On being vegan vs. Consuming animal products, part of an ongoing dialogue with a friend: This article just came up on my listening list........

On being vegan vs. Consuming animal products, part of an ongoing dialogue with a friend: This article just came up on my listening list and I went through it pretty thoroughly. Seems like something that you would have, might have, recommended so I share with you my comments. They are not my comments to you. They are my thoughts about the article. I share those thoughts with you.. http://primaleye.uk/ethical-meat-eaters-response-to-cowspiracy/. I've always appreciated, but just in the last year deeply appreciated how absolutely correct I think that Albert Schweitzer was in his assertion that the ultimate human value is, reverence for life. Various people I see on Facebook occasionally refer to the soul of a creature. I don't remember who has made these references, and they have done it in passing it appears to me. But it was useful to me that they did because it captures much how I feel. I relate to what seems to me to be the soul in a dog, a horse, the bat, the dolphin, a jellyfish, worm, and Ant.... I really revere such Souls, Spirits, life... yes, Revere. Hence, I like to see those Souls persist as opposed to being extinguished. I like them to be joyful as opposed to suffering. As I've said, if a mosquito is biting me, if a bed bug is going to bite me I may well kill it. I'm comfortable with boundaries. Not that I should be, but I am. If it turns out that for me to be highly functional I need to eat some level of animal products causing the pain and or death of those animals, I will do it so that I can serve what I think is a larger good. I think that my attitude is similar not only to Scweitzer, but Einstein, Gandhi, and many, most, people that I Revere throughout history. People that I respect prefer that other Souls don't need to suffer. My point in all this is that in my attempt to make every second count I am very conscious of whether a potential Source or an actual source that I am considering has a bias or is simply trying to get at absolute truth. This is especially important in an area that is complex because I look for sources that effectively can save me a whole lot of homework but to do that they need to be very intentionally objective and unbiased. I suspect that there is much useful information in the article above. I also suspect that there is much bias, an author who prefers eating creatures, for the flavor I suspect, secondarily maybe for some health value, and is pretty interested in defending his position. That is his right but it makes him less helpful to me than otherwise. So basically I am unpersuaded by the article. It is my understanding that for an animal to create protein from plants requires a relatively huge amount of resource, land, water, intake of plant material, and that if a human being intelligently consumes plant material they can create their own protein at a relatively small fraction of those resources. On that basis I find the article overall extremely unconvincing. Yes, I absolutely have a biase. I have a bias against making other creatures suffer or die. Except to the degree necessary for basic survival. So I leave the article pretty much where I started, I sense that little or no animal protein is necessary to the healthy human functioning except in rare instances. I am not sure that that is correct. I remain interested to learn otherwise should I be wrong.