Vegan Vegetarian: Principles
[This page is in the early stages
of production: 3 February 2005 ]
This page is currently one of four explaining about my choice of a vegan vegetarian lifestyle. The other pages give some background to being a vegan vegetarian, catalogue aspects of my progress from lacto-ovo vegetarian to vegan vegetarian, and explore some of the practicalities involved in eating out. Further pages give information in support of the vegan vegetarian lifestyle, including an introduction to beers suitable for vegans, and a new list of beers suitable for vegans.
There are many resources, such as books, magazines and websites, that rehearse the following kinds of arguments. After reading my pages, you may wish to visit the UK Vegan Society website, or type “vegan” into the Google search engine.
I am a vegan vegetarian for at least three sets of reasons. I am a lazy person, and conservative in my ways, and perhaps none of the reasons alone would be sufficient for me, but together they add up to a strong and convincing package of concepts.
1. Health
My genetic history indicates with complete certainty that saturated fats are lethal for me. Most animal fats (animal flesh and dairy products) are saturated fats, and consuming them, as I did for decades, is a highway to an early death. It appears obvious to me that the elimination of saturated fats from my diet is a move towards a healthier diet. When I have presented this argument to people, they retort with counter-arguments such as: (1) we all have to die of something [which is true, but I should rather die later than sooner]; and, (2) given that we all have to die of something, better to have a higher quality of life, even if it does mean dying sooner, than to live to a ripe old age but have to suffer a lower quality of life, which is about getting the balance right. To me, this is a fair point. For all that the span of my life may be longer because I have renounced dolcelatte, the quality of my life is a little poorer because I used to enjoy dolcelatte. However, all is not lost, for I continue to drink wonderful Belgian beers, and cook delicious Japanese food: I make my choices about how to enjoy myself. Whilst it has never been said to me, it could be argued that I could simply have reduced, rather than eliminated, my consumption of animal fats to gain most of the desired result. In fact, this is what I did initially, and having successfully achieved that, I had a desire to go still further.
Another argument levelled against the vegan diet is that humans require the
sustenance of animal protein to live. Were that true, it would be hard to
explain why many vegans live longer than many non-vegans. I am demonstrably
healthier now (fewer days of sickness) than I have ever been before. I am less
likely than most people in
2. Morality
I am, by conviction, a pacifist: I have a moral objection to killing and violence. I consider non-violence to be a valid way of responding to what is unacceptable, and consider violence to be invalid as way of acting. The term violence encompasses many violations, such as terrorism, coercive government, war including so-called 'just war', bombing, torture and capital punishment. I reject the physical, sexual and emotional abuse of children. I reject abortion as a form of contraception. Justice and peace/non-violence can go hand-in-hand. I shall develop these themes elsewhere on this web site in due course.
Human life comes first, for me, to be treasured and nurtured above all else. I willingly kill no animals: neither spiders (I put them on my houseplants) nor wasps (I encourage them to leave through an opened window) nor mice (I catch them in a small mammal trap and then take them to nearby fields). I evict slugs from the garden, and buy slug pellets that discourage slugs instead of killing them. I respect the Jains for their care with creation. I believe that for humans to kill knowingly is wrong.
In autumn/fall 1980, I bought two dead fish, cut into their bellies, and scraped out their innards with a sharp metal knife. I hated doing it. However, I knew that it was important to acknowledge my involvement in the process of their death and my consumption. The pre-packaging of our economically-developed society screens most of us from the brutal, gut-spilling reality of slaughter houses. I have no difficulty in adhering to the catchphrase: “meat is murder”.
An argument levelled in support of killing animals for food is that it is how nature intended things to be. Animals other than humans act according to their instincts. Animals that kill other animals are doing nothing more than that for which natural selection has selected them. I believe that humankind, however, is far too self-aware to know what is instinct and what is fashion or taste: as individuals we are socially and culturally programmed to conform to the society and culture in which we live, rather than responding instinctually to the environment.
3. Justice
I object to the obscene injustice of the West consuming, in the form of animal flesh, vast quantities of grain grown in the economically-developing world, when the same quantity of grain could feed many millions of undernourished people in the economically-developing countries.
I object to the obscene injustice of animals being used as a resource for industrial production: battery laying-hens, battery broiler chickens, crated veal calves, pigs kept in prison factories, and so on (see my poem on this).
I object to the obscene injustice of most healthy male lambs being slaughtered because they are not required for wool production, most healthy male calves being slaughtered because they are not required for dairy milk production, hives of healthy bees being slaughtered after a couple of years because they are insufficiently productive. I object to the obscene injustice of millions of cows and sheep being slaughtered because the economic viability of the animal production industry is compromised when cows develop foot and mouth disease. The application of these commercial principles to people would be inconceivable (although Auschwitz and Belsen might challenge my assertion), and I find it beyond comprehension that people can consider it reasonable to apply these commercial principles to animals.
For similar reasons I object to product testing on animals, hunting (terrifying and killing) animals for sport, and animal circuses.
