Hi, I escaped from r/solarpunk. Content Warning, this post is about raising animals for their meat, so may be upsetting to some. I'm putting this under farming because I couldn't identify a better community (maybe food?) but I'd be happy to move this topic into a new, specific community if that can be done.
Something that's been going in my mind for a bit is the role of backyard farming and homesteading in solarpunk. First caveat, I think vegetarianism/veganism for 99-100% of the diet of 99% of the population is a fantastic goal, but I think we need to have solutions for the interim where society is still coming around to the idea. Even people who want the best for the planet and animals might be intimidated by the prospect of veganism or even vegetarianism, whether or not they have sound reason for this.
While we're still reliant on animal meat, I think that moving our animal raising from big factory farms into local smallholdings or even our backyards would help immensely. On one hand, the welfare of a factory-farmed chicken pales in comparison to that of a chicken who grew up knowing love and foraging. Also, each meat-based meal that is grown at home or on a well-run smallholding diverts business from the factory farms that are killing our planet.
Quite frankly, I'm hoping to own chickens soon, mostly so I can have fresh/ethical eggs and share the same eggs with my community. But I'm not averse to raising chickens for meat either. In fact, my goal would be to stop eating meat entirely unless it came from my flock or a flock that I knew first hand was cared for to the same standards.
In my eyes, meat should be something you eat as a treat, and only if you can psychologically grapple with how it got to your plate and give due respect to the animal who provided it.
There's a lot I'd like to discuss about this, and I think it's important to discuss. I know the subject of veganism or lack thereof can get heated, but I think we need to have these hard conversations if we want to come together as a community with proper solutions for the future.
So tl:dr; does discussion of home-reared meat belong here? If so, does this align with anyone else's goals?
Sure, why not?
Solarpunk is not explicitly vegan or vegetarian, in fact it strongly objects to attempts to put the blame for climate-change and environmental destruction on individual actions aka "don't use plastic straws" etc. that just distract from where the real problems are.
In this case, the problem is IMHO clearly the industrial meat production and the resulting meat over-consumption of our societies and not the chickens someone grows in their backyard for small-scale consumption.
I think you will be fine posting here, but please don't get into arguments with people in /c/vegan.
Hey, I created c/vegan on this instance, but think this is a reasonable discussion!
I would want to reduce any reliance on animals to a minimum, but I also think some animals can contribute to a healthy ecosystem and reduce other negative contributions drastically. Likely those animals are not the ones predominantly found in industrial animal farming.
I don't see anything wrong with eating an animal generally, but the way most meat is oroduced appals me and I realized that I can do without animal products quite well, so I feel obliged to continue doing that.
This sums up how I feel almost to a T. I also feel like continuing to raise meat animals contributes to the tapestry of breeds that exist, which like you say, aren't the ones predominately farmed. We raise a lot of one kind of chicken, whose breed currently eludes me, on factory farms. But a home grower can preserve heritage breeds by way of raising and breeding their own food, and I think that's really neat. I do wonder what a fully vegan society would do in order to preserve the diversity of breeds that currently only exist because of historical meat needs (imagine a chicken zoo!), but that's a whole hypothetical rabbit hole...
I'm honestly tempted to start a community on this subject, but I'll refrain for now while I learn the ropes of Lemmy. I do think separating it from "food" and/or "farming" would be the kindest thing for the vegans here though, folks who want to avoid those discussions should be safe here of all places.
Are you in favor of animal rights? What is veganism to you?
Does that include killing them for food, or are you talking about eating something like roadkill?
In the context of the post, I mainly mean eating the animals that lived on your farm and die from natural causes
Also I don't want to do that, but I think this can be a reasonable thing to do for others
Mainly? What else do you mean then? In my opinion the only way meat could be considered vegan is if the animal dies of natural causes, by accident, or by euthenasia that is genuinely in their best interest. Would you agree with that?
Your point with roadkill would be a similar thought (and there are more for sure). While the morality of driving metal boxes at high speed that way too often kill people and animals is a whole other issue though.
I would never consider meat to be vegan, no matter the circumstances.
I also think it is immoral to eat an animal, period. In my previous answer I used "nothing wrong", by that I don't mean it is moral to do so. I just meant it is natural to a degree.
For me personally, it comes down to: An animal should not be raised for my consumption in any form (but I also have the privilege to easily do so, therefore I feel obligated to)
Thanks for this input! (I especially agree regarding the blaming-the-individual thing, that's part of why I love solarpunk)
And yeah no worries, I have no desire to argue with my comrades in arms.