Kurzgesagt: why meat is the best worst thing in the world

In 2018, we humans killed a staggering 74 billion animals per year for meat production, or about 200 million every day. More recent estimates put this number even higher, at 80 billion animals. Land animals only, not including fish. Animals are treated like mail-order packages, but not the kind that says “Beware, glass inside”. Instead, they are treated like the cheap, worthless, loveless, reckless items you find on wish.com. Cows, chickens, pigs, and other animals are seen as commodities rather than living beings, and we deny them dignity and soul. We see them as nothing more than numbers on economic charts and statistics. We’re destroying our planet to provide water and food for these animals to grow meat in a highly inefficient way, and yet we prefer feeding it to our livestock instead of our own people. This is causing tens of millions of humans worldwide to go hungry, as our animal agriculture depletes the nutritional base of people who cannot afford meat.

Over the past few decades, we’ve turned our planet into a highly industrialized killing machine that inflicts pain and suffering on billions of animals. We, humans, have learned to take this for granted. We know we’re violating ethics and morality, but we don’t seem to have a problem with it. They’re just animals. It’s just life. It’s just breathing future burgers or sausages with emotions, memories, social structures and the ability to communicate. We close our eyes and ears, open our mouths and take a bite. We simply don’t care.

YouTube channel Kurzgesagt tackled this topic in a well-noted video in September 2018. It explains the current state of meat production and its problems in a comprehensive, lavishly animated, and easy-to-understand way. Despite its gruesome content, it’s a joy to watch, and most importantly, super informative and thought-provoking. It’s both beautiful and horrifying at the same time; a feast for the eyes that makes your food stick in your throat. Definitely worth watching.

I would also like to refer you to a previously posted short but powerful clip from the movie “Überkonsum” (overconsumption), which captures the madness and insanity of today’s turbo-industrial meat production. It needs no further comment and is also worth watching.

Why Meat is the Best Worst Thing in the World 🍔

Hero image: screenshot from Why Meat is the Best Worst Thing in the World 🍔 on YouTube.