Ok, I haven’t posted in a while, and I’m sad to say that I’ve strayed from my vegetarian ways but I am still committed to maintaining this lifestyle. In my defence, I had reservations at the Herbfarm and while I did eat fish and eggs, I did not have the squab or the pork (come on, it was THE HERBFARM, look it up, it’s a phenomenal restaurant). I had made the reservations just as I was making my decision to become vegetarian and at the time, I had been open to eating fish and eggs. The good thing about falling off the bandwagon was that it made me think hard about my reasons for becoming vegetarian and critically examine my thoughts on the ethics/morality of eating animals.
Becoming a vegetarian became sort of a no brainer for me once I learned the truth of where the majority of our meat comes from. I’m not really going to go into it here, there is enough material readily available that anybody with any interest in the issue can easily find. I’m lactose intolerant also, so I had already cut out milk long ago and while I’m more tolerant of cheese, there’s tons of fat and sodium and bad stuff in cheese enough that I felt good in terms of my health when I decided to let all dairy products go. Same for eggs. I love eggs, but surprisingly the last time I had my cholesterol checked, it was a bit high so again, no brainer to give up eggs which can be high in cholesterol. After that, it was only a short step to make the decision to become vegan. Notice that for the majority, my decision to become a vegan is more about my health and personal preference than any real conviction against eating meat.
So that brings me to the question: Can eating animals really ever be ethical? Even if we treat our farm animals as we would our pets, in the end, we are taking their lives. We do kill them and no matter how humanely we do it, we are still ending a life which, no matter how you look at it, really isn’t in the best interest of the animal itself. I still struggle with this question. We live close to PCC which has certified humane locally grown eggs. So would it be ok to eat those eggs? If I don’t eat eggs, is it because it is wrong to eat an animal product because it is an embryo that could be a chicken? Or is it wrong to eat the eggs because we have to “enslave” a hen in the process of producing those eggs? If it is the former, then what would be my stance on abortion?
Just some of the thoughts that run through my mind everyday when I am confronted with people asking my just exactly why I am doing this. And honestly, unlike a lot of vegetarians or vegans, I honestly don’t really know. I have to admit, I tend to follow the fads when it comes to diet: I did the low carb, high protein thing, I’ve done the all organic thing, the eat local only thing, the eat nothing because your naturopath told you you’re allergic to everything thing, so I think part of it is I like to mess around with my diet, restrict it and kind of just see how it feels and how it fits.
I’m still wavering on whether or not eating animals is ethically ok. Certainly, I think that eating factory farmed animals is NOT. I really don’t think that anybody can disagree with the fact that it is not ok to treat animals in the way these factory farms do, and honestly if you’re eating it, you’re basically saying it’s ok to torture animals needlessly (seriously, a lot of the horrible treatment that these animals go through can’t even be explained by the shitty excuse that it has something to do with cost, it is purely sadistic treatment for the sake of causing pain to another living being).
I guess this is why I’m doing this blog. I’m working through the process of becoming a vegetarian and exploring what eating, and more specifically eating animals means to me. I would love to hear people’s own opinions on vegetarianism vs. veganism vs. omnivorism so comment, comment, comment! And please follow me. I only have 1 follower and that’s kinda sad.
