+Cargo Caution: "in very few areas can a vegetarian thrive, such as Mexico."

... Errr... No, I'm afraid that's an unsupportable notion to go forward with. My wife and I are vegans, and we've lived all over the States, but presently live in Cape Breton. We facilitate a group here on G+ with over 5000 vegan members all over the world, from northern Russia to southern Australia, and all points in between and around.

You yourself can be very successful switching to a plant based lifestyle where you live right now, +Cargo Caution, and you'll save money, be healthier, and will live in alignment with your values of compassion all while doing so.

+Cargo Caution: "[Vegan's food] also have to be flown in from other places."

Hmm... Sort of?

I personally live in a fairly verdant region, and much of the the fruit and veggies I eat are locally grown. However, I also enjoy products from away (e.g. bananas, pineapples, et al.), and as you say, these have to be shipped in. However, if the "shipping" expense (in terms of money, pollution, et al.) actually is something one is worried about, then they're making an argument for switching to a plant based lifestyle -- and this is regardless of their physical location.

To see the truth of this, +Cargo Caution, we'll need to compare the "shipping" load for a vegetables vs. animals. To start with, each cow, pig and chicken has to be fed every day of their lives; depending on whose numbers you want to trust on this, it takes around ten pounds of vegetation to produce one pound of edible body. This means that all of that vegetation has to be grown, harvested, and shipped to the animals. All the while that they're being raised, they're producing pollution that's horrifically bad for the environment. Once at butcher weight, each of them has to be shipped to a abattoir, killed, butchered, processed, and refrigerated (with all the energy costs that entails). Then his or her body is shipped (locally and all over the world) in refrigerated vehicles and then kept/displayed in refrigerated storage.

Conversely, fruits, vegetables, and grains are also grown, harvested, and shipped. They don't produce pollution as a byproduct of being planted, et al. Some fraction of these are refrigerated in shipping (locally and all over the world), and some fraction of those are also refrigerated in their grocery displays.

Withal, it's clear that the issue of shipping is pro-vegan argument, not an anti one.

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This post is one in a series in which excerpts of discussions on veganism from other threads are reposted (or paraphrased) for the sake of expanding the conversation. As always, your thoughts and questions are welcome. See the full collection via the #spommveganchats hash (or perhaps with a more robust search, such as goo.gl/PAF46f or goo.gl/JoxZC).

(for anyone requiring/desiring more context, the original conversation can be found at goo.gl/grzzlF)

h/t to +Vegan Street for the pic

#vegan #shipping #logicalfallacies ﻿