According to VDD-Dutch member of parliament Helma Lodders, the European income support for farmers forms a barrier for the innovation she desires. As said by Lodders, the production-efficiency has to be increased, but she fails to mention the biggest obstacle: the production of meat-based foods.
If we truly want efficient agriculture, we must switch to a plant-based diet. The EU should facilitate this transition. This switch would not only profit the animals, but also humans, nature and the environment. Furthermore, this connects to the liberal principles in which Lodders has to recognize herself.
About 70 percent of the worldwide farmland is used for the production of meat-based food. An enormous quantity, especially when you consider that
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Livestock farming is by far the biggest reason for deforestation, because of the need of farmland. The extraction of large amounts of water interferes with the cycles and causes droughts.
And let’s not forget the world hunger problem: farmland that is now used for the growing of cattle feed, could also be used to grow food for people.
Livestock farming is a disaster for the environment. Worldwide it is responsible for half of the greenhouse gas emissions and it is the biggest cause of biodiversity loss, habitat destruction and water pollution. A transition to a plant-based diet would dramatically decrease these problems.
The advantages of this transition also pay out in other areas. A plant-based menu helps prevent and cure many prosperity diseases. The biggest causes of death - cancer, heart and vascular diseases - occur significantly less with a plant-based diet. Animal products form a risk factor. Recently even the WHO have recognized that certain types of meat are
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That is a great thing. Yet there
“The only freedom which deserves the name, is that of pursuing our own good in our own way, so long as we do not attempt to deprive others of theirs, or impede their efforts to obtain it.”
― John Stuart Mill are laws that restrict our freedom, and there are good reasons behind that. It is not allowed to drive while being drunk, because by doing so, we become a danger to others. The principle that is used to justify the curtailment of our liberties, is rooted in the ideas of the English philosopher John Stuart Mill (1806-1873). Mill advocated for the greatest possible freedom of the individual. This freedom, however, stops when it causes harm to another. This idea is the foundation of the liberal society.
Why is this a reason not to eat animals? Well, animals belong in the ‘moral club’. They can suffer and therefore harm can be inflicted to them. When we confine an animal, fatten and kill for meat, we harm the animal unnecessarily, because meat is not essential for our survival.
Freedom is a great good. We can not impose what music we each have to find best, what the most beautiful art object is, or what the route to happiness looks like. However, freedom stops when we harm others. Animals are others too, because they too can