frame

Howdy, Stranger!

It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!

DebateIsland.com is the largest online debate website globally where anyone can anonymously and easily debate online, casually or formally, while connecting with their friends and others. Users, regardless of debating skill level, can civilly debate just about anything online in a text-based online debate website that supports five easy-to-use and fun debating formats ranging from Casual, to Formalish, to Lincoln-Douglas Formal. In addition, people can improve their debating skills with the help of revolutionary artificial intelligence-powered technology on our debate website. DebateIsland is totally free and provides the best online debate experience of any debate website.


Communities




Should veganism be mandatory?

Debate Information

I say yes. Killing, enslaving, and stealing from animals is wrong.
Zombieguy1987



Debra AI Prediction

Predicted To Win
Predicted To Win
Tie

Details +




Post Argument Now Debate Details +

    Arguments


  • MayCaesarMayCaesar 5970 Pts   -  
    Killing and eating animals is out nature. This is how we have evolved as a species. We are carnivorous beings.

    You do not expect lions or, say, wolves to be vegans, do you? Humans are no different.

    That said, if synthetically produced meat becomes affordable, then we could shift our standards in this regard. Until then, I do not see how: a diet not including meat or meat substitutes is not healthy and would negatively affect our species' development.
    Zombieguy1987piloteer
  • YeshuaBoughtYeshuaBought 669 Pts   -  
    @MayCaesar Appeal to nature fallacy, try again.
    Zombieguy1987piloteerwhiteflame
  • CYDdhartaCYDdharta 1823 Pts   -   edited January 2019
    1 Receive one who is weak in the faith, but not to disputes over doubtful things. 2 For one believes he may eat all things, but he who is weak eats only vegetables. 3 Let not him who eats despise him who does not eat, and let not him who does not eat judge him who eats; for God has received him.   Who are you to judge another's servant? To his own master he stands or falls. Indeed, he will be made to stand, for God is able to make him stand.


    piloteer
  • MayCaesarMayCaesar 5970 Pts   -  
    @YeshuaBought

    Appeal to nature is a fallacy? Last I checked, appeal to nature was the basis behind science. Are you calling science a fallacy?
    Zombieguy1987
  • Zombieguy1987Zombieguy1987 471 Pts   -  
    @MayCaesar Appeal to nature fallacy, try again.

    That's not a fallacy.

    Also, plants are living.

    And veganism is basically genociding plants, which results in them suffering pain. It's just they can't communicate it like animals

    That. makes. you. a. hypocrite!

  • CYDdhartaCYDdharta 1823 Pts   -   edited January 2019


    Carrot Juice is Murder
    Zombieguy1987
  • piloteerpiloteer 1577 Pts   -   edited January 2019
    @YeshuaBought

    Just because you feel very strongly about animals rights, that doesn't constitute the need for a law inhibiting meat or animal by products from our diets. First, you need to establish that there's a benefit for society to want to enact laws that impede our rights to choose to eat what we want to eat. The rights of animals is a good argument, but just because you really like animals, is not a good reason to outlaw meat, or animal by products.
    Zombieguy1987
  • whiteflamewhiteflame 689 Pts   -  
    Let's just focus on the practicality of such a measure, and assume from the outset that the act of killing animals is wrong, though I have my problems with that viewpoint. Still, I'll focus on the practical problems.

    First problem: dietary changes. Remember, you're forcing everyone to shift their diets to an all plant-based diet, meaning that any individual who has trouble processing certain foods may now be even more restricted. Not everyone can get enough in the way of vitamins like B12 and protein from non-animal sources. That's a simple fact - some people do very poorly on totally vegan diets as a result. Even if this is a small minority of the population (we really have no way of knowing just how many people this is), it's an outsized problem for them. They face permanent issues with malnutrition.

    Second problem: poverty. Don't get me wrong, meat can often be expensive, but it can also go quite a long way and last quite a while after cooking. Fresh vegetables and fruits don't last nearly as long, and they're also quite expensive. The prices for these are likely to go up, given that the demand will also increase (if I'm suddenly forced to eat nothing but plant matter, plant matter is now all I will purchase for food). Those costs may not be a huge problem for some people, but they are a big problem for those without the basic means of increasing their purchasing power. Those people will be highly restricted in what they can purchase, which will mostly be canned goods, often lacking in the basic nutrition required to make it through day-to-day life. And those canned goods may well see increases in price as well, compounding the problem.

    Third problem: increased demand. If you suddenly remove a food source that is regularly bought by so much of the population, it will have to be replaced. The amount of foods meeting the threshold required to be vegan will have to increase dramatically to meet that demand. Why is that a problem? Because of fertilizer. You've removed the major source of fertilizer from the equation, so now you're seeking to grow a lot more with a lot fewer means to do so quickly and efficiently. In order to change that around, you'll have to grow crops that can function as a fertilizer themselves, which means using more arable land to grow more crops. The problem is we don't have much in the way of extra arable land, which means a great deal of the crops we currently grow will have to rotate with fertilizing crops. That's also going to bump up the price of produce.

    Fourth problem: what to do with these animals. The various cows, pigs, and chickens (among others) that we currently cultivate for their meat, milk and eggs aren't just going to disappear because we stop eating them. They largely can't be released into the wild because they're domesticated animals, almost entirely reliant on humans for food and because they're likely to cause a great deal of problems if they are simply released, including damage to the surrounding land. They can't all just be housed, either - much as it is entirely reasonable to find fault with factory farming, they house a lot more animals in a smaller space because of those practices. So, what will happen to them? I'm honestly not sure, but it seems like one way or another, most of these animals are still going to live abbreviated lives and die. That doesn't seem particularly humane, either.

    So, even if we're under the assumption that using animals for their meat, milk and eggs is inherently unethical, I have a hard time understanding how the solution to that problem is to force everyone to become vegan. Having more people become vegan of their own accord may be a net benefit, but mandating that everyone become vegan is a disaster waiting to happen.
    Zombieguy1987
  • K_MichaelK_Michael 114 Pts   -  
    The main problem I have with vegans is that they seem to assume that we can eat living vegetables, but not living animals. Moreover, no MILK? Milking a cow brings it relief, not causes it pain. You can hardly call that exploitation when they would die without the farmers supporting their existence.
    Zombieguy1987
    "We're all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars." 
  • K_MichaelK_Michael 114 Pts   -  
    Another issue is that scientists believe that it was eating meat that caused humans to become more intelligent in the first place. Name an animal with an intelligence even closely approximating that of a human's that isn't omnivorous. 
    Finally, those concerned with animal rights should be more largely concerned with the hunted animals like deer, elk, and antelope. If a hunter misses a killing shot, then the animal will live days or even weeks, injured, in pain, and susceptible to attack by predators. Before you ban milk, ban hunting and fishing.
    Zombieguy1987
    "We're all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars." 
  • K_MichaelK_Michael 114 Pts   -  
    (I keep thinking of more, sorry for the spam)
    As vegans are a minority, comprising 0.5% of the U.S. population, it would hardly make sense to pass a law restricting the diets of the other 99.5% based on the views of those few. 
    Think of the Prohibition from 1920-1933. In the first year, alcohol consumption dropped to 30% of pre-Prohibition, but in later years, it increased to 170% of pre-Prohibition. 
    People will not stop consuming meat just because it is made illegal,
     Not to mention the unemployment rates would skyrocket. Farmers would be stuck with livestock that cannot be sold or eaten. Even if they re-implement their land for vegetable crops, there would be a massive loss in investment as their livestock are no longer valuable. Butchers, fry cooks, breeders, dairy farmers, all places that make forms of bread using milk and general dairy products would go out of business. 
    And do you know what this surge of jobless people would do? Riot. They would march in the streets, protesting the unfairness of the oppression forced upon them by the vegans through the government. And they would not be alone. Anyone who enjoys their bacon cheeseburger or other non-vegan foods, and are unwilling to make the change, would protest with them. If vegans wanted to do anything, they should create their own nation, perhaps creating a wildlife reserve in the process, rather than try to force the change on millions of people.
    Zombieguy1987
    "We're all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars." 
Sign In or Register to comment.

Back To Top

DebateIsland.com

| The Best Online Debate Experience!
© 2023 DebateIsland.com, all rights reserved. DebateIsland.com | The Best Online Debate Experience! Debate topics you care about in a friendly and fun way. Come try us out now. We are totally free!

Contact us

customerservice@debateisland.com
Terms of Service

Get In Touch