Veganism was invented in November 1944 by Donald Watson, a British woodworker. And now we hear about protests outside slaughterhouses and animal farms. The Covid restrictions have reduced these protests but it is highly likely that these protests will summon once the lockdown is eased. Whether it is for health, moral, spiritual, environmental reasons or simply to follow the trend, veganism is on the rise. According to a report compiled by media outlet Chef’s pencil, veganism is twice as popular as it was five years ago. And according to the Google trend, UK public are showing the biggest interest in plant-based lifestyle, followed by Australia, New Zealand and Canada. In case you are new to veganism, vegans tend to stay away from everything that is produced by animals. Some extreme vegansexuals (yes, there is a term) avoid sexual intimacy with non-vegans, whilst some practice raw food diet by eating only uncooked food. Let’s talk about veganism and spirituality here, because this is my reason to go vegan. Mankind has been with animals for over 12 thousand years after dogs were owned by humans to help them with the hunting and sometimes, as food too. However, eating dogs weren’t very common. After domestication of plants and dogs, humans slowly began to expand their domestications and smaller animals like goats and sheep were domesticated for hide, meat and milk – Although this might not be in this particular order. Later, oxen and horses were added. The practice of domesticating horses is still common and is known as breaking. It did make perfect sense for early humans to keep animals for meat and milk because it helped them to settle in one place where they could grow food too. It was a major turning point for humans as they no longer had to hunt and gather. They could grow their own food, got milk and meat on top plus clothes and tents from the hides. After humans settled in one place, the population increased and more land were needed which probably led to the establishment of countries, and war. Fast forward 12 thousand years and despite of the unfathomable upgrade in human capabilities, we are not too different from our cavemen ancestors. We still keep animals for milk and turn it into burger once it stops providing milk. We keep animals and chicken in a cage, kill unproductive offspring and continue to enjoy it. Many of us make excuses when it comes to go vegan. The most common ones are lack of alternative nutrients, taste and bizarrely – some of us claim that these domesticated animals are no longer capable of living in the wild. These are just excuses. There are plenty of alternatives to give us the same nutrients we get from plants. And to answer the third question- neither do we. Going vegan doesn’t mean we set our domesticated animals free in the wild. These animals are the results of selective breeding and genetic modifications. Do you know that the chicken we buy in supermarkets has lived for less than 10 weeks? And Did you know that a litre of milk can have up to 400,000,000 somatic cells (pus cells) before it is considered unfit for people to drink? And did you know that around 54000 tonnes of veal are still produced in the UK each year? Veal, if you don’t know – comes from the meat of young dairy calves. The list goes long. The objective of this blog isn’t to make you vegan, we are masters of our own will and no one should be told what to do with their lives. And this is why despite being a vegan- I oppose the vegans’ protest. They are the reason some people call veganism a cult. They should know that change takes time, and without any viable alternatives- we can’t change easily. There might be millions of reasons to go vegan but I am only focusing on one. Let’s compare humans 12 thousand years ago and now. Everything has changed, evolved, progressed. A journey of thousands of miles can be made within an hour or two. We can grow 10 times more food from the same size of land and thanks to technology, most plants no longer have geographical restrictions. In other words, we can grow anything anywhere. The question here is, isn’t it time to evolve our eating habit? Our planet is the only known home to all living creatures, and like us- they deserve the freedom and have the rights to live. From a religious point of view, if God created everything, why are we happy to torture our brothers and sisters to fulfil our laziness? God created animals and humans; God also gave us consciousness so that we can differentiate between plants and animals. If we are to eat animals, why do we feel sick when we think about roasting our beloved dog but our mouths water when we are barbecuing another living creature?
Because it is all in our mind. We were programmed to accept cows, goat, fish etc as food but not cats and dogs. People protest about the dog meat festival in china, showing pictures of caged dogs ready to be slaughtered, but turn a blind eye when they notice that that slaughter isn’t even one per cent of the total animals killed for food every day. Veganism is no longer a preference. It’s about proving that we care and it is about spiritual evolution. Published with permission from Sean Neil.
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