So the last eco-schools session was dedicated to preparing for the assembly and on Thursday, we finally had it! Now, I wasn’t involved in the actual assembly itself (mainly because while I love bringing awareness to climate change, I also love not having a meltdown), I helped in the research for Millan’s speech.
So animal cruelty is a bit of a sore point for me (as it should be for everyone: if it’s not, I’m sorry but I hope every show you get remotely interested in gets canceled after one episode) – and as Milan’s speech was about going meat free, I quite enjoyed putting together the research for it. A fun fact about me is I love going on tirades about things I’m passionate about/invested in. Thus, the enjoyment!
When researching, we mostly communicated through text on the doc itself because I was in the student center and milan was in Mr Poulus’ class but I think that helped me get engrossed in the topic, possibly overly engrossed.
But while the process of researching was pleasant, the topic wasn’t. At all.
While going meat-free is super important for climate change, it’s role in reducing animal cruelty CANNOT be overstated enough. And I think that’s something else I picked up on while researching.
Because while there are certain measures that can be taken to reduce animal cruelty in livestock farming and etc., the sad reality is that, especially in institutional settings, those measures are often completely ignored and while some of the responsibility can be attributed to lax laws and irresponsible animal protection agencies, the huge, huge demand for meat makes some of these measures less feasible.
So tldr: cut back on meat otherwise you’re making a baby cow cry.