740:
When I first started out, I could see that plant-based
eating was a beautiful idea in theory but in practical terms I had my doubts.
Was it possible? And if I could get over missing all those familiar foods could
I also withstand the opprobrium of my friends, all of whom were dedicated
omnivores or enthusiastic carnivores? I’d be living in a society and yet
denigrating the eating habits of nearly everyone I mixed with; this change wouldn’t
exactly win me too many friends. And, as it turned out, by exposing and
explaining and talking about animal abuse in the food industry, I found myself
socially dropped by family and friends. I was considered to be ‘on the
nose’.
And
yet I was only trying to be constructive and get to the truth. I only wanted to
point out the human capacity for acting destructively and in this case
hypocritically. Whether people were acting by commission or omission, or acting
directly or by proxy, or being up front or clandestine - I wanted all of that to
be energetically discussed. But it was not to be. And after a while, of people
refusing to discuss the issues, I started to become rude, and then things
descended into mutual abuse, and I knew that this wasn’t what I wanted at all.
It was far from rational debate.
In
the early days, I often felt helpless to do much about the ‘animal thing’. I
was fast becoming aware that human habits and social mores were so strongly established
that nothing I could do personally would change things. Everyone thought of them-self as a sensitive person.
And in this case that was the biggest problem. Everybody already knew that humans
were trashing the environment and doing things against the ethical standard,
but by looking at ‘other’ issues, it diverted them away from more controversial
issues - by admitting culpability in one issue-area, another much more
difficult issue-area could be effectively ignored.
Animal use and abuse has become so much part
of our lives that the last thing a person would want to hear was any
condemnation of animal farms. So, as an animal advocate, you never get the
chance to speak your mind; you’re never allowed to say that, whilst animal
farms were providing us with much of our food, they were little more than death
camps. Nor can you go further, to expand your case, to say that animal farming
was a major cause of greenhouse gas emissions and general pollution. Nor that
by eating so much of this animal-based food our bodies were going haywire and
that we were losing control of our health.
Because we are stopped from even entering
into this matter we never get to the point where we can explain the details,
about animal foods being too ‘rich’ and comprising high carbohydrates and so
much saturated fat, leading to obesity and all the other problems of
over-indulgent lifestyles.
Everything that needed to be said couldn’t
be said because it would sound like an insult, and that was considered by any
hostile listener as reason enough for not having to listen to ANY of it.
There are obvious links between the main
global issues, the one leading to the other and on to the next ... ending up
with detrimental consequences for rich and poor; the rich are dying from
overindulgence and lack of self discipline and sub-consciously suffer the shame
of ignoring the plight of children in poor countries who are dying for want of
food.
Most
people can’t look squarely at any of this since they want to be consuming
animals and all the ‘goodies’ made available by farming them. They don’t heed
the warnings since they are transfixed, like a rabbit in the car’s headlights,
on the comforts-of-life to which they’ve become accustomed.
To
the new herbivore all this is too obvious and clearly must be avoided, but at
the same time none of it will make much sense to those who are determined not
to change their lifestyle or diet.
No comments:
Post a Comment