hee hee... college flashback

[veganmama]

I was cleaning out a drawer recently and came across this paper that I wrote my freshman year of college (actually, my only year of college) at Northern Arizona University. I have been a vegetarian for 14 years and dabbled in veganism a few times during those years so this was one of those times (now I am a vegan forever and always). So just for kicks and giggles, I just thought it would be fun to share the paper with y'all

 

p.s. just for the record: I got an A+ on the paper AND extra credit for a "job well done"

 

 

VEGETARIANISM & VEGANISM

November 30, 2000

 

When I set out to write this paper I was going to write it on vegetariansim but in the process of researching vegetariansim I came across a lot of information regarding veganism. The information that I came across has influenced me to become a vegan. In this paper I would like to address vegetariansim and vegansim from various perspectives such as ethical, Buddhist, health, and environmental. I will also discuss my personal experience as a vegetarian, but first I will define vegetariansim and veganism.

 

There are a few different types of vegetarians, some eat everything except for red meat, some eat no meat but still eat dairy products, for six years I have eaten fish and dairy products by no meat or poultry. Observably, there is some variation when it comes to vegetarianism, but that is not the case when it comes to veganism. Aside from not eating meat, vegans do not consume any dairy products. Basically, a vegan diet does not consist of anything that comes from an animal in any way.

 

Being a vegetarian can be pretty hard at times, not because of a desire to eat meat, but because of the hostility vegetarians encounter from non-vegetarians. It is as though just the presence of a vegetarian somehow makes non-vegetarians feel threatened. I can't tell you how many times people have tried to challenge me on my beliefs and reasons for not eating meat. I think the most common thing that people say to me is "well, aren't vegetables living too?" it sounds stupid, but I guess it doesn't sound stupid to the people who verbalize it. Whether or not these people think before they open their mouths is beyond me. As I mentioned in the first paragraph, while in the process of researching for this paper I have decided to become a vegan, that decision has a lot to do with Buddhist ethics.

 

Although I am not a Buddhist, many Buddhist principles are very close to my heart and meaningful to me in the way that I live my life. The Buddhist belief that animals and humans share the same level of consciousness may seem uncanny to some, but to me it is not. Throughout history people have held the belief that animals have no more consciousness than a rock on the ground. Even the philosopher Descartes and his disciples believed that animals are devoid of souls and the cries of an injured animal no more signify that it is in pain than a faulty engine rattling signifies than an automobile is in pain. I think that many or even most people still consider likening the emotions of humans to those of animals absurd.

 

It is Buddhist principle that one shall "cease to do evil; and learn to do good". Buddhism has always recognized that animals show every sign of experiencing and fearing suffering. I think that the best way to sum up the Buddhist approach toward the suffering of animals is with this passage:

 

'All equally experience suffering and happiness. I should look after them as I do myself....I should dispel the suffering of others because it is suffering like my own suffering.'

 

There is no exception that says "cease to do harm, unless that harm is aimed at an animal." I adhere to the belief that the greatest harm a person can do is to kill another sentient being. I would like to live my life, as Buddhists do, in a way that will cause the least suffering to all sentient beings, I do not differentiate between the suffering of animals and humans. Just as I would not kill a human being or cause a human being to suffer in order to satisfy my appetite, neither do I choose to kill an animal or cause an animal to suffer for that purpose. In my six years as a vegetarian I did not realize the ethical implications involved in consuming dairy products. I was unaware of the suffering that cows endure to make milk, or what is involved in a chicken laying eggs. Had I been aware of this suffering, I would have probably become a vegan a long time ago. I will not describe the suffering that animals go through on a farm because this would end up being a 20-page paper. I think that people prefer not to think about what takes place in order for meat to appear on their plates, and I think they like it that way. The "dirty-work" is done out of their sight, so why should they be bothered with thinking about it, right? I think that if most people could stand before an animal and see the terror in it's eyes before it was slaughtered, they would think twice about whether they want to have a part in that kind of suffering.

 

 

Although my reasons for being a vegan are based mainly on my ethical views, there are other reasons for adopting a vegetarian or vegan lifestyle. One of those reasons is health. According to a paper by the British Nutrition Foundation 'many studies have shown that vegetarians as a group have lower rates of heart disease and of some cancers, and may also benefit from the reduced risk of some other conditions'. Some people have the notion that vegetarians cannot get the nutrients that people who eat meat get, which is just not true. A vegetarian or vegan with a properly balanced diet consisting of nuts, legumes, whole grains, vegetables, and fruit will get all the nutrients he or she needs without the saturated fat and other health risks associated with a diet consisting of meat and dairy products.

 

Yet another reason for adopting a vegetarian or vegan lifestyle is for the benefit of the environment. "Farming animals is intensely wasteful of resources. It has been estimated that 500g of steak from intensively-reared animals consumes 2.5kg of grain, 10 thousand liters of water, the energy equivalent of four liters of petrol, and about 16kg of topsoil. Intensive beef production is very wasteful of fossil fuels, In America, intensively-reared beef consumes 33 calories of fossil fuel energy for every calorie of food energy it produces." Rearing animals for food production also takes a lot of space, space which is being robbed from rain-forests in Central America (over 25% of the Central American forests) and the Amazon Jungle. For the sake of hamburgers, we are cutting down the very trees that produce our oxygen. The list goes on, there are too many threats to the environment inherent in the rearing of animals for food to name in this paper. Everything from global warming to sewage contamination is linked to the production of meat.

 

I know that it is impossible for me to live my life without causing any suffering at all, but I do believe that it is my obligation to live my life in a way that will cause as little suffering as possible; in my mind, not eating meat and dairy products is a very simple and obvious way for me to do that. Although it is possible and very probable to be healthy without being a vegetarian, I feel vegetarianism is one way to true spiritual and physical well-being. In the twelve years of my life that I did eat meat, I never felt as good as I do now, and I have a hunch that a vegan lifestyle will have a similar effect.

 

 

WOW<--- reading this paper makes me wonder what has happened to my brain over these last 4 years of motherhood... it appears I used to be kinda smart