Last edited Sun Sep 15, 2013, 08:46 PM - Edit history (1)
I'd recommend getting the whole family involved in making more humane choices.
Let's take eggs for example. If you and your family consciously chose to only buy eggs from local farms that treat their chickens humanely, you could continue to spend the same amount (or slightly less) of your food budget on eggs, but you would probably consume a lot fewer eggs because they're more expensive. You would eat more fruits and vegetables to make up the calories. All around healthier options. But the eggs you do consume would also be better quality and without the lifetime of cruelty experienced by factory-farmed animals. Plus, you would be removing yourself from the supply-and-demand cycle for factory farmed products. And when you only have one fairly expensive egg every couple of weeks or so, you tend to value and savor more.
Now extrapolate that approach to other animal products. Soon you're increasing the market demand for healthier foods and humane farming practices while decreasing the market demand for the worst, cruelest practices. You're family is healthier while not being deprived. It's a sustainable approach, and without becoming preachy you can set an example for your friends and neighbors.
I'm hoping that this is an approach that will spread. I'm vegan, but I'd rather have a million "mostly-vegetarians" who eschew factory farm products (hopefully some day to make factory farms a thing of the past) than a few perfect vegans and a million people who can't begin to imagine life without meat every day.
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