Dialogue

I received an email a few days ago from someone who had bought my book "The Accidental Vegan," and was deeply disturbed that my introduction focused on the dietary and environmental reasons for choosing a vegan diet, but didn't mention anything about animal rights.

My first thought was that I shouldn't even engage because it probably wouldn't be productive; my second thought was that if I couldn't at least make an effort to dialogue then I'm not who I want to think I am. So I sent a polite email explaining that my book is targeted towards people who know they should eat more plant-based foods but are ambivalent about making the change and, while I believe factory farming is horrific and should be outlawed, I do think it's possible to raise animals for meat without being cruel to them. She politely responded that there's no possible justification for murdering an animal simply to justify a taste for a particular food. Here's a link to the review she posted on Amazon.

The experience has gotten me thinking about why I don't think it's wrong to eat animals, provided they haven't been badly treaten in the process (and I am fully aware of the argument that killing animals for food, any way it's done, constitutes treating the animal badly.) I do think that meat eating has played a fundamental role in our history and culture. I know that war has played a fundamental role in our history and culture as well, but my gut tells me that war is wrong while my gut doesn't tell me the same thing about eating meat (no pun intended.)

Although vegetarian activists point to the length of our intestines-- similar to that of herbivores--as evidence that we haven't evolved to eat meat, there have been periods in our evolutionary history when an increase in our meat consumption corresponded with profound developments in our brains and our cultures. Homo habilis, who walked the earth roughly two million years ago, was the first of our ancestors to eat meat on a regular basis--mostly small animals and scavenged carcasses--and this change in diet corresponded to the first significant increase in the size of our brains. I wouldn't venture a cause and effect relationship, but I'm intrigued by the correlation. Then, about fifty thousand years ago, humans developed the skills and technologies to begin hunting large mammals, and this development led to the earliest sophisticated art, clothing, and constructed shelter.

I understand that some people think that killing animals for food represents a lack of respect for life, but I feel that a real respect for life involves seeing life as it really is, and embracing it anyway. Death is part of life. One day last year I was walking down the street when I saw a vegan friend of mine walking towards me. She gestured for me to be quiet, and pointed to a spot right near us where a crow was dismantling a smaller bird. When I reached her she whispered, "He just took out the eyes!" I was blown away by the fact that, as a vegan, she was still awed and fascinated by the sight of this animal being killed for food, and I told her so.

Here's a link to a terrific post by Bob at Stonybrook Farm, in which he poignantly, sensitively describes taking one of his favorite lambs to the slaughterhouse.

The woman who sent me the email will never convince me that all meat eating is murder, just as I will never convince her that it's possible for a farmer to care about their animals and still kill them for meat. But, at the very least, it's important for us to be civil to each other.

Dialogue anyone?