Insight (1995)

Eating Meat (2011x19)

: 09, 2011

From foie gras to kangaroo, whale meat to shark-fin soup, dinner dishes and delicacies have long been the subject of heated debate. What's fine in one country can be considered shocking in others, depending on your cultural, ethical or religious beliefs. So how do different people justify eating one meat over another? Can any meat can be deemed 'more ethical’ than others? Huge concerns have been raised about how Australian livestock are slaughtered, and many say stunning a beast first is far more ethical. But others believe that no matter how humanely an animal is killed, eating any kind of meat can never truly be 'ethical'. Others say what matters to them is how smart or sentient the animal is (an oyster versus a pig), how much cultural affinity we have with that animal (the Skippy factor), or the environmental impact of eating that animal.