Is Vegan Eating Really That Ethical?
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The vegan and healthy eating movements shouldn’t feel too ethically and environmentally smug about their meat-free food choices. These too come with a cost to others.
Ethical Eating
A vegan diet is not for me, but I’m perfectly ok with those following it, if that’s what rocks their boat.
What I can’t stand is if these people feel ethically and in all things environment superior to those that feed themselves in the omnivorous way of things.
If you happen to eat a steak in the vicinity of a vegan, chances are you invited yourself to a lengthy treatment about the cruel conditions livestock suffer from and how one pound of beef wastes so many resources and hurts the environment, while produce could feed so many more.
Yes, that steak I’m eating was once a living, breathing organism, very much capable of feeling pain. Anyone having pets and eating meat is essentially putting animals in superficial categories: those to be adored and those to be eaten.
Pigs likely are more intelligent than cats, but to their disdain can’t meow as cutely and lack the soft fur. Petting the one and eating the other is a cultural concept that today carries no logic; I grant animal rights activists that criticism without a doubt.
But even if for yourself you solved this ethical dilemma by saying no to meat and animal products in general, there is a cost. There is no such thing as a free lunch – that beaten expression seldom fit better.
The Unethical Quinoa
Case in point: quinoa, the grain native to South America, very nutritious and coming with an ample helping of protein.
In the usual vegan diet protein is often hard to come by, making quinoa a favorite of many vegan bodybuilders and weightlifters. It’s also becoming more and more popular among those who still eat meat, but assigned themselves to the healthy eating movement. In the latter, the case of superiority complex is usually not as bad as in many vegans, but nonetheless they often are the kind of individual who will look down upon if you dare to buy some Cheese Whiz and chips at the supermarket.
While these two groups are sitting at their kitchen tables, munching their organic quinoa banana bread and congratulating themselves to their environmentally safe food choices that animals didn’t have to be hurt for, a good number of Peruvians and Bolivians are sitting at their kitchen tables, too. But they are wondering what to eat, because due to the increased demand, they can’t afford to buy anymore what used to be the main staple of their diets.
Resources Aren’t Endless
It is a fallacy to assume that certain choices don’t come with a grand total because they look better. Their cost may be smaller, as they involve less waste, but in a world where resources aren’t endless, some of them still had to be shifted to accommodate you.
Picture courtesy of Gloria Cabada-Leman.
12 Comments
Pretty good article. I’d take issue with the logic aspect regarding the consumption of animals–you can well have a pet pig, and still eat pork. There’s no logical conundrum there, you simply have elevated your pet to an artificial status for whatever reason you deem reasonable.
It’s only a logical dilemma if one considers that some or all animals have rights equal to or approaching the rights we grant ourselves.
Pigs are more popular to consume than cats simply because they taste better, contain far more edible meat, and are far easier to domesticate for consumption. It’s not just that they’re not as cute as other animals.
But at the end of the day, you are spot on in your premise. The moral air of superiority that is exuded by some vegans is definitely misplaced. That’s in line with pretty much any other feeling of moral superiority–we often like to think we have cornered the market on it, when usually all we’ve done is blinded ourselves to the whole picture.
I have to admit, I never weighed the relative amount of meat on a cat to that on a pig – I sure hope my cats won’t be reading this 😉
Seriously, you of course are right. It would do many of us good to stay a bit more humble.
My diet can be described as vegan with seafood.
I eat this way because I feel it is a very healthy way to eat. Over time it has affected my ethical view of the world, for the better I believe.
I do think, however, that you are content with living this way without feeling superior to anyone due to it.
I really believe that people are entitled to peacefully live the life they choose unless they are directly hurting others.
If there is a creator, everything on the planet would be seen as equal. Perhaps different, but still equal.
I was a vegetarian for over a decade (and happened to be overweight for most of that time period). I started eating meat because as I lost the weight and started running, I found myself craving a juicy steak. Like in a crazy frenzy craving!
I’m now a full-fledged meat eater. I eat everything. And while I still struggle with the ethical stuff regarding eating meat, I feel so much better and healthier eating meat. I wish that the hardcore vegans who do get preachy about it would realize that some of us meat eaters ARE struggling with the ethics of it–it just happens to be the diet that works best for my body.
That is what I sometimes find disturbing in the vegan point of view: that the animal is regarded higher than the human. I know a couple of vegans who would tell to just live with your problem.
yep first they start preaching about how natural is being a vegan , then they have a diet that rely heavily on food that’s don’t grow in their current location ( first world 99% of time )
Yes, I believe that does the environment a greater disservice that eating food that was locally grown.
Evil Cyber, you know the wrong vegans. All vegans do not think the way you describe. All vegans are not in it for the glorification of animals over humans.
Find some more vegans who aren’t militant animal fetishists. Like me.
Hey Sparky, you certainly seem friendlier than many vegans I met 🙂
I try to be understanding of others’ choices. In fact, I wrote a whole blog post about this. Sometimes vegans aren’t that nice to each other, either. It’s weird.
http://sparkyfirepants.com/vegan/youre-doing-it-wrong/