has heavily invested in this ‘science’ and is using the attractive advantages of non-meat diets as a way to get us comfortable with the concept of genetic modification of plants . The biotechnology corporations are only interested in making money, nothing else. Nothing else. Keep an eye on this one.
It only makes sense. Give veganism/plant-based diet a shot friends. It’s the best decision I’ve made in my life
Give it a shot, sure… but if I don’t want to do it after giving it a try, I don’t want vegans trying to tell me I’m wrong or forcing me to live a vegan life. Stop protesting the meat eaters and go about your lives, stupid vegans!
Meat is part of what created modern Homo sapiens. It was a concentrated source of calories with the right balance of nutrients that didn’t have to be chewed endlessly that allowed us to evolve into what we are today: highly adaptable, tool using, abstract thinkers. It is this abstract thought that allows us to entertain the idea that the consumption of animal flesh may be unethical. Can something that is so inherent to our natural self be unethical? Are the Inuit people unethical? Not if it is viewed on a basic physics level it can’t be. And if it is looked at from an educational stand point for the average American it can’t be viewed as being unethical either.
The idea that not eating animal flesh is somehow moral or ethical doesn’t hold up on the most basic level: while the line between plants and animals is somewhat clear in a biological sense, plants are still living things. Just because plants function on a different level doesn’t mean that in some way they don’t suffer when their lives are cut short. So if eating meat is unethical, then eating plants is also. And it follows that killing and eating any living thing would also be unethical to those who believe this logic. Which leaves us with a diet based solely on foods that have died a natural or accidental death; this being the case, meat is fair game, including human flesh. All living things have a life span and to cut it short would be ethically wrong.
I believe we are part of the food chain and that eating meat is as ethical as any other food available to us.
We are all, simply put, just survival machines.
Then too, most people don’t have the education or the resources to become vegetarians. While contemplating this essay I’ve been eating a meat free diet. I live in the suburbs of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and have an associate’s degree in the liberal arts with an emphasis on physical education. I’ve taken a nutrition class and discussions about nutrition were also included in most of my physical education classes. I am fully aware that a vegetarian diet can provide all the proper nutrients needed for a healthy diet. I have kept eggs and dairy in my diet; but it is hard to find variety and good nutrition without studying up on the subject of vegetarianism. In order for this to come into fruition I will need to spend considerable time and resources in order to learn how to prepare delicious meatless meals. Food has to be appetizing at least on a most basic level. If being a vegetarian was a cultural more in my area, than eating meat would be unethical, it’s not; so I normally eat meat.
We live in landscape manufactured by humans for humans. We decide what is ethical and what is not. It all depends on the society that we are a part of as to whether it is ethical to eat meat or not, and in the United States the majority of the population eats meat. We are omnivores. We became what we are through a diet that included meat. The average person doesn’t have the knowledge or the resources to live a healthy life as a vegetarian. And a vegetarian is no more ethical than anyone else either. The question that we should be asking is: is it ethical for us to cause the extinction of other living creatures because we think we are ethically superior and need to take up more space on the planet?
I am glad I grew up in a vegetarian family, then. All I’ve ever had is vegetarian stuff, and I think – even after having lived 24 years – there’s no end to the variety. I keep on coming across newer vegetarian dishes almost on a regular basis. The education dilemma in all this can be very simply addressed: become vegetarians and keep a good check on your children as you bring them up if you want them to be vegetarians as well.
Killing each other was (and still is) a part of human development. Is that considered ethical? Same question applies to the practice of cannibalism.
Most people have a conscience, and mine tells me that killing is unethical.
Will
Here is another video which also “exploded” on the internet, judging by the results you get if you type vegan video 1976 into Google;
http://lovemotionstory.wordpress.com/tag/open-door/
I’m surprised that more people aren’t discussing how being vegan often comes from a place of privilege since things like food deserts exist. I totally agree that being vegan is ultimately best but there is generally a really awful air of privilege when discussing it.
I was raised vegan by my working class immigrant parents in the 80′s in the country where people like us were considered aliens. Local cafes wouldn’t even offer soy milk in their coffees. The only thing privileged about my upbringing was that i had rational- thinking parents who were a hundred steps ahead of everyone else. It wasn’t easy but we did it because it was the right thing to do.
It is true that the world is awakening. I saw so because I can relate to Samantha were being a vegetarian let alone vegan you’re looked at as an alien however observing the activities in the meat industry in being involved in activism work of making people realise the true about vegetarianism. It is not only comforting yet inspiring when people like Mr. Gates come out and share this information with the world. As people of fortune and power, it re-affirms to me the man on the ground that the cause the right and we will get there. Well done Mr. Gates I wish you do more and good luck in that endeavour.
Treating animals like commodities, to be used and abused as we see fit, is quite simply wrong. The videos and photos I’ve seen of atrocities committed against animals behind closed doors will haunt me for the rest of my days. It’s no wonder producers of animal products are trying to get laws passed that would severely prosecute those brave souls who document the abuse of the animals in their care. It seems to me that those in the animal agriculture business have neglected to factor in the birth and popularity of sites like youtube and Facebook, where information spreads worldwide in a matter of minutes. The “happy farm animal” and “humane slaughter” myths have been busted, people are finding out what actually happens to the animals who end up on their plate and they do not like it.
The future og vegan is …
http://i.imgur.com/d3mMFS3.jpg
Soylent Green!
hahaha!! Stupid vegans!
How about this? If you don’t want to eat meat, don’t eat it. Leave the people who want to eat meat alone and you go eat your vegetables. Most vegans are far left liberals, and those are the same people who are shouting and demanding for equality! If the their definition of equality means that everyone has to do the same thing and think the same way, then screw you and shut up! Equality means that you treat people the same regardless of our differences. Vegans, liberals, AND conservatives are all hypocrites! There’s nothing wrong with eating meat, I don’t care what other animals do, I am not an animal. And if I feel that I want to eat meat, then I will. Screw you vegans!
You aren’t an Animal? Does that make you an Alien then?
Anyone heard about the 3 stages of Truth?
First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident. -Arthur Schopenhauer
People are missing the point.
Instead of jumping up and down saying s#it like, “Screw you” and “I eat meat”. Throwing in egos, personal agendas and political bulls#it, we need to realize that the habits of the Human Animal eating HUGE amounts of meat (especially in developed countries, where eating meat is, in a strange way, considered ‘special’) is simply becoming too expensive to maintain. Whether its the cost on farming, land, transport, fuel, antibiotics, health. One day soon a steak will cost $200…that sounds fun.
Education, instead of ignorance is a nice place to start people. Its science, not ego. So stop stamping your feel like children, screaming “I’ll do what I want” and think about the future…
Food for thought, watch a film called Earthlings…
I bet the National Party and all white people once held that view “I don’t care about black people, they are useless, inferior, etc. They deserve to be slaves, we are superior, dominate, etc” …. And now the greatest economy of earth is in the hands of a black person! Shut up!
The problem that Gates is mainly referring to isn’t the cruelty part as much as the environmental resources needed to produce meat.
With a world population of 7 billion people there is simply no way to support the meat industry without severe, drastic, and potentially terminal environmental consequences. The reason why I object to others eating meat isn’t because of my beliefs, it’s because meat industry, among automobiles and other things is killing MY children.
And yes, the resource use IS that drastically different. When you kill an animal for food, you’re using up an entire LIFETIME worth of resources for your one meal. Resources that could have been used to grow crops and feed humans directly, and on much less land, and perhaps with plenty of leftovers for those who are starving. With meat, we’re destroying our future by exploiting the food chain to an extent that it was never meant to naturally support.
We need to do something about our habits, and learn to adapt our ways. Back in the days when there were <1 billion people in the world it wasn't a big deal to drive everywhere and eat meat, but life is different now.
Curious about two things:
1). Is this website still being contributed to? I see no articles after February this year.
2). Say the world suddenly embraces veganism – what do we do with all the animals previously reserved for slaughter? Do they get released? One final meatapalooza? PETA toss them in the dumpster?
The animals plays an important role in small environmental ecological system of an area which then becomes part of the grand ecology which sustains mother Earth, we will have to redistribute the animals according to need of various areas.
I’m sure you’d know of recent droughts in other African countries with Cows dying in huge numbers, where poverty is not a media headline, etc. Point to note is that this is not only an African’s scourge. You find similar situations in Asia, India and other corner of the planet.
I just hope all you self-righteous vegan assholes stop acting like eating meat is a problem for those who do. I want everybody else to be vegan so there is a ton of cheap animal products for me. That said, don’t push your agenda down my throat when I’m just an omnivore being an omnivore.
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