Justice for Animals by Martha C. Nussbaum

Author:Martha C. Nussbaum
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Published: 2023-01-03T00:00:00+00:00

MEAT EATING AGAIN

Let’s now return briefly to meat eating. Are there really tragic dilemmas here, and how common are they? Vegans will say that most if not all people can quickly transition healthily to a plant-based diet, doing themselves not harm but good in the process. I have cast at least some doubt on this, citing the protein needs of aging people (and we might add children) and mentioning that not everyone’s digestive system can handle massive amounts of beans, lentils, etc. So in that case there could be a tragic dilemma for such an individual, since we have duties to ourselves to maintain our health. Cost is also an issue for non-elite families. These dilemmas are mitigated to some extent by chapter 7’s alternative of humane farming (especially the painless death of a fish, who has no or few temporally extended plans and projects). But difficulty is not completely removed.

Another potential problem is the harm that could be done to animal habitats by the massive change in crop growing that would be required if everyone really transitioned to a vegan diet. This issue is unclear at present, but should be seriously studied.

But here too there is a Hegelian solution in the offing: artificial meat. Virtually unknown when I began planning this book, it is now a massive growth industry, with many different types of “meat” made from plant ingredients. The reason these meat substitutes are popular is only partly ethical; people also want the health benefits of lowered saturated fat content and, often, sodium content. This science is still in its infancy, since substitute meat foods are said by some to lack variety of flavor and texture. And there is no artificial fish, so far as I am aware, for those of us who love fish. Still, this is the future. We can see it and work for it. When even baseball stadiums offer veggie dogs and veggie burgers,14 the future of Aufhebung is at hand. Laboratory grown meat, which is “real” meat from animal stem cells, but produced without animal killing, is already available, and on the market, at least in Singapore. Again, investment in these developments seems amply warranted, and by now there are enough animal-friendly chefs that we can expect these imaginative people will carry on from current beginnings.

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