Empathy & Diet

There is preliminary evidence that vegans & vegetarians experience more empathy in the face of human & animal suffering compared to omnivores. At the very least, the areas of the brain implicated in empathy "light up" more when vegan/vegetarians are exposed to suffering. This data will need to be replicated & some sort of causal timeline would have to be established for this to be particularly interesting. It could be, for example, a case of cognitive dissonance. They've chosen a restrictive lifestyle, and there has to be a good reason for that, so they actually sensitize themselves to the suffering of animals. Who knows.

Slaughterhouse Shortage

Apparently, there has been a big decrease in slaughterhouses, from 1,211 in 1992 down to 809 in 2008. At the same, the number of small farmers has increased by 108,000. This is making local eating difficult and more expensive and is a burden on the small farmers. A New York Times article discusses the problem and a blogger provides an anecdotal story. This is one of those problems that just never would have crossed my mind, but it's an interesting read. Acknowledging that I know nothing about this sort of thing, it seems like a place where a few jobs could be created and the farmer and the consumer could be helped out as well.