Debates You'll Never Win!

While I'm on the whole vegan rant, I want to say, that after obsessively browsing a number of discussion threads on various forums, I realize that it's all a losing battle.  People want to be right, and because food is enmeshed with ethics, morals, theories on human evolution and purpose, religious concepts and a variety of other sociopolitical issues, the passions fly.  People want to be right because they're afraid, mostly of realizing they're wrong which leads to pain, punishment, and "Hell".  The truth is, even science can't agree on one optimal diet or dietary system for humans.  As for the moral/ethical side of the diet debate, well, there again, nothing can be concretely proven as fact.  Some people swear up and down that animals were put here for us and that they neither feel, think, nor have souls.  I completely disagree with this sentiment, but am I going to convince a committed "Uberhuman" to think otherwise?  Only if they want to be convinced, which is unlikely.  The whole meat vs. no meat debate is about as reconcilable and provable as the God vs. no God debate.  The only truth that I can surmise from all of the philosophizing that happens between us humans is that the real truth is a mystery.  The best we can do is find the truth that makes the most sense to us at any given moment in our small lives.  

My plea; love and honor your truth, share it freely, embrace it, expect that others will see/feel things differently and maintain a sense of wonder about that.  

If your truth originates in fear, it's not truth, it's fear.  This is where all the self-righteousness, dogmatism, and proselytizing come from.  Fear is only helpful as a survival technique.  Most fear eats us from behind while we attempt to pretend it isn't there, but it always rears it's ugly head in insidious ways, whether we realize it or not.  Truth originates in love and compassion, mercy and forgiveness.  When you get down to all that, the details aren't very important.  The questions is what is your intent, what is your motive?

Here's another link that I found interesting regarding veg/vegan diets:

BeyondVeg

Also, I was totally banned from the forums on the PostPunkKitchen site.  I have yet to receive an explanation from the moderators.  It seems that they don't want any contrary views threatening their little Shambala.  No insight wanted (or is that incite?)!  Damn shame...

Hey Look at This!

Here's a beautiful example of the self-congratulatory, snobbish, and small-minded attitudes that many vegans exude, as I once did!  

Read it and fume, laugh, cry, or nod in deafening agreement!

http://www.postpunkkitchen.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=45501

It's not the individuals that I take issue with.  They are attempting to make their way through this labyrinth of a world as best as they can.  Unfortunately, their attitudes are doing nothing to help.  They aren't helping me anyway.

P.S.  I posted a response at the bottom of the thread and after only two people responded to me, they closed the discussion.  Go figure!  

Confessions of an Ex-Vegan, Pt. 2

A few days ago, I picked up a pamphlet entitled "Guide to Cruelty-Free Eating", propaganda distributed by Vegan Outreach. I figured I would read through it and pick it apart, thereby picking apart my own old dogmas. Surprisingly, there wasn't that much for me to fuss about. It wasn't sensationally profiling the horrors of factory farming like many other vegan rags and it actually promoted checking the "holier-than-thou" vegan standard at the door in order to share information with others without sparking so much defensiveness in them. The pamphlet mostly focused on how to maintain a healthy vegan or vegetarian diet whist acknowledging the individual needs of people based on their unique make-up, age, etc. While it was still adamantly proselytizing the benefits and superiority of veganism, it was more fair and balanced than a lot of other vegan info out there.

It must be noted that "Guide to Cruelty-Free Eating" is not without flaw. Throughout the pamphlet, the health benefits of veganism are touted using citations from a number of studies. I'm sure these studies are as reputable as any other study on human health, which from my perspective should be approached with a "healthy" dose of scrutiny and caution. The subject of human health is a many layered and mysterious one indeed. After years of studying "alternative" health, I have found that often times "health", "healthy", and "healing" are a matter of perspective. For instance, a number of vegan protein-sources are suggested in the pamphlet, most of which are highly-processed, plastic encased, non-organic, wheat and soy-based foods. Now, perhaps I'm biased since I discovered my gluten and soy sensitivities, but I wouldn't consider TVP, seitan, and other "meat analogues" to be healthy or for that matter, "cruelty-free". Certainly, on occasion, these would prove relatively innocuous for non-allergic folks, but as a replacement for flesh foods? Considering how often most people consume meat, that's a lot of vital wheat gluten mucking up your gut and that's more than enough plastic added to the landfill! Now, I'm not saying eating a bunch of meat everyday is any better. What I'm saying is, the answer is not so simple.

I whole-heartedly support an end to the genocide and torture of animals worldwide. I also whole-heartedly support the move towards a conscious and compassionate lifestyle that works in balance with ecosystems and honors the lives of plants, animals, minerals, and microbes alike. In someways the vegan argument doesn't go far enough, often coming from a place of fear set in righteousness, it lacks a necessary self-consciousness. Factory farms are only one piece of a far larger problem with not only our food system, but our "civilized" lifestyles in general. If one wants to live in a way that supports vitality on this planet, as I do, then one must be willing to scrutinize all aspects of daily life. What we eat is definitely a part of this, as is whether or not we drive a car, how much water we use, where we buy our clothes, and what we use to clean our sinks. A person can be vegan and still have a major "negative" environmental impact on the planet. Shoes made out of synthetic material are not by virtue of being leather-free and thus "cruelty-free", more environmentally-friendly. Soy and corn are great examples of plant crops, subsidized by the government for a variety of uses, that are having major environmental impacts on river ecosystems and other environments (see "Spilling the Beans on Soy" by Heidi Sopinka). Yes, much of this crop is used as feed for livestock, but it's also used for a variety of other industries.

There's no doubt that meat production uses an obscene amount of resources and is rife with political controversy. I personally encourage others (and myself) to cut down on their meat consumption, to boycott animal testing, and to consume less and locally, among other things. It's important for us to see the big picture and realize that we can find a balance between being compassionate towards our fellow beings and towards ourselves. For some of us, using animal products is a matter of survival, but in the process of survival, do we have to inflict unnecessary suffering upon those creatures that feed us and keep us warm? I don't think so. Somewhere there's a balance where we can honor the lives of the plants, the animals, the waters, and the sun-rays that feed and nurture our bodies. At the very least we can invoke gratitude in the name of All Our Relations, or Aho, Mitakuye Oyasin (in the original Lakota) when ever we are at the dinner table or donning our favorite leather boots. And then we can take that sentiment and turn it into actions in our daily lives that support the liberation of all of Mother Earth's beloved creations.

Here are a few links that I found interesting:

The Conscious Carnivore: The Ethics of Eating Meat

The Eco-conscious Carnivore

For Meat-Eating Authors, a More Tender Approach - www.washingtonpost.com

Confessions of an Ex-Vegan Pt. 1

From the age of 16 to 26 I was some kind of vegan or vegetarian. Yes, that's 10 long years with little or no animal product intake. Good on me, right?! Well, of course, I like to think so. In addition to the apparent health benefits of the veg-life, my carbon foot print must have been vastly smaller than that of meatatarians (although soy, the favorite American meat substitute, has it's own special brand of polluting evil, so now I'm not so sure). My good-karma points also had to be much higher due to not participating in the mass torture and slaughter of our friends, the cows, pigs, chickens and other creatures to be found on Old MacDonald's farm. I especially liked to think that all this was true when I was up to my ears in VEGAN DOGMA. I was always patting myself on the back for being so ethical, not to mention giving those genocidal animal killers also known as carnivores, holier-than-thou glances when they had the nerve to eat meat in MY presence. Now, I always wanted to seem fair and understanding of other's meat-chomping choices, whist maintaining the correctness of my way, so I did bite my tongue quite often. Despite this, I'm convinced that my disapproval was conveyed loud and clear through the betrayal of my body language (i.e. the glances). Now, I humbly eat my words as I eat the very animal flesh I was once repulsed by. When I became a vegetarian at 16 I didn't start off as an animal-rights activist. I just wanted to be healthier. I never really liked big hunks of meat like steak and ewww... pork chops, so it seemed a natural thing to do. It wasn't until an errant boyfriend gave me a copy of John Robbin's, "Diet For a New America" at age 19, that I became and indignant vegan. I was appalled by the treatment that animals the world over endure for our selfish pleasures (and I still am). It seemed only reasonable that knowing what I knew then, I should cast off all consumption of animal products and defend the rights of our voiceless friends. It's at this point that I fulfilled many of the expectations that some of my friends and relatives had for me when I first went veg. I became a crusader, a dogmatician, a closed-minded veganazi. The really sad part was that, I didn't see it. I was too busy attempting to control every thing in my life out of fear (especially what went into my gullet) to realize what a prize asshole I was being. About 8 years after going veg, I started guiltily eating salmon on occasion, but I was still very opinionated about how I and everyone else should eat. Somehow, a little fish here and there didn't count? I know, it's not very logical... and that's the point. It wasn't about logic, it was about fear, about being not being wrong, about guilt. I needed something to tell me that I would be okay, something that would give me a guaranteed ticket to Heaven, or at least to somewhere less painful than here. I needed something that would give me a perfect body, one that didn't have all the health problems I was constantly battling, so that I could know that I wasn't a bad person. All of this internal crap just filtered over to the outside world, mostly because I needed a little validation. Unfortunately, the way I was going about things, I didn't get much of that. About a year and a half ago, after years of suffering from chronic health issues ranging from depression, anxiety, GI tract disturbances, and debilitating fatigue, I was diagnosed with anemia, adrenal fatigue and sensitivities to gluten, egg whites, dairy, and soy. Finally, I was validated. I had already suspected many of the food sensitivities and had mostly eliminated the offending foods. I was fine with all of that, I could live without soy, gluten, etc., etc. What I didn't like was the instance of my advisers to take up flesh foods again. They claimed that I needed large doses of protein to help me overcome the fatigue and anemia and that meat was the best source of said protein. The supplements they wanted to give me were also animal based. Those good 'ol bovine adrenal and pituitary extracts! Yum! I resisted this advice for sometime, opting for vegetarian treatments instead. While the veg alternatives worked on a certain level they were slower working, not very tasty (save the licorice extract), and I was allergic to most of the vegetarian high protein choices I had, so I was definitely in a bind. Finally I caved. I was tired of being tired all of the time! I deliberated for a while, then decided to take the plunge. I can't remember the first bite of meat I had... I think it was chicken or turkey, but it could just as likely have been beef. I was far from excited, I was pretty repulsed in fact, but it did feel good. Well, good enough to keep me on the meat-wagon anyway. So here I am now... ex-vegan... no longer able to be high and mighty and perfectly ethical with a VIP pass to the Bodhisattva Club. When I made the choice to leave my fellow "vegetablearyans" and join the flesh-eaters, I realized I couldn't win. My veg friends would disapprove, my meat-eating relatives would gloat, and I would just have to deal or better yet, stop worrying and start enjoying. That's where I am now. I don't worry nearly so much what I eat, as long as I enjoy it. This attitude is essential to my sanity, especially given the dietary restrictions placed on me by my food sensitivities. This doesn't mean I'm no longer concerned for the rights of my fellow creatures, I certainly am. Because of this, I attempt to choose animal products that are ethically raised and killed and I encourage others to do so as well. I still think it's important to seriously consider the personal and global consequences of what we eat, but now I'm a lot more broadminded in that regard and I'm also a lot happier.