Posts from January 2006


honoring the animal?
28 January 2006

Okay, before we get to your (ir)regularly scheduled blogging, just one quick bit of shameless self-promotion….we’re like all famous and shit! Oh yeah, we’re in issue #10 of Herbivore Magazine, in the article about the “new faces of veganism” alongside genuine vegan celebrities Isa Chandra Moskowitz and Sarah Kramer. Fuck yeah! (And to think, all it took was a case of booze to the editor and a metallica mix tape….josh is such a push-over).

Okay, now back to your regularly-scheduled programming.

It feels like forever since I’ve posted here. Ummm, maybe because it has been forever since I’ve posted here. For better or worse, the podcast seems to eat most of my free time, and what little free time isn’t eaten by the podcast is consumed by the forums. But no matter, you don’t want to hear my wussy sob-stories and all that strum und drang or whatever.

Whining aside, I thought it was about time for me to write an entry on this flaky stuff that I see or hear every so often about “honoring an animal” by eating it. Though I’ve heard this before, it also came up most recently a few months back when we were on the Virato Live! show out of Asheville, NC. On the show, the host, Virato, related to us the story of a rabbi who was served pork at a dinner that he was invited to. Rather than shunning the pork, Virato told us, the rabbi went on at length about how the animal wasn’t killed specifically for him, and how it was likely a greater harm to refuse the ‘sacrifice’ of the animal. Thinking this, the rabbi then proceeded to consume the pork, and—I remember this pretty vividly—Virato told us that he let the juices run down his chin as he savored every bite, honoring the animal that was killed to provide the meal.

I’ve heard similar stories from flaky-lefty friends who’ve told me that some Buddhists will consume meat because it wasn’t killed specifically for them (thus, preserving their karmic integrity), or that other vegetarians have eaten meat when it was served to them, seeing a greater harm in refusing a host and wasting food than killing an animal.

Though none of you will be surprised to read this, I think this is a total load of crap.

If you want to honor an animal, the best way to honor it is by not eating it. And while I get it about being rude to hosts, I don’t think one should collapse on one’s ethics just to preserve social harmony. Very few animals are killed specifically for one person, moreover. The nature of contemporary meat production means that we’re distant from the meat that we eat; therefore, one could always excuse meat eating if all one is concerned about is the meat not being killed specifically for them.

In a sense, it is contract killing but without a specific target.

The best way to honor animals is to treat them as companions rather than wrapping some soft-headed new-agey crap justification around your desire to eat meat.

  Posted by Bob Torres    Permalink    Filed under: categories

The joy of being vegan
15 January 2006

A few weeks back, I was re-reading the book Dreaming in Cuban by Christina Garcia, and I was struck by this passage:

"She doesn't like to admit to herself that, despite all her activities, she sometimes feels lonely. Not the loneliness of previous years, of a reluctant life by the sea, but a loneliness borne of the inability to share her joy."

I immediately thought to myself that this really explains why many vegans feel lonely or isolated. Amongst many of the complex emotions that the notion of veganism brings out (sadness, horror, anger, peace), joy is definitely one of them, but many people would never suspect it. To the omni or the vegetarian, veganism seems like a hardship; it is a life of deprivation rather than abundance and fulfillment, of bitterness and sorrow rather than joy and serenity.

But vegans know otherwise. If you speak with a vegan (although I'm sure there are the odd exceptions as there is with any generalization), they will most certainly tell you that going vegan was one of the best decisions of their lives. They are extremely happy not to participate in what they consider to be horrendous practices of cruelty to other beings, they feel peace at mealtimes and going about their daily lives, and they are happy to have awoken to a new abundance of foods and flavors. This isn't to say that we don't feel sad or angry when we think about the realities of factory farming or other cruel enterprises, or that we don't sometimes get pessimistic about change for the future. Nevertheless, most vegans are extremely happy to be vegan, and want to share this experience.

Many times, we try to convey this sense of joy to others, but they just don't understand. Even if they can see our happiness at our decision, they can't participate in it because they have no sense as to how we can feel this way. Thus we get questions like "but don't you miss meat/milk/cheese?" No, not in the least. "But I want to enjoy life and eat whatever I want." But I do eat whatever I want and I do enjoy life - I just don't want to eat meat or dairy or eggs. Nothing had to suffer for my meal and that makes me happy. It is refreshing to me to talk to other vegans since I do not feel so alone in my joy for these things. Now we just need other people to understand this side of veganism so we aren't dismissed as the weirdo who has gone too far. I think simple things like sharing good vegan food and responding positively to queries about our veganism (when possible) can help.

Btw, Dreaming in Cuban is an excellent novel and I highly recommend it if you haven't read it before.

  Posted by Jenna Torres    Permalink    Filed under: categories

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