Energy Spending

1847:

Edited by CJ Tointon

Most people these days put 'food animals' low on their priority list and consider their treatment not very important. This one single attitude probably reflects a naked survival instinct concerning food and energy. Energy from animals is cheap. We have animals here - so why not use them?

Keeping animals is easy pickings while predation requires lots of energy. Thanks to our large human brain, we know how to corral, capture, imprison and breed animals. It's the factory floor of the Animal Industry and all perfectly under control. Human Inc. have perfected the slave relationship - docile domesticated animals. And from these 'food animals' comes the best source of energy (or so it's widely believed).

But it's fool's energy. Animal-based food is laced with slow-acting problems and isn't the best source of energy anyway. There are as many varieties of energy as places to find it. And various ways to lose it, especially energy draining attitudes. One of these attitudes grows from the bargain basement mentality and an attraction to easy pickings - stealing what isn't ours. The energy we get from animal-based foods is stolen since it's removed by force. Sentient humans stealing energy from sentient non-humans. And that's where all the trouble starts.

Humans feel entitled. We expect the fruit of the tree to just fall into our laps. Our sense of entitlement is connected to our belief in the power we have over Nature. We bend and dominate Nature and in our arrogance we expect animals to give up their lives for us while we do nothing for them. Unlike Humans, Nature understands how to control and make energy. It's a two-way affair, a give and take system. The tree is cared for and lets fruit fall in an expenditure of gratitude. If we want this sense of symbiosis and the energy to forge it, it's not only physical energy we need. We need energy response to intention, motivation, passion and determination.

Much of this energy is self-generated. In a good cause, we expand energy when we expend it. It's not like a finite volume of fuel left in the cars petrol tank. This intangible substance surely self perpetuates - like a loving thought. And love can do wonders, even bring human-made peace into line with Nature's Grand Design. 

But theft is popular with energy grabbers. There's a lot of energy being stolen by omnivores who are still waging war on animals. Perhaps they do it so they can continue enjoying the fruits of life, by using thousands of commodities, each traced back to enslaved animals. Humans get a free ride by indulging in energy draining, omnivorous lifestyles.

You and I want good quality energy. But the energy that animal eaters get comes with a string of ailments and ill health. The energy produced from enslaved animals is a poor source of energy. Combine poor quality food with poor quality energy and there's danger.

Vegans are unlucky in that they can't change the world overnight. But we are lucky not to be nursing the omnivore's concerns, anxieties, guilts and doubts. Not only is our food better, but our cause (keeping to vegan principle) keeps us on track. We just have to hold our nerve while we wait and 'animal advocate' and wait some more. We can only observe the omnivore being still dazzled with the cleverness of human advantage taking. We can only listen to them when they say: "Why should I waste my time and energy on animal welfare when I've got so many human problems?"