It was a clear and icy night at home in Derbyshire last week. I love these times and, before bed, stepped outside to stand on the lawn in the moonless pitch-black and take it in. All at once the dark was pierced with an awful scream. I was not greatly alarmed the rural night is full of strange noises but stood there, puzzling out what it might be.
The scream, almost human, was repeated, and its provenance seemed to be moving from one side to the other of the field adjacent to ours. Could it be a fox? Vixens do make some blood-curdling cries during the mating season but does that start as early as January? Or might it be a foxs victim a hare or rabbit, perhaps, fighting back as the poor creature was carried off or even an owls prey? Might it be the call of some kind of night-bird? But this was a call Id never heard from anything with feathers.
I felt curious, but only mildly so. Whatever creature was calling, this was nature calling. Alone in the dark I was standing in, not outside, nature, and in nature another animal screaming but posing no threat to me was not a matter for alarm. Animals kill each other, usually for food.
But it made me think about veganism. Ive been thinking about veganism a lot recently. Were told this month is -Veganuary, and more people than I can remember are toying with the idea, if only temporarily, of not eating meat. From time to time Ive done so myself. My lodger in the London flat is a serious vegan and I respect him very much for it. Though we carnivores may grumble about veggies and vegans and think them awkward, the fact remains that its a carnivores world, things are organised to suit meateaters, and people who go against that have to put up with endless inconvenience. They are brave.
They also have a point. I cannot pass a lorry full of pigs being carried to the slaughter without wincing. I switched off a radio discussion of slaughterhouses last week, unable to listen. We try (dont we, most of us?) not to think about the millions of animals being killed each week for our tables; and things we try not to think about are so often things were not confident we could justify.
People who take pleasure in confronting vegetarians with whataboutery (What about your shoes? That violin music you bought though its played on a catgut? And thats a leather armchair you just sat in, ha ha etc) infuriate me. Trying to make the best the enemy of the good often masks our own guilt, and I dare say that in the days of slavery, abolitionists were taunted for using sugar that had been grown in slave plantations.
So my instincts towards veganism are sympathetic. I know and understand the case against using animals for our own gratification; I understand, too, how the logic carries you onward to complete veganism, and I dont question that logic.
But as I stood there in the dark hearing another creature scream last week, it was a contrary thought that troubled me. A thought, no more. I wouldnt dignify it with the word argument, in some ways it was more of a feeling, but it was a strong feeling. Isnt using animals bound up with needing them, and bound up with them (cows, sheep, horses) needing us? Isnt mutual need, however red in tooth and claw, something that binds us into nature, makes us humans a kind of animal, living with animals as animals live with us? Might it be an important corrective against the arrogance that goes with believing we are masters of the universe, a race of gods looking down on the world and the natural order in it but not in the complete sense part of it?
One reason I dare not call this an argument or theory is that our whole evolution as a species seems to point towards that destination. We have so mechanised and specialised and compartmentalised food production that some city people have never even seen a cow face to face, and very few people, urban or rural, have ever visited a slaughterhouse. Maybe thats what civilisation, what we call human progress, means. Long gone are the days when every family could keep and slaughter their own pig.
Yet if thats where were going, perhaps we should say so: acknowledge it to ourselves. It will be a world in which nature is no longer something were part of, but something we control. The world will be our garden. The wild will be what we have decided to designate as the wild. There will be humans, and there will be national parks. Will we still want domestic animals at all, when we have no use for them? Maybe we could keep a few in a zoo, or in farmexperience places you could visit.
Shall we let the animals we include in our master-plan hunt and eat each other? Maybe, and we could watch. Or maybe we could require the carnivores among them to eat meat-like proteins manufactured or grown without the infliction of suffering on any other animal. And gradually over the centuries ahead we could turn our world into a planet where we decided these matters.
The irony (as it seems to me) is that vegans and vegetarians have played an early and important and a very creditable part in the movement to abolish or limit old-fashioned zoos and animal-inclusive circuses: and I approve of much in that mission. Yet the same thinking may lead in the end towards the establishment of the biggest and most ambitious zoo in all creation. The zoo will be the natural world, and we shall be the zookeepers.
I turned away from those screams in the dark and returned to the warm. The itch to discover, and perhaps intervene and correct or rescue, had left me.
Original post:
Vegans are brave and they have a point - Spectator.co.uk
- About Veganism - Vegan Action [Last Updated On: August 18th, 2024] [Originally Added On: September 11th, 2019]
- veganism.com [Last Updated On: August 18th, 2024] [Originally Added On: September 11th, 2019]
- Definition of veganism | The Vegan Society [Last Updated On: August 18th, 2024] [Originally Added On: September 11th, 2019]
- What Is a Vegan? What Do Vegans Eat? - thespruceeats.com [Last Updated On: August 18th, 2024] [Originally Added On: September 11th, 2019]
- Veganism - Wikipedia [Last Updated On: August 18th, 2024] [Originally Added On: September 11th, 2019]
- Veganism | What is Veganism & How to Do More for Animals ... [Last Updated On: August 18th, 2024] [Originally Added On: October 1st, 2019]
- BEGINNER'S GUIDE TO VEGANISM how to go vegan [Last Updated On: August 18th, 2024] [Originally Added On: October 1st, 2019]
- Veganism: 20 Powerful Reasons People Become Vegans [Last Updated On: August 18th, 2024] [Originally Added On: October 1st, 2019]
- The unstoppable rise of veganism: how a fringe movement went ... [Last Updated On: August 18th, 2024] [Originally Added On: October 1st, 2019]
- Vegan Cafe Ready to Open in Wilkes-Barre - WNEP Scranton/Wilkes-Barre [Last Updated On: August 18th, 2024] [Originally Added On: October 14th, 2019]
- Movers & Thinkers: The Butcher, The Vegan Baker, The Potions Maker - WPLN [Last Updated On: August 18th, 2024] [Originally Added On: October 14th, 2019]
- Love Earth Cafe: A new vegan eatery dedicated to healthy choices - SILive.com [Last Updated On: August 18th, 2024] [Originally Added On: October 14th, 2019]
- Vevolution Is the Must-Attend Vegan Festival of 2019 - LIVEKINDLY [Last Updated On: August 18th, 2024] [Originally Added On: October 14th, 2019]
- What Is the Definition of a Vegan Diet? - LIVEKINDLY [Last Updated On: August 18th, 2024] [Originally Added On: October 14th, 2019]
- How to have a meat-free Thanksgiving: advice from vegans - Montreal Gazette [Last Updated On: August 18th, 2024] [Originally Added On: October 14th, 2019]
- Did You Know These 17 Musicians Are All Vegan? - LIVEKINDLY [Last Updated On: August 18th, 2024] [Originally Added On: October 14th, 2019]
- 15 Vegan Lifestyle Benefits That Will Make You Never Look Back - LIVEKINDLY [Last Updated On: August 18th, 2024] [Originally Added On: October 14th, 2019]
- Alicia Silverstone: Going Vegan Is the Most Effective Way to Combat the Climate Crisis - LIVEKINDLY [Last Updated On: August 18th, 2024] [Originally Added On: October 16th, 2019]
- As Vegans, We Need to Show More Compassion Towards Those Who Aren't Like Us - VegNews [Last Updated On: August 18th, 2024] [Originally Added On: November 1st, 2019]
- BBC Blasted Over 'Wild And Unsubstantiated' Negative Claims About Veganism - Plant Based News [Last Updated On: August 18th, 2024] [Originally Added On: November 1st, 2019]
- Vegan meatball Subway finally launches in the UK here's what you need to know - The Independent [Last Updated On: August 18th, 2024] [Originally Added On: November 1st, 2019]
- A vegan diet can boost erections, according to a new Netflix documentary. Here's the reality. - INSIDER [Last Updated On: August 18th, 2024] [Originally Added On: November 1st, 2019]
- Vegans, vegetarians and the meat of the matter - The Guardian [Last Updated On: August 18th, 2024] [Originally Added On: November 1st, 2019]
- This Is How to Go Vegan When You Have a Tight Budget - LIVEKINDLY [Last Updated On: August 18th, 2024] [Originally Added On: November 1st, 2019]
- 13 Celebrities Before and After Going Vegan - LIVEKINDLY [Last Updated On: August 18th, 2024] [Originally Added On: November 1st, 2019]
- Marvel Just Turned This 12-Year-Old Vegan Activist Into a Superhero - LIVEKINDLY [Last Updated On: August 18th, 2024] [Originally Added On: November 10th, 2019]
- Pittsburgh Vegan Expo and Convention offers tasty sample of the lifestyle - TribLIVE [Last Updated On: August 18th, 2024] [Originally Added On: November 10th, 2019]
- The Real Reason Chef and Author Eddie Huang Went Vegan, Plus Other Plant-Based Celebrities - Showbiz Cheat Sheet [Last Updated On: August 18th, 2024] [Originally Added On: November 10th, 2019]
- Why 'vegan' is a dirty word: is it time to come up with a better term for the animal-free life? - HeraldScotland [Last Updated On: August 18th, 2024] [Originally Added On: November 10th, 2019]
- Veganism: Common myths and misconceptions about the lifestyle - Republic World - Republic World [Last Updated On: August 18th, 2024] [Originally Added On: November 10th, 2019]
- With veganism on the rise, vegetarians are becoming an afterthought - The Irish Times [Last Updated On: August 18th, 2024] [Originally Added On: November 10th, 2019]
- The top 6 reasons people go vegan, explained - CNET [Last Updated On: August 18th, 2024] [Originally Added On: November 10th, 2019]
- These 19 Celebrities Ate Vegan Wings on Hot Ones - LIVEKINDLY [Last Updated On: August 18th, 2024] [Originally Added On: November 12th, 2019]
- Vegan in NJ: VegFest returns to feed thousands at the Meadowlands Expo Center - Asbury Park Press [Last Updated On: August 18th, 2024] [Originally Added On: November 12th, 2019]
- Justin Bieber Thinks Vegans Should Get Paid $100K a Year - LIVEKINDLY [Last Updated On: August 18th, 2024] [Originally Added On: November 12th, 2019]
- 6 Celebrities Whove Gone Vegan, From Miley Cyrus to Ariana Grande - Refinery29 [Last Updated On: August 18th, 2024] [Originally Added On: November 12th, 2019]
- HappyCow Reveals Top Ten Vegan Friendly Cities in the World - vegconomist - the vegan business magazine [Last Updated On: August 18th, 2024] [Originally Added On: December 3rd, 2019]
- Veganism, KFC and the secret to weight loss - National Post [Last Updated On: August 18th, 2024] [Originally Added On: December 3rd, 2019]
- This Guide to Vegan Beauty Products Will Help You Be Ethical and Gorgeous - WDET [Last Updated On: August 18th, 2024] [Originally Added On: December 3rd, 2019]
- London tops list of world's most vegan-friendly cities - The Guardian [Last Updated On: August 18th, 2024] [Originally Added On: December 3rd, 2019]
- Tired of turkey? Here's why you'll want to try a vegan Thanksgiving this year - USA TODAY [Last Updated On: August 18th, 2024] [Originally Added On: December 3rd, 2019]
- A 9-year-old vegan challenged Trump to give up animal products for 30 days and 'make America healthy again' - INSIDER [Last Updated On: August 18th, 2024] [Originally Added On: December 3rd, 2019]
- London named the most vegan-friendly city in the world - CNBC [Last Updated On: August 18th, 2024] [Originally Added On: December 3rd, 2019]
- Veganism won't save the world from environmental ruin, researchers warn - New York Post [Last Updated On: August 18th, 2024] [Originally Added On: December 3rd, 2019]
- For a vegan diet to be healthy and complete, you really need to understand your food - ABC News [Last Updated On: August 18th, 2024] [Originally Added On: December 4th, 2019]
- Deep and crisp and vegan: now meat-free festive fare goes exotic - The Guardian [Last Updated On: August 18th, 2024] [Originally Added On: December 9th, 2019]
- French women breaking down the final frontier in veganism - Euronews [Last Updated On: August 18th, 2024] [Originally Added On: December 9th, 2019]
- How Fans Are Handling Their Favorite Influencer Going From Vegan To An All-Carnivore Diet - BuzzFeed News [Last Updated On: August 18th, 2024] [Originally Added On: December 9th, 2019]
- Its Time to End the Vegan Tax - LIVEKINDLY [Last Updated On: August 18th, 2024] [Originally Added On: December 10th, 2019]
- Vegan, 48, says people think she's in her 20s 'all thanks to plant-based diet' - Mirror Online [Last Updated On: August 18th, 2024] [Originally Added On: December 12th, 2019]
- The real winner in the growth of veganism is capitalism - Scroll.in [Last Updated On: August 18th, 2024] [Originally Added On: December 12th, 2019]
- Influencers Ditching Veganism is an Overcooked Way of Getting More Clicks - VegNews [Last Updated On: August 18th, 2024] [Originally Added On: December 12th, 2019]
- Green new meal: the unpalatable truth about veganism and climate change - Prospect [Last Updated On: August 18th, 2024] [Originally Added On: December 12th, 2019]
- Top athletes go vegan but experts advise caution - Times of India [Last Updated On: August 18th, 2024] [Originally Added On: December 15th, 2019]
- 'I'm an endurance runner with one kneecap - vegans aren't weak' - Metro.co.uk [Last Updated On: August 18th, 2024] [Originally Added On: December 15th, 2019]
- You can't be a vegan and still eat at Mcdonald's - Metro.co.uk [Last Updated On: August 18th, 2024] [Originally Added On: December 22nd, 2019]
- Vegan diet: One thing to know before converting to veganism - NEWS.com.au [Last Updated On: August 18th, 2024] [Originally Added On: December 22nd, 2019]
- Its boomtime for Veganuary as retailers rush to join the trend - The Guardian [Last Updated On: August 18th, 2024] [Originally Added On: December 22nd, 2019]
- The biggest health and wellness trends of 2019, from veganism to keto diets - USA TODAY [Last Updated On: August 18th, 2024] [Originally Added On: December 22nd, 2019]
- Vegan athletes are increasing, but does a plant-based diet improve athleticism? - ABC News [Last Updated On: August 18th, 2024] [Originally Added On: December 28th, 2019]
- 23,000 People Rank Vegan Food In UK: Best Pizza, Cheese, Sausages And More Revealed - Plant Based News [Last Updated On: August 18th, 2024] [Originally Added On: December 28th, 2019]
- How to be a 'sustainable' vegan - Wicked Leeks [Last Updated On: August 18th, 2024] [Originally Added On: December 28th, 2019]
- Vegan myths: the most common misconceptions about the diet - Her.ie [Last Updated On: August 18th, 2024] [Originally Added On: December 28th, 2019]
- Starbucks to Add New Vegan Items to Its Menu, But Theres a Catch - SheKnows [Last Updated On: August 18th, 2024] [Originally Added On: December 28th, 2019]
- Jewish veganism is worthy of study | Opinion - Jewish News of Greater Phoenix [Last Updated On: August 18th, 2024] [Originally Added On: December 28th, 2019]
- Vegan influencer is now a hunter-gatherer teaching people to kill animals - New York Post [Last Updated On: August 18th, 2024] [Originally Added On: December 28th, 2019]
- Is pasta vegan? Everything you need to know for Veganuary - Heart [Last Updated On: August 18th, 2024] [Originally Added On: January 5th, 2020]
- Do you love a vegan? Study claims 62 per cent of people don't think veganism is attractive trait in a partner - Gloucestershire Live [Last Updated On: August 18th, 2024] [Originally Added On: January 5th, 2020]
- Court To Decide Whether Veganism Is Protected Like Religion Under The Law - The Daily Wire [Last Updated On: August 18th, 2024] [Originally Added On: January 5th, 2020]
- Top five fitness podcasts spanning vegan eating tips, running advice and training guides - inews [Last Updated On: August 18th, 2024] [Originally Added On: January 5th, 2020]
- Waitrose Doubles Vegan Range to 120 Products - vegconomist - the vegan business magazine [Last Updated On: August 18th, 2024] [Originally Added On: January 5th, 2020]
- After tribunal's ethical veganism ruling, what is a protected belief? - The Guardian [Last Updated On: August 18th, 2024] [Originally Added On: January 5th, 2020]
- Could the Economic Disaster Turn Meat-Loving Argentines Vegan? - OZY [Last Updated On: August 18th, 2024] [Originally Added On: January 5th, 2020]
- Ethical veganism is a 'philosophical belief' and should have protected status, employment tribunal rules - inews [Last Updated On: August 18th, 2024] [Originally Added On: January 5th, 2020]
- Your Most-Loved Vegan Stories of 2019 - LIVEKINDLY [Last Updated On: August 18th, 2024] [Originally Added On: January 5th, 2020]
- Is veganism as good for you as they say? - The Guardian [Last Updated On: August 18th, 2024] [Originally Added On: January 5th, 2020]
- Ethical Veganism Is a Philosophical Belief, British Court Rules - The New York Times [Last Updated On: August 18th, 2024] [Originally Added On: January 5th, 2020]
- 33 vegan fast food options - Medical News Today [Last Updated On: August 18th, 2024] [Originally Added On: January 5th, 2020]
- Veganuary: Will going vegan really save the planet? - The Independent [Last Updated On: August 18th, 2024] [Originally Added On: January 7th, 2020]
- Vegans 'reduce diabetes and heart risks' - The Ecologist [Last Updated On: August 18th, 2024] [Originally Added On: January 7th, 2020]