September
2000
Vegetarian
Advocate: Is Being a Vegetarian Hard?
By Jack Rosenberger
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It’s a pleasant summer morning. The scene is a
local pizza parlor since the counselors at my daughter Zoe’s day
camp decided it would be fun if the children learned how pizza is made.
Some parents were needed to help with the transportation, which is why
I’m sitting in a booth with Lisa and Jill, the mothers of Lauren
and Emma respectively, while the children sit nearby, eating pizza
and
spilling their drinks.
Like most young parents, Lisa, Jill, and I, when we’re not complaining
about our spouses, are talking about our children. Whose daughter sleeps
the least. Whose daughter likes to play with bugs. Whose daughter is
the most bossy. At this particular moment, Lisa’s talking about
how she gets Lauren to eat a good breakfast. Jill nods her head and
pipes in, "Emma and I don’t eat meat."
This news surprises me, for I’d thought I knew every teacher, counselor,
student, parent, and grandparent at Zoe’s camp who was a vegetarian.
And Jill and Emma weren’t on that list.
"Do you cook meat for your husband?" asks Lisa, who’s
a psychologist.
"No, I don’t," replies Jill. "We do eat chicken
and fish." She pauses. "I couldn’t live without fish.
I’d die if I couldn’t eat fish."
I tell Jill (as Lisa already knows this information) that my wife Rani,
Zoe, and I are vegetarians.
"That must be hard," says Jill.
"No, it isn’t," I reply.
"That must be hard," says Jill.
Instead of repeating myself, I take a sip of coffee. Later, though,
I regret being silent. I wish I’d said, "Actually, it would
be harder for me if I wasn’t a vegetarian. That would be really
hard."
Is Being a Vegetarian Hard?
I became a vegetarian more than 20 years ago for ethical reasons. When
I realized that my eating meat caused animal suffering and killing,
I knew I had to make a choice.
It’s difficult for me to imagine who I would be if I was a nonvegetarian.
It’s not that I can’t imagine myself eating animal flesh,
it’s that I don’t know how I would live with myself if I did.
If I ate meat, I would be actively suppressing the part of me that is
compassionate, alert, respectful of others, sensitive, alive. Every
time I ate meat, I’d know I was lying to myself.
When Jill opined that being a vegetarian must be hard, I doubt she was
thinking of spiritual matters. Rather, I suspect she was saying she
likes the convenience and taste of animal flesh.
Yet, eating a vegetarian diet isn’t hard. At times it is inconvenient,
but as a diet it isn’t nearly as inconvenient or restrictive,
I imagine, as a raw food diet or a Kosher lifestyle.
Implicit in Jill’s statement is the notion that hard things are
not worth doing. Me, I relish challenges.
Ruth Harrison Dies
How unimportant is animal welfare-slash-animal rights to the mainstream
media? Ruth Harrison, the author of Animal Machines, died June 13th,
and the New York Times obituary department didn’t regard her life,
or death, as worthy of mention.
Of course, it’s unfair to single out the New York Times for neglecting
Harrison. The Washington Post also passed Harrison over. And an on-line
search of the Los Angeles Times, using the words "Ruth Harrison"
and "animals," found 521 "matching" documents, such
as "Girl Recovering from Rattlesnake Bite" and "David
Spade Digs Shipwreck Comedy." A more detailed search, however,
revealed that the LA Times, like its East Coast colleagues, failed to
note Harrison’s life and death.
The publication of Harrison’s Animal Machines in 1964 forever changed
the western world’s practice of animal agriculture. In fact, it’s
reasonable to state that Ruth Harrison’s Animal Machines did for
the animal welfare movement what Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring
did for the environment movement. (Incidentally, Carson wrote the forward
for Animal Machines.) Animal Machines exposed the horrors of factory
farming to an unsuspecting public. In England, where Harrison’s
book was first published, the Ministry of Agriculture set up a committee
that reviewed factory farming. Harrison served on the committee, and
its work led to the eventual outlawing of some of the most horrific
farming practices. Meanwhile, Harrison, a vegetarian, founded the Farm
Animal Care Trust, which worked toward improving the living conditions
of farm animals.
The Times of London devoted approximately 1,000 words (and two pictures,
one of which showed the inside of an overcrowded chicken warehouse)
to detailing Harrison’s life and her many accomplishments.
Harrison’s obit states that she opposed "battery cages for
hens, small crates for veal calves and narrow stalls or tethers for
pregnant sows." The practice of veal crates, for example, is not
a natural phenomena; and they weren’t invented by mother and father
cows. It is humans who created, implemented, and perpetuated the practice
of imprisoning baby calves in crates. Without greedy and insensitive
humans, the practice of veal crates wouldn’t exist.
I was saddened when Harrison’s obituary stated, "She was charming
to all and never hostile to the farming industry in general, only to
the practices which she thought unjustifiable." I can’t stomach
the idea of being unfailingly charming to factory farmers. I believe
animal advocates should challenge, criticize, and, if possible, ostracize
factory farmers—and work toward passing legislation that will outlaw
cruel farming techniques. Isn’t this what the animals would want?
Farm Sanctuary Fund
Farm Sanctuary has set up a Farm Animal Defense Fund "to investigate
and prosecute...farm animal abusers." The fund will purchase investigative
equipment, hire field investigators and research staff, pay for legal
actions, and expand Farm Sanctuary’s media campaigns. Give today.
Contact: Farm Sanctuary, Farm Animal Defense Fund, Box 150, Watkins
Glen, NY 14891; 607-583-2225; farmsanctuary.org.
