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Part 1 - Why |
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A word to the wise: Somehow, while writing this tract, a demon spirit took over me and I had a temporary leave of my normally easy-going personality. Be warned: what follows is an increasingly agitated and ranting tirade. You'll probably be relieved to know that I got it all flushed out of my system and I am back to being your friendly vegan ambassador. Man, though, it was fun while it lasted.
Vegans don't eat meat or other animal products, including but not exclusive to milk, eggs and honey. Vegans don't wear animal products, including but not exclusive to wool, leather, silk and (of bleeping course!) fur. Vegans don't support industries which exploit animals, including but not exclusive to circuses, rodeos and marine shows. And don't forget pet stores: they are vile. Vegans don't purchase items which cause harm to animals, including but not exclusive to household and cosmetic products tested on animals or made with animal products. Okay, I certainly agree with all that, but try saying all that to someone and not make them think that you're practicing a rigid and dogmatic lifestyle. People who are living as vegans know this isn't so, but descriptions based on the negative are semantically troublesome, and, I believe, counterproductive. Here's my personal description of a vegan: Vegans try to minimize their damage to other sentient beings, the planet, and their health through conscious, informed, and humane lifestyle choices. Furthermore, vegans try to maximize the well-being of other sentient beings, the planet, and their health through these same lifestyle choices. Veganism is an integrated lifestyle and philosophy of expansiveness, awareness and compassion.
How's vegan pronounced? Good question. It's been unintentionally assaulted by many tongues,
but it's officially
Isn't being a vegetarian enough? Here's the thing: I was a vegetarian for many years before I understood the ways in which I was contributing to the suffering of others, and I wish I had learned sooner. I believed I was living a compassionate and informed lifestyle, and I don't fault vegetarians for thinking this way. It is an excellent first step. Just don't get stuck there, because to truly integrate and fully realize the power of a compassionate lifestyle choice, one must go vegan. Now I'll tell you why. The industries that you are supporting by consuming animal products and wearing animal hides are tied inextricably to very industries that churn out their flesh for consumption. There cannot be scrambled eggs without chicken wings, nor milk without hamburgers. The leather industry is supported by beef and dairy consumption. When laying hens and dairy cows produce less product or become "spent", they effectively are rendered into cheap meat. And what of the babies they are impregnated with again and again until they are determined to be worthless? They are cycled through the very same industry of mass confinement, deprivation and horrific exploitation. Further, the male offspring of laying hens are considered useless by the industry and gassed, suffocated or crushed alive; the male offspring of dairy cows become "veal" cows. In other words, by buying milk, you are supporting the reprehensible veal industry, whether you know it or not. Now, let's say that for some reason cruelty to animals does not inspire you to want to move from vegetarian to vegan. Perhaps you're a vegetarian for health or environmental reasons. First, there are ample health reasons to stay away from animal products, too many really to list here. Let's just start out by saying that there is no cholesterol in plant foods, only in animal foods. Furthermore, industrial animal products are loaded with hormones, antibiotics, dioxin, fat, as well as bacterium for salmonella, e-coli, listeria, and, possibly, a whole lot worse. Is this really what a health-conscious person wants to consume? No, I didn't forget about you, enviro-person. In order to produce animal products, there is enormous pollution of water and air in the form of excess fecal matter. Seeing as dairy cows and laying hens still have to eat, there is also enormous waste of resources, with grain going to fatten animals quickly for slaughter rather than to feed hungry people. This grain is also sprayed with a lot of chemical pesticides, which pollute our water. Additionally, the fossil fuels lost on creating and transporting animal products is appalling and shameful, and all the packaging is wasteful. Industrial animal products are created on land that could be used to produce healthful plant foods that do not have to go through a wasteful and unhealthy chain of consumption first. So you'll be a better environmentalist by going vegan, and you'll impress all your Greenpeace buddies with your integrity. But I'm being nice to you, enviro-person, because at least you've made the connection to vegetarianism; I'll be addressing your meat-eating brethren later. Gahh!!! Finally, I should say that although this particular passage may have sounded judgmental in tone, I really don't feel that way. As I said earlier, I was a vegetarian for many years without realizing my negative impact, and the only way I changed was through knowledge, encouragement and growth. I truly believe that we all have a path and a pace that is unique to us individually, though that doesn't preclude challenging ourselves to be the best we can be. Do I sound less scary now?
Not exactly. Personally, I think all of the above is generally a big ol' greenwashing scam, but, then, I'm a little nutty. If you want to feel good about yourself, talk to one of those nice people who will pat you on the back and encourage such efforts, as I am not one of them. If, however, you want to know what I really think, please read on. I promise to be gentle. Or at least gentle-ish. The animal foods industry, no matter how you slice and dice it, no matter how prettily you package it in fancy bows and tasteful wrapping paper, is still the animal foods industry. Your co-op's Friendly Farmer Fred's Organic, Free-Range and Ecstatic Eggs are part of the same paradigm of exploitation and enslavement as the regular non-yuppie eggs you'd find in a standard grocery store. It is still based on a model of using animals for our benefit, without consideration of their well-being. If compassion factors at in all in your consumer choices, truthfully, then the fancy labels of "organic" and "free-range" shouldn't carry much weight. Free-range in the chicken industry, for example, simply means that they have some access to the outdoors: there is no criteria that addresses environmental quality, the amount of time, the size of the area, the number of birds or the amount of space per bird. Except in the rarest of cases, the birds are not giving themselves dust bathes, laying eggs on quaint straw nests or given the space and freedom to scratch at the ground. Most birds spend the vast majority of their time cramped in large confinements, with no attention to the intricate social order essential to a chicken's peace of mind. This is why the "organic" and "free-range" chicken industry still allows the gruesome practice of debeaking to continue; even Friendly Farmer Fred's hens rip each other up because of the stress of their living conditions, paying no mind to their nice status symbol labels. At about a year or two old, these "humanely-raised" chickens are slaughtered in the same fashion as conventional chickens, living quite a bit shorter than their natural lifespan of up to 15 years. And please don't forget that male offspring are still "disposed of" in the most heartless manner possible. See what I mean about it being based on the same model of exploitation? "Organic" dairy cows don't fare much better, and, yes, their male offspring still are funneled into the beef or veal market. Even Horizon's Happy Cows™, and, yes, even smilin' Ben and Jerry cows get their throats cut at the end of the game. People who are truly trying to shift the paradigm realize that animal foods, no matter how they're packaged, labeled, and marketed, are part of the old world order. That being said, the concentration of animal agriculture under a few agri-giants, such as ConAgra and Perdue, has both tragic and dangerous ramifications. I suppose if you feel you absolutely cannot live with your yogurt, a small organic producer is better than Dannon, but in the same way that it's better to punch someone than stab him. Either instance is still a form of abuse. Also you may want to find out who owns interests in your cute little yogurt company, because it may very well be a hulking agri-giant cha-cha-chinging his way aboard the greenwashing gravy train. Last, and I promise this is last, those who claim that they eat only designer - oops, I mean humane animal products - must have an interesting time ordering food at restaurants. Either that, or I trust that they eat only vegan when dining out.
But vegans all think alike! I'm independent! Anyone who would imply that all vegans think with one mind has obviously never been in a room full of 'em. We are an argumentative, unruly, individualistic and unique people. We do not meet at meet under the cover of night in secret lodges, wear silly hats with tassels, perform bizarre rituals or stand in a circle and recite a cryptic "Vegan Code" with utmost solemnity. Our agreement on the basic lifestyle tenets is about as far as it goes. For example, there are Pepsi and Ruffles-eating vegans, who have no problem with what they consume, so long as it contains no animal products. To contrast this, there are vegans who would sooner give up their Moby collection than they would purchase corporate, multinational brands of food. There are vegans who happily enjoy another's vegan potluck dish, and vegans who don't ever let anything prepared outside their own pristine kitchens pass their lips. There are vegan anarchists, Greens, Libertarians, Democrats, and, yes, I even know some vegan Republicans. We are ardently pro-choice and we are passionately not. We are activists, and we are just regular people who've never even signed a petition. We are grandmothers and fourth graders. Want to become a vegan yourself? Well, first you must meet me at 1:23 a.m. in the forest on the next new moon with an offering of hand-pressed soymilk and rosemary vegetable glycerine soap made by your very own hands. Either that, or you could simply stop using animal products. There! You are now officially vegan!
Yeah, I eat meat but I'm an environmentalist. Got anything to say to me? Oh, maybe just a word or two. What. Are. You. Thinking? Okay, let's just say you don't have much compassion for animals -- let's say that you think such a thing is anti-science and sentimental drivel. Okay, then. I mean, I feel sorry for you and all, but I can accept that this is your mentality. But I have to ask: What about our oceans being decimated by overfishing? What about the giant manure lagoons that leak into our waterways? What about the waste of fossil fuels? What about the glaring unsustainability of growing grain on fields that we in turn feed to animals, when we could be growing healthful food and eating it directly? What about the destruction of the rainforests for cattle? What about the high pesticide and herbicide levels in our water due to run-off from fields used to grow grain to feed animals? What about the air pollution of towns that house factory farms? What about it, enviro-person? Yes, I'm talking to you, Greenpeace canvasser, and you, with the Sierra Club membership, and you, Friends of the Earth donor. Let's get this straight: animal products are enormously taxing to our environment. We have no physiological need for animal products, and, in fact, our health is benefited from avoiding them. Considering this, then consuming animal products is a want, not a need. Is feeding our 'wants' really worth the huge toll it exacts? (Let me also say that I don't care how you justify your habits. Oh, you say you are trying to live harmoniously like the Native Americans, and you kill all your own animals and you always give thanks for the lives you've taken blah, blah, blah. Well, first of all, I'm sure the animals with the fishing hooks, bullets or arrows stuck in them bleeping care. Second, unless you are living in some remote part of the world, say, an ice cave in the Arctic, and you have zero access to any other possible food, it simply isn't necessary. And if you are living in an ice cave in the Arctic, how the heck did you get internet access? It was hard enough getting it to my neighborhood of Chicago.) So, you knew what was coming. I hereby issue a challenge to all environmentalists: If you want people to listen to your message, have some integrity and go vegan. Like now. Either that or burn your Greenpeace membership card, because there's nothing particularly "green" or "peace"ful about eating animals. There. I feel better already.
But you vegans only care about animals! What about the children/homeless/insert-blighted-population here? Let me answer that question with a question. To the person posing such a question, I would ask, Where did you get the impression that we were born with only a limited amount of compassion to be doled out in a miserly fashion? Compassion is compassion; frankly, I have found that people who have demonstrated that they have empathy for other animals also care about other living beings. That's just the nature of being a compassionate person: you don't turn it on and off like a faucet. Rather, it should be flowing like a river. I've noticed that people who imply that vegans don't do enough for humanity are not exactly working to correct the injustices of the world, merely content to try to poke holes in another's contributions. The idea that we have a finite supply of kindness and compassion is, frankly, very limiting in scope, and counter to human nature. It is also irrational. Because I spend my time advocating for veganism - which helps people, too, incidentally, as well as the environment - does that mean that's all I have to give the world? Furthermore, the very sentiment indicates that animals are unworthy of such compassion, further illustrating the need for it. Last, why is it that the questioner assumes that people who advocate for animals must take on every injustice in the world? Is that person pulling his or her weight or simply criticizing the good work of another? More than anything, I find this line of questioning to be a divisive tactic meant intended to minimize the work of vegans, rather than coming from a genuine place of caring or concern.
Okay, fine. So why should I become a vegan? Because it's the most empowering thing you can do for yourself, the planet and the animal kingdom. Try it for a week and see how you feel. It's a dynamic, infinitely rewarding and positive lifestyle choice that will set you on the road to true peace and liberation. As a vegan, you are asserting with your example that people have the freedom to live their lives in concert with their values, their beliefs, and their highest consciousness. What a phenomenal gift that is.
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An incredibly long and self-indulgent diatribe thinly disguised as a set of Frequently Asked Questions
What is a vegan?
Wahh!!! But I just eat organic and free-range animal products.
Am I back in your good graces?
So there.
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