I mean, I really don't get it. While reading through my beloved Countryside magazine tonight, I came across an article written by a vegan. She was very happy that they juiced carrots and used olive oil lamps in winter to save the environment.
HUH? Unless you live next door to an olive grove, where do you think the oil comes from? Where do you think the electricity comes from that you use to juice? So I went to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vegan to see what this was all about.
After reading the article, I REALLY don't understand why vegans won't eat eggs or drink milk or wear wool sweaters. I can completely understand the idea of opting out of commercial production (heck, I'm doing that myself) but why don't they just look up their local farmer who DOESN'T run a CAFO? I'm not exploiting my chickens . . .laying eggs happens whether I eat them or not. Sheep grow wool. Does it hurt them to be shorn? Nope.
So we have all these people who are eating cheese or meat "alternatives." Gosh, a lot of them are made from SOY. Roundup Ready? You betcha. How much gas or energy does it take to make that soyburger or your soy milk? How much more pollution is belched into the air to get it to you?
Then there's this to think about: plants scream when you cut or uproot them. http://www.unexplained-mysteries.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=772
Then there's the bit (in my mind) that really stands out. If you scroll down the Wikipedia article, you'll see him with two dogs . . .that I'm sure he refers to as "his" dogs (thereby refuting his own statement).
Gary L. Francione, professor of law at Rutgers School of Law-Newark, is also a rights-theorist. He argues that "all sentient beings should have at least one right—the right not to be treated as property,"
It really seems to me that the vegan movement is a result of misinformation and laziness. Sure, if you don't CHOOSE to eat meat, that's your right, and I'm not going to stomp on you about it. However, if you think you're doing it to save the environment or save those poor CAFO animals, there are other avenues open to you that would be much more beneficial.
If anyone can explain this to me, PLEASE do so. I just don't get it.
Great question, Shana. The answer is that some people refuse to live in Realville, doing what seems good and right on a matter without thinking it through. What they do makes them feel good. No matter that it doesn't actually "save the planet". It's their feelings that matter. They apply the same logic to electric cars. Clean energy, right? But they don't stop to consider what it takes to get electricity to their cars. Coal anyone?
ReplyDeleteyou bet. Just because it "feels good" doesn't mean it IS good. Getting the rural perspective has really made me examine lots of things.
DeleteLike many things in this post modern world of ours, it has nothing to do with what is actually 'healthy', but rather what is trendy. Going Green, and all that rot. When most things labelled as 'green' definitely are NOT> No, that compact fluorescent light bulb loaded with mercury, isn't green, Mildred. When I drop an incandescent bulb, I don't need a hazmat crew to clean it up. :P
ReplyDeleteAnd soy. Ye gods. Talk about the literal industrial waste filth of the planet. And people actually EAT that stuff? If anyone did 10 minutes of research on what soy is, what it does, and how it originally entered our food supply, they'd never touch it again.
Soy is meant to be eaten ONLY when it is naturally fermented, and only in small quantities, such as with REAL traditionally made soy sauce.
I don't have a problem with tofu (after all, it's great with some miso or chicken broth!) but I DO have a problem with subsidized grains: corn and soy particularly. When you think you need GMO's to feed the world, then I have a problem with YOU.
DeleteI also have a problem with greenies . . .completely agree with you about the light bulbs! Electric cars? Where do you think that electricity comes from? I see nothing wrong with recycling, sending food scraps to chickens or compost (not the landfill), and conserving resources. Still, to FORCE me to do it just isn't right.
I choose to opt out of factory farm raised meat and produce. If we allow the czars to continue, none of us will be able to opt out. After all, they've already told us that we're too stupid to choose what we can eat.
My sister is an animals rights activist & a vegan - has been for what 10 years, & I can't explain it to you or understand it because it still makes no sense to me - at all.
ReplyDeleteI tend to think they are a little crazy, it's like a click or some movement they get caught up in. She actually tried to tell us she wouldn't eat an egg because the embryo it would be like eating a baby chick - well if it ain't fertilized duh. So then it was because it came from an animals body.
I dunno to each their own but I think it's just stupid and soy is just plain scary!