Yesterday was the second meeting of the Vegan Pledge. I’ve got many reactions to this and will try to stay focused. Let me start simply, it was terrific! I haven’t fully resolved my questions about vegan ethical perspectives. I think I still need to learn a lot more before I can really answer my questions. However, while it seems a stretch, I see a lot of connections to my thinking on this blog about origins of the food I eat and what that means in the larger picture. But to make this connection, I have to start by offering a breif description of the meeting and highlight a few important points.
The meeting began with a Question and Answer session with a registered nurse who is vegan and also has extensively researched relevant nutrition information. She eats a no salt, no fat, vegan diet and recommends this as a lifestyle that leads to improved health. There are numerous, unbiased (this is key) studies that support this claim; most notable is the China Study. The key to the unbiased research is that many studies yield different conclusions, but very often those studies are funded indirectly by agribusiness – particularly meat producers. In addition to the depth of knowledge she had about diet, she also knew tons about supplements and had great information for us on that. However, the overwhelming sense that I started having was the notion of moderation. ANY step towards vegan is better for our health, animals, people and the planet than continuing the SAD. This idea of moderation – I am not completely comfortable with this word – continued throughout the session.
Here’s the problem with moderation, it’s too passive. I don’t think the point of the PAN Vegan Pledge is to encourage moderation. I don’t think vegans want a moderate approach. I agree with this. We need RADICAL changes to happen to resolve a myriad of problems. But, where I like moderation is thinking about the ethics of it all. As I sat listening to the speakers, I felt a growing understanding that the vegan lifestyle isn’t just about ethical treatment of animals. This is an important point, but it is moderated with the notion of ethical treatment of the planet, our fellow humans, the resources we are fortunate to have, and even the ways we treat ourselves and our bodies.
With this emerging perspective, I began listening differently. The opening session was followed by a cooking demo. I was anxious, nervous, and a little apprehensive because I wondered what my lunch might be like from a meal with NO salt and NO fats or oils. Guess what? It was wonderful! Not what I expected, but delightful. We had a Limeade Green Smoothie, Hail to the Kale salad, lentil soup, and Chocolate Pudding and PB&J bites. All of it yummy and flavorful. I even learned some cooking tips and was inspired to try more salad dressings without oils.
After this presenter we had a short presentation about animal welfare in industrial agriculture. This wasn’t new information to me, but again there was a moderation in the discussion. While the central concern was animal welfare and preventing brutality, there were acknowledgements that this goes beyond animals. There are human workers exploited in the process. The industry creates significant environmental damages. Thus there was a broader discussion of how the ethics of being vegan stretches beyond animal welfare.
After the session I left feeling more enthusiastic. I saw that this is a multifaceted set of ideas. While the dominant voices (at least what I heard the prior week) were narrowly focused on animal rights, I see that that there is more nuanced and complex thinking about ethics. I headed off to Whole Foods for some extra food items and ran head on into the issue for me. Walking through the produce, I got excited to see one of my favorite growers’ purple sweet potatoes for sale in my Whole Foods. I thought, WOW this is great. I didn’t need sweet potatoes, finished my shopping and left. After reflecting on it, I realized, this is exactly the problem. That farmer will be at my market on Saturday. I can buy it directly from him. Isn’t that more ethical? Wouldn’t it be better to put the money directly into his pocket rather than through a middle man? I think this is similar to my struggle with the focus on animals. NO, we shouldn’t be harming animals. But we also can’t turn a blind eye to the fact that if I make that choice, I may also make a choice to buy soy-based tofu that is processed and packaged and delivered over thousands of miles to me. I don’t know that workers were treated fairly to get that tofu to me and I don’t know that the company who makes the product is also reputable. So it isn’t as simple as I don’t want to hurt animals.
Now, to leave on a brighter note and also back to my focus here – here’s a locally sourced vegan snack:
What is here is a vegan cheese spread called Spread made in Durham, NC on a cracker made in Hillsborough, NC. OK the raw materials I have no idea about. But, I can say vegan and local and in the case of Spread, it’s even only sold direct from the maker or through a local small business. I can’t say this fixes all the ethics issues, but I am happy to have a local, vegan snack!
How my dinner got on my plate 