Is Urban Sprawl Vegan?

The documentary below is about urban sprawl. At the beginning of the show, it describes how a farming family is forced to sell their farm because of pressure for property development. However this farmer killed cows and chicken, so it made me wonder about the role of urban sprawl in reducing animal slaughter.

The argument is that urban sprawl is bad for the environment because it uses up more land. However, by using up more land would this increase the cost of raising animals or growing the crops needed to feed animals? This would increase the cost of meat and may lead to fewer animals being slaughtered.

Could the Isolation of Low-Density Car Culture be Positive?

During lockdown, I am eager to go out for a bike ride whenever there is sunshine. Today was a sunny day, so I rode my bike, and I was entering a medium-density area. There were some people walking around. There was an Asian family also walking around. The family consisted for a mother and father and two young children. The young children were playing and making a lot of noise. An old man who was sitting nearby screamed out, "Go away! F\*\*king disease spreaders!!" The family seemed quite scared and walked off quickly.

The whole incident made me wonder about car culture. One of the features of the car is that it isolates you from others. You are isolated in a bubble that is your car as you move from one bubble to another, and these bubbles can be safe spaces. The benefit of high density is often cited as being more connectednes to the community, but if the community in which you live is racist, sexist, homophobic, etc then it makes me realise that connectedness to the community is not always a positive.

This family is likely to want to shield themselves from similar incidents in the future, and perhaps they may drive a car more so they can shield themselves off from others and only enter those premises they can feel safe in.