WHO ARE WE EATING?: Behind Your Meal Lies a Living Individual
January 4, 2024
Ethics, Project News
Our campaign titled “WHO ARE WE EATING?” (KOGA LI JEDEMO?) appeared in five cities – Sarajevo, Banja Luka, Tuzla, Mostar, and Zenica.
From December 20, 2023, to January 3, 2024, at a total of 26 locations, you could see billboards and citylights with the slogan “Koga li jedemo? Razmislite prije nego što uzmete viljušku!” (Who are we eating? Think before you pick up your fork!). Additionally, the campaign was featured on 70 displays across 14 vehicles in Sarajevo.
Why did we launch this campaign?
Motivational factors leading individuals to adopt a vegan lifestyle are nuanced and based on various personal beliefs, but three main reasons – ethical, health-related, and environmental – play significant roles in any combination.
Most people choose to live a vegan lifestyle because they oppose contributing to the suffering, exploitation, abuse, torture, and killing of innocent lives every year.
All living beings should have the right to life and freedom!
In the 17th century, Descartes considered animals to be machines and suggested they should be treated accordingly: as machines incapable of feeling pain or emotions. Since then, numerous studies have shown that animals have complex emotional and sensory structures similar to our own.
So why do we treat animals worse than in the 17th century, especially if it is insisted that humanity has evolved from all points of view? Obviously, that is not the case!
Every year, billions of animals are raised and slaughtered for consumption. The vast majority of these animals will be raised in intensive conditions on factory farms.
Is an animal a person?
Many people read/interpret the word “person” as “human”. But for many philosophers and individuals, a person is not necessarily a human!
Many scientists and philosophers (especially Australian philosopher Peter Singer) believe that many animals, including large primates, elephants, and even farm animals, experience sufficient levels of consciousness to be classified as “persons” because they appear to possess self-concepts. Many people believe that animals should be afforded some, if not all, of the same rights and protections enjoyed by humans.
Peter Singer argues that an animal (including human animals) must possess “rationality, autonomy, and self-awareness” to be classified as a person.
It is one thing when an animal can feel physical pain and experience it similarly to humans, and another when an animal is capable of foreseeing its own death, understanding its own existence, and desiring to prolong its existence and life. In such cases, the moral argument against diverting animals to slaughterhouses is surely strengthened.
There is a wealth of anecdotal evidence suggesting that animals (both farmed animals and pets) “know” they are going to die. However, without effective means of communication with animals, our understanding of their phenomenological experiences is at best limited.
If most people accept that animals are capable of suffering pain, many would then conclude that intentionally causing such suffering is morally indefensible. When such suffering is induced on a massive, industrial scale, it is understandable why some vegans use terms like “genocide” in relation to our treatment of animals.
The awareness that animals have the capacity to suffer, to experience physical and psychological pain, is sufficient reason for many to protect animals.
Despite there being many arguments in favor of veganism, people’s moral compasses vary greatly, and while some people are unaware of many facts about meat production and animal treatment, others are well aware but choose to turn a blind eye.
This is something people do with many potentially troubling issues in the world, from environmental destruction to homelessness. For some, it is simply easier to live this way.
If you truly care about animals, being vegan is the best thing you can do for them!
Whether it’s the dog you share your home with, the pig or chicken on a factory farm, or the fish pulled from the ocean, all animals deserve our protection and the right to live!
As veganism grows in popularity worldwide, there is a clear possibility that the compassion promoted by vegan ethics towards animals can bring benefits to humanity and the planet as a whole.
We hope to stimulate citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina to think, reflect, and change their dietary habits.
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