The ‘Dublin Declaration of Scientists’m on the Societal Role of Livestock’, launched at the Irish government agricultural agency Teagasc in October last year and signed by over 1,000 scientists, and was covered by newspapers including the Telegraph and the New York Post, is a short document that argues for the nutritional, environmental and social benefits of meat-eating. It says that livestock is “too precious to society to become the victim of simplification, reductionism or zealotry”.
But hundreds of pages of emails, meeting minutes and other documents obtained through freedom of information requests reveal that the Declaration was written, released and promoted by agribusiness consultants, and has been used by trade groups and lobbyists to oppose green policies in Europe.
I do think that we’re about to see a giant generational shift when all the boomers and older gen x die off. There are a lot of people who are mysteriously tying the eating of meat to their identity and won’t budge on the subject.
I was once one of those people, then I grew up and am now a pescatarian. I definitely believe some of those people can change if they care about anything beyond themselves
I’m very happy to hear that, congrats!
I was ragged on by my meat and potato family for being vegetarian. About 20 years later, my parents told me that I was ahead of everyone. They are now eating differently. Some siblings? They still rag on me even though I literally never bring it up.
What’s mysterious about the identification with meat-eating? If you learned to do something wrong, so that you are used to it, it takes severe effort to unlearn it. So, once you are confronted with it being wrong, you can either accept the fact and adjust or if you are not able to have to deal with the cognitive dissonance by strengthening your personality around the wrong and bend the facts in whatever way neccessarry to fit that bill.
I’m referring more to people who were brought up with certain expectations and have never once in their lives considered those expectations. Not just around food, but everything. These same new generations I am referring to will have their own version of the same and some next gen people will complain about them the way we complain about boomers. Remember that we’re all going to be boomers eventually, but not all people are built equal and many can adjust with these changes.
I love your self awareness and I wish you a long and happy life. Greetings from a boomer
I’m completely with you on everything you said and would like to add one missing point: Not every change has to be right.
I’m also of the opinion that much of what changes over time is stylistic and cultural rather than necessary. People think that their parents’ and grandparents’ clothes look dated and press on to find the new, cool look. In the end, it’s a bit like consumerism-driven cultural changes more than anything.
I am further of the opinion that we’ve already reached a good technological peak in that all human needs can be met currently if we decide to put resources into it, although we can certainly find refinements and efficiencies in existing technologies. The limit isn’t reached, but we might not really benefit from more. Rather, we should be focusing on improving the human experience instead of chase the next great thing.