Lindsey Britt is the founder of Compassionate Dining, a Brattleboro-based volunteer group inspiring people to eat compassionately, healthfully, and sustainably by increasing the availability of plant-based menu options as well as the demand for those options. Learn more at compassionatedining.com, and add your name at tinyurl.com/supportplantbased. Attend their next event, "Celebrating Community, Addressing Stereotypes: A Meal and Talk with VINE Sanctuary" at Brooks Memorial Library, 224 Main St., Brattleboro, on Monday, Nov. 10 at 5:30 p.m.
BRATTLEBORO-A little over 10 years ago, it became clear to me there was a major source of cognitive dissonance in my life, but that luckily there was an immediate step I could take to alleviate some of that discordancy.
The problem: I wasn't treating farmed animals, the Earth that was used to raise them, or the people in that industry as I would like to be treated.
The solution: to stop consuming animal products.
I know from talking to people that this dissonance exists for many of us, but it can be scary to acknowledge. For me, a complete change didn't happen instantaneously; however, starting to eat a plant-based diet made so much sense that I couldn't ignore the dissonance, and I started rapidly shifting to that way of living.
When I looked more deeply at veganism, I realized how much it lived at the intersection of a wide variety of issues that I cared deeply about: climate change, environmental justice, human rights, how society treats and values (or doesn't) the bodies of females, peace and nonviolence.
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I won't attempt to cover all the facts or compelling ethical reasons for choosing to eliminate or at least reduce animal products from our diets, but I'll share a few reasons I continue to choose to go this route:
• Animal agriculture is an inefficient use of land and resources. Estimates vary, but all point to a plant-based diet considerably reducing the amount of land used for agriculture and (by as much as seven-eighths!) a person's greenhouse-gas footprint.
• Cows, like human mothers, have a natural right to nurture their offspring and they produce milk intended only for the babies they give birth to. So their calves must be taken away (and they might be killed) in order for their milk to be maximally available for human consumption. The cows are caught in a cycle of insemination, gestation, birth, removal, and milking.
• The meat industry exposes workers to daily violence and unsafe working conditions.
• Farmed animals consume 5 times more food than the entire human population, and 3.5 billion people could be fed with food grown on land currently used to grow animal feed, according to the United Nations.
• Non-human animals are not simply resources for human consumption, as industry would have us believe, but are beings in their own right and, as the sage author Terry Tempest Williams warns us, if we fail to make this connection and recognize the dignity of the Other then we will commit "[d]aily acts of destruction and brutality."
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As someone who finds the world to be pretty confusing, scary, and illogical most of the time, I search for ways to bring sense and order to my day-to-day life. That veganism connects so many issues means that adopting it was a no-brainer for me. My sincerely held beliefs would now be expressed every day through my food choices.
"You may choose to look the other way but you can never again say you did not know," William Wilberforce said in a speech to the English House of Commons in 1789. Like Wilberforce, once I know something I'm aware that I can no longer pretend to be ignorant.
Knowing the truth about animal agriculture and how it conflicted with a host of other beliefs I held meant that continuing as an omnivore wouldn't be tenable for me. The cognitive dissonance would be too great.
I can't exert much control over the actions of others, but I can at least try to bring consistency to my own actions.
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This doesn't mean it's always easy or that I don't sometimes question my actions. It would be easier if more people were vegan, because then, presumably, family gatherings and going out to eat would be simpler since there'd be more plant-based options.
I'd love to go into a shoe store and find an ample selection of shoes not made from the hides and glues of non-human animals. It would be great to not have people judge and belittle a choice that expresses my compassion and belief in nonviolence; that judgment can feel very confusing.
These situations can be frustrating, but ultimately they are more tolerable than pretending to be ignorant.
I know that over time those frustrations will decrease. More people will choose to eat a primarily-plant-based diet, and some will choose veganism as they make the same connections I did or as they realize that forgoing animal products isn't about some attempt to be perfect - that's impossible. Rather, it's about trying to do better each day by living out our values.
Curiosity about a new way of being can take root in each of us. Maybe it starts with replacing one regularly purchased product or choosing the vegan option when dining out. From there curiosity can grow into commitment as a person gains confidence in making new choices. We learn how to incorporate what we've learned into a life that makes more sense for us and the world around us.
What starts out as small steps can turn into big strides toward nonviolence, compassion, and respect. We know that while perfect is unattainable, better is within our reach by taking even one small step.
This Voices Essay was submitted to The Commons.
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