Splurge in meat eating in last two centuries || Acharya Prashant, on Veganism (2019)

Acharya Prashant

Video Information: Interview Session, 04.11.19, Bengaluru, India  Context: ~ Why should one turn vegan?  ~ What is the relationship between veganism and spirituality? ~ How veganism is related to compassion? ~ Why veganism is necessary for today's generation? ~ What is the relation between veganism and climate change? ~ How could veganism change the world?    Music Credits: Milind Date ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ .

Transcript

00:00The current splurge in meat-eating is not more than 200 years old.

00:22It came along with industrialization and the popularization of thought that it is meat

00:42alone that can provide for protein or calcium or many other important nutrients to the body.

00:55It was obviously a highly unscientific belief but it got popularized.

01:11Now since the last 30, 40, 50 years, as we are progressing, there is tons of scientific

01:27data to conclusively prove that not only are we not historically prolific meat-eaters but

01:44also that meat-eating or milk consumption has a highly deleterious effect on the human

01:52body. But then this data is now fighting against a huge mountain of habit and vested financial

02:12interests. You know of the size of the global meat industry, you know of the size of animal

02:21agriculture. They are one of the biggest industries on the face of this planet. So now even as it

02:33becomes known that probably mankind took a wrong dietary turn quite recently just around 200 years

02:43back in opting for a primarily meat-based diet, yet the momentum of the last two centuries is

02:58making it difficult for most people to correct their mistake. And of course added to that is

03:08the heft of the meat industry, the financial power, the political power they possess, the

03:22kind of control over media that they have and all the levers that they can pull. So that is there.

03:31First thing is, so a lot of people, so first my question is like I do understand there's

03:37mountains of evidence which proves the claim. But there have been lobbyist groups or say there

03:44have been contradictory scientific research which now and then make headlines. Say for example we

03:52have been carnivore, so it was recently on the Times of India, we have evolved as a carnivore.

03:58And other adding being meat is not as unhealthy as we see. So I mean I do understand say from

04:09past 40-50 years there have been mountains of evidences. But say now and then there are some

04:16evidences which contradict the claim. So which make people believe that there is a kind of

04:23confusion within the scientific community. So what do you have to say on that? 40s, 50s, right

04:31into the 60s in the last century, it was still being upheld that cigarette smoking keeps you

04:44vital and active. And it was a popular belief that cigarette smoking specifically among men

04:58is a driver of masculinity as well. When it started becoming evident that cigarette smoking

05:16has a whole range of very very harmful effects, when cancer cases started piling up. Then the

05:33tobacco industry started sponsoring lot of so-called scientific reports that would say

05:46that there is nothing wrong with tobacco and that cigarettes are not at all harmful for human beings.

05:52And they kept up the propaganda for another 10-20 years, almost till the end of 70s. They kept

06:08trying it till it became ridiculously impossible for them to keep pressing on with their claims.

06:21So why will they not do it? Their money is at stake. Greed can make man do anything. Greed can

06:31make man present any kind of pseudo-scientific evidence which is nothing but blatant cheating

06:37and lying. Most of the reports that still try to defend meat consumption are sponsored by groups

06:49having vested interests. Take the case of climate change as well. That climate change is happening

06:57and there is a clear scientific basis for it was evident not today but even four decades back. But

07:09then the fossil fuel industry kept sponsoring report after report that said firstly that there

07:17is no climate change. Then they said oh there probably is climate change but it does not have

07:26to do with human activity. Global warming they said is not anthropogenic. Even today they come

07:36up with something or the other that would confuse the population. That's their objective. To not

07:48let it become certain, absolutely certain, conclusively and finally certain that climate

07:57change is happening and man is responsible for it.

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