AIBU for not eating meat on moral grounds?

[ShouldWeChangeTheBulb]

I have been with my partner for 12 years and haven’t eaten meat since I was about 9 years old, so I haven’t eaten meat the whole time I’ve known him.
Today after walking passed some pigs on a nice open air farm I made a comment about how intelligent pigs are and that it’s a shame that that is not always how they are treated. I said that I thought modern farming is cruel and immoral.
My partner, who eats meat, got upset with me and started sulking and refusing to talk to me. When I asked him why he was upset he repeatedly said I was a bigot for saying that eating meat, when farmed by modern standards, was immoral. I argued my point and talked about the environmental impact and the and the cruelty to animals but also said that I felt the dairy industry is immoral but I drink milk so it’s not like I feel morally superior to anyone.
He just said that anyone who has moral surety is ‘suspicious’ and a bigot.
I can’t understand why he didn’t realise I felt this way, surly it’s obvious that I think it’s morally wrong otherwise I’d eat meat. I have always told people, when asked, that it’s a moral choice because I feel modern farming is wrong but I don’t try to convert people or go on about it, this is the first time he’s heard me say anything like that in 12 years.
AIBU and a bigot for thinking modern farming is immoral?

Eating meat is an active choice like everything else, it's not beyond criticism. Why are people so defensive about it?

Perhaps because the reasons people cite for being vegan/vegetarian are based on some mythical harm that livestock production does to the planet, whilst failing to recognise that the systems of production in the UK bear little resemblance to those in America, on which the calculations wheeled out by UK anti-death campaigners are based. This is why we hear arguments about how much water it takes to produce milk versus soy-based alternatives, which are nonsense in the UK when most dairy production takes place in the west where if anything theres too much bloody water!

Whilst I don't believe it's feasible for the whole population to live like that (modern agriculture exists to feed a large global population) I have great respect for the vegans who live off-grid, growing their own food, making low impact choices every day. Less so for those who have picked out meat or dairy as an immoral activity, whilst tweeting about it on a phone for whose battery precious minerals are being mined, eating vegan foods produced in unsustainable ways in the far side of the world, wearing plastic fibres, driving a car, etc.

I don’t disagree that in the U.K. we have overall better (but not unproblematic) farming practises @CrunchyNutNC - but this, really?!

“ Perhaps because the reasons people cite for being vegan/vegetarian are based on some mythical harm that livestock production does to the planet”.

Because it’s not ‘mythical is it? Globally, industrialised livestock production is having a huge environmental impact which is likely only to increase as the Far East is increasing its meat consumption. Where to start on the harm humans are doing? The huge of amount of manure produced by industrialised farms containing antibiotics leaking into & polluting other water sources and killing fish? Or the increase in gas emissions directly from huge numbers of animals or polluted water sources? The amount of water needed for the animals and cleaning processes is huge- might not be an issue as you say in the UK but it bloody well is in Africa! Or the clearing of large tracts of rainforest land to make way for huge farms? Then there is the potential for zoonotic diseases by keeping big numbers of animals in very close contact in not always sanitary conditions - the factory pig farms in China come to mind.

@SJaneS48 these are all reasons not to buy chinese pork, battery eggs, American feedlot beef. These are not reasons not to consume meat produced in the UK, which has a relatively small impact (and in fact does alot of good in terms of habitat management etc).

It feels like it wouldn't matter what standards we reached in the UK, we would still be tarred with the global industrial agriculture brush and it just isn't fair.

Maybe you drone on about it rather more than you think. And he's had enough of vegetarian holier than thou. He was out for a walk - he didn't need the moral lecture.

I don't understand why he said you were a bigot, it makes no sense in that context. Hypocrite? Absolutely if you bang on about meat farming whilst still consuming dairy products which is arguably worse.

@CrunchyNutNC No I don't think it's as complicated as that really. Yes these are some of the nitty gritty arguments but a majority of vegetarians will object to the simple act of killing and eating animals, and view it as immoral. I don't see why anyone would think that would be a practice that is ring fenced against criticism, it's obviously an active choice and not something that it could be considered bigoted to criticise such as a person's race or sexuality.

That wasn’t exactly what you said though @CrunchyNutNC, just to go back to your ‘mythical belief that life stock production does harm to the planet’, globally it does, it is & there is no ‘myth’ about it. And no, I don’t buy Chinese pork etc (the Charity my DH works for is currently campaigning to raise awareness of factory farming methods in the Far East & it would be a bit hypocritical to eat it at home!). I agree British Farmers need our support more than ever - particularly if they get shafted in post Brexit trade agreements. I’m veggie but the meat etc I do buy for the DC (as along with religion, politics etc we feel that’s a matter for independent choice) is all organic and largely local. I don’t think we should kid ourselves that we’ve reached some kind of summit in terms of animal welfare in farming practices in the U.K. though - access to pasture is still an issue as an e.g.

Live stock not life stock!

@SJaneS48 you are right, I've omitted an important 'UK' from my statement.
@aSofaNearYou I've never called/described anyone as bigoted in respect of this thread (or subject)

@CrunchyNutNC I didn't say you had, you replied to my comment which was about the OP and her partner, who did.

Well, the ‘planet’ is not exactly the same as the U.K. Crunchy (although I’m sure for a certain section of our population it pretty much is 🙂)