(Updated from it's original posting in 2017)

Back when I tabled at the Kaw Valley Seed Fair, where I gave away hundreds of free vegan food samples and literature. one of my most memorable encounters was with a couple of young women just barely out of their teens. These women, one of whom indicated she had been vegan at one point, told me with earnest conviction that as a result of interning on a small local farm, they now ate animals and no longer found it uncomfortable because they had, “Made peace” with killing them.
Let those words sink in for a moment. They, "Made peace with killing."
Let those words sink in for a moment. They, "Made peace with killing."
Amidst floods of people wanting to sample our food and get information, I failed to ask these individuals, one very important question…
“How do you know that your current view justifying eating animals (or their bodily excretions) is truly consistent with your core values about justice, compassion and nonviolence; how do you know that you have just not become desensitized to culturally condoned injustices and violence? (and thus without realizing it have adopted the dominant cultural ideology of the oppressors)?”
Cross cultural anthropology gives insight to the immense pressure humans experience when we attempt to vary from traditions/social norms. We are all profoundly impacted by this.
I suspect these young people who are “at peace with killing” probably consider themselves to be on the forefront of embracing social justice, environmental justice, and abhor “isms” like racism, hetero-centrism, classism, sexism -- so why don't they also abhor speciesism? Like me, they probably seek to promote non-violence and expand its embrace as widely as possible. Yet history shows that those who care deeply about trying to do what is right can have blind spots to other injustices. The World Anti-Slavery Convention in 1840 voted to exclude women from participating and made female delegates sit separate upstairs. Likewise today, some who endorse civil rights for people of color are actively working to withhold those same rights from those who don’t fit our culture’s traditional sexual binary.
It is not possible to feed 7 billion humans on this planet a diet based upon meat or dairy — and have a livable planet for long. Eating animals is NOT necessary for our survival and contributes enormously to human disability. (Cardiovascular disease, stroke, diabetes, dementia, some cancers and kidney disease all increase as populations eat more animal foods.) Animal agriculture wastes resources, and destabilizes the very environment we all depend upon to survive. Even one of the best examples of supposedly sustainable animal farming — Polyface Farms — is not capable of sustaining all the animals it raises without importing feed grown elsewhere!
Few recognize that the alternatives to industrial production of meat, dairy and eggs, are even more classist (but attractive to those who can afford to pay more in order to let their conscience go back to sleep.) It takes more land, water and energy to provide the same calories eating animals as opposed to just eating the plants (they would eat) directly.
YET EVEN MORE LAND is required using “grass-fed” systems because grass-fed animals grow more slowly and live longer (emitting more methane and feces too!) before humans kill and eat them. To make matters worse, some alfalfa used to feed grass-fed animals in the winter, comes from water-depleted California —further stressing aquifers because alfalfa is one of the most water-consuming crops there is!
Although many studies over the years have suggested that animal agriculture uses more resources AND contributes more to every category of environmental destruction then production of equivalent quantities of protein from plants, the most comprehensive study EVER conducted was just printed in the journal Science. Here is a screen shot from the review of that article by, The Guardian:
“How do you know that your current view justifying eating animals (or their bodily excretions) is truly consistent with your core values about justice, compassion and nonviolence; how do you know that you have just not become desensitized to culturally condoned injustices and violence? (and thus without realizing it have adopted the dominant cultural ideology of the oppressors)?”
Cross cultural anthropology gives insight to the immense pressure humans experience when we attempt to vary from traditions/social norms. We are all profoundly impacted by this.
I suspect these young people who are “at peace with killing” probably consider themselves to be on the forefront of embracing social justice, environmental justice, and abhor “isms” like racism, hetero-centrism, classism, sexism -- so why don't they also abhor speciesism? Like me, they probably seek to promote non-violence and expand its embrace as widely as possible. Yet history shows that those who care deeply about trying to do what is right can have blind spots to other injustices. The World Anti-Slavery Convention in 1840 voted to exclude women from participating and made female delegates sit separate upstairs. Likewise today, some who endorse civil rights for people of color are actively working to withhold those same rights from those who don’t fit our culture’s traditional sexual binary.
It is not possible to feed 7 billion humans on this planet a diet based upon meat or dairy — and have a livable planet for long. Eating animals is NOT necessary for our survival and contributes enormously to human disability. (Cardiovascular disease, stroke, diabetes, dementia, some cancers and kidney disease all increase as populations eat more animal foods.) Animal agriculture wastes resources, and destabilizes the very environment we all depend upon to survive. Even one of the best examples of supposedly sustainable animal farming — Polyface Farms — is not capable of sustaining all the animals it raises without importing feed grown elsewhere!
Few recognize that the alternatives to industrial production of meat, dairy and eggs, are even more classist (but attractive to those who can afford to pay more in order to let their conscience go back to sleep.) It takes more land, water and energy to provide the same calories eating animals as opposed to just eating the plants (they would eat) directly.
YET EVEN MORE LAND is required using “grass-fed” systems because grass-fed animals grow more slowly and live longer (emitting more methane and feces too!) before humans kill and eat them. To make matters worse, some alfalfa used to feed grass-fed animals in the winter, comes from water-depleted California —further stressing aquifers because alfalfa is one of the most water-consuming crops there is!
Although many studies over the years have suggested that animal agriculture uses more resources AND contributes more to every category of environmental destruction then production of equivalent quantities of protein from plants, the most comprehensive study EVER conducted was just printed in the journal Science. Here is a screen shot from the review of that article by, The Guardian:
But perhaps even more problematic is that small farms claiming to be “humane” further our societal desensitization. It used to be that when people recognized the similarity of animals they love (pets) to animals they eat, they tended to feel disgust at eating meat. But now those with relationships with small “humane" farms increasingly tell me — they see no problem with eating dogs and cats either! (This is consistent with theories suggesting compassion for animals grew as people moved to cities -- because those living on small farms were desensitized and viewed their very survival as dependent upon enslaving and killing animals -- Like privileged southern Whites of the 1700s who couldn’t see the injustice of slavery.) Growing up on a farm, and being taught that using animals is necessary to survive, can make it hard to SEE the injustice of exploiting other beings— whose interest in living their own lives is quite obviously like ours!
Non-industrial animal farming diverts people who might be ripe to open their hearts and shun the violence altogether, to embracing and ignoring violence when specific rituals are practiced. “We kill them with such respect,” many have told me. Small, "humane" animal farms reinforce a hierarchical exploitative paradigm (the status quo) which actively perpetuates the major challenges currently facing humanity.
You can cherry pick instances where animal agriculture, does not use tons of water, contribute large quantities of greenhouse gasses, cause devastating pollution, consume excessive energy and contribute to global food insecurity. But those exceptions evaporate if more than a tiny number of humans try to do it.
While people struggling to find enough to eat, or living in marginal environments, or with few economic options, may enhance their survival by eating animals, that does not justify those of us with abundant food options deliberately exploiting other beings, tearing their families and social groups apart, removing body parts without anesthetic or ending their lives prematurely, simply for our pleasure.
Pythagoras, Leonardo Da Vinci, Albert Einstein, Louisa May Alcott, Franz Kafka, Isaac Bashevis Singer, Mahavira, Annie Besant, The Buddha, Henry David Thorough, and Thomas Edison all suggested that as we evolve morally, humanity will come to abhor barbaric and violent traditions that allow us to turn a blind eye to injustices against other sentient beings. So let’s keep moving forward.
Non-industrial animal farming diverts people who might be ripe to open their hearts and shun the violence altogether, to embracing and ignoring violence when specific rituals are practiced. “We kill them with such respect,” many have told me. Small, "humane" animal farms reinforce a hierarchical exploitative paradigm (the status quo) which actively perpetuates the major challenges currently facing humanity.
You can cherry pick instances where animal agriculture, does not use tons of water, contribute large quantities of greenhouse gasses, cause devastating pollution, consume excessive energy and contribute to global food insecurity. But those exceptions evaporate if more than a tiny number of humans try to do it.
While people struggling to find enough to eat, or living in marginal environments, or with few economic options, may enhance their survival by eating animals, that does not justify those of us with abundant food options deliberately exploiting other beings, tearing their families and social groups apart, removing body parts without anesthetic or ending their lives prematurely, simply for our pleasure.
Pythagoras, Leonardo Da Vinci, Albert Einstein, Louisa May Alcott, Franz Kafka, Isaac Bashevis Singer, Mahavira, Annie Besant, The Buddha, Henry David Thorough, and Thomas Edison all suggested that as we evolve morally, humanity will come to abhor barbaric and violent traditions that allow us to turn a blind eye to injustices against other sentient beings. So let’s keep moving forward.