CONCLUSIONS: FOOD FOR THOUGHT

Vaid Bharath

It is not easy for one to understand, much less appreciate, the ethical, aesthetic, nutritional, economical nor medicinal way of life that is vegetarian.

Though when confronted with facts and visions of an ideal way of life as are presented in such a symposium we cannot help but be proud or humiliated by our contribution to the Lord’s creation.
If humiliated, it is because of a loss of identity with nature, a degeneration of consciousness to that of mere animalism and the depersonalisation of life to ease its domination and exploitation.

Man’s consciousness has forever been perverted, but to an even greater extent today. We are continually subjugated with commercial garbage, telling us how to live our lives, and we constantly fall victims to their euphemisms which hide many a lie and which make transparent to us the atrocities and deceptions involved.

We have therefore to understand the true meaning of life and the relation in which we as humans are associated with the whole and not merely lead a life based on the dumbfounded suppositions of ignorant materialists. We have to realise all living entities are part of this whole, each one on par, quantitatively equal to another, yet evolved to varying degrees to attain a unique quality. This concept of equality is based on the existence of the soul, the spark of life. When nature is depersonalised and life viewed by man as mere objects to be manipulated, used and abused to his own ends, he is not fulfilling a life dictated by his unique quality, a quality of great consciousness meant for understanding God and loving and caring for his creation.

Thus one of the questions always asked of me is “Why do I eat plants? For this is also taking a life?” Caring for God’s creation means minimising the suffering we cause in this our life. Firstly, most foods are nicely placed on the plants for us to pick, hence it is obviously not killed, and secondly (as is obvious and scientifically proven), the pain induced in slaughtering a cow or harvesting some grain is in no way comparable.

Another argument constantly put forth by non-vegetarians is the ability of animals to transform ‘humanly unusable nutrients’ into high grade protein for man. On the contrary, the highest quality food sources are fed to animals. For instance, in U.S.A. 78% of all grain produce are fed to animals, on average 16 pounds of grain or 21.4 pounds of protein are fed to cattle to produce one pound of meat. This is protein production in its reverse gear. Hence it leaves many millions starving, on the brink of death every minute of every day. It has been estimated that if the Americans were to reduce their meat consumption by 10% it would free at least 14 million tons of grain for human consumption or enough to feed 60 million people. Put another way, the food fed to animals during their life-time (usually only weeks) represents one cup of cooked food for every human being on this planet for every day of the year. Also the mere fact that the land is wasted; for instance, one acre used for vegetable production will yield 20 times more protein than the same acre used for meat production, or the growth of cash crops, tea, coffee, etc., in areas where millions are starving, does not deter man from his continual exploitation and greed.

The land also, in the form of forests, is today becoming a rare sight. This raping of our planet, in the order of thousands of acres every hour and for the sake of keeping many a millionaire employed, is not only destroying our wildlife and birds, but is also threatening to tip the ecological balance of nature towards man’s ultimate destruction.

Misconceptions continue to flow, however, and one of the most underestimated crimes committed to animals is their excessive breeding. Many people seem to think that animals who are born to be slaughtered, should be glad for their lease of life on this earth. But how do they come into being? Thus goes the scenario: a group of female stock will be secured, with their heads tightly braced between two iron bars. Potent males are then given a free reign to carry out what is supposed to be a natural and loving process of life in the crudest and most degrading torture any living entity will ever have to live through. Such is the indignity of man.

To those who swear as being animal lovers and yet persist in meat-eating, what can one say but hope that the apparent contradictions will be soon realised. And to those who lovingly keep pets, giving sometimes more affection than is usually afforded a human being, but who pay for thousands of whales to be harpooned or cows to be slaughtered, by dog-food salesmen disregarding life for personal gains, in reality knows not the essence of true love of life.

Finally, I wonder if we asked of meat-eaters, letting their inner feelings emerge, to visit a slaughter house and witness the suffering, injustice and uncleanliness, or better still, as gratification of the senses is more important than life itself, to perform the slaughtering of their own food, how many vegetarians we would have today in this world? By nature man is not conditioned to kill animals for his food, hence we let the degenerates of society do our dirty work while we hide behind a wall of euphemisms trying to disguise their true semantics.

Essentially the message is one of love. The more that we give is the more that will be returned. For the seeds of destruction will certainly grow on a mountain built from gratification and hatred. So I urge the cessation of this needless slaughter unless we wish to repay it with our untimely demise.
Not to end on too sad a note though, we sincerely hope that this, a humble gathering of thoughts on vegetarianism from many a field, will serve to elucidate the strengths of the subject matter, and to eliminate many of its associated myths.

In hopes that we may live to love!