Why I am not a vegan

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Carnism: The Psychology of Eating Meat

Carnism is a term coined by psychologist Melanie Joy to describe the ideology that supports the use of animals for food, clothing or other consumer products. The argument holds that carnism is a dominant belief system supported by a variety of defence mechanisms and mostly unchallenged assumptions. Joy coined the term in 2001 and developed the idea in her book Why We Love Dogs, Eat Pigs, and Wear Cows (2009).

Central to the ideology, according to this view, is the acceptance of meat-eating as “natural, normal, necessary, and nice.”An important feature of carnism is the classification of only particular species of animal as food, and the acceptance of practices toward those animals that would be rejected as unacceptable cruelty if applied to other species. This classification is culturally relative, so that, for example, dogs are eaten in China but may be family members in the West, while cows are eaten in the West but protected in much of India.
Another aspect is known as the meat paradox, namely that most people care about animals but embrace diets that involve harming them. Psychologists suggest that this conflict between beliefs and behavior leads to cognitive dissonance, which they say meat-eaters relieve by avoiding consideration of the provenance of animal products, and by ascribing reduced sentience, cognitive ability and moral standing to animals they regard as food. [wiki]





http://www.zengardner.com/carnism-psycho...ting-meat/