Coal and cars and cows

979: 

Think of all the advances humans have made over the centuries; everything we’ve so far achieved has grown out of ‘ideas’.  Great ideas, exploding into the imagination and being implemented.  Some work and benefit us.  But sometimes, ideas work only for a certain time and then end up doing more harm than good.   Like cars and cows and coal.

By the time an idea has been perfected, and is set into the mass habit pattern, it’s hard to shift.  ‘We’ might see that its time has come, but those people whose livelihoods depend on the mass-habit, have built walls of protection around it.  They virtually control what we do, and ‘we’, the vast majority of people, can’t be free of them.  Take coal, for example, it was the wonder energy producer, revolutionising the industrial production of goods and fuelling transport, but now it pollutes and is a major contributor to climate change.  But we can’t drop it.  The production of electricity would be so badly affected, not to mention the money made from mining and exporting it. We’ve become totally dependent on it.  Coal is a good idea gone sour.  Similarly with the internal combustion engine.  It was such an asset at first but, a century down the track, billions of cars are contributing to the death of our planet.  You might agree about the damage but you’re not going to give up your car, are you? It’s the same with meat and animal protein, which is causing so much ill health.

A combination of these ‘out-of-control’ problems makes the future look grim.  The belief that ‘things will never change’ makes us all afraid and pessimistic.  More so because we know that each of us is still cranking up the machine, too obstinate or too impotent to stop our own consumerism, let alone inspire change in others.  I might be willing to make some personal sacrifice but I’m reluctant to take the lead, because it will only be an act of pointless self-sacrifice.  Sell the car, give up meat.  Very brave, very noble, but will it eventually make me feel resentful?

           

What runs through my head when I’m thinking about this idea of giving up things on principle?  I don’t want to make my living conditions any more uncomfortable than they already are.  And whilst I know this is selfish, I’d rather wait for you to change first.  You change and then I have every intention of following.

Most people follow fashions, they don’t lead them, and in a world where people are so easily manipulated, the lack of principled rebellion against convention has become a dangerous habit in itself. 

How can some people do what most of us could never do?

978: 

I can imagine how some smart bloke dreamed up an idea for making more money out of the animals he owned.  He looked at his chickens pecking about the yard and wondered if he could reduce his feed bill and the untidiness of his farm yard by caging these animals, keeping them immobilised and automating their feeding and the collection of their eggs.  It would increase his profits no end.  By intensifying his operation, the farm would become like a factory, his animals automated like machinery; it would be done at the expense of his animals, whose feelings don’t count.

So brazen was this crossing of the boundary, between animal care and animal contempt, that it gave rise to what we now know as ‘Animal Rights’ - their right to a life. This is a movement that has been growing for the past forty years, aiming to have the rights of all animals, including farm animals, written into law, to prevent the worst atrocities and eventually to make it illegal to abuse any animal. Only today I heard that, here in Australia’s Capital Territory, they have passed a law to prohibit the use of cages for commercial egg production, the de-beaking of chickens and the use of sow stalls and farrowing crates for pigs.

But the full protection of animals will probably be a long time coming.  If human exploitation of animals has taken millennia to arrive at today’s worst excesses, then it’s likely to take quite a while for the less outrageous abuse to end, mainly because of the lack of public support, stemming from the widespread addiction to animal products by almost the entire human population of the planet.

The consumer wants the food (and other commodities) made from imprisoned or dead animals, and at the lowest price possible.  The producers have to treat their animals badly to make a profit, to stay in business.  They have to run intensive operations involving huge numbers of animals. And since intensive and closely confined animal populations are prone to epidemics, more and more drugs have to be pumped into their animals to prevent mass outbreaks of disease in these huge flocks and herds.  And these drugs and chemicals, being ingested by animal-eating humans, bring about more and more illness.  Then of course, there’s pollution from animal waste adding to the problem.  The stranglehold of the market determines how permanent these situations are becoming and how inevitably worse they must become. I guess it will go on until we reach a critical point, where consumers come to their senses and follow the advice of vegans - to boycott the lot of it, meat, animal products and all animal-derived commodities.

We have to believe that the human, who is the destroyer, must also be the creator - the same brain that creates the cage, and all the problems ensuing from it, can also create the solution.  When humans eventually realise how lucky we are to have brains to get us out of our scrapes, only then will we move towards a true transformation of our species.

Personally experiencing difficulties

977: 

In my own case I saw the advantages of a plant based diet but feared taking the first step, and for good reason. You don’t have to be Einstein to see where all this is going to lead to.  The nobility of the idea was exciting in theory, but the practical implications were scary.  I could see all the weaponry I was going to have to use, to get me by.  I saw the difficulty of it and started to build my defences.

But as it happened, going vegan was almost like falling in love! Quite a surprise, mainly to do with my capability.  It was the cloud passing in front of the sun and passing on, the eureka moment of my brand of truth - seeing quite clearly that there was no need to make any use of animals. It’s like living on a main road and getting used to the fumes, not realising that fresh air actually exists; liberating animals is simply a way of strengthening ourselves.  And following from that, I now had a purpose which fitted me like a glove, it made sense to go beyond myself towards ‘the other’; exciting theory - the challenge of committing to something bigger than myself.

I made a list of everything I could think of which I’d no longer be using - I’d be avoiding hundreds of products I was attracted to. I’d be either having to do without them or having to find replacements for them, and when nothing was available, facing the fact that I wouldn’t be giving in to temptation. A relatively small price to pay for my empathy for ‘the other’.

My life was going to be difficult, but nothing compared to what farm animals are going through.  By comparison, my ‘lifestyle difficulties’ would pale into insignificance, so a little sacrifice on my part would be hardly worth a mention.  Is hardly worth a mention.

What we are used to doing

976:

Protest.  Outrage.  “No longer!” we say.  But, in reality, even if we feel outraged, we don’t think we’d have enough willpower to alter our eating habits radically.  According to principle.  Nothing will be powerful enough to convince us to stop.  Neither ill health, guilt, conscience or environmental impact of animal farming.

If it reaches critical mass, the worry of it making us make the decision to ‘go-vegan’, we know that it will mean having to turn our back on everyone and everything.  Later, after it’s all over, we’ve done it and settled it, only then do we find out it was the best thing we could have done for ourselves.

By withdrawing our support from the Animal Industries and freeing ourselves from the addictive grip of their products, we fix the ache that’s been in us.  Plus we add another nail in the coffin of the Animal Industry and in so doing help to liberate the gulag-ed animals.

But this habit switching is no light matter.  If we give up eating meat one day, then it follows next day that we’ll be questioning the whole ethical basis of animal farming and the laws of conventional nutrition.  So what might have started out as a change of diet, now opens up a whole new world of thinking, a whole significant change of attitude.

The human who couldn’t change personal habits

975:       

Anyone who instinctively sees an urgent need to do something about the way we treat food-animals is up against it; we have to ignore what’s previously been taught about food, go against tastebud-advice, against the advice of corporations, governments and educators, and turn to themself for advice.

The issue of using animals in the food and clothing industries sits like a lead weight on our collective conscience - what we do to animals makes monsters of us.  I’m ashamed of being a human, for what I did for so many years. I didn’t care about animals being slaughtered.  I didn’t care about hens being imprisoned in tiny cages.  But the more I learned the more critical became the situation inside my head.  I discovered that newborn calves are snatched away from their mothers (and shot soon after they’re born).  I found out that sows are kept restrained in stalls, and cattle are mutilated without pain killers, always for very practical reasons, of course.  The list of horrors goes on and on.  Each one reflects on the farmers, the producers and the consumers who support all this.  We consumers especially, who buy the animal produce.

           

Now all this might be true enough, but nearly every one of us is involved.  We can switch off.  No one will notice.  We don’t have to talk about it.  Or think about it if we don’t want to.  This is where we’re stuck.  This is why we’re stuck, and can’t move forward.

           

We’re stuck because we’re all the same in so many ways.  My taste buds are like everyone else’s.  I respond to my favourite foods as you do.  If I’m more sensitive then, these same foods weigh heavily on my conscience.  It hurts me only because a sort of numbness comes over me when I try to think about it.  How sentient animals are suffering.

The fact is that animals are born and kept alive only to be eaten.  They’re held in prisons and live in terror, and die the most ugly death you could imagine.  And we sensitive ones comment on all this.  We say, “it’s outrageous”, but then carry on eating them all the same.  We object, but we still allow it to happen.  By way of some nifty mental gymnastics we can relax at the dinner table and eat what we’re given.  Minds closed, mouths open. 

Stopping Violence Starting With Animals

974:

There is a particular difficulty with Animal Rights.  It isn’t directly about improving life for ourselves and it doesn’t seem to create big waves or impress our friends.  It is noticeably different to all other great causes.  In fact, it’s the Cinderella of all causes.  For most people today, there are other more immediate issues to be concerned with.  People feel a threat to themselves and the planet and are specifically concerned with climate change.  If that’s not the number one issue, then it’s war or hunger or pollution.  Each major issue seems more dangerous, bigger and blacker than concern for farm animals.  It drives people crazy to think of the potential we have to solve some of these problems, if only we weren’t wasting trillions of dollars on weapons of war.  It drives us crazy to see the rich squander their good fortune by eating to excess and becoming obese, when there are millions of children dying from malnutrition.  We feel crazy by the obscenity of it all.  With all these major horrors, surely there's no room for any more?  We have enough urgent, heart-breaking issues to deal with, so let’s deal with them first before we worry about eating bacon for breakfast! We can argue that there’s one common attitude driving all of these problems.  It’s neatly symbolised by the way the enslavement of non-human animals is not touching people’s hearts.  It should.  It could.  But it doesn’t, because it isn’t seen as an ‘indicator of threat to our civilisation’.  Rarely do people stop and consider that the one core value - humanity - is what characterises the potential of our species.  We don’t see the damage being done to our very core, and therefore we allow a barbaric and totally unnecessary behaviour to go unchecked.  We continue to confine and kill and eat the most peaceful and gentle of animals, whilst diverting all of our attention towards the other issues.  Only the most obvious symptoms of human decline weigh on the collective mind.  We only consider the damage caused by the problems, not why these problems have arisen.  We are too busy trying to handle the problems and patch them up to worry about faults in the fabric of human nature. It’s not so much that we're hungry for violence, it just ends up that way.  We neglect our problems and they get out of hand.  Then we panic and turn in on ourselves to protect ourselves, leaving a trail of violence and violation behind us. Unless we go to the root cause of our problems (health, resource distribution, warfare, pollution, etc) we will never be able to stop the problems worsening.  It’s suggested that we look at the root causes of violation and violence by starting with what we bring into our homes.  Just a short distance from where you are reading this, there’s probably a refrigerator containing animal-derived-food evidence.  In the living room perhaps there’s a leather-bound chair.  On your feet, leather shoes, in your wardrobe, woollen clothes - all evidence of humans-attacking-animals. It follows that once we can attack an innocent animal, we can go on to make an attack on our environment.  By making war on animals, we stop ourselves from seeing the plight of poor people or how dangerous it is to make war on our neighbours or how stupid it is to dump rubbish in our rivers.  It’s absurd to be in favour of non-violence if one still attacks and uses animals!  It’s equally absurd to keep one eye fully open seeing more clearly whilst keeping the other one tightly shut, thus stopping us from seeing something else equally disturbing. As soon as we stop participating in the mass killing of animals, we open up to a new awareness.  It has to start with individuals, doing what they know is right, without reference to what others are doing. 
If I do what I think is the right thing, then other individuals must eventually start to notice and follow suit (hopefully).  It might seem like slow-tactics, but surely that’s the way the ball starts rolling.  I doubt if any government will act on behalf of ‘the animals’, since to ban the killing of animals would be political suicide.  The breakthrough has to start at the grass roots level, with individuals.

Ed: CJ

Acting to stop violence

973: 

The ordinary person has his or her own problems that they can’t afford to neglect, concerning so many things - woe betide anyone who fails to earn enough money to pay their rent or mortgage.  And it’s essential to give children what they need, to secure their future, to prevent them being trampled by all the others who are struggling up the ladder.  If we don’t help ourselves no one else will - our political leaders can’t be relied upon for help or leadership.  They’re probably as nonplussed as we are.  If they’re doing anything at all they’re feathering their own nests.

There’s an obvious need for change.  Perhaps we see that many of our troubles can be traced back to violence and selfish concern but we can only focus on problems closer to home.  We can’t change the world. We can’t improve things for malnourished children.  We can’t alter our society’s food regime or close abattoirs.  What can an individual do to make a difference?  There’s a reluctance to step out in front, to take the first steps towards change, change that will set off a chain reaction.  We’re reluctant to stretch ourselves, to reach out, in case nothing happens.

On the one hand, I want change for my own benefit, on the other hand I want change for the greater good too.  I have a mix of noble and selfish needs.  The greatest fear is to be stepping too far away from reality and thereby failing all round.  And yet I know it’s up to me to repair what I see is crying out for repair.  It’s up to me to not doubt my own power to make a difference.  I say to myself, my ‘good example’ will encourage others to follow. I need to be sowing seeds and encouraging growth.  I need to be developing faith in others’ wanting-to-do-the-right-thing, for the greater good.  On the one hand the destructive nature of humans, our violent past, our constant insecurity, they are so deeply entrenched.  But on the other hand, we can see how dramatically some things have changed for the better, that radical change is possible and that most people’s intentions are good.

Where does all this get us?  Perhaps these are questions-without-answers, but simply by addressing them we can set ourselves in a direction that is helpful; some do’s and don’ts.

Don’t lose motivation and don’t take part in destructive behaviour. Do take on a non-damaging lifestyle.  Don’t give up too easily.  Do act attractively.  End the day feeling proud of having consciously taken one step forward.  That will surely generate motivation to continue.

Seeing violence for what it is

972: 

I suppose what fascinates me more than anything is why some people get it and some people don’t.  Of course, it’s easier for those who have seen it and acted (and, of course, have followed the logic far enough to go vegan) just as it is easier to understand how those who will not look (who aren’t vegan) can see so much less, are that much lazier or non-stimulated enough.

For vegans, the more we learn about the use of animals the more cruelty we see.  And that brings us to disapprove of the vast majority of people who won’t look.  Because we look and act on what we see, we get to see more than is comfortable.  More windows open up onto the dark world. But because we aren’t so deeply implicated in one sort of cruelty (towards animals) we can let ourselves see other cruelties, and then draw the connections between them.  For example, if people can allow animals to be violated for food it’s easier for them to be less concerned that children are dying needlessly for lack of food.  Perhaps that’s unfair, since many meat eaters do show great care and concern for starving kids, but in general if you can turn a blind eye to one sort of violence you’re better placed to be less outraged at war and pollution and greed, etc.  The more sensitive you become the more troubled you’ll be at the ugliness of our world, and want to do something about it.  The less sensitive you are the less troubled you’ll be by the hardness of ones fellow human beings.  So, what I’m trying to get at here is the need to become more sensitive to all of the violence, not just those ‘violences’ we can condemn from afar.  We can all comfortably hate war, hate environmental destruction, hate hunger because we are detached from it.  On the other hand we find it far harder to hate abattoirs if we still support them.

Try not to be insulting

971: 

If you start to question any of the ‘standard truths’, you are playing with the prospect of there being NO reliable truths.  From there you have to go ahead and experiment with life based upon a different set of truths, values and possibilities.

With this animal thing, when so many people are still following the old paths, truth gets very mixed up.  And since this subject is so tabooed, one also meets a widespread refusal to discuss the subject.  So, one never gets the chance, the go-ahead, to speak one’s mind, since any condemnation of animal farming seems to be wantonly confrontational.  One is either shut out or shut up as soon as any opening remark is made.  You can imagine how extremely confronting it would be to suggest, “Animal farms are providing us with much of our food but they are little more than death camps”.  Once you make a statement like this, there’s no chance of getting any further.  You can’t expand on that, so you can never reach the next statement about how animal farming is a major cause of greenhouse gas emissions and general pollution.  One can never get as far as suggesting, that by eating so much of this contaminated produce our bodies are going haywire, causing us to lose control of our health.

The devil in the detail is about animal foods being ‘rich’ and mostly fat-saturated, causing people to become too fat on their over-indulgent lifestyles.

Everything which needs to be said can’t be said since it is taken as an insult.  By making a provocative opening statement, I supply enough excuse to NOT listen to ANY of the details.  All the obvious links, between each of these issues, one leading to the next, are cut off.  One never gets far enough with the details to see the next links between animal-food diets contributing to the problem of children in poor countries dying for want of food. 

It’s not difficult to point out the connections, between our own actions and the worst possible consequences, but that’s not the real difficulty here.  If I ignite any part of this subject, down come the barriers.  Most people don’t allow themselves to look squarely at any of it, since they are too keen on consuming animals and all the ‘goodies’.  And that prevents them from condemning the food they love to eat, food that can only be made available by dint of farming animals.  They would never be able to heed the health warnings or the ethical arguments because they either refuse to open the debate or are helplessly standing there transfixed, like a rabbit in the car’s headlights.  They are effectively unable to deal with this level of discussion.

           

Here’s the biggest difficulty for vegans, that we might have a lot to say but no one to say it to. 

Transitioning is a bit of a struggle

970: 

I don’t want to condone any level of animal abuse of course, but I do want to allow room to discuss it, so I’m suggesting this: 

Although one can’t justify any animal use on intellectual terms, I want to be the first to admit that we’ve all contributed to the present state of affairs, we’ve all used animals in the past.

I can remember myself struggling with this.  I’ll explain this struggle in case anyone can relate to it.

My daily habits were governed by what others did ... and others mostly didn’t think about animals’ feelings.  They just did what they’d always done, what their parents had taught them.  And it was what they passed on to their own children - to simply eat the food they like.

As an adult, and earlier as a child, I consumed foods and confections not just to satisfy my hunger but also for pleasure.  I would ask myself, why stop any of that for the sake of an animal?  If I ever wanted to test my compassion I could always show it for fellow humans - there are enough social justice issues to fight for.  There are always humans who need help, so I’d have argued that compassion doesn’t HAVE to extend to animals, not the ones we eat anyway.

The problem for me was, as a life-long meat eater, that I didn’t like admitting I might be wrong, especially about my food habits.  That would mean too much loss of face and consequently too big a change in my lifestyle.  I’d been eating the same sorts of food all my life and it would take a lot of undoing, to dispense with animal products.  But as a young person at the time, I was at least less set in my ways, having had fewer years of guilt about my food-choices.  As a young person I wanted to re-examine values.  My food had been provided by my elders and, since rebelling against the habits of older people felt right to me, a radical diet-change felt like making an independent stand.  I remember it felt natural to accuse my elders of being ‘asleep’ on the matter of ‘eating animals’.  I wanted to ‘set up camp’ on the other side of the river.

It’s easier to make these radical changes when young, and far harder when older.  Then, as now, I thought that being a herbivore was the obvious way to spare animals.  I could see that it was a beautiful idea in theory but in practical terms I’d 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 fellow humans, all of whom were dedicated omnivores, and many who were enthusiastic carnivores.  I’d be denigrating the eating habits of nearly everyone I knew, and this wouldn’t win me any friends.

By exposing and explaining and talking about animal abuse in the food industry, I wasn’t surprised to find myself socially dropped by those very same family and friends.  And yet I was only trying to be constructive and get to the truth.  I only wanted to point out that unthinking humans have the capacity for acting destructively and 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 discussed.  But how?  All I could think of doing, to get the ball rolling, was to be rude.  And then I noticed that it always descended into mutual abuse, cutting off the possibility of any sort of rational debate.

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 set-in, that nothing I could do personally would change things.  Everyone thought of themself as a sensitive person, and in this case that was the BIG problem.  Everybody already knew humans were trashing the environment and doing things against their own ethical standards.  By admitting human culpability in one area it seemed they could ignore the animal issue.  Being such an integral part of human life, animal use and abuse was the last thing anyone would want to hear about.

So the struggle had and still has many strands.  There were my own doubts about the safety of plant-based foods, there was the concern that I couldn’t keep it up and, if I could, then not be able to speak about it, not get support and consequently feel like an outsider – all so much easier to initiate when young.

But all this is far harder to deal with when older.  Even harder to accept all these years on, that people still aren’t being touched by the question of animal cruelty. 

Abattoirs must shut down

969:  

We must stop killing animals in much the same way as small children need to stop having temper tantrums. We should have outgrown such barbaric behaviour by now. An abattoir mentality runs counter to civilised living. It’s ugly, it’s violent and it’s unnecessary.

My aim is to get that across, for it to make sense, and to show that vegans are people who love both animals and people, alike. And my next aim is to enjoy the struggle of trying to shift this attitudinal Goliath, and do it without using force. When I’m speaking about cruelty to animals it’s easy to get steamed up about it, so I remind myself to NEVER harass people into agreeing with me. I just want to get them thinking for themselves. I’m not into being pushy and I’m also keen to climb down from the high moral platform. So, I’ll put it this way: Most people have a great capacity for love, for being loved and giving it too. The potential is there, for people to see that there’s another way of living life, without using the violent ways of the past. Most vegans I know have a passion to rescue animals from the violence of humans, but we also have a duty to be all-round loving-types. Our whole approach must be gentle in order to persuade people by example. We do have a difficult message to get across but we need to use kind words to say hard things. As much as I want to persuade others by argument I also want to prove to others that I’m self-examining, so that I don’t fall into the trap of being hypocritical and therefore off-putting.

If I ever seem to be judgemental or insulting, I’m sure I’ll miss my target. I have to be frank and admit that vegans like me have made mistakes in the past – we’ve already earned quite a reputation for preaching and even coming across as superior. This sort of comment - “I’m vegan, how about you?” - has to stop, even when we don’t say it quite as directly as that. We need to be good communicators, especially with hostile or uninterested listeners. If we’ve been moralisers or been boring or predictable in the past, all that has to change. We must drop slogans like “Meat is Murder”. The statement might be true enough but what we’re really saying is “YOU are a murderer if you eat meat” and that sounds as if we are being deliberately provocative and attacking. We might mean well but it looks a lot like wanting to use shock tactics to change people. As soon as we make a value judgement of people, like this, the shutters come down. And defensive counter judgements are made, like “What bitter bastards you vegans are!” ... and that effectively puts an end to any meaningful communication.

Abattoirs must close, certainly. That’s the message we try to get across, to show how these places are the epitome of cruelty and barbarity. But the question is as to how we say that without sounding totally unrealistic and extra terrestrial.

Standing tall

968: 

All our best arguments for bringing about a non-violent society might be attractive to someone who has taken the food plunge and got rid of the crap and happy to have got rid of it. But is one’s personal example enough to convince others?

Ours is a complaisant society and a self-indulgent one. Most people think they can ignore the values set out in vegan principle, even though it represents the ultimately intelligent and compassionate path.

Is it laughable to think that our as-yet-small number could ever persuade people to so radically change their ways of eating (even if it’s only food that changes)? Our task seems almost impossible ... almost, but not quite. Over the past seventy years many people have changed. In some parts of the world up to 1% of the population has become vegan. The increase has been rapid and recent, mainly amongst the younger twenties generation. So, if you happen to believe in miracles ...!

If we are to pull this one off, it’s going to have to be the biggest miracle ever. And yet we may need to simply set off a small trend of fashionability. It will have to be a mixture of reasons for change: for health, for planet, for animals and for spiritual reasons. Each individual reason will hold some appeal, to some more than others.

The social kudos of being vegan cannot be underestimated. One might have all the highest principles in the world but in the end most of us lay great store on being able to say something about ourselves for which we are proud, which makes us seem less superficial. To be able to say that you are a vegan, without even mentioning the reason for it, denotes someone with self-discipline and a determination to be in control of one’s life. This is something most people would probably want. It’s rather like adopting a whole other dimension to one’s life, by disregarding the temptation-power of so many foods and commodities. By becoming vegan we stand that much taller.

The best thing about it is that we can feel as though we aren’t being manipulated by the vested interests of the food industry and clothing manufacturers. We aren’t condoning what they do by making a profit from the misery of animals. That, in itself, is a freedom which most people would like to have. Apart from anything else, the not-buying of expensive meat and dairy foods, woollens and leather products, makes for a great saving in the budget. If only in that way, for those of us who don’t have much money, it’s good to know we can live happily and ethically, and still be financially better off than the omnivores.

My personal experience

967: 

In my own case, being addicted to all the yummy, creamy, rich, salty, meaty items I’d been indulging in all my life, I had to make the break. I gritted my teeth to do just that, only to find a whole new and satisfying food experience ahead of me. Tastebuds quickly readjust. ‘They’ are grateful. They tingle with new life. By being cleaned-out, they open up to new sensory sensations. Once you’ve readjusted, the idea of abattoir food seems not only disgusting but absurd. It’s just annoying to think how we’ve all been duped into complying with that norm for so many years.

The biggest surprise for me was that I no longer craved crap. If any vegan had told me this would happen I wouldn’t have believed them, so if you aren’t yet a vegan I can’t blame you for not believing me now. And yet it’s really the crucial stepping stone. Once you experience the adaptability of your own body, once you get this (about vegan food) you never want to go back to the old ways. I can only speak for myself, but it was a huge surprise to me, how readily my body readjusted to an entirely different food palette.  I was grateful on a number of levels; after being vegan for some while I found my energy levels were far higher, I was less sluggish after meals and my general health was noticeably improving AND, even with my small brain capacity, I was noticing how much more alert and mentally sharper I’d become.

I won’t try to be too convincing here, since others far better qualified than me have done that well enough already. My promotion base is about the self-esteem-lift you get when you stop doing what nearly everyone else is doing. It lifts one above the blind compliance, no-thinking level. It’s good to no longer resign oneself to the no-alternative mentality. It highlights the ‘spiritual’ damage which has been done by the use of animals, and the condoning of their enslavement and killing. 

My main point here is that if survival isn’t dependent on animal-foods (or animal anything-else) then it should be questioned. If anyone could prove that I do need animals to survive, my whole argument collapses, since it would be suicidal to ignore those needs. However, since no one has put up a serious argument along those lines (ever since the first vegans appeared seventy years ago) I continue to assume plant-based foods are efficacious and safe. All that does need to be mentioned is that, over many centuries of eating animal products, and with the emphasis on greater hygiene, some human bodies can’t make enough vitamin B₁₂, so I do take regular B₁₂ supplements to be on the safe side, as advised by vegan doctors.

Based upon this assumption (that a vegan diet is both safe and healthy) I feel justified in adopting the diet which then lets me adopt the non-violence principles of veganism, which in turn allows me to be an animal advocate with a clear conscience.

This isn’t an entirely selfless pursuit. It benefits me greatly to be vegan and to have this endlessly fascinating subject to occupy my thoughts and energies, it being such an interesting subject and such a worthwhile project to be involved in. 

Hanging in there

966: 

This is what it comes down to:  Is a vegan strong enough to withstand the likelihood of no-change-yet.  By leaving the normal style of life behind us, we choose to lead a life dedicated to non-violence, even though we know we might never see the sort of substantial changes take place in our own lifetime.  There are still very few people around the world who are willing to defy the expectations of their society to be ‘normal’, when it comes to using animal-based food and clothing.  Those of us who are vegan take on the world, since we are the only ones who will defend the right-to-a-life for animals that have been bred into this world by our fellow humans.  We believe life is possible without abattoirs since they symbolise compliance-with-the-norm; if normality is wrong we don’t ‘do’ normal.

This is the side of normality, the shameful and violent side, is rarely spoken about.  It’s too shameful to bring up in conversation, for it condones the machinery of mass execution.  Animal abattoirs are no different to any of the worst extermination camps of Nazi Germany.  People pretend not to know what the abattoir really is (or they don’t care).  And since abattoirs are usually located well out of town – most people wouldn’t even know where the nearest one was.  Nor would they know what went on there, apart from the fact that animals are slaughtered there.

From the Industry’s point of view, it’s essential that there’s secrecy surrounding the treatment and execution of animals.  The Animal Industries are made up of the people who farm, kill and produce things out of animals.  We, the customers, cooperate.  We play along since we want to maintain the ready availability of all the items we love to eat, wear and use, and to be able to buy them at the lowest price.

Vegans, however, are on the side of the animals, and since animals can’t defend themselves, we become their advocates and protectors against the juggernaut of abusers and customers.  We hope to succeed in winning animals their ‘rights’, even though we realise that ‘rights’ seem a long way from being won.  What keeps us hanging in there is that, in our fight for animals and our avoidance of abattoir food, we at least know the food we eat is clean and that our own tastes are not as fixed as we thought.  And, in addition, we also know that having a clear conscience is certainly worth having.

Facing a dramatic change in life

965: 

To inconvenience oneself by becoming vegan, for the sake of farm animals, will seem unnecessary to most people.  They won’t think through the logic of the issues.  They’ll come to the conclusion that we vegans are just attention-seeking.

Our biggest challenge is to tell people the reason we’re vegan, and to go on to say what we have to say, despite rejection, disagreement and even ridicule.  And that means we have to remain vegan without the need for others’ approval or encouragement.

I know ex-activists who’ve given up in frustration, angry at the people’s ethical weakness over animal issues; they haven’t reckoned on it being so slow to catch on.  But when you think about it (the long tradition of humans exploiting animals) you know that such a major shift of emphasis, from human-centred concern to concern for the non-human, is a huge shift.

It seems that animal issues, because they are so closely connected with our daily food, are shunted off into the too hard department.  In a conspiracy of silence, the issues are never talked about, either in the media or at home around the dinner table.  Maybe people make a small gesture, mainly for health reasons - they reduce their intake of red meat.  Or maybe they go further, giving up meat altogether (for ethical and health reasons).  But in general, stopping ALL compliance with animal farming and boycotting ALL animal produce is, for most people, just not on.  It’s out of the question, because the using-of-animals suits their own convenience so well.

If we do decide to boycott animal products there is obviously going to be a dramatic change to our daily life.  However, if we don’t, then we are condoning the abattoir and all that it stands for.  If demand for animal products dropped, abattoirs would have to shut down; if abattoirs shut down, animal farming would stop, and animal products would then become unavailable.  This might be the consciousness we are heading towards in the future, but since it would spell such a dramatic change in the way humans operate, we can safely reckon that it won’t happen overnight.  All the time there is no immediate threat to human survival, such a change is unlikely to happen.  And if that particular change doesn’t seem likely, then a vegan might lose heart.

So, this is the next in the line of difficulties vegans face.

Making the hard decisions

964: 

People don’t usually like hearing stories of cruelty and waste in relation to animals.  They feel guilty about what they’re eating and wearing, but the problem is that they can’t imagine a world without animal farms and animal foods and animal-based clothing.  Most people can’t accept life without meat or, if they’re vegetarians, without eggs, cheese, milk and the hundreds of products using animal ingredients.  Most people think a plant-based diet would be boring and unhealthy.  But today people are better informed, and if they are not yet quite clear about why cruelty is linked to dairy products, they’ll have no trouble understanding that such things as leather should be avoided, because it is the skin of executed animals.

Back in the 1970s there was far less information.  I knew very little until I met someone who explained some details.  I became a vegan. What influenced my decision were stories  I heard, from the son of a dairy farmer, who knew about what they did to animals, for their meat and milk and eggs.  I vaguely knew it wasn’t nice but he went through the details, and why consumers were always kept in the dark.  But, as he pointed out, that was just what the customer wanted; they didn’t want to know too much, in case they might persuade themselves to act.

This was true for me.  I really didn’t want to know.  And yet I did.  I liked all the delicious foods and yet disliked them because of their animal content.  And this is the dilemma for most people today, unable to face a life without prawns, steak, ham, eggs, ice cream, milk chocolate, melted cheese on pizzas, fruit yoghurt and cream cakes.  And a lot else besides.

Every time I eat out, go to a dinner party or a celebration like a wedding, there are always attractive items to eat, made with lots of animal ingredients.  To pass it up might seem masochistic.  While all the others are stuffing their faces I end up with a bowl of salad.  And clothing, leather shoes, woollen jumpers and blankets, fur coats, etc.  It’s a long list.

Okay, you get the picture – there is a lot of ‘doing-without’ if you’re a vegan.  It’s a huge challenge to impose on yourself.  If you decide to deny yourself these ‘eating pleasures’ and wardrobe items, you’ll effectively be stepping aside from normality and from the lifestyle of your friends and family.

So, you have to adopt an alternative lifestyle.  You have to use your creativity to make it attractive.  You find ways to make plant-based foods interesting and delicious.  You wear canvas shoes, cotton, linen and synthetic fabrics.  You have to get used to explaining to people why such radical changes are being made, in order to ‘save animals’.  And at this point some will fail to understand, since they feel no particular empathy for pigs and chickens.  But for those who do have some empathy, they’ll realise why you’ve had to make these radical changes to your lifestyle.  And if you don’t become too evangelical when you tell them about it, they might just go away and consider things afresh.  They might admire the principles you live by and move towards becoming vegan themselves.

Vegans in the minority

963: 

We live in a country, indeed on a planet, where almost every human is using and therefore condoning the abuse of animals. The vast majority of these animals are imprisoned on farms and are denied any semblance of natural life. They live in squalor and die in terror.  Until the consumer stops buying meat and eggs and dairy products and all the foods and commodities which make use of animals’ bodies, the cruelty will continue.  It’s up to the individual consumer to stop consuming it all, and only then will products be free of cruelty.

The vegan animal activist, in order to live according to their own principles, has to adopt a philosophy of not-touching-animals. I mean by that, not using them, not condoning the imprisonment or killing of them, and of course not eating them.

Almost everybody is involved in the exploitation of animals. Those who aren’t (who are called ‘vegans’) have made an agreement with themselves to keep their food and clothing plant-based and animal-free.  In this way we show how life is possible without using animals for anything. 

The cream-bun mentality

962:

Delicious. A  fattening cream bun. If you’ve eaten one you’ll know what it is - a taste and texture experience. But what’s behind this confection? The cream that comes from milk, comes from cows who’ve lost their new-born calf, in order to make their milk available for humans. But the product itself, the cream, despite it being unhealthy, is delicious to our taste and has been cunningly inserted into a sweet bun to make it attractive to eat. Irresistible. That attraction, multiplied a thousandfold across the range of equally delicious food items, represents a typical food temptation.

If we are concerned for the enslaved animals who produce ‘our’ milk, then we have to choose to either satisfy our taste or rise above it for the sake of sticking to a principle, namely the need to boycott anything taken from abused animals.

The question is, can the cream bun be eaten or can the temptation be beaten? The vegan’s job is to find ways in which denying oneself this figurative cream-bun makes sense, not merely to avoid putting on weight but for improving one’s ethical self-esteem. 

The Me-first Human

961: 

If you’re an animal activist, a vegan, a liberationist or an advocate for the ‘voiceless’, you might have noticed how alone you feel, even surprised that so few people have linked arms with you.  But you probably know why.  You probably realise what a soggy bunch of people we live amongst, and how dependent people are on such things as milk, eggs and to a lesser extent, wool.    No ice cream in the fridge, no warm woollen blankets on the bed - the thought of doing without these items prevents people from joining our ranks.  If they became animal advocates they’d miss these products too much and this is why most people refuse to go as far as we (vegans) do.

So there’s the conundrum. We hate the thought of animals being tortured but we can’t face a life without using them (which always involves exploitation and execution).

Vegans face life without using animal-based products.  We disassociate ourselves from the ‘acceptabilities’ of our fellow humans because they support this violence-by-proxy.  We know that almost all people are unable to resist the benefits of using animals.  For that reason alone, I’d suggest that humans can’t be trusted around animals anymore than paedophiles can be trusted around children.  Whenever we use animals, we betray their simple-minded trust in us.  We’re conditioned to turn a blind eye to animal abuse whenever it spells food, leather shoes, silk shirts or warm woolly jumpers.

That’s putting it bluntly, but it can’t be written more delicately.  That’s how it is.  However, we must let others know that the condition is curable, simply by using some initial willpower, deciding to do without, or swapping over to products that are 'cruelty-free'.

Generally the human is a 'me-first' creature, always taking what can be taken. Few of us are prepared to consider the feelings of animals if that causes us any discomfort or inconvenience.  Almost everybody who isn’t vegan is in some way involved in the exploitation of animals, yet almost everybody will deny this.

Vegans are, as far as food goes, plant-based eaters.  Our clothing too has no connection with animal by-products.  We show that life is possible without using animals for anything.

If people feel guilty, about the cruelty and waste in relation to animals, then our job is to explain what is happening to animals on farms and at abattoirs, without necessarily making non-vegans feel even more guilty about what they eat or wear.  Our job is tricky.  We have to explain things without sounding disapproving because that will only drive them away.  The idea is to explain it as part of the human condition, a condition that can be moved away from me-first to me-second.  I don’t mean adopting an idealised selflessness, just allowing a consideration of ‘the other’, having more empathy and seeing animals more as equals rather than as inferiors.

If animals are to be freed from being our slaves, there will have to be large numbers of people, like us, who are equally horrified by slavery - in this case animal slavery.  The last thing we need to do is to alienate people unnecessarily.  They need to like us, learn from us, not feel judged by us.  But at the same time they need to be completely clear about where we’re coming from.  Our aim is to convince others not to use animals for ANYTHING.  To achieve this, to get past the mind-set of the normality of using animals, we need a less-than-obvious approach that will educate but not alienate.  First, we have a few mind-sets of our own to overcome.  We need support, but it needs to be voluntary and arise out of empathy.  It must come from within and not be forced from without (by us).  The best support comes when there’s a deeply felt agreement, and the doors of that agreement can only be opened if people detect no trace of value judgement coming from us.  Therefore we too have something to learn.  We need to understand how difficult it is for those who’ve known nothing different all their lives.  Their difficulties are real to them.  The idea of changing from an omnivorous diet to a plant-based diet is quite a big step forward.  It’s likely that most people would imagine great difficulty in making that change.  But when they DO decide to give it a go, they usually find it far less difficult than they imagined.

But whether it’s easy or hard, there should be no confusion about what we are saying.  This is not about how hard it is for us but how hard it is for them.  It’s about animal abuse.

People might not be completely clear about that.  Perhaps they’ve been confused by the ‘vegetarians’, who only put out half the message.  For vegans, though, we go for the whole truth or nothing.  We explain the complete ugliness and betrayal.  We make that number one priority, and emphasise that it’s not about our own personal health, but about the wrongness of animal abuse.  Human health is a secondary aim and certainly a bonus to those who only eat plant-based foods.  But primarily this is about healthy ethics.  It’s about developing empathy for animals, at the same time achieving a clear conscience for ourselves.

Ed:CJ

Soft-bellied Vegetarians

960:

Many humans don’t pay much attention to developing a philosophical basis to their  lives, or at least they don’t stray too far into the world of original thinking.  These humans are inclined to focus on the interests of humans only to the detriment of other life forms. I think they do it because it’s where the applause is loudest, where their own way of thinking is likely to be confirmed.

To be loyal to our own species at the expense of other species is anthropocentrism.  You’d find it ridiculous if I said, torturing humans is okay if it’s done humanely.  Torture can never be humanely administered.  But we have a different set of rules when it comes to non-humans and how they can be treated.   One could say that lacto-ovo vegetarians accept the torture of animals as long as it's done humanely.  Their policy is that it's OK to use some animals as long as they're not killed for their meat.  They say we can exploit them, take their babies, exhaust them, prematurely age them and keep them in confinement with no semblance of social or sexual life until they’re of no further use to humans.  All this is acceptable to the lacto-ovo-vegetarian, as long as they don’t actually eat their flesh.  If they don’t eat meat they can still call themselves vegetarians. Their hypocrisy is astounding.

Here are examples of grossly abused animals.  A dairy cow who ‘gives’ her milk, which is denied to her calf who is then disposed of.  The dairy cow is executed when milk production drops below a certain level.  There’s the hen who ‘gives’ us eggs (the male chick is disposed of) and the sheep who ‘gives’ us the wool from its back (exposing it to sunburn and exposure) and again, both are sent for execution after they’ve given as much as they can give.  Each of these animals lives in appalling conditions and/or loses their offspring, and each one of them is slaughtered in the abattoir when they can no longer provide enough milk, eggs or wool, respectively.

Could any fair-weather vegetarian stand up and say they don’t connive with the torturers?

Ed: CJ

The inconvenient truth

959: 

Right now, as you read this, thousands, no millions, no, in fact billions of beautiful, sensitive, sentient animals are struggling.  They are in a hopeless position, powerless against human oppression.  They are suffering confinement, harsh treatment, and violence.  They are each victims of the singular human intention to have them die a horrible death in an abattoir.

If you eat anything from an animal, if you wear anything from the animal’s body, then you are connected to the lives of these terrorised animals; you are partly responsible for the conditions captive animals find themselves in.  Harsh accusatory words indeed!  But would anyone say they weren’t true?

Vegans are not connected to any of this, since they have purposely disassociated themselves from the whole ugly situation.  Non-vegans are connected (some less than others) simply because they are unwilling to forgo animal-based foods and yummy treats.  The omnivore can’t imagine a life without ‘animal’, in much the same way as one can’t imagine life without a car or a computer or a television.  In our materialistic world there are so many other items we’re all used to having, but it’s likely that while each one damages the planet or damages our health, there is even worse damage done to ourselves.

Using items from the hell-holes in which animals are kept and hurt and executed wrecks the human conscience.  Nothing else that we do or buy or use compares to our involvement with the grotesque treatment of farm animals.  If you saw what they do to these creatures, first hand, you would vomit.  You’d scream, you’d run.  You’d swear never to be party to any of it ever again.  And this is why the guys who run these places never let you into abattoirs or intensive farms these days.  The way they treat these invisible billions, including birds, mammals and fish is nothing short of demonic.  Each creature is taken out of their natural surroundings, deprived of every social, sensual and sexual experience they’d normally have in Nature, and exploited to the very edge of biological toleration, just to provide humans with their little comforts.

The inconvenient truth of these angry-sounding words won’t do the animals themselves much good, but if one is describing a hurricane one can’t talk about it in terms of a firm breeze.  To describe these animals’ lives in any other way would be dishonest.  I know that it’s much wiser to use softer language.  If I did you would still be reading whereas I know that most readers would have turned away about three paragraphs ago.  But, just for once, I don’t feel like downplaying the shame, guilt and sorrow we should all be feeling.  Perhaps it’s because we’ve always talked too timidly about these matters, that we’ve by-passed the full horror of the present situation.  I think you’ll agree that this is the one subject that is never properly talked about.

However, as easily as I could go on at length, to describe the conditions of each animal on the farm, whether they are living on the free-range or in intensive operations, it wouldn’t help people to unravel their own temperamental blocks. These blocks stop them thinking about what they are doing, when eating animal-based foods.  Most of our most dangerous behaviours are mindless copying of what others do, because how could you possibly enjoy eating your dinner with thoughts of suffering animals running through your head?  

Why vegan principles are the logical starting point

958: 

What is it that stops people discussing animal cruelty, stops them considering ending their use of animals. They know more or less what happens to animals on farms, they know that the animal industry is implicated in cruelty, but they also know how much they want to eat animal foods. Humans all over the world are addicted to them. They can’t stop watching cooking shows on TV for new ways of preparing their favourite animal based dishes. And if people are addicted to their food they will also value their freedom of choice; they feel they have a right to choose from whatever is on sale in the shops, whether it be in the form of food or clothing or any other commodity that makes life more pleasant. On the face of things, it would seem unrealistic to hope that people would simply give up these (mainly) foods, not for their own health’s sake but for the sake of the animals. Humans aren’t yet ready to be that selfless. 

            Now, look at it another way (foods and material comforts aside). Is there something in life worth more than anything else, for which the ‘giving up’ of delicious foods would be but a small sacrifice? Some might suggest the preservation of good health. Others though would suggest the need to preserve good ethics. For vegans there is one central question - what is life for, beyond mere existence and the pursuit of pleasure?

            The way the world is at present, with it’s crass materialism, it’s me-first emphasis and with so much routine violence, one is forced to question the extent one is personally involved in supporting that world. If you pursue ideals but are not consistent then you have what we’d call double standards. Health enthusiasts are very often vegetarian but have no interest in promoting animal rights or looking any deeper than their own personal welfare.

            To effectively get to the bottom of things, we surely have to look at the human temperament. Look for clues as to HOW to reform our violent and self-centred natures, and then attempt to change at that level before we try to change the world. And indeed, we can’t change the world directly until we are rebelling against violence and self-interest. Because food is so heavily connected with self-interest and violence (and because consuming food is such a routine) this is surely where we must make a start. The first specific change most people need to make should be to the habits which are most damaging, most routine and least thought about. This is why vegan principle is such an important starting line. 

How we come to see ourselves

957: 

I would argue that today most of our grandest aims are pointless. A blank wall faces most people if only because they can’t see any sort of solution to ‘the problems of the World’. Because of the presence of animal foods (and other animal-derived goods) in our lives, we can’t avoid involvement in violence; if violence can’t be shaken off then any move towards a more spiritually-driven life is meaningless. But for those who have stepped away from this daily involvement in violence there is a chance. For vegans, because we’ve so purposely disassociated from this daily act of violence, there is some opportunity to transform our own lives and be in a position to help others transform theirs. Our boycott of abattoir products is the start of a simple solution, but … there’s always a ‘but’.

We have been walled in. We are few in number and so we suffer from feeling isolated. It’s as if we are victims of a determined conspiracy against us, facing the forces of public persuasion to be ‘normal’.

If I could apply vegan principles to Society, that would seem to me to be a wonderful thing, but to most people it would be seen as a great threat to their way of life. It would mean revolution. So people like us, vegans, are likely to be bad-mouthed by the authorities and the pubic in general. I can imagine, if ever too many people started to consider becoming vegan that there would be a fight-back; people would be warned, by spreading rumours of cows wandering the streets and tax-payer’s money being spent on sanctuaries for retired farm animals.

Economic factors are very persuasive. Most of us can be made to fear any threat to our livelihood. But ethics are persuasive too. Leading an ethical life makes us feel strong, but how strong do our ethics have to be, how altruistic or how intelligent do we have to be, to consider becoming vegan? A future point in time, where people no longer keep or kill animals might seem far off, and yet where we are at the moment might be the start of a slow movement towards humans becoming conscious of something greater within themselves. We all have a sense of protectiveness that might overcome the desire for personal comfort. If that is so, then we could begin to see ourselves as caretakers of kids, as carers of climate and planet and long-suffering farm animals. In that way we might come to learn who we are and have a better idea of our precise role in the building of the future. 

A panacea for the soul

956: 

Eating plant foods is not just about healthy eating but about taking a stand, making a statement.  I decided to ‘go vegan’ because of the need to liberate animals and to be in a position where I could encourage people to liberate themselves from their involvement in the cruelty of animal farming.  The animal liberation struggle is about humans doing something for the greater good, part of which is the ending of animal slavery.

Apart from all the good it does, environmentally and for enslaved animals and for human health, going vegan plays a significant part in an unfolding drama; for the first time in history we are free enough to examine our own temperament, to reflect on our innate violent nature and attempt to make ourselves become less violent.  We can start by not eating animals.  Today we have a leisure society in which we have some free time to devote to great causes.  And we have the freedom to think for ourselves.

On a purely selfish level, by helping to bring about rights for animals we give ourselves a chance to improve the quality of our lives and the chance to save our own souls.

The compromise

955: 

The omnivore mightn’t care a fig about animal cruelty. Or they might not necessarily know about it. But it needs to be said that whatever nutritive value there may have been (in animal-based food) is now compromised by its toxic content, and that isn’t taking into account the shame that comes with it. Even if the animal is fed organic food, if it ranges free or is treated with exceptional kindness, the food taken from the animal can never be ‘clean’ since it’s all tainted by imprisonment and a universally nasty, abattoir death; even animals from which by-products are taken (like eggs or milk or wool) are eventually executed. No one could possibly suggest that farm animals aren’t put to death in a state of terror.

Animal foods are unnecessary to healthy survival. They serve no useful purpose, in sharp contrast to the health-giving qualities of plant-based foods. For omnivores, their animal foods provide a corrupted energy, rather like ‘drinking from the poisoned well’. With so much chronic dietary-related illness, you’d think the ‘goodness’ of food would be a high priority. And so it would be, if it weren’t for the consumer’s need to conform (in the spirit of social acceptability) and the Industry’s insatiable thirst for profits. Normality takes precedence over everything else; the normal meal always contains meat or cheese, and the meal is invariably topped off with sweetened dairy products. Social conformity is more important than any show of individuality. We beware stepping outside social norms by not sharing the same foods as others at the dinner table; if, for ethical reasons, we don’t eat the same sorts of foods as other then it’s likely we’ll never be truly accepted by them. And by being shunned socially, as vegans are, there’s the danger of losing social confidence. For the sake of social acceptance, it’s likely that most people will compromise their principles in order to do as others do.

On the big issues of the day, like whether or not to eat meat, we defer attitude-change; it’s easier knowing that we won’t be judged for conforming, because others are conforming in the same way.

Generally, people don’t give something up if they think they can get away with it. If for no other reason, this would be why an omnivore remains an omnivore. But vegans don’t think this way. We might regret the loss of peer acceptance but we can look forward to being free of a heavy conscience. To take vegan theory seriously (enough to boycott everything with animal content) we demand that our food has both nutritional and ethical value. People have thrived on a vegan diet since the early 1940s, so it’s not that experimental!

The last word on animal products

954: 

I think vegans are the type of people who,  first and foremost,  realise that in life we don’t get ‘owt’ for ‘nowt’;  we have to work at it.  We climb the hill before we enjoy the downhill run.  For that to make sense we have to realise,  first,  that we’ve spent our lives being duped by ‘the providers’.

It’s not very wise to trust what the ‘providers’ tell us or to trust the products they sell. If we examine our own decisions,  when it comes to the buying of animal-based foods,  it’s clear that we are heavily directed by ‘the authorities’,  from commercial advertisers and nutritionists to parents, teachers, priests and doctors,  all of whom have a lot to answer for.

Those who are most involved and who profit from the success of the Animal Industries,  they guide so many of our daily shopping decisions.  What we do, what we buy and what we then eat, is not necessarily in our own best interests but in theirs.

What we are never told is that animal products inevitably let us down,  in the long run. They please us, fill us, make us feel strong and energetic, and then WHAM!,  we’re bloated and fatigued.  After a full meat meal you don’t feel energised, you feel sleepy.  And over many years of ingesting the stuff, once they accumulate in the body they have the opposite effect to what they seem to promise.  It’s this ‘betraying’ effect of our food that is either realised too late or never realised at all.

So, to be ahead of the game we need to remember the history of how today’s foods became popular.  ‘Green’ foods were gathered but weren’t originally as nutritious or plentiful as they are today.  They weren’t seen to be powerful enough to keep pace with the advancing human brain and human development.  So, humans started to supplement their plant-food with hunted meat.  The omnivorous diet appeared to benefit mind and body.  It eventually occurred to the ‘expanded mind’ that it would be more convenient to ‘domesticate’ animals rather than chase about hunting them.  By capturing, corralling and breeding captive animals, animal-based food became far more available and was indulged in to the point where the body began to react badly to it.  And now, today, having heavily indulged in it, we now have a huge demand for hospital beds.  The hospitals are busy patching up all the ill patients suffering from diet-related illnesses.  Hopefully, before it’s too late,  this will be followed by a return to plant-based foods.  But that doesn’t mean going out gathering wild plants.  Today we can grow powerfully nutritious and varied foods from cultivated crops.

The ‘idea’ of veganism coincided with the development of many new and delicious plant-based foods which, today, are readily available and inexpensive.

In its plant-based form, food is better suited to the growth of stronger (subtler) human bodies.  Along the way,  plant food has become famous not just for its nutrient values but for its capacity to release the human from dependency on animals;  it relieves us from complicity with animal-enslavement.  As the foods developed (alongside this ‘new ethic’ of compassion for animals) so they came to include a wide range of cereals, nuts, pulses, vegetables and fruits.  And, from them, a vast range of foods has been produced, to replace the existing wide range of animal-based food products.  Plant foods are lighter and more energy producing.  And what is so great about them is that none of them are linked in any way with animal cruelty.