Animal rights as part of the broader ecology movement

Venture a guess as to how many people in this and other wealthy countries consume animal products because of biological necessity, (versus convenience, habit, custom, and aversion toward new ideas)? Again, the moral issue isn’t harming or killing per se. It’s the degree to which we are aware of viable options when we harm or kill people and other animals. Fatally shooting a home intruder isn’t morally the same as fatally shooting the waiter because he forgot I wanted water with no ice. Eating animals isn’t (or wasn’t) the same for the Inuit as it is for cornucopians such as you and me. The morality of harming or killing nonhumans depends on the context. For example, yet another detail of complexity when it comes to veganism is Peak Oil which may involve humans resorting to using animals for heavy labor, and it may, to understate, complicate vegan diets that rely on a global market for grains, fruit, and vegetables where each food calorie requires many calories from oil and other fossil fuels. A sloppy reading of this might lead someone to view this as support for consuming factory farmed animal products. One might also misread this and avoid the fact that free-range animal farming would make meat and dairy a much smaller part of our diets, except maybe for the wealthy who might pay very high prices for it. Animal rights is part of the broader ecology movement which involves issues, such as Peak Oil, which might add complexity to being vegan. But we shouldn’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good, nor quick our consciences just because we can never be perfect. The ecology movement can be a source of spiritual inspiration but it shouldn’t share with religion the mentally defeating goal of trying to be perfect. As such, the ecology movement, as far as I’m concerned, is based on imperfectly seeking to meet all of our human wants and needs—for food, water, housing, medicine, belonging, security, and so on—in ways that promote better relationships among people and between people and other sentient life forms.