I have consumed so much meat and dairy in my lifetime that I'll be fighting to quell my guilty conscience for the rest of my life. Sure, I was ignorant, but that too was my fault. "You don't know what you don't know," true, but I should have searched for answers and created my own truth, not just blindly followed and digested whatever I heard and was expected to believe. I was a fool, and a tool, and I am not ok with that.
What we digest in out body should be a direct result of what we digest in our minds.
This is what I now believe. Just like the old adage, "We are what we eat."
An article (that you can find here) on the "bizarre" situation on Twitter's #farm365 was written by Ed White for the Western Producer on free speech. It inspired my following thoughts below:
This is what I now believe. Just like the old adage, "We are what we eat."
An article (that you can find here) on the "bizarre" situation on Twitter's #farm365 was written by Ed White for the Western Producer on free speech. It inspired my following thoughts below:
There is so much perceived negativity over what keeps being called "animal rights activist backlash", and yet it's all done according to values and ethics that we all pride ourselves on: compassion, caring, understanding, empathy, love, kindness . . . As I've heard on #farm365: "If you're fighting against animal rights activists, you're fighting against animal welfare".
Backlash, defined as: "a strong and adverse reaction by a large number of people" is exactly that: a large number of concerned people's reaction to the industry's actions. There seems to be more focus on the reaction than the action. I see something inherently wrong and upsetting with that.
Hard truths have long been omitted from marketing and the bigger picture, and for reasons that leave the consumer completely unaware and detached from their food these days. That has lead the animal agriculture industry to be able to go down some very dark alleys that people are becoming aware of more and more these days. Someone has be held accountable, and the only way to do that is to create awareness. Animal rights activists take that role upon themselves, to speak for the animals, and profit in no way whatsoever. In fact, they receive negative backlash in most cases.
Hard truths have long been omitted from marketing and the bigger picture, and for reasons that leave the consumer completely unaware and detached from their food these days. That has lead the animal agriculture industry to be able to go down some very dark alleys that people are becoming aware of more and more these days. Someone has be held accountable, and the only way to do that is to create awareness. Animal rights activists take that role upon themselves, to speak for the animals, and profit in no way whatsoever. In fact, they receive negative backlash in most cases.
Just because it's legal, doesn't mean it's ethical. Minimal regulations and standards are what the industry adheres to, and it's only through public concern (or outrage) that things will ever improve. Again, awareness...
Agriculture is a vertically integrated industry, and so very top-heavy. The people at the top are completely detached from the bottom, the animals and their welfare, and are focused on profitability and the bottom line. (Hence the overwhelming emergence of factory farming and CAFO's: where the majority of livestock are "farmed"). This needs to stop, and it's up to the consumer and the advocates to change the industry. I, myself, was a consumer of meat and dairy for over 30 years, and once I learned about what 95% of the animal agriculture really is, I just couldn't be a part of it anymore.
It was the industry itself that drove me away and changed me and the rest of my life.
The industry was laced, through and through, with abhorrent and unacceptable practices made me realize how I could not trust them, and how I'd been trusting them my whole life (even as a child, because my parent's trusted them). I suddenly realized that I didn't have to eat animals, I loved animals.
Pair that with the overwhelming health attributes of a vegan lifestyle and the immensely huge impact on all major environmental concerns (global warming, water crisis, habitat loss, extinction, pollution, ocean death, etc.), there was no reason I couldn't at least try a vegan lifestyle.
I am forever changed, and my personal revolution (awakening?) and newfound convictions fuel my passion as an activist.
It was the industry itself that drove me away and changed me and the rest of my life.
The industry was laced, through and through, with abhorrent and unacceptable practices made me realize how I could not trust them, and how I'd been trusting them my whole life (even as a child, because my parent's trusted them). I suddenly realized that I didn't have to eat animals, I loved animals.
Pair that with the overwhelming health attributes of a vegan lifestyle and the immensely huge impact on all major environmental concerns (global warming, water crisis, habitat loss, extinction, pollution, ocean death, etc.), there was no reason I couldn't at least try a vegan lifestyle.
I am forever changed, and my personal revolution (awakening?) and newfound convictions fuel my passion as an activist.
~
I wrote a piece that, quite comprehensively, encapsulates what my 'vegan' mindset is in relation to another blog by a farmer that was published on Huffpost. It's received a few hundred reads at this point and much positive feedback. For the sake of understanding and abolishing bias/judgement against animal rights activists, I encourage anyone to read it:
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