I borrowed the banner above from Farm Wilder as, to me at least, it raises fundamental issues how we live, what we think, what we should eat and why.
It should be a base for serious thoughts, discussion but I suspect any discussion would break down with views from either side of an argument exhibiting biased and even extreme views.
So, here I go, based on parts of my life and people I have met. I have lived with a ‘vegetarian’ for almost thirty years. It is never been my mantra to dictate what people eat. I have stood outside restaurants gazing into oblivion as those by my side discuss what they can’t eat. I have watched one individual push food around the plate as though the food were dodgem cars. Then proclaim after chewing two mouthfuls that they are ‘stuffed’. This is totally alien to me as I love food, enjoy eating and consider a meal to be more than a meal because it is also an occasion. I was born into a world of home grown vegetables and terrific home cooking. I was lucky.
I have experienced the other side too when people we have known create an issue over not eating meat and to the point of being devious. The issue is what makes anyone decide what they should or should not eat. For example I have heard the comment I don’t want anything dead on my plate. But where does that idea actually come from. Somewhere in ones background, I suspect, much like the adverts for supermarkets that nurture ideas. We all have individual tastes and should eat what we like. But that choice should carry responsibility too.
The article by Farm Wilder begins with that banner of ‘veganuary’. I know vegans and when I ask what happens to the animals when we are all vegan. What they said was ‘they will die’. Which brings me on to binary choices. Not to do or to do is not for me. The world, the planet and the environment is fundamentally important to us all. When and if the animals were to die out what would happen to things we love. Birds, insects, pollinators and so on would they too fail or would they adapt. The choice is not a binary one because as environmentalists will say there is a hierarchy that has been established by the natural world.
I subscribe to their emails and these are the first paragraphs from their email.
Nine years in and with over almost 1 million people expected to participate this January, it’s safe to say that Veganuary has been a roaring success. In under a decade, veganism has gone from being a widely ignored lifestyle choice of a handful of students to a fully funded, supermarket endorsed way to “Save The Planet”. Join or be damned.
But what makes for a successful campaign often makes for an inadequate response to real world problems. Campaigns, born out of the schoolyard ecosystems of social media, thrive on binary choices – good vs bad, do’s vs don’ts, in vs out. From the most cynical politicians to progressive activists, the approach remains the same. And by that logic, it’s no surprise that veganism is proving a runaway success – we know the problems, both medical and environmental, and we know that meat production and consumption as it is has a lot to answer for. So the solution is easy - stop eating it.
Except, obviously it is not that simple. In fact, veganism has taken on possibly the most complex of all problems – human and planetary health – and it falls short as much of a solution to either.
Herbivores, whether farmed or wild, are core components of the ecosystems in which we live and of which we too are a part. Managed badly they can push these ecosystems to collapse – as we now know, it’s historic overgrazing which drove the expansion of almost all the world’s deserts, and ultimately the fall of many of histories civilizations. Wild grazing animals, given space and time to do so, follow the same boom and bust pattern, expanding their populations beyond what their environment can support and suffering the consequent collapse when climatic conditions turn against them.
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