Wednesday, October 22, 2014

Food As a Social Identity?

"Don't you just hate it when obnoxious angry vegans judge you for what's on your plate?"

   This. This is the single most common complaint I keep hearing from people everywhere. This is people's biggest problem with vegans-- feeling uncomfortable, judged and therefore unable to fully enjoy the meals they pay for.

Now here is why this concerns me.

   Vegans are, as of yet, approximately 1% of the population and, indeed, many of them are angry (or sad. or neutral. or in utter bliss). Now, 99% are not vegan and a bigger percentage of that are also judging, taunting and flat-out bullying vegans for their own choice of food. As a result of this overwhelming dominance of the carnivorous population, network and news media tend to do what they do best and severely inflate this derogatory stance against the vegan movement (however, creative arts may be more forgiving?). This only serves to further distort and misrepresent this ethical, environmental and social movement, filing it under "fad diet" at best and an extreme cult at worst suitable only for the unsound. The most fundamental cause, compassion and nonviolence for all and the complete abolition of speciesism, is therefore buried out of sight. What stereotype is the public left with now to associate veganism with? The result is people who know nothing whatsoever about vegans other than the fact that they hate them, or should.

   National Geographic plainly show that the earth will fail to sustain our current farming practices by the year 2050 unless we change them now, pure and simple. See where this is going? We, vegans or not, are far too concerned with being judged for what's on our plates to realize that, IN OUR LIFETIME, most of these foods will cease to be available for our convenience. In addition to mass extinction, ice caps completely gone, complete deforestation of the Amazon, soil erosion and many wonderful wars for the most valuable resource of all, clean water, we will be faced with the task of feeding over 9 billion people, which requires double our current crop production. When you find yourself being harshly judged for what you're eating, you can entertain yourself with the thought that, in your future, your meals may likely have to comprise largely of insects :D

   As terribly dystopian as that future seems, the solution can be very simple. All we need to do is prioritize, try to make more responsible choices while, mostly importantly, being grateful for the abundance of food we have now while it still lasts.


Be kind. (and bon appetit)

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