Food and its feelings.

Lately I've been reading a book by Marc Bekoff entitled "The Emotional Lives of Animals". In it he asks, "If you wouldn't do it to your dog, then why would you do it to another animal?".

This is a powerful posit. Marc makes an excellent case to show that animals display emotion, planning, deception, social contract, trust, mourning, and genuine love that can only be separated from humans more by degree than nature. This is bolstered by studies that show the same biochemical signatures in emotional responses of both animals and humans.

Concluding that we differ from other animals more in degree than kind seems to lead us to some ethical thinking: what moral distinction is there between eating your dog and eating your sheep, cow, pig, goat, chicken or monkey? In northeastern Asia, there really isn't much distinction made between dogs and cattle.

However, emotional and intelligent dolphins don't have any compunction about killing fish. Wolves and dogs will hunt. There is no natural morality which prevents one animal from eating another. Choosing not to eat meat is sometimes choosing not to harm an edible animal. This is not a uniquely human choice either. Occasionally, cats will adopt mice and snakes will adopt gerbils for companionship. People and great cats even have relationships.

Science is supporting what many pet owners and farmers already know.

Now we know that the differences between us and other animals are a matter of continuity rather than distinction. Perhaps our approach to producing food worldwide could adopt a philosophy of causing the least harm and suffering, with special consideration to establishing a sustainable balance between humans and all other species. The Buddhist philosophy seems most appealing to the sensitive soul where eating is concerned: strive to cause no suffering.

Animal populations are generally controlled by feasts and famines. Suffering and death is commensurate with population crashes that follow unrestrained population growth. We are aware of all of this and yet often behave as though we are ignorant of it. We are not likely to reach other worlds to live on to extend our population capacity.Dreams of space travel and terra-forming will not absolve us of establishing balance in a world where food becomes life, and life becomes food. We must develop a respectful approach to sustaining life in the garden. If we don't, we may be disappointingly reminded of the garden's limitations in blunt fashion.

To mitigate future hardship, we might jealously work to learn and preserve balance on our little oasis of life.