lördag 10 maj 2014

Conversations with people about why it is wrong to consume animal foods

I usually try to talk to people about how wrong it is to exploit animals for food, clothes, entertainment, etc. I say that we can live and thrive on a vegan diet, so when you harm and kill an animal for foods is totally unnecessary. You can’t justify harming and killing an animal just to get some temporary pleasure or out of convenience. If animals are persons, if animals matter morally, you can’t justify this.

People usually don’t come to this conclusions without any help. Usually there is some person/some persons who is vegan/who are vegans who say things that make them realize that they don’t need to and that it is not justified to exploit animals for food, and to harm animals in other ways.

Here are some conversations I had this week. We will plant a little less than ¼ of an acre (750 m^2) with food this year. Since we didn’t not about and started ‘no till’-gardening this autumn, we unfortunately have to use a rototiller this year. I say unfortunately because of that it uses some fossil fuels and will harm more insects in the ground; but the alternative to buy vegetables in the supermarket from monocultures that kill bugs with pesticides or through other means, and are very destructive for the environment [1], and thus for human and nonhuman animals. Since we don’t have any car (if I can avoid it I will never buy a car), the person and his wife selling the rototiller came to our house. We started talking about my gardening and I mentioned that we only eat vegetables, fruits, etc.; and that we don’t eat any meat, dairy products, eggs, honey, or anything else that comes from animals. He said: ‘So you are vegetarians’? I explained what happens to the dairy cows, how they are killed when they are 5 years old. I explained how all animals want to live and that no one animal wants to suffer and how all the production of animal foods involve suffering and death. I explained that we can live a life that doesn’t harm animals.  We had a friendly talk and in the end I gave them an Abolitionist Approach-flier in polish. He and his wife are from Poland. She didn’t know that much Norwegian. His wife asked if we eat fish and I said no, and explained how fish are like all other animals in that they don’t want to suffer and want to live; and the suffering that they endure when someone kills them.

Another conversation was in the food store. The person registering the foods is from Turkey and he doesn’t know Norwegian that well. I talked with him earlier in the week and had a hard time talking about veganism with him due to the language barrier. I brought an Abolitionist Approach-flier in Turkish and handed it to him. While packing the foods there was a family of one mother and her two daughters also packing their food. I was having an inner struggle with myself of starting to talk with them. I thought about the animals, and then I started. I held a flier and said: Do you want to read? I said: It is about animals. It is about that we can live a life that doesn’t harm and kill animals. The production of meat, fish, dairy products and eggs all involve harming and killing animals. E.g. the cows used for dairy are killed when they are 5 years old. We can live a healthy life without these products. We can consume vegetables. One of the girls said: ‘But you need milk’. I said: You can get calcium from vegetables. There is more information in the flier.

They seemed interested. The mom took the flier and said she would read it.
I also had more good conversations this week, put many fliers in mailboxes, but I don’t want to make this post to long :) If you think it is hard to share with others of how they can live a life free of animal exploitation, think about the animals, the hardship and exploitation they go through, and how your words can rescue them from being exploited. And then out of compassion and love for the animals, take the courage and speak out.

#tavschallenge #vegan
1. Learn more: http://bloganders.blogspot.no/2014/04/vision-for-nonviolent-vegan.html

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