Happy new vegan year - free of violence, suffering and discrimination

Happy new year to all of you!!!! May you have a wonderful 2014!


I wish that this year will be a year where everyone decides to not be a part of any discrimination and violence. That we stand up against all discrimination based on sex, sexual orientation, color, age, species, etc! [more info: note 0]  <3




I wish that we decide to use our time to fight against and alleviate the poverty, starvation, violence and discrimination in this world; that we help the orphans of this world, support foster homes, and consider to adopt people, and animals from animal shelters if we have the opportunity. A year were we don’t support the slavery and injustices of the cocoa industry [see note 1], and other slave work that is so common in the production of commodities in the Third world.




A year where we don’t exacerbate the poverty, starvation, injustices, environmental destruction involved in/exacerbated by the production and consumption of animal foods, which involves breeding up, using, unnecessarily harming and killing animals for food; and giving them feed that could have been used to feed starving people; while taking their land, driving them out of their homes and growing feed and raising “cattle” on land that could have been used to feed the indigenous population [2]. The feed that feeds the animals only in USA could be used to feed 800 million people. At the same time several million people die of starvation and 870 million suffering from chronic undernourishment [4]. And we have no nutritional need for this (see below).




More than 56 billion land animals and more than 1000 billion marine animals are harmed and killed all around the world. 1 billion is 1000 million. These animals are harmed and killed for meat, fish, milk and eggs. Is this enormous amount of suffering and killing necessary?


Even extremly conservative health organizations, including American Dietic Association, claim that we can live a life of optimal health on a well planned vegan diet. Thus we have a choice when we stand in the food store: Either we can choose to get all our nutrition from meat (including fish), milk, eggs and other animal foods, or we can choose to get our nutrition by consuming vegetables, fruits, legumes, nuts and other plant foods, i.e. a vegan diet.




We don’t need to consume animal foods for our survival. The production of animal foods inevitably involves that animals are harmed and/or killed. And the pleasure of meat, milk and eggs, or that it is more practical/socially accepted to consume these/peer pressure are no valid justifications for this unnecessary harm and death. Even a more “humane breeding and slaughter”/”ecological eggs”/”ecological milk” involves unnecessary suffering and death, and thus that is not a solution if we claim that animals have a moral value, and we think that their interest of not suffering and their interest of being a live are more important than our trivial reasons for consuming animal foods. Professor of law Gary Francione and Anna Charlton answers this and 29 other common excuses to consume animal foods in the book Eat like you Care [5].




We can live in a world without news articles describing suffering people and suffering nonhuman animals, and in a world without people and animals suffering in silence. But this requires that we stop using people and nonhuman animals as commodities, and stop paying for a production that involves their suffering. If we want to change the world, we have to start with ourselves. If you want to change the world, and start living according to your own moral values, you can easily do this (if you haven't already): opt out of all unnecessary suffering, discrimination and violence towards animals by going vegan; and opt out of all other discrimination and all violence.


Solution:

Vision for nonviolent vegan permaculture-community promoting veganism and human rights

More articles opposing all discrimination:

“That’s Racist Against White People!” A Discussion on Power and Privilege


0. See first paragraphs: http://www.abolitionistapproach.com/some-thoughts-on-the-abolitionist-approach/#.UsNBH7SwUX0
1. http://topdocumentaryfilms.com/dark-side-chocolate/
2. References found in the end of this article: http://bloganders.blogspot.se/2013/11/human-rights-and-animal-rights-against.html
3. http://news.cornell.edu/stories/1997/08/us-could-feed-800-million-people-grain-livestock-eat
4. http://www.worldhunger.org/articles/Learn/world%20hunger%20facts%202002.htm
5. www.eatlikeyoucarebook.com

Reply to non-vegan: I transition only to veganism if there are delicious meat-alternatives

My reply:
Dr. Neal Barnard's Book for Reversing Diabetes: “You will find that your taste buds have a memory of about 3 weeks.”

There are plenty of delicious recipes here:
http://www.drmcdougall.com/newsletter/recipeindex.html

I noticed this anecdotally myself when starting to eat a vegan diet last autumn, and I have many others saying the same.

Please consider this:
"On one hand, we claim to regard animals as members of the moral community. We claim to embrace a moral and legal obligation not to inflict “unnecessary” suffering or death on animals. We can, of course, debate the meaning of “necessity,” but whatever it means, it must rule out suffering and death imposed for reasons of human pleasure, amusement, or convenience. If it does not do so, then the exception would completely swallow the moral rule.
The problem is that 99.99% of our animal use cannot be justified by anything but human pleasure, amusement, or convenience. For example, we kill more than 12 billion land animals every year in the United States alone for food. No one maintains that it is necessary to eat animals to lead an optimally healthy lifestyle and an increasing number of mainstream health care professionals tell us that animal foods are detrimental to our health. Animal agriculture is a disaster for the environment because it involves a most inefficient use of natural resources and creates water pollution, soil erosion, and greenhouse gasses. The only justification that we have for the pain, suffering, and death that we impose on these billions of animals is that we enjoy eating animal foods, or that it is convenient to do so, or that it is just plain habit."
http://cup.columbia.edu/static/interview-gary-francione

Veganism is our moral obligation. I also recommend http://www.facebook.com/abolitionistapproach
Even if a vegan diet was boring, which isn't the case, this wouldn't suffice as a moral justification for harming and killing animals. There is no moral justification for harming and killing animals for pleasure/convenience.

Reply to counter-argument: 'Humans are omnivores and thus it is moral to consume meat'

An omnivore does not get health problems from consuming animal foods.
Humans do.
Please study the research behind this movie: www.adelicatebalance.com.au/
Some of it:
http://www.thechinastudy.com/the-china-study/about/


Animal Foods are unhealthy (includes References to peer-reviewed studies):
http://nutritionfacts.org/video/uprooting-the-leading-causes-of-death/
http://nutritionfacts.org/video/more-than-an-apple-a-day-preventing-our-most-common-diseases/




And even if we could consume animal foods without getting health problems, so what???

“It is the position of the American Dietetic Association that appropriately planned vegetarian diets, including total vegetarian or vegan diets, are healthful, nutritionally adequate, and may provide health benefits in the prevention and treatment of certain diseases. Well-planned vegetarian diets are appropriate for individuals during all stages of the life cycle, including pregnancy, lactation, infancy, childhood, and adolescence, and for athletes.” — Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics (formerly the American Dietetic Association)


We can live and thrive on a vegan diet, so killing and harming animals for food in our society is completely unnecessary. The only "justification" is that it tastes good/convenience -- and pleasure is no moral justification for hurting and killing an animal. I recommend you to study this article : http://articles.philly.com/2009-08-14/news/24986151_1_atlanta-falcons-quarterback-vick-illegal-dog-dog-fights

More answers to common Counter-arguments you will find here: http://www.abolitionistapproach.com/faqs/#.UfTXK237aQI

and http://www.eatlikeyoucarebook.com/

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Do you think it’s wrong to inflict unnecessary suffering and death on animals?  Of course you do.

Here’s the problem:  at least 99.99% of animal use, which results in the suffering and death of animals, is unnecessary!  At least 99.99% of  animal use is for food, but humans can easily get their nutrition from plants.

“It is the position of the American Dietetic Association that appropriately planned vegetarian diets, including total vegetarian or vegan diets, are healthful, nutritionally adequate, and may provide health benefits in the prevention and treatment of certain diseases. Well-planned vegetarian diets are appropriate for individuals during all stages of the life cycle, including pregnancy, lactation, infancy, childhood, and adolescence, and for athletes.” — Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics (formerly the American Dietetic Association)

We kill 56 billion land-animals per year, more than 1000 billion marine animals mostly for food. And, as you can imagine, the process of turning living, breathing, feeling animals into “products” is horrifically violent.

Typically, people think the way to respect animals is to adopt a vegetarian diet (no flesh/meat) because they think animals used for eggs and dairy products are not killed.  Or they think they should purchase “humane” animal products like cage-free eggs.  But those are misconceptions because they still cause unnecessary suffering and death.http://abolitionistvegansociety.org/tavs-initiatives/tavs-articles/why-veganism/#.UfTCjm37aQI

Why painlessly killing an animal for food harms an animal and is unethical

Why painlessly killing an animal for food harms an animal and is unethical.
Quote by Gary Francione:
Third, as a philosophical matter, this question assumes that if we were able to use animals without making them suffer, our painlessly killing an animal does not, in itself, amount to harming the animal. This is in marked contrast to how we think about humans. Yes, suffering is bad, but we view death, even a painless one, as a bad thing. We humans have an interest in continuing to live. Death frustrates that interest, which is separate from an interest in not suffering. We don’t want to suffer; we also don’t want to die. Animals, many say, don’t want to suffer but they don’t care about dying unless the act of killing involves suffering; it is the suffering that is a problem for the animal, not the killing. This idea, in one form or another , has been around for hundreds of years.

The moral intuition that we now all accept that animals matter morally, but less than humans, and that we can use animals when it is necessary to do so as long as we minimize suffering , was an idea that emerged in the 19th century. It assumed that it was acceptable to use animals when necessary because, unlike humans, they are not self-aware and have no interest in continuing to live; that is, they do not prefer, or desire, or want to remain alive. That idea, which most certainly makes us feel better about killing animals for food, was crazy in the 19th century. It is crazy now. To say that a ny sentient being is not harmed by death is most peculiar. Sentience is not a characteristic that has evolved to serve as an end in itself. Rather, it is a trait that allows beings to identify situations that are harmful and that threaten survival. Sentience is a means to the end of continued existence.

Sentient beings, by virtue of their being sentient, have an interest in remaining alive; that is, they prefer, want, or desire to remain alive. To say that a sentient being is not harmed by death denies that the being has the very interest that sentience serves to perpetuate. It would be analogous to saying that a being with eyes does not have an interest in continuing to see or is not harmed by being made blind. The Jains of India expressed it well long ago: “All beings are fond of life, like pleasure, hate pain, shun destruction, like life, long to live. To all life is dear.” [30] The notion that animals are not self-aware is based on nothing more than a stipulation that the only way to be self-aware is to have the self-awareness of a normal adult human. That is certainly one way to be self-aware. It’s not the only way. As biologist Donald Griffin, one of the most important cognitive ethologists of the twentieth century, noted in his book, Animal Minds, if animals are conscious of anything, “the animal’s own body and its own actions must fall within the scope of its perceptual consciousness.”

We nevertheless deny animals self-awareness because we maintain that they cannot “think such thoughts as ‘It is I who am running, or climbing this tree, or chasing that moth.’” Griffin maintains that “when an animal consciously perceives the running, climbing, or moth-chasing of another animal, it must also be aware of who is doing these things. And if the animal is perceptually conscious of its own body, it is difficult to rule out similar recognition that it, itself, is doing the running, climbing, or chasing.” He concludes that “[ i]f animals are capable of perceptual awareness, denying them some level of self-awareness would seem to be an arbitrary and unjustified restriction.” from that of a normal adult human, but it would not be accurate to say that they are not self-aware or that they are indifferent to death. We see this where humans are involved. If a human is mentally disabled and is not self- aware in the same way that a normal human is, we do not think that such a human is without an interest in life or that death is not a harm to her or him. She or he may be self-aware in a different way than others but is still self-aware in a morally relevant way so that we would regard treating her or him exclusively as a resource, which is how treat nonhuman animals we use for food, as morally wrong. In sum, if a being is sentient— that is, if she is perceptually aware— then she has an interest in continuing to live, and death harms her. It is not necessary to have the autobiographical sense of self that we associate with normal adult humans in order to be self-aware. And a humanlike sense of self-awareness is not necessary to have an interest in continuing to live.

 

Francione, Gary; Charlton, Anna (2013-06-24). Eat Like You Care: An Examination of the Morality of Eating Animals (Kindle Locations 1045-1046). Exempla Press. Kindle Edition.

Why Jewish 'kosher slaughter' is inflicting unnecessary suffering upon animals

 If you watch some video footage of kosher slaughter, you will see that there is a lot of suffering involved there also, see e.g.: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OzaeHfh65hs ; and animals killed ‘kosher’ are also raised up in factory farm-facilities, involving lots of suffering. However “humanely” we treat and kill these animals, the amount of animal suffering we cause is staggering. The animals raised up and slaughtered in ‘kosher’-facitilities don’t want to become killed and exploited by humans. Can’t we respect their desire to live, can’t we show them love and compassion. I became a vegan this autumn, since I don’t think it is ethical to inflict unnecessary suffering and death upon sentient beings who all value their life, friends and family as much as we value our life, friends and family.

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This is a reply to a person writing: Am already eating kosher, sparing 99% of animal species from torture

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I also wrote:
Great that you agree Michael!
"Organic", "free range" and so on. They all end up at the same slaughterhouse. They all go through great amount of suffering. Some more about the hens in the “free range”-industry: http://www.abolitionistapproach.com/no-they-dont-dig-cage-free-eggs/

The question is, is it right to inflict unnecessary suffering upon sentient animals, who don’t want to be killed by us? All killing of animals involve suffering. We can easily live a vegan lifestyle. There are delicious vegan recipes. But most importantly, it is our moral obligation toward the innocent, defenseless animals not to hurt and exploit them for “taste”/convenience.

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Did you know how much suffering that is involved in the production of eggs? In the egg industry all male chicks are ground up alive to death, hens are usually confined, suffer all their life, and eventually they are killed. You can cook a vegan tasty poopy seed lime cake without the suffering of eggs and animal products.

We all claim to care about animals and to regard them as having at least some moral value. We all claim to agree that it’s wrong to inflict “unnecessary” suffering and death on animals and--whatever disagreement we may have about when animal use is necessary—we all agree that the suffering and death of animals cannot be justified by human pleasure, amusement, or convenience. However “humanely” we treat and kill these animals, the amount of animal suffering we cause is staggering. Yet no one maintains that animal foods are necessary for optimal health.

It is wrong to inflict unnecessary suffering and death upon animals, and this we do when we consume animal products.
I recommend this article: http://articles.philly.com/2009-08-14/news/24986151_1_atlanta-falcons-quarterback-vick-illegal-dog-dog-fights and www.vegankit.com

What do you think?

Humans don't eat meat for survival

 Lorr Aine,
Thank you! So glad that it gave you alot to think of and that you will look into it.
It is so wonderful with love, compassion and peace, and the more we extend it to other beings - regardless of whether it is a human, dog, cow, or other animal - the more we also transform the world, and we transform ourselves.

You asked me: "Can I ask a question? If the chips were down, the world was invaded, and the way we live our lives now was a thing of the past.......and the only way for us to survive was to eat animal, would that still be wrong??"
Would you think it was wrong to eat humans in order to survive?
I believe in nonviolence. I wouldn't kill and eat human animals, nor kill and eat nonhuman animals. This is an article I recommend on the topic of nonviolence: http://www.abolitionistapproach.com/a-comment-on-violence/#.UYUj9cqiFI0

But in any instance, even persons who don't believe in this: Our current violence and slavery towards animals is inflicting unnecessary suffering and death upon them; and 99% of our population understand that inflicting unneccessary suffering and death upon animals is morally wrong. I recommend this article discussing this: http://www.abolitionistapproach.com/what-michael-vick-taught-us/

The reason of wars and injustices in our society, is the suffering, death and injustices we cause non-human animals

Lorr Aine,
We are all trying to do our best to live ethical and peaceful lives. And I really value that you love peace!!!

However, our cultural indoctrintion since we were children, has made us lose the understanding of why it is wrong to take another sentient being's life for a taste experience.
If you understood the connection between us inflicting suffering, death, injustices and war against the other non-human animals, also causes war, injustices, and suffering among human animals, you wouldn't eat animal products - since you would understand that it goes against your moral understanding of what is right and wrong.

Cows, dogs, chickens, and other animals they all value their lifes as much as we do.
I have written this before, but I am not sure whether you read it or not:
We are all one, we are all consciousness, we all love, we all feel, we are. If we sow suffering, we reap suffering. We all have a purpose, to serve, to be a light, not to hurt or use (all animal products and the treatment of animals as commodities are hurting animals). I highly recommend World Peace Diet by Will Tuttle, www.worldpeacediet.org . It is a really transformative book!
We need to extend our love and compassion to everyone. Everyone wants to live. If we hurt another being, we hurt ourselves. In order to kill someone, we have to violate this individual's love and wants, we have to crush hopes, destroy a family and friend relationships; We have to sacrifice part of our inner love and compassion; we have to say to ourselves that 'I don't care' in order to take someone's purpose and life. And this has destroyed us, destroyed our society. The reason why people inflict violence and suffering upon others is the lack of empathy and love to others. If we instead would reinforce love and empathy at each meal by living a vegan lifestyle, instead of destroying parts of our love and empathy at each meal by hurting and killing someone for 'convenience' or taste, we would surely attain world peace. As long as we sow violence and wars, our culture will be inflicted with violence, wars and injustice.
Have a wonderful day!! :)
X

Pig hunting and all other hunting and killing is morally wrong

It is morally wrong to inflict unnecessary suffering and pain on wild pigs and all other animals. People who are against pig hunting and people who are against animal abuse, understand that animals have a moral value. They are something more than "commodities".
If we have reached the understanding that animals do have a moral value and that it is morally wrong to cause other beings suffering, then we can also easily understand the importance of stop hunting, stop killing, stop abusing and stop eating and wearing dead animals. Hunting animals or killing them in any other way, or using animals in any other way, inflicts animals suffering.
Why do people take care of dogs, but kill and eat pigs? They are all consciousness, they all have their own purpose, they all value their own life as we value our own life. World Peace Diet by Will Tuttle is a great book covering this.
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People who are against this campaign and people who are against animal abuse, understand that animals have a moral value. They are something more than "commodities".
If we have reached the understanding that animals do have a moral value and that it is morally wrong to cause other beings suffering, then we can also easily understand the importance of going vegan. If one doesn't understand that it is wrong to inflict suffering e.g. on a dog or any other being, one truly has much to learn, and one truly has been heavily indoctrinated by our culture -- just like almost all vegans were before
they made the connection and became vegans. Hunting animals or killing them in any other way, or using animals in any other way, inflicts animals suffering.
Why do people take care of dogs, but kill and eat pigs? They are all consciousness, they all have their own purpose, they all value their own life as we value our own life.

I became a vegan - i.e. I stopped participating in all animal exploitation (including causing animals suffering by my food choices) - this autumn. It is the best decision that I have made. To show love, compassion and nonviolence to individuals of all beings truly transforms ones life. If we want to have true peace, we shouldn't inflict suffering to others. As we sow, so will we reap.

It think this is why everyone should become a vegan:
We should treat others as we want to be treated ourselves
All animals are conscious and they do value life as much as we do.

The following applies to all animals: humans, dogs, cats, cows, etc.:
If we don't want to be killed, we shouldn't kill other being.
If we don't want someone else to steal our family, we shouldn't steal their family.
If we want to find our purpose in this world, we shouldn't steal others purpose.
If we don't want to be exploited and abused, we shouldn't abuse anyone else.
If we don't want to become enslaved, we shouldn't keep anyone else as a slave.
If we don't want to hurt any animals, we must become vegans (i.e. stop eating, wearing and using animal products, and in other ways do actions that are hurting and killing animals).
If we love animals, we don't kill animals. We don't kill and eat anyone that we love. If we love animals, we must support their want to not be oppressed, including not to be killed.

I highly recommend this lecture: http://vimeo.com/17538152 and the book World Peace Diet by Will Tuttle (www.worldpeacediet.org )