Ethical Eating

NOTE: Nothing here will make you squirm with discomfort.

Choosing to become vegan or vegetarian is a highly personal lifestyle decision that's more times than not guided by an ethical epiphany: animals are sentient creatures no different from human beings and are therefore not disposable commodities. This hotly debated topic forces people to consider the entire non-human animal kingdom in an completely different light to both understand and appreciate the inherent value of every living creature; to ignore this fact is to defend an antiquated and groundless argument that animals are placed on this earth for man's benefit.

Denying animals harbor consciousness is a conveniently disprovable stance that allows naysayers to claim humans as the only living being with perception and awareness, a coupling that has somehow excused and even justified the atrocious actions people inflict upon food animals. Factory farming is one of the most valid reasons people choose a vegan or vegetarian lifestyle, with others citing different yet just as compelling reasons as Dick Gregory's nutrient density and spiritual cleansing, Forks Over Knives connection to degenerative disease and Gandhi's peaceful resistance.

No matter the motivational factor, it is clearly a decision based upon our own lifelong efforts to become more aware, connected and evolved. To draw that flexible line where it best fits at this moment, knowing that it can -- and likely will -- fluctuate with our ever-changing mindset.

Somewhere in all of this [information about veganism], something will strike you just right and everything will crystalize around you brilliantly–that's your vegan epiphany...Experiencing [this] can help to make the journey a little easier; suddenly, it doesn’t feel like such a chore or sacrifice or abnormal thing to be choosing veganism. Veganism becomes, simply, the way your world is and the only way you can conceive of living and being. ~ Tess

Man's disquieting ethical egoism has caused significant problems throughout his relatively short reign on this planet; with very few exceptions, everything humanity has done, is doing or will do to progress as a species comes at the cost of other entities. This blatant disregard for living in harmony with flora and fauna -- which existed long before we ever did -- is one of the most reprehensible of all human characteristics, particularly where animal treatment is concerned. Eating their flesh, wearing their skins/fur and gratuitous experimentation on their bodies should be extinct the way so many species have become, yet only a small percentage of the human population has stopped perpetuating these obsolete practices. 

 

In short, mankind has deceived his animal counterparts with a shameful disregard for their basic rights as living beings. While perhaps the most developed of all species, people have no intrinsic entitlement to claim dominion over their nonspeaking neighbors. Whether or not animals have the same rights as humans is not the issue but rather that animals have the same expectation as man to a life free of pain, suffering and exploitation.

A good place to encounter your epiphany is in Hal Herzog's book "Some We Love, Some We Hate, Some We Eat."

Cartoon by Mark Parisi