[lbo-talk] Singer on what we're permitted to eat

Luke Weiger lweiger at umich.edu
Wed May 24 08:50:52 PDT 2006


Bill wrote, "Clearly, our urban expert on animal welfare Peter Singer wouldn't approve of any of this [i.e. raising and killing your own animals]."

Singer doesn't approve, but I think even he would grant (at least when pressed) that he's on extremely shaky grounds in doing so. If the Alternet review is right, Singer supports his disapproval of raising and killing your own animals because doing so promotes the eating of inhumanely raised animals. But it could just as easily be the case that raising and killing your own animals, while calling attention to your reasons for doing so, would actually result in fewer factory-farmed animals (indeed, I think my conjecture is more likely to be true).

Nonetheless, Singer's arguments with regard to animal rights are generally anything but silly. Any serious person ought to engage them seriously regardless of how much he or she likes to eat flesh. (I'll note that I don't consider myself to be any sort of angel when it comes to animal rights--I still eat beef often because I'm not convinced that even factory-farmed cattle are raised all that inhumanely, and I still occasionally eat pork and poultry despite the fact that _I am convinced_ that factory-farmed pigs and chickens/turkeys generally live absolutely miserable lives.)

-- Luke



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