The speaker in the video is full of shit, now I understand that he's advocating for the protection of animals from cruelty. This I agree with as no living creature should be executed in a drawn out way causing agonizing pain, however, this is exactly what happens in the animal kingdom.

I'm sorry but the animal kingdom is divided into 2 groups, prey and predictors. Most prey die a slow painful death, this is the cruelty of nature. We humans who slaughter our food try and do so as quick as possible so there is no suffering, for the most part we do a decent job. Also let’s not forget that we live the way we live because we are at the top of the food chain, we are the most efficient predictor in the animal kingdom....just look at our population as evidence of that.

At the end of the day Humans are omnivorous, we can eat meat and veggies in moderation to get all our daily nutrients and live a healthy life. If you as an individual want to change that, more power to you, after all it's your choice to live with your chosen life style and no body has to the right to tell you otherwise, but the same applies to you.

They save that food is the spice of life, it is after all the one thing we do every day so variety is key, so when I look at the food that vegans eat I only consider it as a side dish to my main meal consisting of a delicious fresh cut, grain fed, T-Bone steak, cooked in extra virgin olive oil…..makes my mouth water just typing this. What can I say I love my meats, be it fish, cow, pig, or chicken.

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As for disease caused by food, I only agree with processed foods being eaten in excess, however, pinning down meat as the sole cause is ridiculous. Genetics has a lot in this too. Don't forget that our gene pool isn't what it used to be, it's fairly corrupted right now, and it’s caused by our empathy and the ability to use science to save.
There are many infants born with genetic abnormality which are either active or dormant. Infants with active abnormalities such as a whole in the heart would have naturally died at birth, this is nature’s way of weeding out genetic flaws, and after all you can only pass on your genetic code if you live long enough to procreate. But we as humans can't allow this to happen after all we have the means and tools to assist. The more we do this the more our gene pool becomes polluted. This pollution has unfortunately made us more susceptible to disease. In my opinion the movie Gattaca is a good example of is to come.

Now I’m not advocating allowing infants to die, but we will need some proper genetic screening to ensure that genetic flaws are dealt with either by fixing them before the child is born or giving the –parents all the info they need about the abnormalities and allow them to proceed or abort. As much as people like to look down at abortion, I can almost guarantee that no parent and I mean no parent would ever want their child to come out retarded, have missing limbs on purpose. Every parent wants the best for their children so they should be given the entire tools possible. For those children who have been born with such abnormalities they should be taken care of, it is not their faulty they came into the world the way they did, also if they to one day as adults want to have children they should be given all the help and tools to ensure their offspring are defect free.

Now I know some will automatically think about designer babies, but that’s not what I’m advocating, I’m simply saying that if genetic flaws are found then they should be fixed, similar to how a panel beater can remove the dents out of your car door, the door is still the same but the flaw is now removed.
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This is the wrong forum to have intelligent discussions with regard to animals and whether they exist for our consumption. Too many dumbasses to have any sort of meaningful dialogue...you need a more mature, conscious and conscientious crowd for that.

good point.

be the change you want to see in the world! ;)

wow reading back over some of this stuff I had missed this Gem of a reply, I would personally love to meet the person who came up with this chart based solely imo on them having thought up the name "ego system" first then thought it was too good not to use for a message of some sorts. I would just love to see them working their chart on the right side, to have them lay down on the ground and try and offer themselves up to be eaten by the frog and what looks like some fried eggs on the bottom right, now that would be a youtube video I'd watch for an hour if not more. I'm sure the whale would have no bothers becoming the food source for trees, snakes and small mice too.

Well, if you are OK with the fact, that dogs were breeded over generations to be your pet today, then OK. I personally wouldn't think that's Ok if it happens to us, but at least you are consistent.

Which studies? You never linked one. Don't forget, scientists are also humans and are entitled to a personal opinion, but that does not necessarily makes an scientific theory.

Second: Which animals? The animals suspected (no evidence) to have consciousness are usually not eaten. Yes, not even by others, they are usually not eaten.

If you don't include Spnges and Platyzoa and so on, then be specific. Which animals do you include? Chordata? Or only Vertebrate? Think, that Chordata include this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urochordata . That has more in common with us than a mollusc (like the octopus, that is also suspected by some with consciousness).

You are talk about animals that you can look in the eyes? The star-nosed mull (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star-nosed_mole) has no eyes, but it is a mammal like us. Don't you think 'looking into the eyes' is a bit unspecific.

And the last bit about the shark: is it then OK for us, if we hunt the animals we eat? Eating meat from hunted animals is right in your opinion? And what about animals that breed other animals as lifestock, like ants do?

I think you are really unspecific about this. And you throw the possibility out of the window, that sponges or plants have a consciousness, but we cannot really experimentally show a consciousness, so they may have one too. You're OK with eating plants, although we know the same about consciousness in them, as in many animals. You rule them out, because you cannot look into their eyes?

And my main point stands undisputed by you: I can accept the golden rule for humans, because other humans accept the golden rule too and include me in it. We cannot make a contract with sharks, that they accept the golden rule for humans. That's a main and important difference between us and animals.

Please show proof, that humans have a consciousness. Proof, not a feeling.

And show proof that plants have no consciousness. Proof, not a 'I cannot look into their eyes'.

Well, I could post 5 random videos of people doing stupid stuff (trust me, youtube is full of them). Then I can claim, humans cannot think. If you show one video of thinking humans, I can claim this is cleaned propaganda-stuff, and keep my claim.

Because you say the animals with mouth, brain, eyes etc. have consciousness makes it true and me silly, if I ask for proof for that claim? Yay, let's throw away the Age of Enlightenment and get back to: It's true because some holy might has said it is true!!!!