One small step ...
My recent posts both here and on VeggieBoards asking what vegans think of vegetarians produced quite a response. Many of the comments were, shall we say, a bit bristly, with vegans failing to understand why a vegetarian, a so-called animal lover, could continue to contribute to animal cruelty by eating animal products.
I've come to the conclusion that vegetarians either don't have the same conviction as vegans towards protecting animals or they just don't know as much about where the non-vegan foods they eat come from. I find myself falling somewhere in the middle of these two.
Many vegetarians [and I know it's a generalisation, that's why I'm saying "many"] don't know about the dairy industry anymore than the average omnivore does. I wrote in an earlier post that the reason I don't drink milk is because it doesn't feel right, because cow's milk, to me, is designed for baby cows, not people. I didn't know about the calves being taken away at three days.
Meat, on the other hand, requires little investigation. It is, as I said before, obviously a dead animal.
So many vegetarians, you could say, are simply uninformed animal lovers [this is, of course, discounting all those vegetarians, and there are many, who became vegetarian purely for health reasons - they may think, like many omnivores, that there is nothing wrong with eating animals].
If vegetarians are informed, but continue to eat non-vegan products, it is through a lack of conviction for the cause, and in many ways I can see why vegans get upset about this. But having a strong conviction to protecting all animals is not a prerequisite for being a vegetarian. I don't want poor children in the developed world to suffer because of the coffee I'm drinking, [not that I drink coffee, but it's just an example], but do I always check it is fair trade? And do I check what that means in practise? If you smoke, where does that come from? Who suffers? If you wear trainers, travel in cars, buy fruit and vegetables from another country, even drink water, all of these things can result in suffering of some sort. But how strong is your conviction? As Jesus once said, let him who is free of sin cast the first stone.
If veganism is a step along the road to righteousness, but not the end of the road by any means, vegetarianism is just one step behind.
That said, I now find myself, as a result of this discussion, knowing more than I did about other animal products and I'm faced with the dilemma of what to do about it. Not eating meat, for me, being born veggie, is very easy. Cutting out cheese and yogurt, the two things that stop me being vegan, is less so. But every time I cut a slice of cheese, in the last few days, I feel for the poor calves. The cheese is tasting less and less flavoursome. But I still need to find out more. What about organic cheese? Do they still take the calves away? And I need to get my head around making a significant lifestyle choice borne of a now-I-know-I-can't-ignore-it sense of guilt. See what you've done?
I've come to the conclusion that vegetarians either don't have the same conviction as vegans towards protecting animals or they just don't know as much about where the non-vegan foods they eat come from. I find myself falling somewhere in the middle of these two.
Many vegetarians [and I know it's a generalisation, that's why I'm saying "many"] don't know about the dairy industry anymore than the average omnivore does. I wrote in an earlier post that the reason I don't drink milk is because it doesn't feel right, because cow's milk, to me, is designed for baby cows, not people. I didn't know about the calves being taken away at three days.
Meat, on the other hand, requires little investigation. It is, as I said before, obviously a dead animal.
So many vegetarians, you could say, are simply uninformed animal lovers [this is, of course, discounting all those vegetarians, and there are many, who became vegetarian purely for health reasons - they may think, like many omnivores, that there is nothing wrong with eating animals].
If vegetarians are informed, but continue to eat non-vegan products, it is through a lack of conviction for the cause, and in many ways I can see why vegans get upset about this. But having a strong conviction to protecting all animals is not a prerequisite for being a vegetarian. I don't want poor children in the developed world to suffer because of the coffee I'm drinking, [not that I drink coffee, but it's just an example], but do I always check it is fair trade? And do I check what that means in practise? If you smoke, where does that come from? Who suffers? If you wear trainers, travel in cars, buy fruit and vegetables from another country, even drink water, all of these things can result in suffering of some sort. But how strong is your conviction? As Jesus once said, let him who is free of sin cast the first stone.
If veganism is a step along the road to righteousness, but not the end of the road by any means, vegetarianism is just one step behind.
That said, I now find myself, as a result of this discussion, knowing more than I did about other animal products and I'm faced with the dilemma of what to do about it. Not eating meat, for me, being born veggie, is very easy. Cutting out cheese and yogurt, the two things that stop me being vegan, is less so. But every time I cut a slice of cheese, in the last few days, I feel for the poor calves. The cheese is tasting less and less flavoursome. But I still need to find out more. What about organic cheese? Do they still take the calves away? And I need to get my head around making a significant lifestyle choice borne of a now-I-know-I-can't-ignore-it sense of guilt. See what you've done?
posted by Adharanand Finn at 11:11 AM
4 Comments:
I like this post... just so you know. I know JUST how you feel.
Peace.
I hear you. It's a slippery slope, but one worth sliding on. I'm a recent vegan, and once you start, even taking baby steps, you'll find you can't stop. I used to live on cheese and yogurt, but it's really not that hard to give up--you'll be surprised! I'm working on de-wooling my wardrobe, which is a challenge, but the more I read and the more I think, the more I've convinced it's the right thing for me.
I think it's great that you're thinking about these things, but yes-- the organic dairy industry is still exploitive and terrible. Plus, if you feel that milk is meant for baby cows. . . milk is what cheese and yogurt are made of! :)
I suggest going "cold tofurkey" vegan for a month, and see how you feel. After weaning myself off cheese, I realized how unneccesary it truly is. Nutritional yeast and FYH Vegan Gourmet satisfy my very occasional cravings, and Silk yogurt is a great source of calcium and probiotics. Both don't result in veal, making them (in my opinion) superior products.
Hello,
I really hope you ended up looking into veganism. I recommend taking a look at www.veganoutreach.com among other places.
I've been vegan for 3 years, myself - vegetarian for four. For me, I became vegetarian very quickly, but it took me a year to work up the will to go vegan, by reading and reading and reading on the topic and just becoming more and more convinced that to really love animals, it was the right thing to do.
A couple books that definitely warrant reading include:
Meat Market by Erik Marcus (Marcus makes a convincing case that eggs actually involve crueller practices than any form of meat including veal!)
Animal Liberation by Peter Singer (for the philosophical underpinnings of veganism)
Once I actually just went vegan (as in gave up all animal products just like that), it was pretty easy. It's just a matter of working up the will to do it and then doing it.
I recommend investing in vegan cookbooks, though, so that you can make new tasty dishes that replace the old ones you crave: cheese for example actually contains addictive opiates that occur in the mother cow's milk in order to keep the calf drinking the milk.
As to dairy - there is no form of dairy that does not involve taking the calf away from its mother; it's just not possible for the calf to nurse and have enough extra milk somehow "left over" for that to be profitable. Calves are either taken away to be dairy cows themselves, taken for veal production, or killed immediately.
And all cows are slaughtered when their milk production falls off.
As to eggs - you don't mention if you eat those or not, but check out cok.net which features lots of nasty details of egg "production".
Anyway, maybe you've already gone vegan. If you haven't, I hope you give it a serious go. It's worth it; I've never felt better or enjoyed food more.
Post a Comment
<< Home