Wrong Again!

When I began learning about how our system negatively affects all other Earthlings and Earth itself, I gave society in general way too much credit and thought they would also be absolutely horrified about the cruelty, injustice, lack of morality, the environmental damage, the health risks, and the burden they are forcing upon their kids and grandkids. I thought they’d want to continue to have breathable air and clean water. I didn’t think they’d be passive when they learned about our collapsing plastic ocean. I thought they’d have empathy when they were told of others that are being abused, enslaved, starved, and/or forced from their homes. I definitely thought there would be concern for our building antibiotic resistance problem, or the potential and actual superinfections that are causing people to die from once treatable microorganisms. I felt sure people would rally to slow the ever-increasing Dead zones and brackish waterways, to help stop the utter eradication of our rainforests. I didn’t think people would be submissive when it came to cruelty to animals, or not see the senselessness of irrationally destroying a gentle innocent soul who clear FEELS emotions deeply, just as we do. I assumed they’d worry about their children and grandchildren when told of how Earth’s resources are being squandered purely for corporate interests/profits. Even if people were just purely selfish and truly apathetic, I felt SURE they’d at least be concerned about the large doses of pesticides, other chemicals, bacteria, viruses, and even the fecal matter infecting their food, the lies about cancer and other diseases and about nutrition, putting profits over people regardless of known harm or potential harm...

...but many still reject knowledge and staunchly refuse to accept responsibility.

Waiting for the world to awake...

Photo taken at Maple Farm Sanctuary September 2013.

Whaaa...???

I’d be OK with killing the mentally disabled. After all, they aren’t like us. Some of them don’t seem to have the same senses we do. They cannot grasp my language as I do. They express love and suffering differently, and their suffering is not comparable to ours since we cannot always adequately decipher their expression of such. Additionally, despite their assumed intellectual inferiority, their biologic make up is the exact same as any other animal species – flesh and blood and bone. Therefore, I think we can safely assume they are worthless and can be killed. Whatever we decide to do with them is fine with me – eat them, make a coat from their skin, etc. The organisms in their flesh will not harm us if we cook them long enough, and we are overpopulated as it is.

The only instance I would not support killing them is if they can be used for something. Even though I refuse to accept their expression of pain and/or suffering, I will still say it is OK if we can electrically shock them (just a little, just to help teach them) or selectively feed them to train them into becoming something that holds meaning for us - perhaps if we scare them (just a little) they will work our gardens for us, or become some kind of court jester to entertain us.

Since they have no other purpose we would actually be helping them, and clearly that is all we want to do – help them and be kind to them. We humans are special, and that alone makes this somewhat random criterion OK. This is NOT the same as such horrors as Nazi Germany, etc…in those cases aware and high-thinking human beings were harmed, and I am only talking about those beings who are considered inferior. That is totally different.

If anyone questions you about your choices to eat or use the disabled, gives you all that “thou shalt not kill” bullshit, or talks to you about justice and kindness and morality – cover your ears quickly and shout “blah blah blah”, then share a copy of this with them, surely then it will all make perfect sense.

Ex-vegan? I Doubt It!

If one is claiming to be an "ex-vegan" then I don't think they actually ever went "vegan" in the first place, no matter how long they may have called themselves "vegan".

Why? Because no vegan becomes an ex-vegan, if they became vegan for vegan reasons!!!

I take the word vegan personally – it MEANS something beyond what I eat or wear…being vegan is WHO I AM. Being vegan is reflective of my morals and embodies everything that matters to me, and should rightfully matter to all of us – compassion, love, nonviolence, and respect for our body and for our planet.

I have heard it said, and worth repeating – just as one would shrink, appalled, from a murderer of children, I now shrink, appalled, from any oppression or murder of the innocent.

Would you change your mind tomorrow and decide murdering children was OK?

No?

Well, that is how I feel about being vegan.

Vegan for life!

But Cheese Tho

Answer: Not at all.

For vegans, as we realized the reality and side effects of eating meat and cheese, we stopped. Why would we ever knowingly and intentionally harm another?

Vegan cheeses continue to get better and better every day, but that is immaterial. Substitute or not, we are not the type of people to be so self-absorbed to cause another suffering or oppression because of unnecessary, irrational, and unhealthy addictions.

Cheese is not *food* to vegans - it is a block of rotting pus-filled oil composed of the bodily secretions of a once-sentient being, likely full of chemicals and an array of microorganisms. Blech…!!!

What is much more inspiring is a plant-powered lifestyle that is better suited towards the morals most say we hold – trying to help others, not intentionally harming any being, and saving lives.

Being vegan is awesome! <3

But God Intended Us to Use Animals!

 

I am not very religious, but even in the absence of any devout ritual or religion, I have, as with everything else, tried to be informed. The subject of religion is especially sensitive to many vegans, as many humans use God(s) as their reason and justification to be cruel to other beings and destructive to our planet, or be passive in the face of so much suffering.

 

Personally, I don’t care if you worship Satan, if you are Christian, Jewish, or Muslim, an Atheist, etc. I simply hope that you are a moral and kind person who accepts responsibility for your part and your choices.

 

I believe all vegan advocates have had the frustrating experience of hearing someone declare, "God made animals for people. We're supposed to eat/use animals."

 

However, The Bible describes the Garden of Eden as vegetarian (Genesis 1:29-30), and the prophet Isaiah envisioned a similarly peaceful end of time, when the Messiah will come and "the wolf shall lie with the lamb" and "the lion shall eat straw like the ox" and "they shall not hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain." (Isaiah 11:6-9)

 

Also consider: Genesis: "Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit; you shall have them for food. And to every beast of the earth, and to every bird of the air, and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food."

 

But it isn’t just about the act of killing and violence ("Thou shalt not kill") - In his book, "Dominion" - a magnificent and hard-hitting argument for veganism through a religious lens - Matthew Scully writes: "Modern farming isn't just killing: It is negation, a complete denial of the animal as a living being with his or her own needs and nature."

 

When Pope Benedict XVI was asked about the rights of animals in a 2002 interview, he said, "That is a very serious question. Animals, too, are God's creatures…this degrading of living creatures to a commodity seems to me in fact to contradict the relationship of mutuality that comes across in the Bible."

 

Compassion for animals was also a prominent theme in John Paul II’s papacy. Pope John Paul proclaimed that "the animals possess a soul and men must love and feel solidarity with our smaller brethren." He went on to say that all animals are "fruit of the creative action of the Holy Spirit and merit respect" and that they are "as near to God as men are."

 

Strong compassionate people of faith should persistently and respectfully encourage their church communities to study and reflect on what their faith really teaches about humankind's proper relationship to nonhuman Creation and Earth.

 

Buddha, a known vegan, stated, "When a man has pity on all living creatures then only is he noble."

 

By their mere existence on Earth the animals and other creatures are a gift!!! Thus great men and women recognize that we owe them kindness. We should recall the gentleness with which saints like St. Francis of Assisi or St. Philip Neri treated animals…"It is contrary to human dignity to cause animals to suffer or die needlessly."

 

In our modern world, ALMOST ALL suffering and death of animals is unneeded!

 

Animals possess the divine spark of life - the living quality that is the soul - and they are not inferior beings, as factory farmers, fur farmers, and others who exploit animals for profit would have us believe. Animals have the ability to suffer and feel pain, to feel lonely and depressed, and to clearly demonstrate love for others and their families.

 

The Reverend Al Sharpton is a vegan and a compassionate soul. His dramatic weight loss and robust appearance of late is due to his vegan lifestyle. "We're paying for a life of misery for some of God's most helpless creatures," says Mr. Sharpton.

 

This all comes as America's churches are a becoming a starting point for a grassroots revolution in food production: From Methodists' support of compassion, to a recent statement by U.S. rabbis that humans should prevent animal suffering.

 

These movements align religious people with the morals and values they claim to hold. Gandhi once said, "It ill becomes us to invoke in our daily prayers the blessings of God, the Compassionate, if we in turn will not practice elementary compassion towards our fellow creatures."

 

Veganism is clearly a religious and spiritual ideal. There are many religious passages that oppose cruelty to animals and even more that praise compassion, kindness, and caring for the weak and the poor. When considering the harmful effects of animal agriculture on the Earth, world hunger, animal welfare, and human health, one could rather easily draw the conclusion that, if Jesus or God were among us today, he would be a vegan!!!

 

"According to religious people, God allows you to make free decision in your life...God allows bad and good things to happen, it's just up to you to interpret what the good things are and what are the bad...God may ‘allow’ this happen, but it doesn't mean he wants it to, that would be like saying he supports murderers, rapists, and pedophiles, too, simply because it ‘happens’."

- Author Unknown

 

Cardinal John Henry Newman eloquently expressed, "Cruelty to animals is as if humans did not love God."

 

Please choose a meaningful life living the values of compassion and with love for Earth and our fellow beings!!!

 

"If God intends us to eat meat, then God is either ignorant, irrational, or malevolent. If God doesn't know that eating meat causes heart attacks, cancer, strokes, etc., then he is ignorant about nutrition. If God knows that eating meat is harmful to our health but intends us to do it anyway, then either he is malevolent and wants bad things to happen to us, or he is irrational since, despite wanting us to be healthy, he intends us to eat a diet detrimental to our health. Since, by definition, God is neither ignorant nor irrational nor malevolent, it is incoherent to believe that God intends us to eat meat."

- Mylan Engel, Jr.

There is a Difference Between Veganism and Plant-Based Part 2!

When talking about nutrition and healthy eating, the proper term is ‘plant-based’, NOT ‘vegan’.

‘Plant-based’ refers to a way of eating that provides optimal nutrition for the human body and is NOT in dispute as to being the healthiest possible way to eat/obtain nourishment.

Vegans, however, do not necessarily care if they are healthy eaters. While most ARE [healthy eaters], this is mainly because they are generally more informed as to food production and nutritional needs - being “vegan” is NOT a description of what they ate for dinner or in any way a reference to nutrition. I myself have slipped in the past and said “vegan diet”, but that is very misleading as to the true meaning of these terms.

Plant-based is a healthy way of eating. Vegan is an ethical lifestyle that says we are opposed to the unnecessary abuse and/or murder of other sentient living beings, that we recognize each sentient being as an irreplaceable individual who we would surely love, hug, and comfort if we could...not abuse, enslave, or kill.

One is an ethical decision. The other is a scientific one. Both are good, for MANY reasons.

[go VEGAN!]

Ending the Health Crisis

I don’t only worry about animals, and the rainforests, and GMOs, and other humans who I do not know but try and advocate for…I worry about those I love. I am not so obnoxious to believe that my diet choices alone will save me from some horribly diseased death, I would NEVER even try to suggest that. What I will GUARANTEE is that the risk of many disease will instantly drop significantly and any current diseases, whatever they are, will very likely become better managed or even disappear. Science is science, and facts are facts.

No matter what plant-based person on the planet drops dead tomorrow from a heart attack, it does not change statistics or incidence of occurrence, and plant-based diets significantly lower the rate of occurrence of almost every type of disease there is. Heart attacks and cancer, commonly referred to as ‘Western” disease, because our ‘Western’ diet KILLS people. There are NO documented cases of heart disease reversal when following current AHA GUIDELINES. However, there are MULTIPLE documented cases of heart disease reversal – more science and facts. (see Dr. Esselstyn and many associated peer-reviewed studies)

The rates of the entire spectrum of diseases just grow and grow. Diabetes, MS, Alzheimer’s, Autism, Asthma…you name the disease, the rate is climbing and climbing. The deadly combination of an unhealthy diet and eating a tremendous amount of chemicals results in products that are barely recognizable as food anymore. This includes GMOs (several clinical trials are showing health status improvement just by avoiding GMOs), and also includes animal foods, which tend to be saturated in chemicals and medications, of many kinds - not just antibiotics, pesticides, and hormones - but many that the general public know nothing about (ammonia treatments, meat glue, carbon monoxide to make it stay pink and look fresh, pink slime filler, etc.).

People try EVERYTHING, including putting MORE chemicals in their body in the form of medications and supplements to control a rash of symptoms and health issues. Yet often these people view a plant-based diet as “extreme”. I have seen it mentioned, and worth noting – having your chest opened up and having items stitched into you, your body reconstructed mechanically, or taking certain medications or supplements without giving a shot to JUST EATING REAL FOOD first is what strikes me as “extreme”!!!

I recommend you EAT. Eat as much as you can, whenever you can, but avoid GMOs unless proven safe, avoid ‘animal foods’ (meat, dairy, etc.) in any form, and don’t eat a lot of heavy oils. That’s it. Give it a month or two. Yup, you may feel weird for a week or two. You may shit a lot…that’s your body thanking you and getting out the crap (lol – literally)! Nothing works overnight. Be as fair to this as you would to anything else you were shoving in your body and give it at least a few weeks to shape the truth of what it may or may not do for you.

I am NOT saying you NEVER do anything else to care for yourself or your health. There will always be genetic disorders and diseases that are uncontrolled. Medications and other measures may still be necessary; I understand this and am not discouraging anyone from ever taking a medicine! I just know how much of a difference a plant-based diet has made in many lives, and there are so many people whose lives could be improved. People seem to perceive my plant-based diet is hard, yet I see all the struggles and medication and diet regimes, and I think that is backwards! Following a plant-based diet is quite easy in comparison!

People will notice I have, for one of the first times, referred to myself or anyone as ‘plant-based.’ A plant-based diet is NOT vegan, as veganism is not a diet. Veganism is a lifestyle.

I wish every human on Earth came to me tomorrow and said, “I care about animals, and other humans, and the rainforest, and water quality, and soil depletion and compassion and our Earth’s resources, etc. I have checked the facts and I know how much harm I do with my choices every day, I want to be vegan.”

OF COURSE that would be a dream come true for me!!! OF COURSE I would want that result. I have often mentioned I am 100% ethical vegan. Regardless of my lifestyle choice this does NOT negate facts, and the FACT is that a plant-based diet (non-GMO plant-based whole foods) is the healthiest DIET that exists.

So, yup, I want the world to be vegan. I want everyone in the world to care as much as I do. I want to end the enslavement of other beings, end discrimination and oppression for ALL beings, end any purposeless killing, and stop the utter destruction and disrespect of our planet, and I make no secret of this.

But this post is about health, and ‘vegan’ or not – people still need to be informed of REALITY and SCIENCE.

I still believe and always will that decent people would change if they understood. But, until my perfect world can be obtained, I want people to know the truth, get the facts, get off the GMOs, chemicals, pesticides, hormones, antibiotics, preservatives, and ‘animal foods’ and let’s solve this health crisis!