Comment from: roger Member
Why Vegan
Vegan usually denotes either someone who doesn't eat, or food that doesn't contain, any animal products. Vegans who have an ethical rather than health reason also minimise the use of all animals and their by-products
Avoiding the obvious use of fur, skin and wool for clothing isn't too difficult, but it is harder to avoid it in products that are manufactured from many ingredients.
- Many wines for instance are finned using animal products and although most of it is removed it has blatantly exploited animals in its making
- Most 'diary free' chocolates are made on the same machine as the milk versions are almost definitely contaminated - so much so that Green and Blacks now label their dark chocolates as containing milk due to permanent contamination following audits, although there is no intentional milk added as an ingredient.
- Ethically exploitation of animals ranges from use as pets, working animals, and those ued for exerimentation.
It is impossible to avoid consuming or using products that have, in their design or manufacture, used animals. As a consumer, and using money to employ others to do that which I can't or won't do myself, means I am not able to be avoid responsibility for the continuing painful exploitation of many animals, not forgetting humans.
If intent was all that mattered then that would help, But good intentions or lack of attention is not very comforting when I know that animals have been used in the processing of any consumer product.
Or to flag the point: Generally consumer products are ethically un-vegan as all products have at some point in their development been made by or with the use of unwilling and captive animals.
Free animals are not a problem. Birds and slugs that play in the garden and fields are ok.
Personally I am vegan for what may best be describes as a spiritual reason. Not that I give any credence to the 'Spirit' and all that jazz, but it happened like this.
Way back in April 1974 I was hanging around the Palace of Peace in Dulwich, the haunt of the Premies of Jai Guru Maharaj Ji, a young 13 years old Indian Hindu. Maharaji offered the Knowledge - being face to face with God. Although it all seemed a bit of scam most of the hippies were very intent on bettering themselves to be able to face God. This bettering was not a material gain but a desire to be eternally concious of freedom and bliss. The Knowledge was the way to achieve this. Yet the notion arose in conversation that why would anyone expect to acquire such bliss when they abused animals by eating them etc. Well some year later I decided that stealing animal milk and wool was not the kind of thing God would do. So one day someone called me a vegan.
Basically being vegan is a thoughtful process that keeps me aware of how much of a consumer I am. Its my mantra from the 60's. There can be not freedom whilst I enslave others. 'Neither a slave nor master be'. I am chained to my indulgences and free myself as and when I can.
So being vegan is just a meditative way of consuming less. I care about my conciousness and want to limit the harm I do by consuming less. I am not a Hindu ascetic or a Franciscan monk, I am an Acid vegan and more than happy with the Knowledge that life is eternal and that 'from death comes only death'.
What is generally called living is in fact killing, and no enlightened soul could mistake living for life.
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Vegan: As a noun it's unclear as to it's exact meaning, but is generally applied to a person who does not eat animal products.
What is an animal?
A person who practices, or has a mind to acknowledge the vegan idea(l) will have a unique set of included creatures to avoid using. For me it includes bees for honey, beatles for cochinel red dye and water born sprites such as Daphnia.https://calstock.org.uk/vow.php/daphnia
/*A person may have a vegan diet for health reasons and have no ethical concern for the origin, this can apply to an organic diet, where the notion of the food's health and environmental benefits are of prime importance.*/
The ethical vegan will be more concerned with compassion; such a person is likely to avoid leather, wool and silk etc. nIn my case veganism is more a meditation to aid spirtual focus and I avoid the use of shells, as in mother of pearl inlays in a guitar recently purchased. A practicing vegan may extend the avoidence to any product they are responsible for.
At this degree of attention to detail, the word veganism is approriate, as it's a life style akin to religion. Contrary to general views, veganism for a spiritual focus downgrades the compassionate, environmental and health aspects as being materialy based and part of the consumer protection racket.
What is sourced from?
This highlights the comsumer racket alluded to.
Of course the production of anything may have, and is likely to have, been fashioned with the explotation of animals. Bees for polination, wasps for figs, horses, dogs and various helpers in the farming world.
There is also the use of animals as pets, and in the case of cats, the meat they consume. So yes there are 'vegans' who buy meat so they can feed their pet; would they do the same for a car that runs on chicken shit or blodd and bones.. and here we go ... blood and bones as fertiser, a must have for oerganic farmers.
So to focus on compassion would lead to an avoidence of material consumption and in this case would be akin to spirtual veganism. Yet those I have met who tout compassion do not support the questionable spiritual notion. As long as they consume . . . .
Organic: Commonly products of an organic nature contain carbon, but the usage here, organic food, refers to the absence or minimal use of sythetic fertilisers, insecticides etc.
Minerals seem acceptable, as do simple plant based 'cides, the issue here is not an obession with avoiding animal products but concern for the environment in general. Animalss are exploited but should have a nicer enviroment ot live in, free from poisons, which trickles through to less toxcities in food and a nicer walk in the coutryside.
Some vegans will have a problem with organic food as it likely to be grow with the use of animal products in fertilisers.
However if veganism is a religion then persponal health may not be an issue so chemical in the food don't matter as much as the blood used to grow, however the same arguments can mean that it is better generally for animals if we as humans don't poison the world they live in. Of course 90% of the non-human animal biomass is human generated.
Now we get to a society were individulas are so weak we need each other to survive in thematerial world, so just by using each other we use human animals who use other animals, so where could veganism lead?
For if it is based on compassion neither chemicals or blood will do.
Wholefood: Probably the first use was wholewheat refering to the whole grain before the outer brown layer has been removed to make white flour.
So wholefood is different for different situations. A whole apple would not generally mean to include the pips are core but may include the skin, whereas in the cases aof many fruit the skin would not be eaten.
In case where apples are sprayed it may not be wise to eat the skin. Potatoes grtown in arsenic conta,inated soil need more that washing, as although arsenic is not aborped in to food the skin of an undergrounf tuber will be highly contaminated.
So wholefood may benefit from an organic production as at least then there is less concern about the skin of an apple, it's just a preference, but not to eat the skins and yet to eat wholewheat?? Wheat grains can also be contaminated by pesticides.
So wholefood can benefit from being vegan although more difficult to produce.
So we have stumbling block. Clearly organic is more compassionate and healthy but animals are genraly used.
The notion of vegan organics exists but is not generally available, unless you go the whole yard and grow your own.
But wholefood isn't surely just a food thing as the notion isn't just about what goes in the body but what you wear and where you live and how you live.
Being compassionate comes against a brick wall rather quickly so a pseudo spiritual outlook can be of use.
Being a vegan is like joining a gang where members are complicit in their continuing consumption, and it seems there's no serious atempt to stem that.
So we as animals argue and fight over resources and the weak loose out. In desperate places animals, children and old grannies are exploited and where an abundance has been collected the group openly pits warrior against warrior to see who is the most deserving of further attention. For we really love the strong to help us feel strong and the weak that we can use.