Wonderful passionate talk. Been a vegan for almost a year now and can't imagine going back to the lifestyle that I participated in for the first 64 and a half years of my life. I totally agree with the speaker that we all need to speak up.
Me too (68) and my husband (56), my sister (66), her husband (79) and my mother (89)!! Will never go back and deeply guilty and regretful that we didn't wake up decades ago!
Marky mark yea I feel this way , imagine , every time some one hurt another that INSTANTLY the very same thing happened to THEM , most unless they are a psychopath would understand and adjust their actions accordingly
Thankfully we humans are opening to the unconsciousness of speciesism. Thanks for bringing attention to a very important matter, how we use all other species as a commodity without thought, empathy or awareness.
Lots of schools in hindu philosophy recognize the fundamental unity in all creation. With that perspective, inflicting pain and suffering directly and indirectly on 'others', is the same thing as inflicting pain and suffering on 'yourself'. Karma will bite back. Karma is simply the principle of action and effect - "As you sow, so shall you reap". What we should attempt to do is purify all our thought and action - to think good, to do good. To reduce pain and suffering in this world as much as we can and develop compassion.
If a human was born with a malformed nervous system so that they do not respond to stimuli and can't really feel pain, do they still deserve empathy and compassion? IF YES -> Then we must apply that to all animals who we believe feel less or no pain compared to us -> Veganism IF NO -> Then the criteria for empathy and compassion is the ability to feel pain, as opposed to just being a human -> Veganism If a person believes only an animal which is human AND can feel pain deserves empathy and compassion -> Speciesism. A person can only justify speciesism if they can also justify other forms of prejudice: racism, sexism etc.
I mean a human who cannot respond to stimuli and can’t feel pain is not necessarily less intelligent than any other so of course they should get empathy. A better example would be someone who can no longer think as a human does. I think it’s ridiculous to compare killing a human to killing another specie for endless reasons.
@@bstone100 - why is it ridiculous to compare the killing our own species to killing other species of animals? not a trick question, I'm actually curious what your logic is for making that statement..
I have been vegetarian for years... and I can hardly believe I haven’t seen this talk until just now. Keep up the great content, TED Talks. Thanks for putting talks on from locations around the world with TEDx.
@@sytincer5708, You are urged to become VEGAN, since carnism (the destructive ideology that supports the use and consumption of animal products, especially for “food”) is arguably the foremost existential crisis.🌱
'95% of land animals raised for food in the US are POULTRY.' The 'Humane Slaughter Act' DOESN'T APPLY TO POULTRY. We fall for these bait-&-switch laws because we're too 'Busy' to pay attention..
5 years have past, yet every day, I see documentaries and talks that say exactly these words to a world where the majority chooses not to listen and reconsider. The awareness is greater, thanks to talks like this, but the faces of many in the audience mirror the faces of people hearing these same horrors so many years later. Their discomfort, nausea, disbelief is tangible. Now, they all know. They can never again say that they had no knowledge of this. How many have changed their level of compassion, I wonder? Thank you.
If everybody's suffering is wrong, then only eating animal products a few times a week is WRONG. I was loving this video until 9:45 when he started espousing animal welfare organizations and behavior which promotes reducing animal suffering instead of ending it. VEGANISM IS THE ONLY WAY TO END EVERYBODY'S SUFFERING.
He was trying to appeal to the general public, because some people can't go vegan over night, its part of their programmed minds. I feel you on this though, I wish they could.. I hope with all my heart the majority of the people he spoke to are going vegan.
Janeene Williams please, next time do not be so agitated and aggressive. Vegans like you only turn others away from being vegan. You scare people. They are different, they are still swimming in their dirt. Let them do it slow, or unfortunately, you will scare them away. Better if you delete this comment.
There's no such thing as "only one way." That's simplistic. But being vegan or vegetarian is an important element. Life is more complicated than that. Any time someone says they have "the cure," whether it's a diet, or a bronze-age myth they think you need to believe in, you can bet it's wrong.
What would do the most good for ending animal suffering is if vegan products were cheaper than products with meat, eggs, and dairy. Perhaps vegan products should be subsidized instead of meat and dairy products.
I'm glad you had that revelation. But I was calling the problem "speciesism" in the 1960s, without philosophy classes. And let me tell you, there wasn't much peer support then, it was hard to find even the most basic vegan ingredients, it was kind of isolating, and everything we ate was brown and had sunflower seeeds on it (okay, the last part was only partly true although vegetarian food back then was heavier). And mainstream people thought we were odd. The vegetarian/vegan concept isn't new, just in the Western Hemisphere. Buddhists, Hindus and Jaines, among others, have known all along. If you read about Ashoka, he was the first historical leader ever to actually codify rights of animals, and conservation of ecosystems and wildlife, and he lived long ago, around the time of Buddha. His stupas are still standing all over India with those laws on them. He had also had a sudden revelation, and converted himself and his entire country to a more peaceful, merciful way of life.
Mary Sanchez I don’t believe he said it was a new concept. Regardless, Thank you for being vegan 40 years before I was born so that now I can have the easy vegan options in the store!💚
Great video. I enjoyed the blank guilty stares every time they pan the audience. Those kids felt like shit about themselves. Then they probably went to the school cafe and had a chicken sandwich, that is the sad truth.
As long as one person in the audience went vegan that’s a win, to the ones who didn’t, he planted a seed, people who take their own pace in going vegan are most likely to stick to it too
Re3iRtH They shouldn’t feel guilty for that. Saddened, yes, but ultimately, we’ve all grown up in a world that normalizes animals as food for us. Choosing to change our ways once we have the knowledge that we are in fact causing suffering is what matters.
unfortunately major changes in human behavior are simply not brought about overnight.. humans don't like being told what to do, how to act, or how to think.. furthermore people don't understand how to change.. they don't understand how to eat if they don't eat animal products.. it's to difficult for most and they need more information on not simply why they should change, but how to actually make those changes.. and I don't mean 'it's easy, simply stop eating meat and dairy' or somesuch.. I'm talking about what to cook, and how to cook it.. nutrition is ignored by design these days..
There's so many videos where you can actually see the conditions and treatment these creatures suffer that he's talking about :( Sidenote.....the people on their phones during his talk...so rude
If you tell people you don't eat dead animals they look at you like 'why would you call it that.' They seem genuinely surprised that the meat they're eating is a dead animal
I don't agree.. realistically changing people's mindset requires baby steps.. you have to make it easy for people to change, not just use moral grounds.. those of us in the animal rights arena know how hard it is to pass any legislation concerning animals due to the very powerful food industry making it difficult to even pass the smallest changes like stiffer penalties for things like domestic animal abuse (which believe it or not that same food industry plays a huge part in lobbying against and spends millions of dollars to prevent changes) much less legislating for sweeping changes to the food industry itself outright..
A famous quote from the movie, "The Silence of the Lambs", = CLARICE: If he sees Catherine as a person and not just an object, it's harder to tear her up.
I need to apologize for an image I used when talking about racism and sexism about a third of the way in. I chose at least one image that was unnecessarily trivializing for victims of those oppressions. In choosing it, I failed to sufficiently empathize with people's lived experiences. What would have been more powerful would be to have spent more time focusing on the lived experiences of the animals in the cages, under the knives, at the slaughterhouse. If I had it to do again, I would have emphasized animals’ perspectives more. And I would have done less to allow the interpretation that I wanted to trivialize other oppressions, including through my choice of images.
With him for the first half... until he got wishy-washy by not making it clear that veganism is absolutely imperative morally. People may say that some folks will only be able to make the change in small steps. If you're advocating against speciesism, but then in the same breath you make speciesist recommendations, it dilutes the message and makes it less believable and respectable. Let's not treat adults like babies who need baby steps and can't understand this logic and information. Make it clear that anything short of veganism is speciesistic and morally wrong, and back it up with sound reasoning and information. People are capable of listening and understanding.
true. but we all know how incredibly hard it is to make people even consider going vegan. and meanwhile the planet and the animals are dying. so i rather people AT LEAST it LESS meat/dairy. something is better than nothing
The trouble I have with the speciesism argument is that it eventually falls to pieces. I assume the line for your moral concern will be set at the level of sentience, i.e. if an animal is sentient we should cause it no harm, or at least reduce the suffering of those animals. I would assume that under an anti speciesism framework all animals above that line are morally equivalent, because to say otherwise would be speciesism. The problem with this world view is that crop farming causes immense pain and destruction to animals. There’s the small animals whose homes are ripped to pieces by ploughing, or who are eviscerated alive by the harvesting. The birds whose trees are removed to make room for the crops. The rodents around the storage’s who are poisoned so they slowly bleed to death internally over the course of days. We can contrast that with grass fed beef as an example: the animal lives its life in a pasture that’s rich in biodiversity. The same animals and birds who are grotesquely murdered in a crop field live along side the cattle in symbiosis. Then, at harvest time, the cow is stunned and slaughtered so does not feel the pain and dies instantly. And for each cow death we will feed ourselves for months. You see, it’s not at all clear that eating bread or soy has any advantages over eating grass fed meat. Notice I’m not defending factory farming. It’s actually quite possible to, like me, not eat products from a factory farm. I’m probably a reducitarian, I suppose, because I don’t eat large amounts of meat. I prefer regenatarian though, because my animal consumption is entirely from regenerative farms. So aren’t you also just “diluting the message” of anti speciesism by consuming products which do cause suffering? Is the plight of the bycatch of the cropping process less important than that of a cow or a chicken, even though they suffer a much more agonising death?
I totally agree with the ethical arguments of this article but how do we apply these principles to our pets ? Even if eating and experimenting on animals is immoral, what about veterinary medicine and pet food ? How do I give my cat a vegan diet ? I'm desperate to know.
the humane society i am not crazy about them. but all this is just really simple, be nice to the babies and no one gets hurt. love them, do not eat or wear them.
I feel conflicted about this. I personally eat little to no meat, but when my dog was still alive, I would feed her chicken and beef. I bought that meat for her, so I'm guilty. Chickens and cows were slaughtered on my behalf, so I could feed the meat to my dog. I don't know how this dilemma can be resolved. Some people feed their dog vegan food, but I understand that this is not good for them. Cats are apparently even more strict, being obligate carnivores. We can do away with keeping pets, but does it really resolve the problem?
Nice video. A good first introduction to speciesism. But animal consumption as food is just one aspect of speciesism. We as humans view animals in circuses and zoos 🎪 as entertainment. We wear animal fur and skin. We breed pets and sell them, and so many of them that we have hundreds of stray pets. We ride horses, camels, and elephants for entertainment. We hunt animals and place their heads on our walls. We participate in chicken fights, rodeos, and bull riding. We experiment on animals and also test our beauty products on then. We do so much harm to animals.....
Thank you for this. I’ve known being veggie is the best path but found it hard to keep up. I do buy my eggs from a small organic farm on my road. I know they are on pasture because I see them every time I go there. I’m going to start “reducing” because I might have better luck staying the course. Again, thank you
You are urged to become VEGAN, since carnism (the destructive ideology that supports the use and consumption of animal products, especially for “food”) is arguably the foremost existential crisis.🌱
Misleading intro: So u actually learned that 'everyone's suffering matters' when u were 5yrs old-not from your phd. From another perspective: most of us 'know' that all suffering matters when we are children-then our dominating culture conditions us away from this truth.
I agree that the rudiments of this wisdom is with us when we are children. Adults socialize children not to be disgusted by blood exactly when it is that of a 'food' animal, often to accept nasty or brutal treatment of animals as necessary. It takes a certain amount of cognitive strain to identify speciesism and tear ourselves out of it; that's the important role for logical insight here.
"I recently finished my PhD in Philosophy". That's it, that's all I heard before closing the video and having the tasty medium-rare steak I just made. Want some? Maybe you'll develop some common sense.
The highest peak of consciousness is to be a Christian vegan. Good and gracious GOD, Please watch over all the compassionate people fighting the good fight to end Speciesism in our lifetime. There is so much death and misery (not to mention also zoonotic diseases spreading) because of factory farming and live animal markets. May you please comfort these innocent, sentient beings who are imprisoned, tortured, and slaughtered by the psychopaths and hypocrites of this fallen world. Please let truth, peace, love, and justice prevail in Jesus' name. Amen. Proverbs 12:10 NLT The godly care for their animals, but the wicked are always cruel. Romans 14:2 NLT ...another believer with a sensitive conscience will eat only vegetables. Psalm 36:6 NLT Your righteousness is like the mighty mountains, your justice like the ocean depths. You care for people and animals alike, O Lord.
You say eating beef is worse, but if you think like a Buddhist... one cow will suffer and die to feed a large number of people for a long time, compared to smaller animals. The Dalai Lama was once served shrimp at a dinner, and commented about how many lives of shrimp were lost just on his own plate. And in terms of bioavailable protein, beef provides more major protein per gram than pork, poultry, or fish (along with cholesterol and an imbalanced nutritional profile that causes osteoporosis). I'd feel better if you gave data, along with all the passion.
Mary Sanchez A cow also possesses a higher level of consciousness than a shrimp and have more intricate and developed cognitive functions. They feel suffering at a level that surpasses a shrimp. The best thing to do is just to stop eating animals all together. There’s no reason not to if we care for other sentient beings.
@@zain4019 - not so sure on your argument.. and the assumption of actual truth of it concerning higher consciousness and the level of suffering concerned.. while you can make an argument based on what we know about physiology in connection with pain perception and cognitive function.. saying the cow possesses a higher level of consciousness than the shrimp based upon the development of cognition gets onto shakey ground because we do not have the scientific means to evaluate consciousness much less any varying levels of it.. we've barely scratched the surface of animal cognition due to years of the refusal to study it, and the poorly designed parameters of the studies.. what we do know is that animals can feel pain, and the same types of emotion and complex thought that were once used as the dividing line distinguishing humans from other animals.. a line that is constantly having to be redefined by those who want to believe other animal species are not 'like humans' and that humans are somehow better than other sentient beings..
I only purchase eggs from farms that raise their chickens in a very humane way, on green, grassy pastures with fresh air, sunshine and room to do what chickens do...their fed non-GMO vegetarian feed, grass and bugs. My heart won't allow me to purchase eggs from chickens raise in a lower standard of care. Knowing about industrial farming makes my blood boil.
Diana I think you are definitely doing the right thing... all these people demanding everyone go vegan or the highway ARE NOT getting the point, they aren't realizing that their demand is what's actually keeping the worst factory farms from going out of business, since they make it seem like ALL farms are the same and you can never change anything if you want to eat meat/dairy. Ironically this is why after decades of VEGANISM movement the wrost factory farms are FLOURISHING and still providing the majority of the meat/dairy that americans/westerners consume. Instead of screaming veganism or the highway, all the vegans should encourage their friends and family to cut at least 50% of the meat/dairy intake and when they do consume meat/dairy, to try and support local traditional farms or at least seek "hormone/antibiotic free' products. This WILL go a long way in eliminating the worstt of factory farms MUCH MORE than just "veganism or NOTHING" approach
@Ashly Woo - I'm intrigured by your thought. What will you call this movement to convince people to eat 50% less animals, eggs and milk? More importantly how will you convince them to do that? What will their motivation be? What should our first steps and organizational attempts be geared toward? Is there any established propaganda that you know of that approaches your idea of getting people to eat half the meat, eggs and animal milk that they currently do?
@@antibreeder1m No I disagree... we biologically rely on animals for our diet, just predator animals do in nature... An ever-increasing amount of testemonials are surfacing from people who are have suffered serious health setbacks on a vegan diet. Our bodies simply aren't designed to properly digest and absorb massive amount of plant materials for our sustenance. The "vegan movement" will die..~
iev k Evidence suggests otherwise. Vegans are healthier than meat-eaters by every measure- lower rates of cardiovascular disease, diabetes, cancer and obesity as well as longer life expectancy and lower mortality. A vegan diet is healthier, so on that front yes, for health alone, we should go vegan. Our ancestors weren’t perfect. They survived in the best way they could. Now that we have supermarkets filled with fruits, vegetables, beans, lentils, tofu and plant-based milks and cheeses, why would the path of unnecessary suffering be right? Because of taste, convenience, tradition and habit? That’s not enough. We can make this world better for all of us- humans and animals.
@Rida Sattar Sentience is consciousness The features of consciousness are creativity, intelligence, sapience, self-awareness, and intentionality. So a human is higher in terms of sentience. This means there is a scale in terms of suffering and a human would suffer much more due to their heightened consciousness. to compare a cow to a human is factually incorrect.
@@sachinraghavan4556 Ironic you're commenting on youtube a human invention. Let alone all the other countless human creations that have made your life easier and safer. If anyone in the world lives past the age of 25 you can thank humans and their ever-advancing technologies. The natural state of humans is abject poverty and it's only due to other humans 100million people per year are being lifted out of it.
It can be a food chain only when you go hunting without using any tools to help you such as guns or other, using only your body and your skills. “Livestock” farming does not fall within the definition of the food chain, but neither does agriculture. Please have a bit of critical sense and go educate yourself better on what antispeciesism is
@@Alinax99 how does it not fit that definition? I'd very much like to know. You know it doesn't have to be an actual chain, right. It can be a bit abstract.
I grew up farming and hunting. I am completely against animal cruelty but I believe in humane killing for food. I believe that eating animals is part of our omnivorous lives but I believe that it is not necessary to treat animals unnecessarily cruely in the production of meat.
Do your research. "The ancestors of Homo sapiens cooked their food, cooking has been around for approximately a million year (that is around 500 000 years longer than the human species has existed) (Berna et al., 2012; Organ, Nunn, Machanda, & Wrangham, 2011). Traces of humans eating meat is also ancient and seems to have been around for as long as our species existed (Pobiner, 2013). One of our closest relatives the chimpanzee also eats an omnivorus diet with mainly fruits, but occasionally eats animals (McGrew, 1983)" Can you present me with a valid argument to back up your hypothesis?
Woah, so soulful of you to insult someone you don't know over the internet. I am sure it magically made him realise that it is, in fact, unnecessary for humans to eat meat. Well done.
I love meat, but I couldn't swallow a single bite right now. The things this guy says are so unbelievably stupid, that I cannot even grasp them. Which speaks rather good about me. The guy has so many subs and so many likes under his videos, but he speaks out such shit, which people gladly accept, that I'm deeply worried about our societies.
Oh, really, only because they can't speak, or why? Because I'm sure animals expected better of us, and they thought we were the angles of the world, well guess what, not all of the humans in this world are "angels", for example people like you who don't care about animals, thinking they don't care about us, have you seen videos in which animals save and love people? Well I'm guessing no, shame on you and your "thoughts" I feel so bad for you, and I wouldn't consider you "human" because if you were you would have kind soul and heart, but all you are is mean, liar, pathetic, and a nonhuman! Anyways not wasting my good life on nonhumane "things" like you. Get a heart and life!!
i care about animals, i have two cats and a dog. but i just don't like PETA and could never go vegan there are certain vitamins and proteins in meat that you can't get from plants and i mean't no offense when writing that comment. besides, PETA is insane sometimes. so PETA people eating tasty animals. :D mmmm i love my chicken and steak.
PETA taps into the conscious of people by showing the brutality and pain inflicted on animals. And those horrors are not easy to watch nor accept. Not 'liking' the things they show is therefore actually a good thing that shows that your conscious is not (yet) too numb to get upset and thus (still) care. Could there be a chance that you "love" your "chicken and steak" because you were forced into a habit from when you were way little and thus "grew" into it? Could it be that you were taught that you need "certain vitamins and proteins in meat that you can't get from plants" but that that actually is not true? Did you research matters from the things plants provide?
Actually that is not accurate. You can get all the nutrients you need from a plant based diet. Do the research. There are professional athletes who manage on vegan diets! Can PETA be too intense. Yup they can. THAT ISN'T THE POINT. The point is are billions of animals suffering? Yes , everyday.
10% of th population is vegetarian but less than 2% make it to centenarian and even less so for vegans. That doesn't speak too well for th vegetable people BUT th OMNIVORES WIN, YES!!!
There are also a whole lot of other factors that influence lifespan, like genetics, alcohol and smoking and exercise. In other words just because an omnivore lived to a great age it doesn't mean that it was because of their diet.
Joanna Hooper. Uh Duh...U didn't get did U? Why didn't U? Is it bcz your a vegan? I have to put it on a silver platter every time. Lemme try n spell it out for U step by step: Although 10% of th population is vegetarian less than 2% of 'em make it past 100yrs. Do U see th numbers yet? Is it so difficult?
Joanna Hooper. BUT if it were vegans living longer you'd be saying that it WAS bcz of their diet. Your bias is showing. Therefore I'm gonna have to give U th buzzer...Bzzzzz
You are comparing food to humans which is baffling to me. No one is for cruelty to animals, but most domesticated animals wouldn't survive without humans. Such is the nature of domestication. E.g. the breeds of cats and dogs you love so dearly are defective due to inbreeding.
Agriculture is based on supply and demand. As the need for meat decreases, fewer and fewer animals will be produced for slaughter and consumption. It will take time for the meat-industry to be phased out, and it will happen gradually. As the world moves to vegansim, less and less animals will be bred, and eventually, none at all. The world won’t be overrun by farm animals. Vegansim will just end their unnecessary suffering. If we’d like, we could set aside an area for free-ranging farm animals to live peacefully without predators or other intervention from humans. Vegansim will simply end the pain these animals experience from the moment they are born till the moment they are killed for their meat.
Funny how he doesn't talk about plants or insects and the injustices that are inflicted on them. For a philosopher he sure does present a limited view of things.
Bill Ilkovski Plants aren’t sentient beings. They don’t scream, they don’t feel pain (different from responding to environmental stimuli), and they don’t have a heart.
Great Lake Blake Denial is the first step toward change. I hope you open yourself to other views one day. There’s no logical or moral reason to ever eat animals in our society.
Wonderful passionate talk. Been a vegan for almost a year now and can't imagine going back to the lifestyle that I participated in for the first 64 and a half years of my life. I totally agree with the speaker that we all need to speak up.
Me too (68) and my husband (56), my sister (66), her husband (79) and my mother (89)!! Will never go back and deeply guilty and regretful that we didn't wake up decades ago!
please listen to this man...he is revealing so many truths...
+Sam Couvillon what! You have no right to say that! Shame on you!all you are is " nonhumane"
@sam poor deluded christian, can't understand that humans are a species of animal.
while I agree with the message, this speaker wasn't very good at conveying it IMO
Great content. I agree with the topic. All lives matter, all species .
the lives of those who harm animals don't matter.
Marky mark yea I feel this way , imagine , every time some one hurt another that INSTANTLY the very same thing happened to THEM , most unless they are a psychopath would understand and adjust their actions accordingly
Wow.. you weird psychotic hippies
Then be vegan.
Thankfully we humans are opening to the unconsciousness of speciesism. Thanks for bringing attention to a very important
matter, how we use all other species as a commodity without thought, empathy or awareness.
I love the message "Everyone's Suffering Matters" "Similar interests deserve similar treatment"
So glad that you put this essential message out into the world, through TED!
Every living creature feels fear and pain; humans are the only animal species that deserves to be called 'beast'; have a heart people ....
Yes!! Of course totally agree!!
Microrganisms don't feel pain
I prefer to have a brain.
@@laurentfaurite9199 I feel so sorry for you, cause apparantly you have neither a heart nor a brain ......
@@amylovendaal9732 Do plants feel pain?
Beautifully articulated talk! We are sharing this in a community gathering in SF Bay Area to help educate our friends and family. Thank you, Jay!
I'd pick other talks and information and use data.. this speaker didn't convey the message very well IMO..
Lots of schools in hindu philosophy recognize the fundamental unity in all creation. With that perspective, inflicting pain and suffering directly and indirectly on 'others', is the same thing as inflicting pain and suffering on 'yourself'. Karma will bite back. Karma is simply the principle of action and effect - "As you sow, so shall you reap".
What we should attempt to do is purify all our thought and action - to think good, to do good. To reduce pain and suffering in this world as much as we can and develop compassion.
yeah.. good luck with that.. moral grounds will not win this argument as far as people actually making lifestyle changes goes..
A wonderfully powerful presentation revealing the truth... Thank you! #GoVegan
Be on the right side of history. 💘
And on the side of compassion:)
Be on the side of compassion and eat meat
Be vegan.
Maurya Gupta
No.
@The suree go with that
Thank you for your wonderful message. I'm sure it will help. Thank you!
If a human was born with a malformed nervous system so that they do not respond to stimuli and can't really feel pain, do they still deserve empathy and compassion?
IF YES -> Then we must apply that to all animals who we believe feel less or no pain compared to us -> Veganism
IF NO -> Then the criteria for empathy and compassion is the ability to feel pain, as opposed to just being a human -> Veganism
If a person believes only an animal which is human AND can feel pain deserves empathy and compassion -> Speciesism.
A person can only justify speciesism if they can also justify other forms of prejudice: racism, sexism etc.
I love it. The criteria shouldn't be whether they are human or not.
I mean a human who cannot respond to stimuli and can’t feel pain is not necessarily less intelligent than any other so of course they should get empathy. A better example would be someone who can no longer think as a human does. I think it’s ridiculous to compare killing a human to killing another specie for endless reasons.
@@bstone100 - why is it ridiculous to compare the killing our own species to killing other species of animals? not a trick question, I'm actually curious what your logic is for making that statement..
I have been vegetarian for years... and I can hardly believe I haven’t seen this talk until just now. Keep up the great content, TED Talks. Thanks for putting talks on from locations around the world with TEDx.
@Eilish Hassett have you thought about minding your own business and letting people eat what they want?
:)
Go vegan
@@sytincer5708, You are urged to become VEGAN, since carnism (the destructive ideology that supports the use and consumption of animal products, especially for “food”) is arguably the foremost existential crisis.🌱
Vegan for the animals!!! Great talk
What happens to the animals you want to liberate?
Great talk, you can see most people fully engaged and clearly affected by his statements of truth.
'95% of land animals raised for food in the US are POULTRY.'
The 'Humane Slaughter Act' DOESN'T APPLY TO POULTRY.
We fall for these bait-&-switch laws because we're too 'Busy' to pay attention..
5 years have past, yet every day, I see documentaries and talks that say exactly these words to a world where the majority chooses not to listen and reconsider. The awareness is greater, thanks to talks like this, but the faces of many in the audience mirror the faces of people hearing these same horrors so many years later. Their discomfort, nausea, disbelief is tangible. Now, they all know. They can never again say that they had no knowledge of this. How many have changed their level of compassion, I wonder? Thank you.
Loved the talk. Thank you very much. Keep speaking.
If everybody's suffering is wrong, then only eating animal products a few times a week is WRONG. I was loving this video until 9:45 when he started espousing animal welfare organizations and behavior which promotes reducing animal suffering instead of ending it. VEGANISM IS THE ONLY WAY TO END EVERYBODY'S SUFFERING.
He was trying to appeal to the general public, because some people can't go vegan over night, its part of their programmed minds. I feel you on this though, I wish they could.. I hope with all my heart the majority of the people he spoke to are going vegan.
A more pragmatic approach is the way forward. Idealism is great, but in terms of ending non-human animal suffering asap, it's been a failure.
Janeene Williams please, next time do not be so agitated and aggressive. Vegans like you only turn others away from being vegan. You scare people. They are different, they are still swimming in their dirt. Let them do it slow, or unfortunately, you will scare them away. Better if you delete this comment.
There's no such thing as "only one way." That's simplistic. But being vegan or vegetarian is an important element. Life is more complicated than that. Any time someone says they have "the cure," whether it's a diet, or a bronze-age myth they think you need to believe in, you can bet it's wrong.
What would do the most good for ending animal suffering is if vegan products were cheaper than products with meat, eggs, and dairy. Perhaps vegan products should be subsidized instead of meat and dairy products.
good thing you can live a thriving healthy life as a vegan!
I'm glad you had that revelation. But I was calling the problem "speciesism" in the 1960s, without philosophy classes. And let me tell you, there wasn't much peer support then, it was hard to find even the most basic vegan ingredients, it was kind of isolating, and everything we ate was brown and had sunflower seeeds on it (okay, the last part was only partly true although vegetarian food back then was heavier). And mainstream people thought we were odd. The vegetarian/vegan concept isn't new, just in the Western Hemisphere. Buddhists, Hindus and Jaines, among others, have known all along. If you read about Ashoka, he was the first historical leader ever to actually codify rights of animals, and conservation of ecosystems and wildlife, and he lived long ago, around the time of Buddha. His stupas are still standing all over India with those laws on them. He had also had a sudden revelation, and converted himself and his entire country to a more peaceful, merciful way of life.
Mary Sanchez I don’t believe he said it was a new concept. Regardless, Thank you for being vegan 40 years before I was born so that now I can have the easy vegan options in the store!💚
No wonder aliens don’t want to be found.
i saw two guys at 9 minute mark wiping their eyes. i feel you bro
go vegan!
people argue; "well it's the natural cycle of things and how it's always been" but that is the purpose of progress, to become a more humane world.
Great video. I enjoyed the blank guilty stares every time they pan the audience. Those kids felt like shit about themselves. Then they probably went to the school cafe and had a chicken sandwich, that is the sad truth.
They want to be blind and not seeing the truth. It is just easier for them.
As long as one person in the audience went vegan that’s a win, to the ones who didn’t, he planted a seed, people who take their own pace in going vegan are most likely to stick to it too
Re3iRtH
They shouldn’t feel guilty for that. Saddened, yes, but ultimately, we’ve all grown up in a world that normalizes animals as food for us. Choosing to change our ways once we have the knowledge that we are in fact causing suffering is what matters.
unfortunately major changes in human behavior are simply not brought about overnight.. humans don't like being told what to do, how to act, or how to think.. furthermore people don't understand how to change.. they don't understand how to eat if they don't eat animal products.. it's to difficult for most and they need more information on not simply why they should change, but how to actually make those changes.. and I don't mean 'it's easy, simply stop eating meat and dairy' or somesuch.. I'm talking about what to cook, and how to cook it.. nutrition is ignored by design these days..
...or they are paying attention?
Compassionate man is the sexiest man.
There's so many videos where you can actually see the conditions and treatment these creatures suffer that he's talking about :( Sidenote.....the people on their phones during his talk...so rude
Have you heard of predator prey realtionships
Idk if has
He*
@@goose6112 Yeah because a wolf tortures it’s prey for weeks and then makes a profit off of that torture
@@a_coloradan8689 lame
Cats gets declawed= fingers getting cut off
Chicken having peck cut= nose cut off
i am vegan From INDIA ..
save animal save nature
A great talk... well done jay quigley. :)
Great and lowly are RELATIVE. 😉
Thanks Jay for this inspiring and informative presentation!
Speciecism is why we sympathize domestic pets and wild animals over livestock and marine organisms.
If you tell people you don't eat dead animals they look at you like 'why would you call it that.' They seem genuinely surprised that the meat they're eating is a dead animal
A Vegan lifestyle is my truth! ❤️
I love it. Thank you.!
Great talk! So convincing!
Thank you, Jay! But the only solution, my friend, is going completely vegan and not just 80% vegan. Keep up the good work!
I don't agree.. realistically changing people's mindset requires baby steps.. you have to make it easy for people to change, not just use moral grounds.. those of us in the animal rights arena know how hard it is to pass any legislation concerning animals due to the very powerful food industry making it difficult to even pass the smallest changes like stiffer penalties for things like domestic animal abuse (which believe it or not that same food industry plays a huge part in lobbying against and spends millions of dollars to prevent changes) much less legislating for sweeping changes to the food industry itself outright..
A famous quote from the movie, "The Silence of the Lambs", = CLARICE: If he sees Catherine as a person and not just an object, it's harder to tear her up.
Why he talks about “reducing” instead of “stopping” when his main idea is that EVERY SUFFERING MATTERS
Amazing ....👍👍👍👏👏👏
How do we make this thought to go viral !!
I need to apologize for an image I used when talking about racism and sexism about a third of the way in. I chose at least one image that was unnecessarily trivializing for victims of those oppressions. In choosing it, I failed to sufficiently empathize with people's lived experiences. What would have been more powerful would be to have spent more time focusing on the lived experiences of the animals in the cages, under the knives, at the slaughterhouse. If I had it to do again, I would have emphasized animals’ perspectives more. And I would have done less to allow the interpretation that I wanted to trivialize other oppressions, including through my choice of images.
With him for the first half... until he got wishy-washy by not making it clear that veganism is absolutely imperative morally. People may say that some folks will only be able to make the change in small steps. If you're advocating against speciesism, but then in the same breath you make speciesist recommendations, it dilutes the message and makes it less believable and respectable. Let's not treat adults like babies who need baby steps and can't understand this logic and information. Make it clear that anything short of veganism is speciesistic and morally wrong, and back it up with sound reasoning and information. People are capable of listening and understanding.
William Ten Kate totally agreeable
true. but we all know how incredibly hard it is to make people even consider going vegan. and meanwhile the planet and the animals are dying. so i rather people AT LEAST it LESS meat/dairy. something is better than nothing
Holy s**t! You NAILED it! 👍👍👍👍
The trouble I have with the speciesism argument is that it eventually falls to pieces. I assume the line for your moral concern will be set at the level of sentience, i.e. if an animal is sentient we should cause it no harm, or at least reduce the suffering of those animals. I would assume that under an anti speciesism framework all animals above that line are morally equivalent, because to say otherwise would be speciesism. The problem with this world view is that crop farming causes immense pain and destruction to animals. There’s the small animals whose homes are ripped to pieces by ploughing, or who are eviscerated alive by the harvesting. The birds whose trees are removed to make room for the crops. The rodents around the storage’s who are poisoned so they slowly bleed to death internally over the course of days.
We can contrast that with grass fed beef as an example: the animal lives its life in a pasture that’s rich in biodiversity. The same animals and birds who are grotesquely murdered in a crop field live along side the cattle in symbiosis. Then, at harvest time, the cow is stunned and slaughtered so does not feel the pain and dies instantly. And for each cow death we will feed ourselves for months.
You see, it’s not at all clear that eating bread or soy has any advantages over eating grass fed meat.
Notice I’m not defending factory farming. It’s actually quite possible to, like me, not eat products from a factory farm. I’m probably a reducitarian, I suppose, because I don’t eat large amounts of meat. I prefer regenatarian though, because my animal consumption is entirely from regenerative farms.
So aren’t you also just “diluting the message” of anti speciesism by consuming products which do cause suffering? Is the plight of the bycatch of the cropping process less important than that of a cow or a chicken, even though they suffer a much more agonising death?
I felt like crying when I saw snow is having a half beak.😭😭
Good speech, well explained
I managed to convince my boyfriend gradually to be vegetarian. I'm very happy with that. He always tells me that my meal are very good.
I totally agree with the ethical arguments of this article but how do we apply these principles to our pets ? Even if eating and experimenting on animals is immoral, what about veterinary medicine and pet food ? How do I give my cat a vegan diet ? I'm desperate to know.
Louise Haley you can’t really give cats a vegan diet. Not yet anyways until ingredients are improved.
My two dogs have been very healthy on a vegan diet. One lived to 15. The other is still going strong at 13.
Everyone “loves” animals until they hear the word “vegan”…then they’ll argue tooth and nail why it’s acceptable to abuse them.
Rob Zombie
I adore this
Consumerism isnt going to change anything, capitalism is the root problem
Not a fan of the pitch but I agree with the message. :)
the humane society i am not crazy about them. but all this is just really simple, be nice to the babies and no one gets hurt. love them, do not eat or wear them.
I feel conflicted about this. I personally eat little to no meat, but when my dog was still alive, I would feed her chicken and beef. I bought that meat for her, so I'm guilty. Chickens and cows were slaughtered on my behalf, so I could feed the meat to my dog. I don't know how this dilemma can be resolved. Some people feed their dog vegan food, but I understand that this is not good for them. Cats are apparently even more strict, being obligate carnivores. We can do away with keeping pets, but does it really resolve the problem?
#GOVEGAN
Nice 1 brother! 💖
Vegansim and vegetarianism are not on the same level, the egg and dairy industries are the meat industry
Amazing!!! Great job! Go vegan always. End specism
People, animals, plants, & materials are connected what affects one affect all.
Good job Man.
Nice video. A good first introduction to speciesism. But animal consumption as food is just one aspect of speciesism. We as humans view animals in circuses and zoos 🎪 as entertainment. We wear animal fur and skin. We breed pets and sell them, and so many of them that we have hundreds of stray pets. We ride horses, camels, and elephants for entertainment. We hunt animals and place their heads on our walls. We participate in chicken fights, rodeos, and bull riding. We experiment on animals and also test our beauty products on then. We do so much harm to animals.....
Thank you for this. I’ve known being veggie is the best path but found it hard to keep up. I do buy my eggs from a small organic farm on my road. I know they are on pasture because I see them every time I go there. I’m going to start “reducing” because I might have better luck staying the course. Again, thank you
You are urged to become VEGAN, since carnism (the destructive ideology that supports the use and consumption of animal products, especially for “food”) is arguably the foremost existential crisis.🌱
Misleading intro: So u actually learned that 'everyone's suffering matters' when u were 5yrs old-not from your phd. From another perspective: most of us 'know' that all suffering matters when we are children-then our dominating culture conditions us away from this truth.
I agree that the rudiments of this wisdom is with us when we are children. Adults socialize children not to be disgusted by blood exactly when it is that of a 'food' animal, often to accept nasty or brutal treatment of animals as necessary. It takes a certain amount of cognitive strain to identify speciesism and tear ourselves out of it; that's the important role for logical insight here.
"I recently finished my PhD in Philosophy". That's it, that's all I heard before closing the video and having the tasty medium-rare steak I just made. Want some? Maybe you'll develop some common sense.
The highest peak of consciousness is to be a Christian vegan.
Good and gracious GOD,
Please watch over all the compassionate people fighting the good fight to end Speciesism in our lifetime. There is so much death and misery (not to mention also zoonotic diseases spreading) because of factory farming and live animal markets. May you please comfort these innocent, sentient beings who are imprisoned, tortured, and slaughtered by the psychopaths and hypocrites of this fallen world. Please let truth, peace, love, and justice prevail in Jesus' name. Amen.
Proverbs 12:10 NLT
The godly care for their animals, but the wicked are always cruel.
Romans 14:2 NLT
...another believer with a sensitive conscience will eat only vegetables.
Psalm 36:6 NLT
Your righteousness is like the mighty mountains,
your justice like the ocean depths.
You care for people and animals alike, O Lord.
God said we are worth more than other animals tho
Cherry picking the Bible, as usual.
Damn, I hope everyone there went vegan afterward
God literally said we are more worth than animals
Reducitarianism isn't the solution
Camera man you are fired.
So many choices for vegan.
You say eating beef is worse, but if you think like a Buddhist... one cow will suffer and die to feed a large number of people for a long time, compared to smaller animals. The Dalai Lama was once served shrimp at a dinner, and commented about how many lives of shrimp were lost just on his own plate. And in terms of bioavailable protein, beef provides more major protein per gram than pork, poultry, or fish (along with cholesterol and an imbalanced nutritional profile that causes osteoporosis). I'd feel better if you gave data, along with all the passion.
Mary Sanchez
A cow also possesses a higher level of consciousness than a shrimp and have more intricate and developed cognitive functions. They feel suffering at a level that surpasses a shrimp.
The best thing to do is just to stop eating animals all together. There’s no reason not to if we care for other sentient beings.
@@zain4019 - not so sure on your argument.. and the assumption of actual truth of it concerning higher consciousness and the level of suffering concerned.. while you can make an argument based on what we know about physiology in connection with pain perception and cognitive function.. saying the cow possesses a higher level of consciousness than the shrimp based upon the development of cognition gets onto shakey ground because we do not have the scientific means to evaluate consciousness much less any varying levels of it.. we've barely scratched the surface of animal cognition due to years of the refusal to study it, and the poorly designed parameters of the studies.. what we do know is that animals can feel pain, and the same types of emotion and complex thought that were once used as the dividing line distinguishing humans from other animals.. a line that is constantly having to be redefined by those who want to believe other animal species are not 'like humans' and that humans are somehow better than other sentient beings..
I only purchase eggs from farms that raise their chickens in a very humane way, on green, grassy pastures with fresh air, sunshine and room to do what chickens do...their fed non-GMO vegetarian feed, grass and bugs. My heart won't allow me to purchase eggs from chickens raise in a lower standard of care. Knowing about industrial farming makes my blood boil.
+Diana Block Humane egg farms don't truly exist unfortunately. Unless you raise the chickens yourself
Youre still commodifying the animal
Diana I think you are definitely doing the right thing... all these people demanding everyone go vegan or the highway ARE NOT getting the point, they aren't realizing that their demand is what's actually keeping the worst factory farms from going out of business, since they make it seem like ALL farms are the same and you can never change anything if you want to eat meat/dairy. Ironically this is why after decades of VEGANISM movement the wrost factory farms are FLOURISHING and still providing the majority of the meat/dairy that americans/westerners consume. Instead of screaming veganism or the highway, all the vegans should encourage their friends and family to cut at least 50% of the meat/dairy intake and when they do consume meat/dairy, to try and support local traditional farms or at least seek "hormone/antibiotic free' products. This WILL go a long way in eliminating the worstt of factory farms MUCH MORE than just "veganism or NOTHING" approach
@Ashly Woo - I'm intrigured by your thought. What will you call this movement to convince people to eat 50% less animals, eggs and milk? More importantly how will you convince them to do that? What will their motivation be? What should our first steps and organizational attempts be geared toward? Is there any established propaganda that you know of that approaches your idea of getting people to eat half the meat, eggs and animal milk that they currently do?
Diana Block did you watch a video at all? Gosh
How do you reason animals that eat other animals then??! Is NATURE flawed?? Should we move to MARS instead??...
moral agency. Also, once humans have mastered their appetites and gone vegan, they can address the predator-prey problem...but not for very long time.
@@antibreeder1m No I disagree... we biologically rely on animals for our diet, just predator animals do in nature... An ever-increasing amount of testemonials are surfacing from people who are have suffered serious health setbacks on a vegan diet. Our bodies simply aren't designed to properly digest and absorb massive amount of plant materials for our sustenance. The "vegan movement" will die..~
iev k
Evidence suggests otherwise. Vegans are healthier than meat-eaters by every measure- lower rates of cardiovascular disease, diabetes, cancer and obesity as well as longer life expectancy and lower mortality.
A vegan diet is healthier, so on that front yes, for health alone, we should go vegan.
Our ancestors weren’t perfect. They survived in the best way they could. Now that we have supermarkets filled with fruits, vegetables, beans, lentils, tofu and plant-based milks and cheeses, why would the path of unnecessary suffering be right?
Because of taste, convenience, tradition and habit? That’s not enough. We can make this world better for all of us- humans and animals.
@Lisa Star Animals are consciously experiencing their lives, have feelings and emotions and value their lives. They ARE sentient.
So a cockroach life is just as important as a human's life?
Yes it is. Actually, it's more important because they don't destroy the environment like us.
Sachin Raghavan spot on brother
@Rida Sattar Sentience is consciousness The features of consciousness are creativity, intelligence, sapience, self-awareness, and intentionality. So a human is higher in terms of sentience. This means there is a scale in terms of suffering and a human would suffer much more due to their heightened consciousness. to compare a cow to a human is factually incorrect.
@@sachinraghavan4556 Ironic you're commenting on youtube a human invention. Let alone all the other countless human creations that have made your life easier and safer. If anyone in the world lives past the age of 25 you can thank humans and their ever-advancing technologies.
The natural state of humans is abject poverty and it's only due to other humans 100million people per year are being lifted out of it.
@@Opeth221 This comment means literally nothing.
51 fharners didnt like this.
That's called food chain
It can be a food chain only when you go hunting without using any tools to help you such as guns or other, using only your body and your skills. “Livestock” farming does not fall within the definition of the food chain, but neither does agriculture.
Please have a bit of critical sense and go educate yourself better on what antispeciesism is
that’s called appeal to nature
@@Alinax99 how does it not fit that definition? I'd very much like to know. You know it doesn't have to be an actual chain, right. It can be a bit abstract.
I grew up farming and hunting. I am completely against animal cruelty but I believe in humane killing for food. I believe that eating animals is part of our omnivorous lives but I believe that it is not necessary to treat animals unnecessarily cruely in the production of meat.
Humans are herbivores. We aren't omnivores.
Do your research.
"The ancestors of Homo sapiens cooked their food, cooking has been around for approximately a million year (that is around 500 000 years longer than the human species has existed) (Berna et al., 2012; Organ, Nunn, Machanda, & Wrangham, 2011). Traces of humans eating meat is also ancient and seems to have been around for as long as our species existed (Pobiner, 2013). One of our closest relatives the chimpanzee also eats an omnivorus diet with mainly fruits, but occasionally eats animals (McGrew, 1983)"
Can you present me with a valid argument to back up your hypothesis?
Woah, so soulful of you to insult someone you don't know over the internet. I am sure it magically made him realise that it is, in fact, unnecessary for humans to eat meat. Well done.
I can really go for a burger right now
I love meat, but I couldn't swallow a single bite right now. The things this guy says are so unbelievably stupid, that I cannot even grasp them. Which speaks rather good about me. The guy has so many subs and so many likes under his videos, but he speaks out such shit, which people gladly accept, that I'm deeply worried about our societies.
We'll see you in the heart clinic by 2030.
utter nonsense
everybody join P.E.T.A. people eating tasty animals is what it stands for.
Oh, really, only because they can't speak, or why? Because I'm sure animals expected better of us, and they thought we were the angles of the world, well guess what, not all of the humans in this world are "angels", for example people like you who don't care about animals, thinking they don't care about us, have you seen videos in which animals save and love people? Well I'm guessing no, shame on you and your "thoughts" I feel so bad for you, and I wouldn't consider you "human" because if you were you would have kind soul and heart, but all you are is mean, liar, pathetic, and a nonhuman! Anyways not wasting my good life on nonhumane "things" like you. Get a heart and life!!
i care about animals, i have two cats and a dog. but i just don't like PETA and could never go vegan there are certain vitamins and proteins in meat that you can't get from plants and i mean't no offense when writing that comment. besides, PETA is insane sometimes. so PETA people eating tasty animals. :D mmmm i love my chicken and steak.
PETA taps into the conscious of people by showing the brutality and pain inflicted on animals. And those horrors are not easy to watch nor accept.
Not 'liking' the things they show is therefore actually a good thing that shows that your conscious is not (yet) too numb to get upset and thus (still) care.
Could there be a chance that you "love" your "chicken and steak" because you were forced into a habit from when you were way little and thus "grew" into it? Could it be that you were taught that you need "certain vitamins and proteins in meat that you can't get from plants" but that that actually is not true?
Did you research matters from the things plants provide?
Actually that is not accurate. You can get all the nutrients you need from a plant based diet. Do the research. There are professional athletes who manage on vegan diets! Can PETA be too intense. Yup they can. THAT ISN'T THE POINT. The point is are billions of animals suffering? Yes , everyday.
10% of th population is vegetarian but less than 2% make it to centenarian and even less so for vegans. That doesn't speak too well for th vegetable people BUT th OMNIVORES WIN, YES!!!
Well duh vegans and vegetarians are in the minority.
There are also a whole lot of other factors that influence lifespan, like genetics, alcohol and smoking and exercise. In other words just because an omnivore lived to a great age it doesn't mean that it was because of their diet.
Joanna Hooper. Uh Duh...U didn't get did U? Why didn't U? Is it bcz your a vegan? I have to put it on a silver platter every time. Lemme try n spell it out for U step by step: Although 10% of th population is vegetarian less than 2% of 'em make it past 100yrs.
Do U see th numbers yet? Is it so difficult?
Joanna Hooper. BUT if it were vegans living longer you'd be saying that it WAS bcz of their diet. Your bias is showing. Therefore I'm gonna have to give U th buzzer...Bzzzzz
You are comparing food to humans which is baffling to me. No one is for cruelty to animals, but most domesticated animals wouldn't survive without humans. Such is the nature of domestication. E.g. the breeds of cats and dogs you love so dearly are defective due to inbreeding.
Agriculture is based on supply and demand. As the need for meat decreases, fewer and fewer animals will be produced for slaughter and consumption. It will take time for the meat-industry to be phased out, and it will happen gradually.
As the world moves to vegansim, less and less animals will be bred, and eventually, none at all.
The world won’t be overrun by farm animals. Vegansim will just end their unnecessary suffering.
If we’d like, we could set aside an area for free-ranging farm animals to live peacefully without predators or other intervention from humans.
Vegansim will simply end the pain these animals experience from the moment they are born till the moment they are killed for their meat.
Funny how he doesn't talk about plants or insects and the injustices that are inflicted on them. For a philosopher he sure does present a limited view of things.
the plants tho argument? hahaha
Bill Ilkovski
Plants aren’t sentient beings. They don’t scream, they don’t feel pain (different from responding to environmental stimuli), and they don’t have a heart.
These people are insane. I hate TED talks so much.
Why are they "insane"?
yet here you are. leave then.
You're totally more insane and nonhumane!
Says the insane human being that thinks it has the right to kill animals for pleasure..
Great Lake Blake
Denial is the first step toward change. I hope you open yourself to other views one day. There’s no logical or moral reason to ever eat animals in our society.
Go vegan!