milkin' it

I would hope that conscientious objectors to factory farming practises have tried to spread the word to their immediate circles. I mean, food as a ritual as well as a commodity is perhaps the most immediately normalized behaviour. Many people quite rightly find it difficult to change their eating habits to be either more healthy, more environmentally or ethically conscious, or otherwise.

The fact of the matter is that any research done into where and how supermarket products come into being will demonstrate that our eating habits need to change. It's unlikely that this can be done through legislation, although I would like to see the adoption of a code of ethics and rights in regard to how we treat all sentient life. Frankly, it's a tough sell to a world which does not as of yet fully recognize the universality of human rights.

Dspite some appeals to a sense of Nietschean moral relativism about the consumption and/or exploitation of animals, I cannot fathom a code of conduct in regard to human and animal rights-to-life that is not fundamentally a gesture of empathy. While this sense of compassion and sensitivity extended beyond our own bodies is indeed subjective, it is not irrational and represents a complication to traditional Darwinian evolutionary models.

And yet that is precisely what seems allowable in the human experience. This is most immediately suggested by the negative consequences of modernization. Humanity must recognize the danger that some of its actions pose to the biosphere by many of our insutrial practises. This will change, either by our progression toward sustainability, or our increasing inability to cope with the environmental degredation that we have imposed on the planet. The comsumption of animal products can contribute to this effect, especially when animals are involved in industrialized farming practises which do not consider them sentient organisms.

Environmental questions will increasingly test our ability for a functional morality. The most pressing concern in my mind regarding this fate is how we learn to live with the lifeforms on this planet in a sustainable and non-deleterious manner.