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| Vegan Voices |
| P.O. Box 126 * Negaunee, MI 49866 * (906) 236-1279 * info@northernvegans.com |
| This page is designed to showcase various vegan writers. |
Peace Begins on Your Plate
by Carrie Plummer
"If you have men who will exclude any of God's creatures from the shelter
of compassion and pity, you will have men who deal likewise with their
fellow men."- St. Francis of Assisi
Can we someday live in a world free from war and violence? We certainly
hope. But why is there violence? Violence often occurs as the by-product
of power and control, but is also due to a prejudice, a sense of
separateness. Most of the time, violence is inflicted on the weak, helpless,
and vulnerable.
In a study by Tingle et al. (1986) of 64 convicted male offenders, animal
abuse in childhood or adolescence was reported by 48 percent of the
rapists and 30 percent of the child molesters. Violence is violence,
whether it's inflicted on a woman, man, child, or animal.
Like racism, sexism, and homophobia, speciesism is undisputably
another form of prejudice or bigotry, although not obvious to all yet.
Speciesism is a discrimination in favor of one species over the other. It's a
commonly held belief or bias (among humans) that human animals are
the only ones that have rights (or souls), and that all other animals are
here to benefit human beings. It's the same sort of prejudice like any
other- "Because they are different from 'us' or not like 'us' they are therefore
inferior to 'us'." Speciesism is pervasive and strong, but worse, it goes
unrecognized and is often not questioned or acknowledged among the
mainstream.
Both social and peace activists like Dexter Scott King, son of Martin Luther
King Jr.; Carol Adams, author of The Sexual Politics of Meat; and Alice
Walker, author of The Color Purple, are ALL vegans. "The animals of the
world exist for their own reasons. They were not made for humans any
more than black people were made for whites or women for men."- Alice
Walker. Holocaust survivor Edgar Kupfer-Koberwitz, wrote, from Animal,
My Brethren: "I refuse to eat animals because I cannot nourish myself by
the sufferings and by the death of other creatures. I refuse to do so,
because I suffered so painfully myself that I can feel the pains of others by
recalling my own sufferings." Of course Mahatma Gandhi was an ethical
vegetarian too.
Living a non-violent peaceful existence can begin from our most basic
need, food. Food is an incredibly intimate and essential part of our lives.
By consciously embracing a diet that is free from bloodshed and suffering
we would not only be promoting peace, we would also be saving
countless animal lives, significantly improving the environment, and living
much healthier lives (vegetarians have a 45% reduced risk of contracting
diabetes; vegetarian mothers have 35 times LESS DDT in their breast
milk; and vegans are 12.5 times less likely to die of a heart attack). It's a
win win situation! Eating animal foods is unnecessary for survival and it
has been proven that a high animal protein, low fiber (fiber is found only in
plant foods) diet is detrimental to human health. Not only can we survive
on a vegan diet but we can thrive on it! (See: Physicians Committee for
Responsible Medicine's site: http://www.pcrm.org and consider reading
these excellent books: Eat Right, Live Longer by Neal Barnard, M.D. or The
Food Revolution by John Robbins- both available in the Northern Vegans
lending library.)
Let's ask ourselves, do we want to support a market of violence,
oppression, and killing just so we can continue to eat animals and their
by-products when it's unnecessary? It is a choice, and a very profound
and important one at that. If we begin to look at "food" animals as
intrinsically no different than our companion animals, for example, then the
mere thought of eating them would be an unpleasing one indeed- we
would be on the road to a just and peaceful world.
Eating can be such a pleasurable experience, let's make it a
compassionate, thoughtful, and peaceful one as well.
Click Here To Go Back to "Media & More"
by Carrie Plummer
"If you have men who will exclude any of God's creatures from the shelter
of compassion and pity, you will have men who deal likewise with their
fellow men."- St. Francis of Assisi
Can we someday live in a world free from war and violence? We certainly
hope. But why is there violence? Violence often occurs as the by-product
of power and control, but is also due to a prejudice, a sense of
separateness. Most of the time, violence is inflicted on the weak, helpless,
and vulnerable.
In a study by Tingle et al. (1986) of 64 convicted male offenders, animal
abuse in childhood or adolescence was reported by 48 percent of the
rapists and 30 percent of the child molesters. Violence is violence,
whether it's inflicted on a woman, man, child, or animal.
Like racism, sexism, and homophobia, speciesism is undisputably
another form of prejudice or bigotry, although not obvious to all yet.
Speciesism is a discrimination in favor of one species over the other. It's a
commonly held belief or bias (among humans) that human animals are
the only ones that have rights (or souls), and that all other animals are
here to benefit human beings. It's the same sort of prejudice like any
other- "Because they are different from 'us' or not like 'us' they are therefore
inferior to 'us'." Speciesism is pervasive and strong, but worse, it goes
unrecognized and is often not questioned or acknowledged among the
mainstream.
Both social and peace activists like Dexter Scott King, son of Martin Luther
King Jr.; Carol Adams, author of The Sexual Politics of Meat; and Alice
Walker, author of The Color Purple, are ALL vegans. "The animals of the
world exist for their own reasons. They were not made for humans any
more than black people were made for whites or women for men."- Alice
Walker. Holocaust survivor Edgar Kupfer-Koberwitz, wrote, from Animal,
My Brethren: "I refuse to eat animals because I cannot nourish myself by
the sufferings and by the death of other creatures. I refuse to do so,
because I suffered so painfully myself that I can feel the pains of others by
recalling my own sufferings." Of course Mahatma Gandhi was an ethical
vegetarian too.
Living a non-violent peaceful existence can begin from our most basic
need, food. Food is an incredibly intimate and essential part of our lives.
By consciously embracing a diet that is free from bloodshed and suffering
we would not only be promoting peace, we would also be saving
countless animal lives, significantly improving the environment, and living
much healthier lives (vegetarians have a 45% reduced risk of contracting
diabetes; vegetarian mothers have 35 times LESS DDT in their breast
milk; and vegans are 12.5 times less likely to die of a heart attack). It's a
win win situation! Eating animal foods is unnecessary for survival and it
has been proven that a high animal protein, low fiber (fiber is found only in
plant foods) diet is detrimental to human health. Not only can we survive
on a vegan diet but we can thrive on it! (See: Physicians Committee for
Responsible Medicine's site: http://www.pcrm.org and consider reading
these excellent books: Eat Right, Live Longer by Neal Barnard, M.D. or The
Food Revolution by John Robbins- both available in the Northern Vegans
lending library.)
Let's ask ourselves, do we want to support a market of violence,
oppression, and killing just so we can continue to eat animals and their
by-products when it's unnecessary? It is a choice, and a very profound
and important one at that. If we begin to look at "food" animals as
intrinsically no different than our companion animals, for example, then the
mere thought of eating them would be an unpleasing one indeed- we
would be on the road to a just and peaceful world.
Eating can be such a pleasurable experience, let's make it a
compassionate, thoughtful, and peaceful one as well.
Click Here To Go Back to "Media & More"