Carnism and Its Consequences

by Jennie Richards · Published August 12, 2019 · Updated September 23, 2024

Carnism is the eating of individual animals and dead animal body parts. It is the invisible and dominant belief system or ideology that conditions people to eat animals.

But eating animals is not a necessity, it is only a choice – and belief systems can change if people are willing to embrace new and different information than they have long accepted. With awareness and expanded consciousness about how carnism impacts us and animals, we can change our food choices. And we can change all other choices that we make each day that involve the unnecessary exploitation and killing of animals for entirely unnecessary reasons.

Most people living in Western cultures are indoctrinated into eating animals by their parents, by the culture, by the animal industries, and by mass media and advertising. But carnism is also a violent belief system and ideology – it is structured around intensive, pervasive, hidden and unnecessary violence to animals and animal brutality. Like all forms of slavery, carnism is a system of oppression and power over other beings—billions of defenseless individual animal beings.

Film Length: 2 Minutes, 46 seconds

Film Published: February 2017

Quotes from the Film

“CARNISM is what we support every day with our daily behaviors, but we have probably never killed an animal—how could we.”

“CARNISM is why we see the cruelty in trophy hunting, but miss the cruelty behind breakfast, lunch and dinner.”

“Just because so many people do something, that doesn’t make it right.”

“Even so called humane facilities – are far from humane. They all include the de-beaking of female chicks, the mass annihilation of millions of baby chicks daily through a grinder, the castration of baby piglets without pain-killers, and the separation of baby calves from their mothers.”

“CARNISM is why our bodies are dying. All the meat, dairy and eggs we’re eating are sickening and killing us.”

“Women who eat meat are almost 9 times more likely to develop breast cancer; and meat-eaters in general have a 60% greater risk of developing a variety of cancers.”

“Eating animal protein is associated with higher risks of heart disease, obesity, hypertension, and diabetes.”

“CARNISM is why the Earth is dying.”

“70% of Amazon rainforest destruction is to graze and feed animals.”

“CARNISM is why we act against our core values of justice and compassion, without realizing what we are doing. ”

“When we become aware of CARNISM, we can make choices of what we authentically feel, not what we have been taught. We can become part of the SOLUTION and CREATE a better world for all of us – humans and animals alike.”