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A food lover chews down the veganism propaganda

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Samarth Mahajan
Samarth MahajanDec 13, 2016 | 08:31

A food lover chews down the veganism propaganda

Food is central to the human experience of this world. Humans not only eat to survive, but also use food as a source of happiness. Societies develop close relationships with cuisines. When these relationships are challenged, hostility can disrupt peace.

I experienced such a disruption during a recent critical thinking class. I was intently listening to colleagues, consecutively analyzing Babette’s Feast, a brilliant film that culminates in a food orgy, when Roshni came up to the dais.

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The fantasy of “Potage à la Tortue” and “Caillesen Sarcophage” was broken by her proposition: “The film is morally bankrupt. Humans, as moral creatures, shouldn’t increase animal suffering. Veganism is the way forward.”

Ask any biryani lover what he (I will use “he” for representation purposes, though “she” is equally appropriate) would do for a plate of Hyderabadi biryani, or a kebab lover, what he could give away for a plate of the tastiest burra kebab.

Chances are that the conversation could end up in the barter of life and death. Roshni’s claim created an irrepressible churning of thoughts in my stomach. Though I realised the need to understand veganism better before putting across any point, I could not stop myself from taking a dig.

Me: Why don’t you adopt Jainism? Jains don’t even hurt microbes.

She: I do as much as I can.

Roshni was right. What was the harm in doing as much as one could? I clearly needed to understand the vegan ideology better. By this time our instructor had taken offence that her class was being used for vegan propaganda, and on seeing us engage in a heated to and fro, she asked us to leave. I left the class, but the dissonance pushed me to understand veganism and debunk its authenticity as the way forward.

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Vegans are vegetarians who do not use animal products or byproducts. A vegan diet is often termed elitist. Estimates show that it is so expensive and inaccessible that 99 per cent of the world population cannot sustain on it.

Another commonly cited shortcoming is malnourishment due to lack of important nutrients, especially proteins, in a vegan diet. My propositions are not based on vegan elitism or incompleteness of diet, for these inhibit people from adopting veganism, not due to their disbelief in vegan politics but, due to practical constraints. I will put across findings that question the fundamentals of the vegan ideology.

First things first. There is no moral stand to defend animal cruelty. That is why many perpetrators of veganism use videos of industrial farm killings, viral documentaries like Earthlings, to convert people’s faith in their food.

To identify other answers to reducing animal suffering I created a chart representing the amount of suffering that an individual can cause.

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Veganism is an arbitrary point on this scale. If we take into account (i) crop farming deaths (farming grains and pulses cause at least 25 times more animal deaths), (ii) effects of pesticide runoff on aquatic life, (iii) use of animals in farming, (iv) habitat interference caused by agriculture, and the fact that insects and bivalves (seafood like shells, clams etc.) do not feel pain, then it makes sense to substitute grains and vegetables with insects and bivalves in a vegan diet.

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No research has proven that plants feel pain, and the same holds true for insects and bivalves. If the “ewww” factor of eating insects stops a vegan from executing his duties as a moral human being, then I doubt his intentions’ purity.

Moreover, harvesting bivalves is beneficial to water quality. Thus, we have a strong case for vego-bivalvism, which is a term I made up. After all, who does not like to father an ideology?

A strong believer in reducing animal suffering should not stop at veganism, but either take the steps mentioned above, or practice veganic permaculture, and in extreme cases even freeganism.

Since the decision to adopt veganism is arbitrary, it should be equally fine if one decides to consume less meat, or eat animal products produced via humane methods. I do advocate the reduction of factory farm diet, because it is not only produced in morally dubious ways, but also unnaturally, leaving long-term health effects on the consumer.

Apart from being an arbitrary yardstick of measuring human compassion, veganism is unsustainable for the planet. This runs contrary to devoted vegans’ belief.

The basis of the first study is to calculate the emissions based on calories, which equates a few slices of bacon with almost 14 cans of lettuce, which is quite irrational. A more balanced view can be traced to the researcher behind the study who quips, “You can’t lump all vegetables together and say they’re good. You can’t lump all meat together and say it’s bad.”

This is so because producing some vegetables is more harmful to the environment compared to consuming some types of non-vegetarian food, and vice-versa.

Another study shows that vegetarian or omnivorous diets can ensure that more humans are fed, when compared to a vegan diet.

Apart from the propositions that prove veganism is not only an arbitrary step in reducing animal suffering but also unsustainable for the planet, we need to understand the repercussions of fundamentalism.

History is fraught with examples of individuals, or groups, holding on tightly to an untested ideology and repenting later, longing for a time which cannot be repossessed. Uninhibited belief in nationalism, consumerism, and any “vain”-ism have led to personal, political and environmental crises.

Ideologies that ignore the finitude of human understanding are bound to yield catastrophic results for the planet, and thus humanity, which includes food lovers like me, and possibly you.

“I cannot comprehend fundamentalism. It's fundamentally wrong” - John Lydon

Last updated: December 13, 2016 | 08:31
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