Many of the links on the World Go Vegan Week site are to do with animal cruelty, especially in modern farming methods. It's true: the animal products industry inflicts a lot of animal suffering.The goal of the vegan is to cause no harm to any creature. It's not just a diet; it's a lifestyle. To a vegan, if you buy meat or meat products you have ordered an animal to be killed for you. And that's quite true, even if it isn't as literal as choosing your own live lobster or trout out of the tank at the grocery store.
I'm actually quite okay with animals being killed for my use, assuming that they are raised and killed humanely. The problem is that they're not. I don't think many people can know about the treatment of factory farmed pigs and say "yes, this is right; this is the way I expect my food to be raised," but even someone who doesn't give a damn about the plight of a pig, may care about the health of beaches and rivers, and the potential for disease that can spread to humans. That trio of links may have put me off bacon permanently. And I love bacon.
I believe that people should make an informed decision about what they eat, but that requires them to have information. Much of the information on animal cruelty in food processing is so shocking as to seem unbelievable, or that it seems like an aberration rather than normal practice. And it's not fun to read
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Veganism is an extreme reaction. In the absence of a trusted grocery store, it's hard to carry it off properly unless you can devote a significant fraction of your attention to the task.
ReplyDeleteIt turns out much of the animal cruelty concern can be addressed by selecting foods bearing certain Kosher marks. The laws of Kashrut include specifications for humane slaughter. Unfortunately, there are "certified Kosher" food processing facilities which meet the letter of the law while still submitting the animals to what many people would call torture. As with many things, you need to do your research and decide which authorities to trust.