One might think that a vegan has no business working with
livestock farmers, for many vegans this is true and would be a repugnant
undertaking…BUT this particular vegan wants to change the way agricultural livestock,
destined for the food chain, is raised, and as I see it the best way I can do this
is to work within the system and not against it.
So how did all of this happen? In early
2011 I read a book by Jonathan Saffran Foer Eating Animals, which shocked me to the core. I thought I knew pretty much all there was to
know about what goes on behind the closed doors of factory farming, that’s why
I gave up eating meat quite a few years ago.
Well, according to Foer’s book it was everything I knew
exponentiated. I was so disturbed by
what I read I wanted to tell everyone I met about the ‘horrors’ of factory
farming, I wanted to go into the streets waving a banner, distribute pamphlets
with graphic photographs in restaurants, and be a general nuisance at fast food
chains and the like…but I didn’t…
Instead I ‘became’ a fully-fledged vegan
because I didn’t know what else to do, I just knew I couldn’t participate in
the meat and dairy industry any longer. Eventually
I realized that just being vegan wasn’t enough, and to get everyone I knew to
become a vegan would not only be inadequate but would be impossible: I had to
be pro-active. We live in a meat eating culture - meat
has become the staple of the Western diet rather than an adjunct, so I needed
to figure out a way to help bring about change to the current system of producing meat. If I expounded the vegan way to the general
public then most people would cover their ears and eyes and refuse to look and listen,
or would say “thanks for the information…but no thanks!” BECAUSE – one: I have shattered their ‘sacred
cow’ (pun intended) by telling them that Farmer John and his happy farm with
happy cows somewhere in rural America is for the most part a myth, and the
story of Farmer John is a lot dirtier… two,
I then inform them that the only way to change the current system of factory
farming is to stop eating meat entirely.
In this situation preaching veganism is going to be as effective as a lead
balloon. What I also realized was that my running away from the meat industry would
not change anything, and at some level was tantamount to abandoning farming
livestock to the abuses of industrialized meat production. So I had to confront this head-on: and so
VITAL AWARENESS was born: an animal welfare and humane farming advocacy group
founded with my ethical omnivore cohort Kate March, its motto - ‘If we are
going to eat meat then let’s do it right’. At VITAL AWARENESS we believe that changing
the system is two-fold: firstly, we need to educate consumers about the reality
of ‘factory farmed’ meat; secondly, proactively provide a solution by promoting
humane livestock agriculture.
This is not an argument about whether it is
ethical or not to raise and kill animals for food, neither is an argument about
whether or not we are biologically adapted to eat meat – my argument is pure
and simple - we just do and that isn’t going to change any time soon. In point of fact globally we are eating more
and more meat each year, due in large part to cultures whose diets were mainly
vegetarian now embracing the carnivorous habits of the West. As an example, with the rise of a new middle
class in China the appetite for meat is growing daily, particularly for pork,
and factory farms are springing up in many parts of China, and in the USA almost
thirty percent of pork produced is exported to China. Now more than ever we
need to be looking at how our meat is produced and be a voice for the billions
of livestock slaughtered each year for food, and ensure that we are ‘doing it right’.
So that’s why a vegan is working with livestock farmers; we
need to give support to those who are doing it right. So this vegan is engaging
with the meat eating culture, and through VITAL AWARENESS is educating the
public about the unhealthy impact of factory farming, and most importantly
promoting humane livestock farmers. We
work with, not against farmers and ranchers; we SUPPORT and PROMOTE the livestock
farmers who are raising their animals humanely and sustainably. It is only through mutual support and respect
that we can get the consumers on board so that as a tour de force we can collectively change the face of the food
industry.
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