It’s not about dualism. It’s not about tryng to deny our human nature because we see it as somehow “evil”. I know no vegans who feel this way. With a few exceptions, we all agree that we are omnivores ( not carnivores, by the way). We have evolved to be able to eat BOTH plants and animals. But that does that in any way mean that we MUST eat animals in order to survive and be well. We can survive and thrive on a plant-based diet. That is a fact. Meat is unnecessary. So appeals to nature, assertions that eating meat is natural are nothing more than logical fallacies. It doesn’t matter whether it is “natural” or not. The question is whether it is ethical. And in order to answer this question, we need to ask ourselves whether it is justifiable. And to answer this question we must ask “is it necessary”? And we know the answer: for most of those of us who live in the “developed” world, who have easy access to a variety of plant foods, we can get an abundance of every macro- and micronutrient we need from a plant- based diet.

Therefore, to deliberately cause unnecessary suffering is, in my opinion, unjustifiable. After all, that is how we feel in regard to other humans. The only reason why most people donorgive annals the same consideration is the prejudice called “speciesism.”. When we take off the filter of speciesism, we see that there is no logical reason for excluding other sentient beings from such consideration.

Veganism is not some irrational, faith-based dogma. It is a reasonable conclusion. Please do not trivialze it by comparing it to Gnosticism. Recall that Gnostics were not just vegetarians. They also shunned sex, marriage and a whole host of other worldly delights because they viewed the material world as being the product of Satanael. The more hard-core one becomes as a vegan, the further away one finds oneself from the Gnostic worldview.

Let me reiterate that just because something is natural, that does not make it good. After all, rape is natural. It happens all the time. Does that make it good? No. Because questions of ethics are questions concerning the wellbeing and suffering of sentient beings ( beings capable of feeling and suffering).

Sometimes we cause suffering accidentally. Sometimes it is necessary for us to kill animals (and humans, for that matter). Carnivores MUST kill in order to survive. Nobody is saying the lions are being unethical. However, when we make the deliberate choice to unnecessarily cause suffering or death, I cannot see how that can be justified. Can you?

Thanks for showing me I’m not crazy! nice blog.

Thanks for your insight on this. I’ve been trying to break this issue down for a while. There are so many different facets to it (health, nutrition, animal rights, nature, environmentalism, etc.) that I sometimes get overwhelmed within the arguments.

A recent experience of mine while living on a farm in St. Croix was interesting — The lone vegan on the farm refused to witness, or even listen to discussions about the necessary animal harvesting that took place (mostly rabbits). And she would often get angry if I mentioned how I killed a mongoose that was trying to eat our eggs and kill our chickens. She thought I should take the mongoose across the island and set it free in the wild. But I know that she would have been fine just remaining ignorant of the situation, while mongoose ate all of our eggs. I never knew what to say to her.

I was reminded of this while reading the short passage from your upcoming book (I’m excited!) on Englewood Review of Books, about a farm being “a tenuous patch of domestication in the midst of a wild landscape. Nature creeps in always and can only be managed, never controlled.”

Sorry for the aimless ramble. Keep writing! I’m reading….

This kind of gnosticism could apply to some forms of environmentalism. When humans are expected to have no impact on their environment, to leave it exactly as they found it, it is implied that our species has no legitimate role in the ecosystem. Humans, the gnostic environmentalists suggest, have the responsibility to manage ecosystems and prevent species from going extinct, yet they string the human right to exist with provisos. Every squirrel and hickory is allotted its rightful share of air, water, sunlight, and food, but the human is a stranger who must only borrow or steal. We must pass through this planet like ghosts, scorning the needs of the flesh. Their earth has no place for Homo sapiens beyond the boundaries of the Great Rift Valley. Man the Farmer is a mild abomination. Man the City-Builder, the flower of civilization? They will not pollute their minds with such a concept.

My subjective experience would suggest that these kinds of environmentalists are becoming fewer. No school of thought can last for long by teaching that life on earth is impractical.

The exchange between Bourdain and Foer sounds like my conversations with my vegetarian brother. When he tells me that human morality allows us to understand that just as killing and eating my cat would be wrong, killing and eating a pig is just as bad. I counter that he would be horrified if someone needlessly cut down a tree he had loved and played in as a child, yet he has no moral objection to timber per se. It’s not his inherent moral right not to be eaten but my guarantee of protection that keeps my cat out of the Crock-Pot. No creature, even a human, has the moral right not to become a predator’s dinner. 

Notice how we react to predators. If there’s a tiger in the jungle hunting humans, we can call it a danger, we can even hunt it down and kill it with a clean conscience, but we can’t call it evil without feeling just a little silly. If a safari guide gets killed by a lion, we call it a tragedy, not an injustice. If we acknowledge that a jungle cat has the right to kill, even if it’s killing us, with only minimal expectations of humaneness, how can we deny ourselves the right to hunt in the most humane way possible–by using all our wits to provide our prey with comfortable, happy lives and quick, painless deaths?

If you’d be interested, I would like to feature this post on our upcoming blogazine at SustainableTraditions.com (with a link back here and credit to you as the author).

I found your blog through talking with Christ Smith at The Englewood Review of Books.

-shalom!
Jason Fowler