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the logic is that while the individual cow or bird might suffer no short-term effects from your consumption, you're creating an environment which does harm animals. as examples, i'm going to cite the diary industry, since that's the one i know the best.
fifty percent of dairy calves go to slaughter because they're males and don't give milk. one bull can cover an entire herd of cattle, but they're large and dangerous, so most farms don't even keep a bull. that means half of the calf production on any farm is superfluous.
as agriculture moves from being a vocation to being a business, the whole process becomes more cost efficient, more labour efficient, less friendly to animals. on medium to large dairy farms, this means that cows live indoors all the time in an extremely unnatural environment for a grazing animal. they're juiced up with high test feeds that make them more susceptible to metabolic illnesses during a time when their immunity is already low. take the bad environment, the rich feed, and a thrice daily milking schedule, probably with rBGH, and you've got a sick animal. most dairy cattle on large farms are lucky to get two lactation cycles before they're too sick to continue, at which time they're culled. given the fact that these girls are generally bred to calve when they're 2 years old (the equivalent of a 13 year old human having a baby), four or five years old is about all they're going to get. with a really good cow, strong and healthy, you might get four lactations out of her. i think five is the most i ever saw on a factory cow.
other logical reasons for not including animal products in your diet include ecological reasons (not only methane and nitrogen overproduction, also fossil fuel use in creating and transporting feeds, etc.), health reasons (compare the american diet and number one diseases of age [heart disease, osteoporosis, obesity/diabetes, etc.], then look at the traditional asian diet which is dairy free and note that heart disease is rare, obesity uncommon, and osteoporosis is virtually unknown), and ethical reasons (upon which i'll digress as i note that there is a "PETA"-free policy on this board and that's vague enough that i don't want to get in trouble here).
most vegans cite one or more of these reasons.
obviously, egg production is somewhat different to dairy production, but you know many similar issues apply (overcrowding, antibiotics usage, beak trimming, chick grinding, foot deformities, etc., etc.)
okay, i'll stop with the vegan dissertation now. :blush:
gachickeeper, that seemed like the best logical course of action after reading the article, at least to me. obviously if you haven't got reliable refrigeration, there are some other avenues, but if you've got it, it seems only wise to use it.
SeaChick, i don't have any real opinion about the water test. like you, i'd assumed it was egg gospel. if it works, that's fantastic. maybe it does have to do with salinity. i've no idea. maybe we could do a BYC amateur scientist study on it. and, thanks, i'm glad you enjoyed miss felicity's saga! which, as always, is "to be continued".
