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February
2000
Advocacy
Humor and Anger: Responses to Satya's Reader's Poll
For this month’s Satya, we tried
an experiment. We asked our readers to send in responses to a questionnaire
that we printed in November and December, and posted on our website
(original questions listed below). The idea was to explore the issues
that concern our readers the most, and how they cope with being in a
world where these issues are not exactly the primary concerns of the
mainstream.
The responses were numerous and varied. Some responses were answers
to each question which were then shaped into essays, and others used
the questionnaire as a framework for a narrative. We received a number
of thoughtful, honest, passionate and sometimes funny essays. Here is
a selection of the responses that we received. Most of them will be
posted on our website www.stealthtechnologies.com/satya. We hope you
enjoy, learn and, perhaps, join in the dialogue and share your own experiences.
1. Would you describe yourself as an environmentalist? If so,
how and when did you become aware of issues concerning the environment?
What are the environmental issues that are most important to you?
2. Would you describe yourself as an animal advocate or someone
who believes strongly in animal advocacy? If so, how and when did you
become aware of the issues concerning the treatment of animals? What
are the animal issues that are most important to you?
3. Would you describe yourself as vegetarian or vegan? If so,
how and when did you become a vegetarian/vegan? What are the vegetarian/vegan
issues that are most important to you?
4. Do you make connections between the three issues? If so, how
are they connected for you?
5. Do you make your concerns known to the public, i.e., making
your views known to friends, family, the general public; going to demonstrations;
writing letters/petitions; rescuing animals; cooking food for others,
etc.?
6. Do you consider your concerns or connections to be a “world
view” or kind of value system that you adhere to? Do you have
a spiritual connection with these convictions?
7. Do you ever find yourself at odds with the mainstream view
on the environment, animals and/or vegetarianism? Are there specific
situations that come to mind where your “world view” has
been challenged? What did you do about it?
8. Do you have friends, family and/or a support network who share
the same values?
9. Finally, what most upsets you? When something really upsets
you (i.e., images of deforestation and land destruction, animal abuse
and slaughter, and/or one too many people consuming meat) what do you
do to maintain your balance, sanity and/or sense of humor?
Some
Ways to Face an Alienating World By Carol J. Adams
Six Time-tested, Life-changing Ways 1) Cook a great vegan meal and invite friends over. The outer world
is often one of suffering, exploitation, and thoughtlessness. As an
activist, I challenge it. As an individual, it alarms me. As a vegan,
I know that with each meal I boycott that world, and create a sanctuary
that supports my sense that the world can be otherwise—loving,
thoughtful and nonviolent. When cooking your vegan meals, don’t
listen to the news, but relax into cooking. Handle the eggplants and
zucchini and marvel again at the abundance of the natural world. Anchor
yourself here. If you don’t cook, consider learning. Or, if you
know you do not want to cook, celebrate through a great vegan take-out
meal. Good vegan meals are infectious! Vegan food is both the medium
and the message.
2) Keep a journal. Get up 15 minutes earlier and start writing. No excuses!
I know you are tired, that you were up late the night before getting
the latest mailing out, or planning the next action. Get up and start
writing. Write about your hopes and your fears and your dreams and your
yesterdays and your tomorrows. Feel yourself a part of the flow of your
own life. It is the best gift you can give yourself. And think about
it this way as well—future historians will need it as they answer
the question, “what sorts of people brought about the profound
changes in attitudes toward the environment and animals during the 21st
century?”
3) Develop a meditation practice. Sit and go within. Learn how not to
identify with your feelings, your thoughts. At the conclusion of my
meditation practice I send blessings, or energy, whatever you want to
call it, to people on my mind, people engaged in the work, people I
love. It feels good to acknowledge them with morning energy.
4) Work with your dreams. Dreams come to give us wholeness. Write them
down, and let them speak to you of inner and outer fragmentation, and
how to be healed.
5) Practice a body, mind, spirit discipline, like yoga or tai chi. Through
yoga I sink into the ground of my being. I integrate my left brain and
my right brain, and allow my cells to be oxygenated. I arise from a
yoga practice ready for the next demand, energized, at peace, and able
to function more quickly, more thoughtfully, more efficiently. The spiritual
underpinnings of yoga, for me, make it the art and soul of nonviolence.
6) Engage with something beautiful. An anti-pornography friend relaxes
by looking at beautifully illustrated children’s books. They remind
her of deep, cherished values, and help to reduce the impact of the
images she has encountered in her work. I read lovely books about writing,
poetry, and myths. I read to my children. I rest my mind and body through
the love of words.
Other Important Pointers 7) Cry and comfort. Allow yourself to feel your feelings. Let go.
I also write in my journal after crying to process the feelings and
move them forward. Then, and this is important, find an act that can
nurture you. Do you need some comfort food? Keep some handy in the house:
warm Chai (there is one vegan version that I have found...), Tofutti
or Rice Dream, Silk’s soy nog during the holidays, roasted vegetables,
Millennium restaurant’s baked tofu, pear congee. Do you know your
comfort foods? Make sure you do and that you allow yourself the comfort
of good food.
8) Love. Love yourself. You are magnificent. You care. You act. Take
time to do loving things for and with yourself.
9) Relax. Don’t think you have to do it all today. Remember that
there is a web of workers; we want you to be whole, not exhausted.
10) Remember, too, it is the work and not the result. We cannot control
the result of our work, but we can know that we are doing important
work, life-changing, life-saving work. For instance, for the tenth anniversary
edition of The Sexual Politics of Meat [see Hull review] I had to revise
the number of animals killed to become “meat.” In 1990, the
figure was six billion. Now, I had to update the figure to nine billion!
Ugh—three billion more! And that was just land animals. I also
added the number of sea animals killed to be consumed based on PETA’s
best estimates. The number itself can overwhelm. But I won’t despair.
We continue our work. We reach people through our lives.
11) Be silly. Play. Give your right brain some attention. I had no choice
but to follow this injunction for myself when my children were in preschool.
And I learned something wonderful. When I was “stuck” on how
to write the “Frankenstein’s Vegetarian Monster” chapter
for The Sexual Politics of Meat, I had to leave my writing to play with
my then three-year-old. As we built together, the chapter fell into
place. I had allowed my left brain to let go and given my right brain
the time to play with the ideas. When you are stuck on something, give
yourself a breather.
12) Read. When something happens that really upsets me—the Senate
vote to make Clarence Thomas a Supreme Court Justice for instance—I
get books on the subject and I read. After the Senate vote I needed
to understand “what happened and why?” I bought some new books
on racism to read. A part of me feels some sense of control by understanding
what happened, and by analyzing why it happened. I become better equipped
to be in this alienating world.
13) Contribute money to the causes you believe in. The act of mailing
the check reminds me that I am connected to these wonderful people and
what they are doing. I know I cannot do it all. It is good to feel that
connection.
14) Write about all of these things. Books, essays, letters, etc., help
you articulate your concerns to the world and help make you feel that
you are doing something positive.
We are participating in the act of creation. Creating something can
be messy—bloody even. It is birthing: noisy, exhausting, demanding.
We are taking something from within, our deepest beliefs and hopes,
and giving them life. Creating takes time too. Goethe said that the
marvel is not that an apple falls from the tree, but that a tree can
grow in opposite directions at the same time. So must we activists grow
in two directions: our roots—our inward process must be tended
to, as well the fruits that we bear through our outward activism. n
Carol J. Adams lives in the Dallas area. She is the author
of the widely acclaimed The Sexual Politics of Meat, now in a
Tenth Anniversary Edition, and is author or editor of six other books.
Her forthcoming book, The Inner Art of Vegetarianism: Spiritual
Practices for Body and Soul (Lantern Books, June 2000), discusses
in more detail the six ways of coping described above.
The
Politics of Taste By Claudette Silver
I have to tell you—you can’t imagine
the number of ways I have been described because of my vegan diet. “You
have such will power,” I have often been told, as I forgo the cookie
dough ice cream that is passed around at a dinner party. “You have
such determination,” a co-worker tells me because I am not “tempted”
to even try the chocolate cake left over from the holidays. “Not
even just one little bite?” Over and over I hear this from people
who want to relegate me to sainthood because of my perceived dietary
asceticism. Come close, ye who believe me martyred, and I will whisper
my secret. For me, being vegan is easy.
Exactly one decade ago, I made the conscious choice to live the most
nonviolent, compassionate life I could. My diet was the first place
to start. This meant omitting not only meat, it also meant abstaining
from leather, eggs, milk, and any other “product” derived
from an animal. I could not have verbalized it at the time, but I was
embarking on much more than a dietary path. It was the summer of 1990
and I had the good fortune of working at a health food store where I
met like-minded people and was introduced to everything from arugula
to tempeh. I could find soap without lard, shampoos that hadn’t
been tested on animals, and natural remedies as an alternative to chemical
drugs. Happily, I had no need for the slaughterhouse or any of its
by-products.
In July, I made the step to eliminate as much cruelty as I could from
my life by going vegan. It was an easy, simple choice.
The next month, a world event took place that put my nonviolent beliefs
to the test. In August 1990, Iraqi President Saddam Hussein’s army
entered Kuwait, and the spiral of events leading to the Persian Gulf
War began. I was 20, a senior in college, and determined to make my
role in the world a compassionate and conscious one. I remember sitting
with my roommate as we watched the first “live” televised
war in history. This is not how it should be, I kept thinking over
and
over. We heard the terms SCUD and PATRIOTS for the first time as we
watched them explode in a fiery cacophony. I watched, transfixed, feeling
completely paralyzed by this tragedy.
Ironically, I was scheduled to begin teaching a Peace Studies class
at a local high school on nearly the same day that Baghdad was being
bombed. As we watched the oil fields burn and saw America’s patriotism
bubble behind millions of yellow ribbons, I had no idea where to begin.
How could I teach a class on nonviolence against the back-drop of war?
The bus stop where I waited every morning was directly in front of
the
Iraqi Embassy. There were armed men with Uzis standing all over the
grounds, high on the roof, at every corner of the building. At one
point
I tried to engage in conversation with one of the men. He would not
speak to me. Washington DC during the Persian Gulf war was a sad, cold
city.
In class, we read Gandhi, Caesar Chavez, Martin Luther King Jr., mixed
with a smattering of other folks who had believed in peace and social
justice. I tried my best to be hopeful and find examples where peaceful,
nonviolent resistance was used at all cost. We learned about Rigoberta
Menchu, who despite seeing many of her villagers killed during Guatemala’s
long civil war, vehemently opposed violence or retaliation, or Ilse
Joseph, who traveled around the world playing her violin in remembrance
of her daughters who were killed by Nazis. We also read excerpts from
John Robbins’ Diet for a New America, which detailed the reasons
why he relinquished his heirship to the Baskin Robbins ice cream dynasty.
All in all, we read a lot and discussed issues until even I was sick
of them.
By early spring we had lived through the worst of the war, a war which
was termed only a “conflict” since no official declaration
had ever been made. Over and over it was referred to as Desert Storm,
as if Mother Nature herself was responsible for the travesty. My class
was coming to a close, and I was ready to graduate from college. For
the final, I asked the students to write their opinion on one aspect
of violence in our society. What I received back was both beautiful
and shocking. One of my students, a senior, wrote:
“This country is known for being a bully to other countries and
their leaders. They claim it is for peace, but I say it is for power.
The recent war proves this theory...I have also come to realize that
simple, everyday things that are taken for granted are in fact violent.
For example, eating eggs or meat, yelling negatively, the killing and
dissecting of animals—these are things I am now against. More
Americans especially should practice nonviolence.”
Bravo, my younger sister, I couldn’t have said it better!
So you see, not ordering nachos at the movies, or not eating cheese
pizza on a Friday night is not the hard part. I am interested in making
a dent in the long litany of suffering that humans have imposed on each
other and on the creatures with which we share the planet, not in the
will power or determination of my taste buds.
Really, believe me when I tell you that what I eat is the easy part. Claudette Silver is an artist and writer who lives with
her two feline loves, Pinky and Delilah, in San Francisco.
Catapulting
Beyond Cruelty By Roberta Kalechofsky
None of us is born into the world knowing
about evil and cruelty. In fact, it seems to me that babies are born
with
the expectation of kindness. Cruelty is a rude shock when we first
experience it, more so than pain. Children learn about pain early: they
fall down,
they bang their heads, they get earaches. But it is a different experience
when pain is coupled with deliberate human cruelty—whether to a
child or to an animal. Such experiences bring us to the brink of the
darkest knowledge about human beings that we have to contemplate—our
capacity to inflict pain. This knowledge changes our trust toward the
human race and contributes to a degree of alienation from it, so we
develop strategies for living. Those who don’t, I’m afraid,
often go mad. The rest of us grow veils to shield us...from “knowing.”
For most of my life, I seem to have been unduly ignorant about cruelty
to animals. Perhaps I should not blame myself because much of this
cruelty,
such as hens trapped in battery cages, fur farms and experimentation
in laboratories, is hidden from the public eye. Philip Hallie pointed
out in The Paradox of Cruelty that “secrecy” is often the
formidable weapon of institutional cruelty.
I discovered the horrors of the research laboratory by accident. The
library in my town had on exhibit the book by Dallas Pratt, Alternatives
to Experiments on Animals. This continues to strike me as strange,
because
my library does not usually exhibit such books, and I did not at that
time read books about animals. I opened the first page with that unlimitably
sad picture of a monkey sitting in a stereotaxic chair receiving electric
shock. The expression on the monkey’s face overwhelmed me, and
I slammed the book shut, to protect myself from knowing—determined
“not to see.” However, something compelled me to go back.
There the book was in the same place the next day, waiting. The incident
has always given me the feeling of my “being fated” to begin
the effort to understand and to cope with one more form of human cruelty,
this one complacently conducted in the name of science.
At the same time that I discovered Dallas Pratt’s book, Richard
Schwartz had sent me his manuscript, Judaism and Vegetarianism, with
its description of factory farming and crated veal calves. Vegetarianism
interested me about as much as bobsledding in Alaska—not exactly
something I thought of doing. Yet his manuscript appeared in my mailbox
and changed my life.
One more book sealed my fate: Skin by Curzio Malaparte, which contains
a chapter called “The Black Wind,” about a man who loses
his dog and finds him in a research laboratory. The description opened
a
chasm for me. I felt that I was gasping for breath, as if someone had
delivered a blow to my solar plexus. If I tried to talk about it, I
broke down and cried, as when I would hear about terrible cruelty inflicted
on children. Where else do we find such a hideous contrast between
power
and innocence as in the helplessness of abused children and other weak
creatures, a perverse predation on innocence?
At first, such cruelty reduced me to tears. But I learned to control
my crying because I knew that I would be ineffectual if I showed such
emotion, that I would be seen as hysterical and weak. Frances Power
Cobbe, who founded the British Union Against Vivisection, used to caution
her members against weeping because she feared they would be taken
for “weak women.” But Bishop Desmond Tutu broke down and
wept at the Truth and Reconciliation talks in South Africa. Why not?
Who
are those who do not weep?
These days, I admit to a hardening process. My reactions and work have
become codified. I have learned how to write and talk about terrible
things. I do scholarship and research and give talks on evil. I used
to try to spare my audiences, but I don’t anymore. I tell them,
“If it weren’t terrible, I wouldn’t be here.”
I have become interested in these creatures that I am devoting my life
to defend, and I read a great deal about them. They have given me a
sense of unity with creation. Through them, I have come to see that
cruelty to them is the foundation of much evil in the modern world:
animal agriculture is a major force in environmental decay; animal “food”
is a major cause of chronic diseases; and animal “food” contributes
to malnutrition and poverty. Defending animals has made me politically
active, widened my world, forced me to read books about science and
medicine, made me get involved with health care issues, nutrition,
genetic
engineering, cloning, and environmental issues. All of these issues
radiate out from my concern for animal life.
Anne Frank wrote in her diary, “I firmly believe that nature brings
solace in all troubles.” The steady encroachment of human beings
on nature and the consequent loss of the animal world will change nature
and us in unfathomable ways. We cannot say what this separation will
do to our humanity, for people have always found a joy and consolation
in nature that has helped them cope with pain.
Nature and animals broaden our emotional lives. Experiences of grandeur,
majesty and awe come to us from nature; and animals challenge us to
extend our perception of the “other.” Nature has always been
a source of optimism and means of expanding our vision, which contributes
to the good soul.
Roberta Kalechofsky, Ph.D., founded Micah Publications, the
source for Jewish vegetarian and animal rights books, and the publishing
arm of Jews for Animal Rights. She is the author of Vegetarian Judaism:
A Guide for Everyone, and several works of fiction. For information,
visit www.micahbooks.com.
Anger,
Humor and Advocacy By Matt Ball
In my opinion, our inability—individually
and as a movement—to deal with our anger in a constructive manner
is the greatest hindrance to the advancement of animal liberation.
As a reaction to what goes on in factory farms and slaughterhouses,
extremely strong negative feelings are understandable and entirely
justified.
Over time, people tend to deal with this rage in one of three ways.
The first, and most common in my experience over the years, is to burn
hot and furious. This anger leads to cursing, screaming, hatred, vandalism,
etc. It also doesn’t last long in many cases. I wonder, for example,
what a former Vegan Outreach member did with his prominent “Vegan
for Life” tattoo, once he quit being active—and vegan—after
two years.
The second way to deal with these strong reactions is for people to
wall themselves off from society, surrounding themselves with only
the
like-minded. This often fosters a “bunker” mentality, mimicking
the conspiracy-theorists of right-wing militia groups. They start inventing
and believing their own propaganda and myths, creating a fundamentalist
religion with strict adherence and loyalty requirements. If concerned
with changing things, effectiveness of “advocacy” is judged
by the quantity of media coverage (quality is irrelevant).
At best, these reactions do no good in creating long-term change in
society. Except to the already disaffected, neither group is appealing
to the rest of the public, and their warring, misanthropic, bitter,
persecuted mindset serves to keep others away.
The third possible reaction is having a positive outlook and a sense
of humor. This not only makes it easier to continue in activism long-term
and avoid self-righteous and arrogant fundamentalism, it also makes
it possible to interact positively and constructively with others.
The question, of course, remains: how can one develop and maintain a
sense of humor? Unfortunately, there is no easy answer.
The first possible step is to think about your ultimate goal. In my
case, it is the alleviation of suffering. If I allow myself to be miserable,
I am adding to the suffering in the world. More importantly, I am saying
that unless utopia is instantaneously established, it is not possible
to be happy. Thus, my goal would be fundamentally unachievable to any
degree.
To have any change occur in the world, we need to convince others to
think beyond themselves. We must be willing to do the same. Just as
we want others to look beyond the short-term satisfaction of following
habits and traditions, we need to move past our anger to effective
advocacy
(e.g., moving from yelling and chanting to constructive educational
outreach). If I claim that I can’t be happy in this world, that
I am a slave to my situation, how can I expect others to be able to
do anything differently?
It also helps to maintain a historical perspective. I realize that I
am not the first person to be upset by the state of affairs in the world.
I can learn from the mistakes and successes of those who came before
me.
Few people came to an enlightened view of the world by themselves and
overnight. It took me over a year after my first exposure to the issues
to go veg, and even longer after that to go vegan. If I had been treated
with disgust and anger because of my close-mindedness and pathetic (in
retrospect) rationalizations, I would certainly never have gone veg,
and Vegan Outreach would never have come into existence.
My story is not unique. Not only does it show the shortcomings of anger
and the benefits of patience, it also indicates that you shouldn’t
give up on your friends if they don’t react to information as you
would like them to. Shunning your friends because they don’t immediately
adopt your vegan religion not only cuts you off from the very people
we need to reach, it also perpetuates the stereotype of the joyless
fanatic with no life other than complaining.
“Fighting” suffering is not the only way to make a better
world; creating happiness and joy—especially when flowing from
a thoughtful, compassionate example—can be an even more powerful
“weapon” for creating change.
There has always been suffering, and, as long as there remains sentient
life on Earth, there will always be suffering. This is simply the price
of conscious life. The question becomes what one does with that existence.
We can choose to add our own fury and misery to the rest, or we can
set an example by simultaneously working constructively to alleviate
suffering while leading joyous, meaningful, fulfilled lives.
So have fun! Laugh at The Simpsons (Lisa is a vegetarian); enjoy loud
music (I recommend Beck: “She’s got tofu the size of Texas”);
party with friends (Becks beer is vegan); enjoy great vegan food (Ethiopian
is awesome).; travel to new places (Washington, DC has great Ethiopian
restaurants); read (or listen to) a bubble gum novel (anything by Elmore
Leonard); see a popcorn movie (South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut
will test your sense of humor). Another way to make sure you don’t
take yourself too seriously is not to let anything be off limits to
humor among friends. Once the question came up—what wouldn’t
I joke about? I named one thing, which, of course, became the sole
source
of jokes for a week!
Being a vegan isn’t about deprivation, sobriety, and wallowing
in misery. It’s about seeing everything, being fully aware so
as to be fully alive.
Matt Ball is the Executive Director of Vegan Outreach, a non-profit
organization dedicated to furthering education and understanding. They
provide copies of the informative booklet, Why Vegan. Visit www.veganoutreach.org
or call 412-968-0268 for information.
Caring
and Coping By Angela Starks
I would not describe myself as an environmentalist,
since I am not clear about its meaning, but I do care—sometimes
passionately—about the state of this world. Am I an environmentalist
by default just because I care, or does it depend on a measured amount
of campaigning? Paramount for me are issues that affect our immediate
health and survival, such as air and water quality. The environmental
problem that annoys me most in everyday life is traffic pollution. What
is the point of anything else if you can’t even breath the air
in your own street?
I can’t presume to be an animal advocate, but if the question is
do I believe in animal advocacy, the answer has to be yes. I don’t
know if my attitude of live and let live is good enough, but if we
have
a relationship to animals at all, I do know it should be one of care-taker,
not advantage-taker.
I became a vegetarian gradually, starting as long ago as I can remember.
As a young child I would pick out the chunks of brown stuff from a
casserole
for no reason other than the fact that I hated the feel of it in my
mouth. I think kids have a natural instinct for what’s gross. By
my late teens I had made the irreversible connection between meat and
cruelty, thanks to hooking up with like-minded students at college.
We would attend video screenings about slaughterhouses and factory farms,
share knowledge and disgust, and generally solidify each others’ resolve
never to eat meat again.
It was only a matter of time before veganism seemed like the next logical
step. Once in a while I succumb to the hypnotic chant of “better
have a bit of dairy” but that is being deprogrammed in proportion
to the amount of research I do into the false health claims of the dairy
industry. The most important issue to me with regard to food choices
is the truly shameful manipulation of peoples’ minds by the meat
and dairy industries to get them to eat these products, especially
children,
which results in a plethora of health problems. Also of crucial importance
is the destruction of the environment caused by intensive farming;
it
should be illegal, but the economic power and political influence of
these industries makes this seemingly impossible.
My concerns are surely part of a worldview, even if it’s not the
worldview. It is part of a value system that increasingly more people
are becoming conscious of. It really feels wrong to eat corpses, to
poison the air with unnecessary car journeys, to run horses to exhaustion
to fuel a gambling craze.
Most of my family and friends share the same values. This is partly
a result of my seeking these people out, and partly a result of us
becoming
more and more like each other as time goes by. It does make life easier
and more fun when the people you care about share your values and lifestyle,
from having a good moan together to enthusing over a new vegetarian
restaurant. I don’t hide my views from friends or family—not
because I believe everyone must hold the same views as me, but because
relationships become boring and superficial if I am not able to share
my deepest concerns.
Frustration with ‘the way things are’ can easily turn into
hatred towards individuals who ridicule concerns about food choices
or environmental degradation, since they are hurting not only themselves
but future generations when they try to brush these things under the
carpet. One reason people criticize is often because they cannot allow
themselves to believe the opposite of what they themselves do. Once
they have been doing things a certain way for some time, or if they
have a set belief system, any challenge to that status quo causes them
to be defensive. I don’t enjoy the emotions that such encounters
stir up, so I do my best to reason them away the moment I feel them
bubbling under the surface. To indulge in anger hurts only me, physiologically,
mentally, and spiritually. Those we hate are either blissfully unaware
of the fact or else they don’t give a damn about our opinion anyway
(which is, after all, one of the reasons we feel so frustrated in the
first place).
Tolerance helps me maintain a balance and a sense of humor. What calms
me is knowing (hoping) that everyone really is doing the best they
can
with the knowledge that they have at any given stage in their development.
It’s difficult for me to get angry at others when I recall what
I might have done differently 10 years ago when I was ignorant of so
many things. And I’m still learning, and that’s my other great
antidote for insanity: self-education. The more secure I am in the correctness
of what I am doing, the less likely I am to suffer doubts or become
over-sensitive to others’ criticisms, let alone a victim of their
incorrect advice (“get some milk down you or your bones’ll
crumble”).
But there’s one magic bullet for me: getting on with life, and
all the better if I’m not only distracted by an activity but also
being constructive towards what I would like to change. Also, concentrating
on setting a good example keeps my mind creatively busy and leaves little
room for moodiness. This doesn’t have to mean being a full-time
campaigner. It means taking good care of myself and doing what I enjoy
so as to develop myself as a well-rounded and contented person. After
all, no one wants to emulate a miserable specimen.
Putting
Two and Two Together By Richard H. Schwartz
My environmental consciousness grew as I
taught a course entitled “Mathematics and the Environment” at
the College of Staten Island beginning in about 1975. The environmental
issues that are of most concern to me are global warming, the destruction
of tropical rain forests and other habitats, erosion and depletion of
soil, water shortages, and air and water pollution.
My awareness of animal rights issues began in the mid-1970s when I
read books such as Animal Liberation by Peter Singer and Animal Factories
by Jim Mason and Peter Singer, and Animals’ Agenda magazine, and
I started attending vegetarian conferences. The animal issue that is
of most concern to me is modern intensive animal-agriculture, since
the greatest amount by far of animal abuse occurs on factory farms,
but I am also concerned about animal experimentation and fur.
I became a vegetarian because of discussions about global hunger that
occurred in the mathematics course that I taught. After reading Diet
for a Small Planet, by Frances Moore Lappé, I realized that
the scandal of world hunger and the annual deaths of an estimated 20
million
people worldwide because of hunger and its effects could be ended if
people shifted to plant-based diets. In the last few years, I have
become
very aware of how horribly dairy cows and hens are treated and how
harmful the consumption and production of dairy products and eggs are
to human
health and the environment and, hence, have become almost vegan.
The vegetarian/vegan issues that are of most concern to me are the
mistreatment of animals and the health and environmental consequences
of animal-based
diets and agriculture. I make connections between the mistreatment
of animals, environmental degradation, and the need to shift to vegetarian/vegan
diets. I strongly believe that becoming a vegan (or at least a vegetarian)
is the most important thing that a person can do for animals, for the
environment, for his or her health, for the conservation of resources,
and for the world’s hungry people. I often state that vegetarianism
is not only an important individual choice today, but it is also a
societal
imperative because of the very negative ecological and economic consequences
of animal-based diets and agriculture.
I devote a lot of time to making my views known, because I believe that
vegetarianism is a societal imperative and that the world is threatened
today as possibly never before. To help make others aware of the issues,
I write books and articles, and teach courses and give lectures.
I consider my concerns to be part of a “world view” and value
system. With regard to my religious life, I believe that a shift toward
vegetarianism is a spiritual imperative for Jews. In view of powerful
Jewish mandates to preserve human health, treat animals compassionately,
protect the environment, conserve resources, and help feed hungry people,
and the extremely negative effects animal-centered diets have in each
of these areas, I believe that committed Jews should sharply reduce
or eliminate their consumption of animal products.
My views are often at odds with the mainstream view on these issues.
For example, the Jewish establishment often challenges me with statements
such as: By putting vegetarian values ahead of Jewish teachings, vegetarians
are, in effect, creating a new religion, with values contrary to Jewish
teachings. I respond respectfully and by attempting to educate my challengers:
Jewish vegetarians are not placing so-called vegetarian values above
Torah principles. They are saying that basic Jewish teachings that
mandate
that we treat animals with compassion, guard our health, share with
hungry people, protect the environment, conserve resources, and seek
peace, point to vegetarianism as the ideal God-directed diet for Jews
today. Rather than rejecting Torah values, Jewish vegetarians are challenging
the Jewish community to apply Judaism’s glorious teachings.
What most upsets and frustrates me is that while the world is so threatened
today, and animal-based diets play such an important role in many global
threats, and Judaism and other religions have such powerful teachings
that point to vegetarianism as the ideal diet today, so many people
are unaware and apathetic regarding the critical importance of a shift
to vegetarianism. To maintain my sanity and optimism, I just try harder
to spread vegetarian and animal rights messages through letters, articles,
talks, and e-mail communications, and try to keep learning as much as
I can about the issues so I can be as effective a spokesperson as possible.
Promoting vegetarianism and animal rights is my most important activity
today and seeking better ways to do this keeps me relatively sane in
an insane world.
Richard H. Schwartz is Professor Emeritus of the College of
Staten Island, and author of Judaism and Vegetarianism, Judaism and
Global Survival and Mathematics and Global Survival.
You’ve
Gotta Have Faith By Richard Mehmed
How to cope in an environmentally-unfriendly,
meat-eating, animal-apathetic, insane world? For me there is absolutely
only one way: you’ve gotta have Faith! Faith in the power of God.
Faith in your own actions. Faith in your fellow humans. Easy! Well,
let me come clean. There are not many days when, after learning more
about how we treat our environment, other people or animals, that I
don’t put my head in my hands and mutter What’s the point?
But (so far) I have always managed to pick myself up, take a deep breath
and carry on trying to be part of the solution rather than the problem.
My relatively new-found commitment to environmental and social change,
and my present wood-recycling career, started by a fluke, sort of a “Saul on the road to Damascus” experience. To cut a long story
short, I left my well-paying job selling insurance to gaze at my navel
for a while, and I also happened to be looking for some cheap wood with
which to build my daughter a playhouse. On my quest I came across a
company that was land-filling a ton of almost new timber every week,
in the form of huge cases of quality wood. This unbelievable profligacy
shocked me into realizing that this “consume and waste” society
will inevitably lead us to self-destruction. I’ve got kids—what
sort of world was I leaving them?
Although I thought of myself as environmentally aware, I knew right
away that I had to work in whatever capacity I could to help bring
about
change. After years of a fairly indulgent middle-class lifestyle I
was confronted with the realization that I had to reduce my own impact
on
the planet—big time! Reducing my consumption, committing to vegetarianism
and changing my whole attitude towards the natural world became paramount.
I do fret a lot. There are so many issues to be down about, but it
is global warming and species depletion that scare me most because
they
threaten our long-term survival. At the moment I try to judge all my
actions by environmental criteria, and eating meat—if it is genuinely
free range or individually hunted—can be in harmony with the environment,
so I suppose I put animal advocacy slightly down on my list of priorities.
But I know that we should not judge our culture by the quality of our
art or our technology, but by the way we treat the most vulnerable
people
and the other life forms with which we share this wonderful planet.
In reality, there is an inextricable link between animal exploitation
and the environment. I do not wear the badge of an animal liberationist,
but I want to embrace veganism because I believe it is morally and
environmentally
right.
Like most of us, I get depressed at the lack of effort shown by too
many people. But what I find hardest to bare is the attitude of many
(supposedly) educated folk I meet who see rabid consumption as a freedom
issue, as a matter of lifestyle choice, and as liberation from toil:
a justification for exploitation, environmental destruction and further
global inequity.
Yes, it is certainly an environmentally-unfriendly and animal-abusing
world. If I am still sane (and I let others judge that), it is because
I have faith that with the power of God even I can achieve something.
I have faith in the innate goodness of the many and in the possibility
that everyone can change and contribute. If I am sane it is because
I never forget that I am living in the rich part of the world—in
a place where I do have options, can fill my belly every day and sleep
soundly. I have the option to create and nurture rather than destroy,
and to me it’s worth the hassle—any day!
Richard Mehmed is the founder of the pioneering Brighton and
Hove Wood Recycling Project in England. Visit www.pavilion.co.uk/woodrecycling/
for information.
The
Interconnectedness of Things By Samantha Knowlden
My
choice to live a vegan lifestyle began with my concern for the well-being
of animals as well as the environment.
I don’t know what the initial spark was that started me on the
track I’m on today. Perhaps being on the fringe in middle and
high school made it easy for me to look around and observe what was
actually
going on. Going vegan was a gradual process that took many years
and developed simultaneously with the expansion of my worldview and
awareness
of other social issues and injustices, including classism, racism,
feminist
and queer issues, etc. This process is still ongoing as I meet and
work with new people, live in different places, and learn about other
issues.
I think the issues of vegetarianism, animal advocacy and environmentalism
are all deeply interconnected, and for me are a part of all other struggles
for social justice. They are a part of the effort to make this world
a better place for every being. The vegan philosophy that I live and
work by is respect for all life (this encompasses not only animals and
people, but also plants, ecosystems, and the planet) and the right of
all beings to a decent life. I use my vegan philosophy to guide my actions
as an activist, consumer, family member, friend, co-worker, and community
member.
How do I cope with opposition? I take small actions in my everyday life
that I know make a difference to myself, the people around me, animals,
the environment and even more remote people whose jobs make my life
possible. In the rare moments when I actually buy something other than
food, I use my consumer power to boycott or purchase products in order
to support my vegan philosophy.
I have a strong network of friends who share my values and ideals.
When things get tough, it’s easy to surround myself with them
and turn ourselves into a majority, making the day-to-day challenges
disappear,
or at least easier.
Confessions
of a Natural Born Optimist By Marc Bekoff
Basically, I am an animal rights advocate/activist
with deep concerns about all animals, plants, bodies of water, the
air
we breathe, outer space, and inanimate landscapes. According to my
parents, I have had these concerns since I was a toddler. Thus, I am
not sure
how I came to my compassionate views of the world in which I live.
Often, I feel deep in my heart it is simply genetic—inborn—and that
I have been blessed with a keen sensitivity of the plight of other animals
and all other “beings.” I am a vitalist and see and feel
life in everything, animate and inanimate.
I am a vegetarian. I still eat a few animal products and strive to
eliminate all animal products as time goes on. My reasons are ethical
and not
health related. The issues centering on meat-eating of most importance
to me deal with the horrific slaughtering of our animal kin for human
consumption to satisfy “nutritional” needs that for almost
all people can be met by eating products other than animal flesh.
To get the message out, I publish books and articles, and lecture widely
on animal protection and animal rights.
I find myself at odds particularly with my scientific colleagues and
with some others because I am a scientist with a heart, a scientist
who feels that the business of science could do much, much better in
the area of animal protection. I also disdain how science chops everything
into little bits—how science fragments, slices, cuts, and disembodies.
I am a holist at heart. My anthropomorphism and sentimentalism are off-putting
to many other scientists, but that’s just who I am. I think my
academic record shows clearly that I (and some others) can do solid
science and still be driven by the heartstrings—that solid science
can be done even if one goes to the beat of a different drummer.
Most of my family and close friends support my views and animal protection
in general. I maintain my sanity by being an inborn optimist who simply
believes that there are many reasons for hope. I worked on a set of
millennial mantras [see Bekoff and Goodall] with Jane Goodall, and
her
optimism, hope and friendship are among the most important ingredients
in my recipe for a better tomorrow—a better world for our children
and for theirs.
Animal abuse is particularly upsetting but I also ache when I feel trees
being felled, water ways being changed, and inanimate landscapes being
decimated. My vitalistic sense is offended by all destruction. I am
a dreamer and have visions of many better tomorrows. Let us all practice
peace and justice, and express compassion and respect for the rest of
the world. May we all, as a tight and committed community, work towards
these goals.
Marc Bekoff is Professor of Organismic Biology at the University
of Colorado, Boulder. He is editor of The Encyclopedia of Animal Rights
and Animal Welfare (Greenwood, 1998) and author of the forthcoming,
Strolling with our Kin: Speaking for and Respecting Voiceless Animals
(American Antivivisection Society).
Being
Vegan—One Way to Tread Lightly By Pulin Modi
I have been involved with and aware of environmental
issues since high school (about five years or more). During this time
I have continually gained knowledge about the environment and humans’ impact
on it. As a result I have adopted a vegan lifestyle as the single greatest
step I can take to minimize my negative impact. Meanwhile,
I still continue to struggle for human rights, animal rights, and environmental
protection.
I believe strongly in animal rights. After gradually being exposed
to the issues and facts about how animals are treated and killed for
humans,
I morally had no choice but to go vegetarian and then vegan. Videos,
lectures, pamphlets, books, and being around people concerned with
animal
rights all helped to raise my awareness about animal exploitation.
I am most interested in spreading veganism because it is a relatively
easy way to help the most number of animals. Veganism reflects a person’s
willingness to make certain sacrifices on behalf of the animals, the
earth, and one’s own health. The use of animals in the “sciences” is
also an important concern of mine as a college student interested in
promoting animal rights, and the rights of students to choose alternative
techniques for learning about biology and psychology. Every issue is
important because kids are inevitably involved and animal abuse breeds
a future mentality of exploitation and injustice on all levels of life.
I believe all forms of abuse and exploitation are linked mentally and
physically, as seen in the problems of the world. A person who can
inject
kittens with poisons and then cut them open (while they are still alive)
must have problems with respecting the lives of others. It is a sick
process fueled by public ignorance and inconsiderate, profit-driven
businesses. Even the thought of eating the breast or leg or fat of
another
animal is repulsive. Think about it...those are actually body parts
and fluids. Knowingly consuming these products in our “civil society” is
shameful and disheartening.
I make my concerns and views as public as possible by wearing shirts,
going to protests, supporting activists, tabling, leafleting, talking
to others, sending email and letters, distributing stickers, going
to
meetings, etc. No one will ever be able to know everything or convert
the world alone, so it is important to gain support from peers, convert
the “opposition,” and build towards a more compassionate society.
In my opinion it all comes down to simple logic. It’s just the
right thing to do or else the consequences will inevitably be devastating.
I always find myself to be consistent with mainstream views but at
odds with their actions. I don’t really know how to explain that very
well. It seems as though everyone in the world (not just activists)
wants to reduce suffering and protect the environment but they do not
act on it. Veganism is the simplest way to be proactive and have an
enormous positive impact on the planet. When people do not embrace a
vegan lifestyle I see it as a lack of understanding. This is the reason
these issues should be made as commonplace and easy to learn about as
other issues such as recycling. One should always be careful not to
alienate or outcast people with opposing views. You can’t change
people’s lifestyles through a “hostile,” unorganized,
and inefficient movement—especially when it’s based on nonhuman
elements such as animals and the environment.
The fact that so any people are ignorant about these issues is disturbing
because we continually breed future generations of humans who exploit
the earth and its inhabitants. When something upsets me I generally
make a quick transition to turn this into encouragement to work even
harder and in more effective ways. By wasting time on regrets and despair,
all oppressed sects of the Earth suffer.
I keep realistic goals in mind and hope for the best. The task of any
activist is to gain as much support as possible. By keeping the movement
fun, energetic, and well-organized, the future can only get better. Pulin Modi is a student at Vassar College
Nothing That
Can Get Away by Itself By Jeff Lydon
But how do you get your protein?
Even after 15 years as a strict vegetarian, the
question is shocking enough to nearly paralyze me. It makes me feel
like a physician who has been whisked back to the dark ages and confronted
with medieval colleagues baffled by my objections to blood letting.
Where to begin?
Ultimately, I recognize education—sharing knowledge of nutrition,
ecology, cruelty, and socio-economic justice—as the animal rights
movement’s purest, strongest weapon. Ideally, then, the question
gives an opportunity to educate. And, like most of us in the movement,
I try to teach. But answering a question that betrays a lifetime of
myths and misinformation takes a special tact; there’s so much
to erase before anything I say can stick. The orators of corporate propaganda
who have infiltrated our schools, bought our airwaves, and pocketed
our elected officials are the state troopers of the information super
highway. Sometimes I get the feeling that countering their council looks
to others like speeding in a school zone.
Implicitly, people who ask a question about protein still believe vegans’
dietary choices put their health at risk. They still believe milk is
good for your bones. They still believe lean meat or white meat or fish
is good for your heart. And I spend so much time with other informed
vegetarians that I forget that those concerned with getting enough protein
still comprise the vast majority.
It’s hard to debunk pervasive propaganda with a sound byte or two,
and I’m not always armed with a packet of fact sheets, reference
sources, books, and research data, nor do my listeners always have an
hour to hear a response that approaches comprehensiveness. Perhaps I
should be the one who listens. I should respond to such a question with
questions: Where did you learn about protein and nutrition? Is it healthier
to be a meat-eater or a vegan? Have you ever heard of anyone being diagnosed
with protein deficiency? People might be more apt to critically examine
their own story than to look closely at mine. Then I could help fill
in the gaps, explain the disconnects.
Ten or 15 years ago, people wondered about your soundness of mind if
you mentioned meditation, bodywork, yoga, or even recycling. Now, law
offices have massage chairs in the staff lounge, accountants go to meditation
retreats for team-building and stress management, and nearly everywhere
you’ll find a recycling bin next to the copy machine. Yet the most
fundamental part of healthy living and environmental accountability—the
vegetarian diet—remains on the fringe of the mainstream. True,
most restaurants have vegetarian options, while tofu and meat-free wieners
are ubiquitous. Slowly, the paradigm is shifting, but more slowly where
it counts the most.
The reason? People are scared about not getting enough protein and depriving
their children of the strength they think only hamburgers can give.
When I hear that question, “But where do you get your protein,”
it conjures up a mix of sadness, irritation, and hopelessness. When
it comes to animals, we really do live in the dark ages. And the rich
and powerful generally want to keep us there. But the question is also
one of the ways out, a wick asking for flame. And if we answer such
questions well enough, we might light up this age, one candle at a time.
Jeff Lydon is an animal rights activist living in the countryside
outside of Ithaca, NY with his wife, Sarah, and their companion wolf,
Quinn. He works as an editor and free-lance writer, and is on a mission
to find the best vegan eclair in North America.
The Plate
as a Springboard for Peace and Non-violence By Linda Ostreicher
The first mention I recall of the word “pollution”
was in Tom Lehrer’s song of the same name. I’m an environmentalist,
and have been since at least Earth Day 1970, when caring for the earth
fit right in with my other 60s values. My in-depth education about the
environment came much later, starting in 1988 when I got a job with
NYC’s recycling office. Objects become garbage so quickly, going
from desirable to disgusting. Then there are hazardous wastes, truck
exhaust, landfill leaks, water pollution, incinerator ash, toxic exports—it
all connects.
My mother loves animals and I was raised by a German shepherd, so I’ve
always respected and loved animals. There were books I read as a child
that enlightened me: Black Beauty, Charlotte’s Web, and C. S. Lewis’
Narnia series. I’m less concerned with animal diversity than I
am with suffering. If everyone stopped eating meat tomorrow, there would
be no more breeding of farm animals, but there would also be a lot less
pain. Experimenting on animals seems like a mistake because we have
no right to hurt them, and there are an infinite number of ways to do
research. We’ve managed to stop experimenting on humans without
their consent.
When I was 16, I met my first vegetarian and immediately began cutting
down on meat and within a year I gave it up. For me, giving up meat
was anything but difficult—the stuff was repulsive to me, pathetic
bits of corpses. I would not mind meat-eating so much if we treated
animals well during their lives and killed them humanely. And of course
there are 40,000 people starving to death each day while meat production
requires so much more land and water than plant production. I’m
a vegetarian who eats eggs and milk. My definition is “Nothing
that can get away by itself.” I’d give up milk and eggs, but
I can’t do without milk in coffee and pizza, and figuring out
if food is dairy-free is just too hard. I rationalize that if everyone
ate as little dairy as me it could be produced without much harm. Being
unable to go vegan helps me to understand how meat-eaters may feel.
The issues of environmentalism, animal advocacy, and vegetarianism
are connected to each other and to everything else I believe in: peace,
equality, etc. Meat production hurts the land and water, and the treatment
of farm animals is horrifying. Even the way we shut it away from sight
is harmful, because it lets us get used to killing without having to
face the gore. It’s like comparing aerial war to playing a video
game. Animals kill each other—that’s the food chain. But we
know better, and can survive quite well without it, so when we kill,
it’s deliberate cruelty.
I’m not comfortable directly attacking people’s behavior.
It sometimes hardens their convictions. However, I bring up the issues
when I feel I can do it without making my friends defensive. I tell
everybody I’m vegetarian primarily for reasons of compassion, and
that being vegetarian is easier than not being one. I go to occasional
demonstrations, write letters, and sign petitions. I’ve taken in
a few stray animals and I offer to pay for neutering whenever someone
can’t afford it. Whenever I can, I point out that one kid in middle-class
America is a lot harder on the environment than 20 in Africa.
The only spiritual leader I really respect is Thich Nhat Hanh, whose
concept of “interbeing” is an interpretion of Buddhism as
a spiritual belief system that includes everything else. One of the
few good things about our insanely technological world is that it is
becoming clearer how everything that happens to each of us affects
people,
animals and other beings on the other side of the world.
My worldview is challenged every time I walk into a restaurant that
serves meat or a store that sells leather. I tell my friends that the
smell of the leather they’re shopping for makes me sick. In an
effort to do useful work, I often take lower paying jobs. I try to use
things as long as possible before discarding them and I shop at second-hand
stores. I use public transportation (can’t drive, don’t want
to) and try to travel without exploiting anyone or anything more than
necessary. A harder challenge is when the choice is between human and
animal suffering—like impoverished Africans killing protected animals
to sell on the black market. Obviously, it’s self-defeating in
the long run, but they don’t all have a long run to count on.
It has to come down to the need to redistribute wealth.
I don’t worry about the Earth. We act like Nature is some frail
damsel in distress, but she’ll shrug us off like a dead flea. I’m
less hopeful about situations like in Nigeria, where oil companies pollute
people’s drinking water. I can complain to my friends about things
like that, which helps a little, and my cats comfort me. I get angry
when people I know do stupid things, like buying SUVs or eating venison.
I get most upset by animal suffering. I once cried for hours after attending
a public hearing about “animal control.” All I can do is turn
my attention elsewhere. It’s a fine line between shutting out all
the pain and losing the ability to care. Sometimes I feel that caring
is all that I can do. I focus now on another issue (people’s right
to health care), one that I feel I can actually have some small effect
on in the world; it doesn’t depress me to the extent that I’m
unable to act.
Linda Ostreicher is a grantwriter who lives in Brooklyn.
The Plate as a Springboard
for Peace and Non-violence By Bruce Friedrich
Every time I sit down to eat, I make a decision
about who I am in the world: Do I want to add to the amount of violence,
misery and bloodshed in the world? Or, do I want to make a compassionate
and merciful choice? There is so much violence in the world, from war-torn
regions of Africa, the Middle East, Asia and Europe, to our own inner
cities. Most of this violence is difficult to understand, let alone
influence. Veganism is one area where each and every one of us can make
a difference, every time we sit down to eat. I find it empowering that
I can take the option for peace and compassion every time I eat, simply
by not encouraging violence and misery against animals.
“Vegetarianism,” claimed Tolstoy, “is the taproot of
humanitarianism.” Indeed, slaughterhouses are perhaps the most
violent places on the planet. Animals are routinely sent kicking and
screaming through the skinning and dismemberment process, every one
bleeding and dying exactly like they would if they were human beings.
Farms today are like warehouses, treating live animals like dispensable
objects: chopping off beaks and tails and genitals with no painkillers
at all, inflicting third degree burns (branding), and ripping out teeth
and hunks of flesh. Animals transported to slaughter routinely die from
the heat or the cold, or freeze to the sides of the transport trucks
or to the bottom in their own excrement. Dairy cows and egg laying hens
endure the same living nightmare as their brethren who are raised for
their flesh, except that their time on the “farm” is longer.
In the end, they are still shipped to the slaughterhouse and killed,
at a fraction of their natural life span.
There is simply no excuse for anyone who considers herself or himself
to be an ethical human being, let alone an “animal lover,” to
be supporting these kinds of practices, all of which are routine and
universal throughout the industries which turn animals into meat,
dairy and egg products.
If I can’t watch it happening, I want no part of it. I enjoy watching
fields tilled and love picking apples and tomatoes and carrots and
other
vegetarian products. If slaughterhouses had glass walls, as Paul McCartney
is so fond of saying, we would all be vegetarians. Bruce Friedrich is Vegetarian Campaign Coordinator for
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals.
Raw Solutions By Robert A. Miller
Am I an environmentalist? Only in the sense
that everything I do, think, and eat has an effect on the environment.
I
definitely think about treading lightly on the Earth. As a raw food
vegan, I know and feel good about the fact that what I eat—organic,
sometimes homegrown (sprouts), local whenever possible, fruits and vegetables—has
little destructive effect on the environment. For example, it uses
little
or no packaging, and requires less transportation and its associated
pollution. I do not wear leather or use animal products that I am aware
of, again making a small but important contribution to lessening overall
environmental destruction. But, no, I would not describe myself as
an
environmentalist.
John Robbins’ Diet For A New America taught me so much about environmental
issues. Satya is also informative about environmental issues, as is
the mainstream press if it is read in both the positive and negative
sense.
I would not describe myself as an animal advocate. However, I do not
use any animal products if at all possible. Diet For A New America opened
my mind to so many issues regarding animals that I was unaware of or
had only an inkling of before.
I make my views known when it is appropriate. I don’t proselytize.
I speak about my raw foodism and related issues when people ask me—which
is often—and then they are open to actually hearing. My mother
is a raw foodist, as are many of my friends. With a friend, I run a
raw food support and discussion group. The main topic is raw food veganism,
and naturally environmental and animal issues come up. We also host
raw food potlucks. These events spread the word about raw foodism and
all of the connections. I see and am thankful for these connections
every time I sit down to a meal.
I don’t often find myself “at odds with the mainstream” because
I am finally becoming comfortable enough with myself and my lifestyle
to accept that it is perfectly allowable for others to have
and live out their own views about the world, despite how destructive
they may be. I honestly believe that our current situation is the evolution
of the world today, and that it is supposed to be that way. My place
is simply to do the most I can, within my sphere, to first make my
life
strong, sane and useful, and then help others do the same.
Raw food-ism is important to me because I have seen so many people—beginning
with myself—get rid of disease, often the so-called “incurables,” and
achieve states of well-being far beyond what they ever thought possible.
It is so simple, so easy and so effective. It has the positive benefits
of vegetarianism and so much more. When a person eats a 100% raw food
vegan diet their physical, mental and spiritual selves get much closer
to their natural state. This is a very normal process, which most of
us have become too civilized to understand.
The closer one gets to their natural (spiritual) self, the more they
can see that the world and universe is just a circular, interconnected
whole. That has been my experience, and I do my best to live that understanding
every day. Eating a raw food vegan diet is the easiest way to maintain
balance on all levels. It is just a matter of sticking with it until
the body adapts. I am happier, healthier, laugh more, and can see the
world more objectively (from my small view!) than at any other time
in my life.
Robert A. Miller is a professional musician living in Brooklyn.
