But that's just it, right? It takes a single avocado 12 gallons of water to grow. Most avocados are produced in Mexico. There are areas in Mexico where whole villages have lost their natural water rights because of avocado production and have no water to drink. Entire crime cartels have sprung up in the last 50 years all focused on the money from american avocado consumption. But I bet you eat avocados, almost every veg* I know does passionately as it's a great source of fats and protein and tastes great (I eat a few myself). But you can't buy one in the USA without contributing to a definitely-capable-of-suffering human beings very real suffering. Forget about any electronics, made in Asia by children. Or shoes and clothing. "Don't use cane sugar, it's bad for you and south american plantations are unethical. Oh wait, don't take honey from bees either cause honey bees are killing off native bee populations. Oh wait, that means that agave syrup production becomes a problem for mexican bats. Oh, but bee growers are suffering from a lack of honey consumption and CCD and honey bees pollinate a lot of big plant farms especially nuts so DO support honey bees..." Etcetcetc... Just dig into banana republics for 30 seconds. It's awful everywhere. (All real problems.)
So it's nice to make this argument in general. But it's an impossible utilitarian equation. For example, I don't drive a car, but I bet you do. It has a catalytic converter in it. That has platinum in it, 68% of which comes from South Africa.
(Obvs South African mines aren't always ethical, and these are the nice ones.) And the trucks that import plants from the south to the north so the plants can be consumed year round are made through unethical means as well. And the shipping of food from the south to the north puts fossil fuels in the air as well. But without shipping plants north the majority of north america has no way to eat vegetarian/vegan over the winter. And
some studies show that even beef cattle (especially in land that's not properly arable for crops) aren't anywhere near as bad as we think they are (even
the most critical citations admit it's technically possible to balance cow CO2 emissions just not practical/likely).
And the key conceit of the threads this topic is complaining about... Is the idea that Veg*n is often presented (by veg*ns) as not only the ONLY ethical choice but the MOST ethical choice. People often demand we justify not making that specific choice without justifying their own choices, with a nice tinge of "I'm better than you for it, tell me all the ways I disagree with you so I can feel smug about it" mixed in. Which is simply... Well it's frustrating and doesn;t even make sense.
Which isn't to say "don't be veg*n". Please do! I fully support veg*nism as an option for making the world a little better. I regularly cook veg*n for my friends who are veg*n. But more like... Don't think it's something substantially better than making other choices. You've chosen that particular way to try to make the world a better place - which is good! But chances are really good that it's not going to actually fall out any better than making the choice to eat, say, locally raised pasture meat. Or to avoid airplanes and bottled water. As long as you chose and make real effort to try to be better, I think that's enough. And unless you wanna crack some skulls it's the majority of what individuals can do.
As the kids say these days. There's no ethical consumption under capitalism except eating ***.
