Breaking out

Young people have a much cleaner slate than adults. They’ve never had any freedom to choose their food so their conscience is clearer. Parents do everything for them. And when in their twenties they start living independently, the guilt over food may not have bitten too deeply, so they’re freer to try new foods, even to try out a vegan diet. There’s an added advantage. By taking this step when young they can literally move away from the old fashioned habits of their parent’s generation. Physically less heavy and less narrow minded. For these reasons alone they may want to take on a whole new lifestyle.
Small children, before they’re got at, often express horror at the way animals are treated. They want to say something and do something and insist on something. But at each meal their resistance wears down until they let it drop. But for that short while, when ideals sprang up before being swamped by the reality of needing to be fed, a remembrance takes place. It re-emerges later, when as independent adults we wake up our long-sleeping conscience.
If conscience is the most important sense we have, if it is our most delicate sensor of the world outside ourselves, then why don’t we refer to it constantly? If we don’t exercise our conscience daily, especially about the animals we eat, we’ll probably sail on forever, consuming what ever we like until our body can stand it no longer. Our health goes down the tube and we are so ashamed about all the crap we’ve eaten that we can’t get our life back on track. It’s embarrassing to think how readily we allow our food habits to remain unquestioned. Strange, because we question everything else. These habits are left unchecked, and we still eat what our mothers fed us. All without question. We fail to move on because we fail to set our own agenda.