August
1996
Editorial:
Why you Oughta Know
By Martin Rowe
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Let's not be pious about this. For four-fifths
of my life, I ate dead animals and their products without thinking
anything of it. It wasnt done reluctantly either: I ate honey-roasted
ham with gusto, and drank vast quantities of milk. I wasnt a
big fan of eggs, but I loved cheese souffle; I liked my steak
well-done and the cheese on my toast slightly runny. I... well,
you get the picture. Now, I dont think I was a bad person. I
liked cats and dogs, and thought hunting animals was somewhat
tasteless, and I did know (sort of) how animals and their internal
organs got to my plate. But I never asked to know more and no
one bothered to tell me.
Then, six years ago (having been exposed to vegetarianism through a friend,
although by no means someone who, as it were, rammed it down my throat),
I decided to try it. I didnt see any pictures of animal torture and wasnt
particularly impressed by the health arguments. Even the environmental
effects of intensive farming seemed remote to me. It was a gradual thing.
I stopped eating land and air animals, then a year later stopped eating
all sea animals when I (karmically) decided to eat a lobster and was
called on it by a friend. Finally, three years ago this month I stopped
eating (consciously at least) all animal products, eschewing stuff tested
on animals or containing them, and not buying or wearing clothing made
with their skins.
Looking back, Im struck by how easy it was. I didnt keel over with sickness
and found, to my surprise, that I actually began enjoying food. My family
was bemused, but didnt complain. I found out that, far from being a deprivation,
not eating animals provided me with a greater variety of food. I began
to look at labels on foods and was aghast at the stuff we are expected
to consume to be happy consumers.
It would be nice, I suppose, if I could say in all honesty that Ive made
it, that Ive successfully removed myself from animal cruelty and am about
to bring the bioindustrial complex to its knees. But its still standing
and I havent even begun. Indeed, as Matt Ball and Hillary Morris suggest
in their articles in this edition of Satya, so deeply are animal bodies
embedded in our infrastructure that to call oneself vegan sometimes seems
wishful thinking of the most deluded kind.
So why bother? Isnt life short enough and arent issues of human misery
so great that to care about animals seems half self-indulgence and half
masochism? I have one answer to both questions. No!
Calling myself a vegetarian, then actually becoming a vegetarian, and
then moving to live more consciously without cruelty has had a catalytic
effect on my life and aided me in extending compassion (however self-serving
and partially) to more humans. Its not that I care more as such; its
that I can contextualize suffering and act upon it. Because of what I
know about how animals are treated, I have learned to ask questions of
many things that were once not for me even questions. I have discovered
that questioning and taking responsibility for who or what I put in my
mouth has made me aware that I also need to have more responsibility
for what comes out of my mouth, and attend more to those to whom I had
not thought to listen. It has also made me aware that, while I should
respect personal choice, knowledge about suffering, no matter how uncomfortable
and challenging, should be made available so that all of us can make
informed decisions about our lives.
Thats why you oughta know. You wont be a better person or, maybe, even
a healthier person if you become a vegetarian or move from being a vegetarian
to a vegan. I cant promise that youll be more popular or that a world
of possibilities will open up that wasnt there before. But, maybe what
might happen is what happened to me: that, progressively, an everyday
sense of cynical powerlessness in the face of violence on the street
and the abattoir, in the war zone and in the forest, is transformed into
a sense that at all times I can I can choose not to be powerless by removing
as much violence as possible from my life and leaving myself open to
the absurd possibility of actually making a difference.
Martin Rowe
If you must drive....!
New York is following in New Jersey's footsteps and creating animal-friendly
license plates. If you buy these plates, $20 of the annual fee for each
plate sold will be given to the Animal Population Control Program which
provides for low-cost spay/neuter operations for dogs and cats adopted
from pounds and shelters. New Jerseys program has been running for a
little over a year now, and approximately 15,000 animal-friendly plates
have been sold. For more information, call Gary Henning 518-449-3320.
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