Wednesday, March 16, 2016

Connecting with a Vegan conundrum


This article is addressed mainly to my fellow vegans. I'm wondering if other vegans have the same issue I do with acceptance of non-vegan eating habits. I'm normally a very accepting person. I believe firmly that people have every right to make their own choices. However, I've found myself teetering on the brink of “intolerance” since going vegan. The problem is that what other people eat impacts me personally. That makes it my business, right?

Research shows that a meat based diet has a huge impact on the environment when compared with other human behaviors. I know that I should accept other people's choices, and yet, those choices are not simply bad for them. They are bad for the entire planet, myself included. This is not a rumor, a strictly vegan viewpoint or a ploy to turn everyone vegan. It's a scientific fact. It's been proven many times over.

So, should we vegans be subjected to a depleted ozone, tainted water and toxic air just because someone can't give up hamburgers? It doesn't seem quite right when we're doing all we can to protect the earth.

On the other hand, I have no wish to offend or belittle my non-vegan friends and family.

So, do we vegans accept that our non-vegan friends have a right to their choices, even though their choices are having a negative impact on our own quality of life?

Do we speak up and refuse to accept the choices of our non-vegan friends, since their choices directly impact our own present and future?

Is it right to stand by and watch, while non-vegans ruin the planet over their food preferences? Would we be expected to remain idle while having knowledge of any other threat to the planet or our own well-being?

It's not always simple or even right to kindly and gently accept the choices of others. So, my fellow vegans, how do you solve this conundrum?


2 comments:

  1. I'm not even all the way vegan yet, but even now whenever I watch people eat beef bacon or pork it really bothers me. I hate preparing meat of any kind now. I just realize how unnecessary it is for our health, detrimental in fact, now from personal experience. But I don't want to force anyone to change. I'm just not going to deal with buying or preparing it anymore for others. Tough love I guess you could call it.

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  2. I hear that, Rich. Why should we be forced to accommodate others in a way that compromises our own beliefs?

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