Example-Setting

1992:

Whether vegan or omnivore, we are a powerful ship steaming into the future in the form of example-setting. It’s our only chance to stand up against Goliath opposition. But the opposition isn’t only over food but myriad issues facing us all, right now. It’s a tad overwhelming – vegan food one day, organic food the next. Health issues, animal issues, environmental impacts, where does it all stop? Can I afford to be that spread out?

I suppose it comes down to the way we look at things. When I get a flier in the mail about the latest tragic event, asking me for a contribution, it feels like plugging a hole in a leaky bucket. Where does one stop?

But why not start? Slipping a fiver in an envelope won’t solve the world’s problems but it’s a start, and every gesture we make helps. The pressure is always on us to conform, to take the easier way, to go the cheaper way and that translates into our own consumer habits. Our involvement in waste is as regular as our involvement in cruelty. Being profligate with paper isn’t much different to ruining the land or hens being ’wasted’, or abuse, cruelty, or taking advantage of resources -  it’s all much the same thing. We do it and we don’t believe we can STOP doing it. We don’t think we are good example-setters.

The trick is surely not to be overwhelmed by all the issues but to do what we feel comfortable about doing. And in the doing, realise the potential for us to keep on going deeper. In that way, the world will eventually benefit from what we give out but more particularly from what we’ve understood, about ourselves.