Ask Lemmy

Depends on who you ask and the background of your question.

Yes

It is undeniable in current day the horrors industrial farming creates and inflicts on millions of sentient beings to sustain a business that was originally fomented in order to supply food for a post-war world where several countries were rendered with little or no usable land for farming.

The traditional model of farming, where animals were an integral part of a production chain that kept the land itself alive and reduced waste to a minimum was destroyed to give place to a highly destructive model where lowest cost, hight profit margins and speed of production is absolute.

In this process, thousands, if not millions, of landrace animals, along with heirloom seed varieties, went extinct and were lost. Petroleum products and by-products entered the daily life, from food, to clothing, to essentially anything imaginable. Not because those were better but because it was cheaper and protected interests.

Knowing this and still leaning heavily on an animal protein based diet with no concern for its toll on our collective ecosystem and the suffering it creates is nothing short of regrettable.

No

Meat is cheap. Artificially cheap but still. Processed foods cheaper; with meat in it, even more.

Many people throughout the world do not have access to the means to have a fully exclusive or at least heavily based vegetable diet, either because of the environment they live in or simply because they lack the means to afford it. Many people in developing countries still depend on cattle to provide food and raw materials, if not on hunting, trapping and fishing. Even more people, in rich, developed countries, don't have the money to afford a proper diet, even less a vegetable based one.

These people are as worthy of living as any other. It can not be taken against them wanting to survive.

Maybe

Some people aren't aware how much their personal decision can have a meaningful impact.

Others don't have the time or hability to extract from vegetables meals that can truly satisfy them and don't want to resort to ultraprocessed foods. Others are simply too deep into a cultural mindset that blocks them from experimenting.

It is just another type of barrier. There is a degree of lack of interest and effort in this stage but we can't (shouldn't) hold against people their personal circumstances, which adds poorly when it comes to changing minds, habits and cultures.

Take your pick.