There is very little that will ever get someone as upset and
defensive as when you tell them what to eat. many conversations about
veganism find their way to this point: The statement that you can’t tell
people what to eat because it’s their personal choice. This often comes
in the adage: “I respect your choice to be vegan, you should respect my
right not to be.” But when our right to make our own dietary choice
begins to infringe upon the rights of others, whose rights take
priority?
You see, what we choose to eat has a huge impact on the world in a number of ways, including environmentally, socially, and morally.
The animal products industry is the most environmentally devastating
force on the planet. Our choice to eat meat, dairy and eggs impacts
more than just our stomachs: It tears down forests, uses insane
quantities of water, creates massive pollution, and diverts over 80
percent of the world’s crops to livestock. Crops that could otherwise
easily feed the world’s hungry.
So while respecting your choice to eat animal products may seem
important from a personal freedom standpoint, what about respecting the
environment and the future generations who have to live in the wake of
our destruction? What about respecting the people who can’t put food in their stomachs because your right to eat animal products took precedence?
This may seem like an indirect effect of dietary choice but the links
of the chain are clear when you look for them. The way we live today
removes us so severely from the origin of our food and the impact that
it has. We walk into a grocery store and grab something, or swing
through the drive through without a second thought as to where the food
came from, whom it came from, and at what cost.
We speak of personal choice and respect while animals are tortured
and killed at the hands of our appetites. So I will say this: If your
choice is to eat animal products, then you should be aware of what those
choices really entail. I’d urge you to watch the footage in the video
above. If you find you cannot watch, then I’d ask you the question: If
it’s not good enough for your eyes, why is it good enough for your
stomach? If you can't stand to see it or talk about it, how can you
stand to eat it?
Which rights are more valid: Our right to eat dairy or a mother cow’s
right to not have her child torn from her side and sent to slaughter?
When you choose to eat dairy, you support the veal industry. You
sentence a mother cow to a lifetime of forced pregnancies, endless
milkings and infections, all culminating in her body giving out twenty
years before her natural lifespan and her being sent to slaughter for
cheap meats.
When you choose to eat eggs, your right to your breakfast comes at
the cost of countless lives: Male layer chicks are ground up alive as
they are of no use to the egg industry. Layer hens are kept in cramped
sheds on top of one another even in so-called cage free and free range facilities. their sensitive beaks are cut off without anesthetics.
When you choose to eat meat, you are literally putting your right to
choose above another’s right to live. You may say, “but these are just
animals.” I ask you to look into their eyes and tell me. Is that not
fear? Do they not suffer? They know what is coming when they walk up
the chute to slaughter. They hear the noises. They smell the blood.
It is important that we begin to live as though we are interconnected
with each other, the animals, and the planet. Because we are. My
choices for what goes inside my body affect more than just me.
I’m not saying personal rights aren’t important. In fact, that’s the
opposite of what I’m saying. But my right to choose ends where
another’s nose begins. Just as my rights do not extend to me being
legally allowed to beat someone up, so to should my right to choose what
I eat not extend to choices which devastate the environment, take food
from the hungry, and torture and murder other beings.