Letters to the Editor
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Beyond veganism
I was a vegan for about a year and have been vegetarian for 7 years. I also was heavy into animal rights for many years, and still consider taking animal life to be one of the most horrendous things we do as a society.
However, my work in the field of agriculture has brought me face to face with the reality of the situation: we have to kill animals. Every time a farmer plows his field or harvests her wheat or soybeans, thousands of field mice, rodents, insects, rabbits, and the like meet a horrible death. I've personally had to kill many animals myself on my own farm as part of my pest control program and I welcome deer hunters on my property.
Not even the vegan can escape responsibility for these deaths. Arguably, many more animals are killed or have their habitats disrupted by the production of plant food than meat. A cow raised on pasture, for instance, can feed many people many times over. The soybean, on the other hand, takes thousands of acres, tons of pesticides, industrial harvesting equipment, and
This is the only good argument I have ever heard against veganism (All others fall pathetically short, ridiculously justifying the murder of millions animals). Certainly the goal of killing no animals is noble, but in our modern, industrialized agricultural economy it is impossible. It's just too naive to argue that the vegan has no blood on their hands simply because they aren't eating flesh.
The best we can do is eat as much locally produced food we can from farmers who minimize their impact on animal life. For protein, I would argue that grassfed or pastured beef, poultry and eggs from local farmers are much better for animal life in general than soy or bean products shipped thousands of miles from huge industrial distributors, even if the soy is organic.
I have started eating meat exclusively from such sources on rare occasions. I am not deluding myself about being pure, so I can be aware when I am making a choice to take life. That doesn't make it right, but it certainly is a humbling thought.