Veganism vs. Violence “We are becoming casual about … violence.” — Norman Cousins Introduction towards nonhuman sentient beings. Slaughterhouses are unparalleled places People vary widely in their responses to of multifarious screaming, kicking from food. Many individuals regard the types both humans and others, horror, terror, of meals that they have enjoyed since blood, and guts. They are also violent to childhood with fondness and affection— humans, with the general chaos including the animal products such as resulting in the highest on-the-job meat, dairy, and eggs. Yet often that injury rate of any profession. warm feeling is superficial and fails to acknowledge the Many of many ways in these violent which violence is patterns first arguably interweaved implicated in many with our food choices. lives in the innocence of It would be bigoted youthful to assume that ignorance. violence can only They did for be executed against me. But do human beings. I they stand argue that animal up to mature agriculture is scrutiny? I violent towards its victims. If we doubt that anyone could provide any slaughtered humans for food—even if really good reason in favour of meat- we tried to do it so-called eating and the like. Part of why I “humanely”—there is no doubt we believe this will become apparent in the would call that violence. We would be course of this essay. kidding ourselves if we concluded that the exact same forms of treatment are This informal paper will defend the idea non-violent when they are directed that violence towards nonhuman animals for food and other unnecessary If we believe absurdities, products and services cannot be we shall commit atrocities. defended. I am not implying that there isFigure any form 1. of animal exploitation that is necessary, from a moral point of — Voltaire view.A liberated Medical cow. vi visection, searching for cures and treatments while harmfully eating though. There are people who using animals, is sometimes wrongly embrace veganism for health reasons considered to be “necessary.” But please alone, but I do not consider in this essay see the sister paper to this one, entitled, people who do not substantially care “Anti-Vivisection and Anti-Violence.” about violence towards nonhuman animals. Veganism versus Omnivorism The opposite of dietary veganism is not just “meat-eating,” since there are many What is veganism? The term was coined other animal products that people eat in 1944 by Englishman Donald Watson. besides so-called “meat”: dairy, eggs, The term vegetarian had been around for ocean creatures, honey, and animal- over a century, since 1837. Watson based additives to foods and drugs for wanted a word that did justice to people example. Melanie Joy, popular author who not only abstained from meat-eating, and speaker on veganism, calls carnism but also other products derived from the the opposing view to veganism. bodies of animals. However, this does Vegans are often not seem accurate. defined as not eating Our task must be to [widen] A carnivore eats animal products, but our circle of compassion to only meat, such as veganism is also embrace all living creatures the case of snakes, much more than that. who are true First, veganism is and the whole of nature in its carnivores. more of a non- beauty. Omnivores, violent lifestyle with however, eat both respect to nonhuman animal and plant animals than — Albert Einstein foods. So the avoiding animal opponents of vegans products. We can prove this. Many are ethical omnivorists, who maintain vegans breast-feed their children. Well, that it is ethically permissible, or breast milk is an animal product, albeit perhaps even desirable, to consume not a nonhuman animal product. nonhuman animal products. I will coin However, breast-feeding is non-violent my own term—omnivorism—as a and therefore vegan. If women were short-form of this other new term, exploited for their eggs or breast-milk, by “ethical ominivorism.” Omnivorism contrast, that would not be vegan. will include an implicit reference to ethics, especially: the morality of diet. Second, veganism has taken on a meaning that goes well beyond just eating, which was the original focus. It is Goliath a non-violent lifestyle including anti- vivisection, not wearing fur, leather or Tom Regan reckons that debating meat- wool, boycotting animal circuses, aquaria eating and so forth is: and zoos, and opposing hunting. Veganism is a holistic lifestyle, not just a …speaking out…against the way of eating. I will focus here on the enormously powerful forces of 2 social custom and personal habit. Here, surely, animal rights is David The greatness of a nation and and the vast wrong of meat eating is its moral progress can be Goliath.1 judged by the way its animals Animal agriculture accounts for more are treated. than 97% of animals killed by humans in 2 the U.S. According to many sources, — Mohandas Gandhi more than 50 billion animals are killed each year for eating in the U.S. alone. Agriculture Canada attests that 640 A Brief History of Non-Violence million—that’s 0.64 billion—animals are killed each year in my country, Canada. I will show how non-violence flows as The Toronto Vegetarian Association an implication of the major Western estimates that the average meat- theories of ethics. For now though, let eater’s lifetime kill-toll is: us look to the Orient for the origin of the principle. The principle of non- 12 cows violence emerged in a South 29 hogs Asian religion called Jainism more 2 sheep than five millennia ago in the 37 turkeys geographical area now 984 chickens known as India. The Jains 910 pounds of fish called this principle ahimsa in Sanskrit. Literally, ahimsa That much is about means non-injury, but many Goliath. have translated it as non- violence. Traditionally, non- “David” is getting bigger violence of the Jains applies too though. Of adults in to all sentient beings, or the United States, 2.5% entities who have are vegetarian, which is consciousness, and in about 4.5 million people.3 particular, affect (feelings, Slightly less than 1% were desires, preferences, and moods). vegan.4 And 4% of Canadians were Jain ahimsa has long been generally reported as vegetarian, which is about opposed to animal exploitation or 900,000 people.5 Alan Beardsworth and neglect. Jain animal sanctuaries in India Teresa Keil note that membership in the are not uncommon. Religious Jains British group, the Vegetarian Society, cannot be hunters, fishers, or trappers. jumped from 7,500 to 18,500 between They are vegetarian and often objected 1980 and 1995.6 Philosopher Tom Regan to Hindus engaging in animal sacrifice estimates that more than half of the world Figure 2. population is vegetarian.7 Jeremy Rifkin writes: “two out of every three human The raised hand stands as a symbol of beings on the planet consume a primarily non-violence for the Jains. Ahimsa in 8 the Sanskrit is artfully inscribed in the vegetarian diet.” palm. 3 over the ages. Yet Jains generally value have had a cultural blind- escaping it after death. spot about enslaving cows The Jains are atheists for milk, as with many but they nevertheless South Asians of that believe that each soul is region. It is rationalized in holy: infinitely ways that need not detain knowing, joyous, and us here. Although Jains compassionate in pure are a small part of the form. Of course one can population of India, they embrace non-violence are well respected and without subscribing to very widely recognized. any of the religious aspects of Jainism. Interestingly, Jains commonly believe that it However, it is is morally acceptable to absolutely necessary in use physical force in the history of ideas to defence, including in wars. credit the Jains with Exactly how this can be non-violence. Certainly defended will not be the notion never had any examined in this paper, important genesis in but it may well relate to Western thinking in a choosing the least of way that is so full of expected violence. An integrity as to include attacker is not only not non-violence to all innocent, as a rule, but beings to whom violence will generally inflict more could matter: sentient damage than someone beings. Presumably, simply seeking to restrain nothing—including or to end a threat. violence or the absence of it—matters to non- The Jain justification of sentient beings. non-violence is essentially compassion, although the Jain monks are much Jains also believe that more strict than violence causes householders. Lord people to gain bad karma. Karma literally Mahavir is especially revered as a “self- means “fruit,” that is, the fruit of action, conqueror” who exemplified ahimsa or what it results in from a causal since ancient times. perspective. In fact, the Jain theory of karma is that there are physical karman Figure 3. Top. particles that adhere to wrong-doers, A statue of Lord Mahavir. weighing them down, and preventing them from leaving this Earth when they Figure 4. Bottom. die. Like so many of their region, Jains are pessimists about this world and Jain monk with a face mask. 4 kinds of protests: non-violent and Some Jain monks wear face masks so violent alike. In any event, he became they do not breathe in micro-organisms. revered by millions and was given the In modern times, ahimsa or non-violence honorary title, Mahatma, which means has been most famously championed by “great soul.” Mohandas Gandhi. The latter himself was a Hindu, but he was happy to borrow An ethical vegetarian, Gandhi famously ahimsa from the Jains.