Decisions and tests

1128: 

There are now many young people aware of Animal Rights and they’re adopting ethical positions towards their food. As well, these people are not so keen on being poisoned every day.  As they begin to switch to more plant-based foods in their diets a certain truth is dawning on them - what’s not attractive about food that is high energy and not fattening?  But it’s obviously more than that.  With this ‘gentler generation’, it’s animal cruelty that does it for them. It’s the clincher.  It isn’t easy to forget about today’s animal farming and the generating of animal-based junk food.

Enter the private mind of such a young person, questioning the conventional ways that have been taught them:

          Thinks … would I deliberately eat second rate food?

          Thinks …would I deliberately hurt animals?

          Thinks …would I want to support a whole industry dedicated to hurting animals and producing crap?

          Thinks ... it’s my business, my food and my clothing.  It’s my choice to dress as I wish and eat what I like.  

But everyone is attracted to rich, yummy foods.  Boycotting seventy percent of food products on sale makes life that much more difficult.  For the dedicated omnivore it’s easier to indulge.  It’s easier to dismiss the difficult questions because everyone else does.

Thinks: we all have our ‘little sins’, where we give in to our weaker side, even though we know it’s wrong, and in this case the wrong being helping to hurt animals.

Question: Either I don’t give a stuff about animals (and I continue buying whatever I feel like) or I care about them (and boycott the lot).  I might know about intensive farming, but how am I going to react to ‘that sort of information’.  I either decide to act or I decide NOT to.

Our core values, learnt from childhood, about rights and wrongs, and softness and kindness, either move us or they wash right over our head.

         

Question: If I couldn’t find a suitable ‘cruelty-free’ replacement product?  Does that mean going without it altogether?  Isn’t that what the boycott is all about?  It’s quite a test!