Kara & Michael’s Blog

I’m sort of a vegetarian; albeit a bad one (I probably eat fish 2 times a month). I would like to be vegan, have gone vegan on several occasions, and in fact, eat mostly vegan as I feel it is probably the healthiest way to go about vegetarianism. I just can’t seem to stick by any food philosophy like veganism because I hate labeling myself by a philosophy – any philosophy.

Practices like veganism seem to consume the lives of people who choose to become vegan. I understand, having gone fully vegan on several occasions that you have to spend a lot more time planning your meals and also a lot more time cooking if you’re used to eating out a lot. It makes it difficult to go to events friends and family throw. And you’re bound to explain, somehow, why you’re not eating anything. But even though I felt strongly enough about the moral qualm of producing and eating animal products to try to eliminate most of it from my diet and lifestyle (no more beef tallow soap or leather shoes), I never characterized myself by that choice.

I don’t really want to discuss it much. It will come up every so often, but then it is something I bring up once and drop – just, “I don’t eat meat.” I don’t talk to people about how or when I decided to change my habits. And I rarely discuss the philosophy behind it, because it is so complicated for me.

I think it is appealing to decide to disagree with something and eliminate it from one’s life, focusing on evidence to support your behavior. It is much more difficult to say, why does this make me uncomfortable? What would make me more comfortable? Yes, eating eggs and milk make me uncomfortable for the same reasons I dislike eating meat (the conditions of the animal’s life).

It is true that raising animals takes up valuable land and resources, but reducing the amount of meat you eat could help alleviate that problem, too.

And vegans can be healthier than vegetarians or meat eaters – but only if they eat more and a variety of vegetables and fruit and don’t consume nearly as much fat (which is NOT a guarantee).

My problem is that I don’t believe veganism is the only way to solve the problems it aims to solve. It addresses these moral problems in an absolute way. Absolutes don’t work in the real world. Absolutes over-simplify the hard questions and moral qualms we have.

If someone chooses, after much thought, to eat meat, to go vegan, to be vegetarian, I can respect that decision. But if someone insists they’ve solved all the moral dilemmas associated with an issue, I’m going to call Bullshit. They’ve solved it for themselves, not for the world.

K.

The contents of this blog entry may not reflect the views of the webmaster of doom, Michael.