The Veganism Essay

Is Veganism an Issue?

Our world is a slave to an industry that thrives off of the relentless, inhumane slaughter of the most peaceful and the most innocent inhabitants of the Earth; as we mindlessly follow the futile dictates of the meat industry, we not only destroy the lives of a multitude of precious animals, we destroy our home! I don't believe that by one person changing their diet, the world will be saved, however I do think that by inspiring some more people to become vegan (or at least vegetarian) we can help save the world: it's not about what you eat, it's the reward. You will feel better. You will feel accomplished. You will feel that you are saving the world and it's that euphoria that can only be achieved through hard work and discipline that is the 'veganism effect'. It doesn't matter that we may not fix the world in our lifetime, what matters is that we are inspiring our children, our grandchildren, our great grandchildren and any further generations that are smart enough to recognise that the meat industry is pure evil.

As children, we imagine a farm to be a happy place where animals can frolic about zealously as they proceed with their happy lives until that day where they become our 'Happy Meal'. This, unfortunately was just the idealism that we grew up with but, that only focuses on the aspect of agriculture that farms animals so what about the crops? Throughout my life, I've been told that by eating plants, I'm causing famine amongst animals. I always just brushed it off – to me it was just an affront made by the much stupider, much more ignorant meat eaters conversely, recent studies suggest, vegans may be killing more animals due to an increase in the demand of crops. In an article titled, The Vegan Confusion, naturalist Claudio Bertonatti argues that veganism is destroying the world. As we replace meat with vegetables, we are causing much more deforestation and much more murder than intended: rain forests are being torn apart to make room for farms; pesticide is being used to poison any animal who dares to touch the farmer's source of income; bullets are fired at any beast who even tries to look at the farmer's precious crops. Therefore, by eating, us vegans are destroying the world. So, I suppose we should all starve, we clearly do not deserve to eat after ruining the environment that we strive so hardly to protect so, starve us –starve us all! It's not like you don't eat vegetables. 

After reading Bertonatti's article, I realised how ridiculous the meat eater's arguments against vegans are. Okay, so maybe farms do disrupt nature, however, we cannot take responsibility for the selfishness and remorselessness that embodies these farmers. It's not my fault they killed the rain forest in the same way it's not my fault they decided to poison or shoot 'pests', it's just something that happens and as I said in my opening paragraph, I don't believe that we will save the world by turning vegan, that would be very, very optimistic. Whilst I think veganism is good and does contribute towards a more progressive world, I don't think it can fix the selfishness of mankind. 

Selfishness is the cause of all of the world's problems. It's why you eat meat. It's why the farmers destroy the rain forests. It's arguably the reason for many people's conversion to veganism. We all think about ourselves, how we can gain: it's always "I'm going to eat meat so I can have a nice meal" or "I'm going to farm in this forest so I can grow more crops and make more money off of the stupid vegans" or even "I'm going to be vegan so I can't be held responsible for global warming". Whilst selfishness is just something that we all have: I think that it destroys our world. Therefore, I do not believe that by becoming vegan I'm going to save the world, the reason why I would consider it is because I've always felt that we should do our best to preserve what we have: I would like for my children to not have to worry about cleaning up the mess we have made –the pollution, the climate change, and possibly even the extinction of animals such as cows. Furthermore, after being a vegetarian for 11 years, I've grown more and more empathetic towards animals and I believe that it would be inhumane to eat them. 

Which brings me on to my next point. I believe it's inhumane to eat animals, although many people believe that I've become too vulnerable to anything regarding the mistreatment of animals. Apparently, as the generations have passed, we've increasingly become less psychologically resilient and some people argue that it's because of veganism. People see vegans as people sheltered from the wicked ways that animals are slaughtered so they always tread lightly when discussing something such as the meat industry: whenever I discuss my diet and somebody accidentally mentions the fact that they "love chicken nuggets" I'm always struck by a tidal wave of apologies when (in reality) I don't care whether you love them. At the end of the day, it's your choice, if you want to destroy your own body, be my guest: just don't aggravatingly shower me with your empty apologies because I don't care. For me, it's laughable that people think that I'll tear up if they mention 'the m-word' because by these apologies, it's clear to me that they expect me to lose my temper and start spurting out the health benefits of a meatless diet like a preachy fire hydrant. I've never thought that I could change anybody's mind (given the fact that when I go to the shop, I see a flock of carnivorous cretins having a Powwow around a slab of pork) so why try? As I said, an entire vegan population will not stop us from destroying our world, I'm just sick of the accusations that vegans ruining the world. 

Actually, you're probably right, so sorry. Sorry I'm ruining the world by refusing to eat some decaying flesh. Sorry I bawl my eyes out whenever you say the words "meat" and "eat" in the same sentence. Sorry I poison your world with my diet. Sorry. I'll try to be more like you, I'll give up fruit and I'll give up vegetables, just please let me into your exclusive VIP club. 

Acceptance is one of the greatest challenges non-meat-eaters face every day. Never mind the sneaky bit of steak your mum accidentally slips on to your plate. Never mind the meals where the obdurate chants that praise meat linger in your ears. It's the acceptance that bothers me. I'm not the person to preach; I don't want to disrespect the world's variety: I don't want the entire world to become vegan even though I'm sick of the times where I'm slit open by the honed, dagger stare because I choose not to eat rotting tissue. I (somewhat) respect your choice, please (somewhat) respect mine. Don't tell me I'm causing the world to be starved of its rain forests, don't tell me to starve myself because of that accusation, don't tell me I'm not strong enough emotionally or physically. 

Maybe I don't want to be strong. Maybe strength is an illusion: you can have a million kilograms of muscle mass and still be weakened by illness. Before I begin insulting any body builders or gym addicts and end up in a hospital with severe injuries caused by a vindictive beating, I'm going to get to my point. When we tell you to eat less meat, what we mean is 'we're sick of you shoving this disgusting diet down our throats, it makes us gag'. I think I speak for a lot of people when I say this. Growing up, my parents would always encourage me to eat meat –they still do- and, as unsuccessful as they were, it was really annoying. It would grate on me. Why would I want to eat meat when I've seen what you eat? Furthermore, despite how repulsive we think meat is, by telling people to eat less meat, we're warning you. We don't give you facts (for example, by eating processed meat such as hot dogs or bacon can lead to a 20% increase in an early risk of death) for our benefit, we are genuinely telling you that meat is bad for your health. 

And while all of the meat-eaters around me are dying of their self-induced illnesses I'll be out enjoying a nice quinoa salad. You can sit there and tell me that I'm making the wrong decisions, but you need to consider the fact that some of us don't actually care about the animals or our health. Some of us do it because our favourite celebrities also refuse meat. Although it is annoying as somebody who cares about the animals to see people only converting because they worship Ariana Grande and want to be 'vegan' just like her (*cough cough* leather boots, fur coat, licks doughnuts *cough*), I'm glad to see influencers (who actually are/were plant-based) such as: Anthony Kiedis, Flea, Beyoncé, Bill Clinton, Mike, Tyson etc. make a difference to the cause. Instead of using their power to promote the wrong message to children, they inspire them to care about the world: for example, Flea, Michael Balzary, started an apiary in order to protect the bees thus preserving the planet which may have inspired many of his fans (including myself) to be more mindful our world. 

But our world will always be a slave to an industry that thrives off of the relentless, inhumane slaughter of the most peaceful and the most innocent inhabitants of the Earth; as we mindlessly follow the futile dictates of the meat industry, incessantly, we will not only destroy the lives of a multitude of precious animals, we will always destroy our home!