Nilay's random gyan to me for the day: Being vegetarian or vegan is such hypocrisy. You are still killing to eat. Just because plants don't scream? You should basically just live on water.
When we were in Japan and finding vegetarian food was a struggle, the web taught me about shōjin ryōri. This is devotional cuisine prepared by monks in temples. It avoids the killing of plants. Tubers, for example, are a no-no. This has parallels with Jainism where the taking of any life is unacceptable.
This doesn't mean you have to live on water, as Nilay suggests. You can eat fruit, provided you don't destroy the seeds thereafter. This also means fruits like pomegranates and bananas, which cannot be consumed without conserving the seeds, are a no-no.
I'm far from an expert on the subject, being an atheist. But I do believe that we need to understand our supply chains well, in the context of climate change and the rampant use of chemicals. Pesticides used in agriculture kill insects, rodents and worms. Even though you're not directly eating an animal, your food is still produced using violence to various forms of plant and animal life. The destruction of plant and animal habitat in order to create farm land for food production - that karma is also on you buddy. When you consume food wrapped in plastic and the plastic ends up in the land or marine foodchain, it is again your problem. The pollution caused by the ships and trucks that bring your fruits and vegetables from the farthest corners of the world, refrigerated, is harming animal life through climate change. Buying local and organic is one way to reduce your pain-to-animals footprint, even as you eat vegetarian.
I find veganism to be a rather western reaction to the food problem. You don't wanna kill and eat animals or consume their products, because they have eyeballs and they bleed. It is a step ahead of vegetarianism, which somehow allows for the destruction of beehives and the slavery of cows and sheep, or even the consumption of leather, silk and wool. But it is a step behind really thinking through where your food is coming from, and what impact it has on the planet.
I suppose, in the end, it is better to eat roadkill from across the road, than organic quinoa from across the planet.
When we were in Japan and finding vegetarian food was a struggle, the web taught me about shōjin ryōri. This is devotional cuisine prepared by monks in temples. It avoids the killing of plants. Tubers, for example, are a no-no. This has parallels with Jainism where the taking of any life is unacceptable.
This doesn't mean you have to live on water, as Nilay suggests. You can eat fruit, provided you don't destroy the seeds thereafter. This also means fruits like pomegranates and bananas, which cannot be consumed without conserving the seeds, are a no-no.
I'm far from an expert on the subject, being an atheist. But I do believe that we need to understand our supply chains well, in the context of climate change and the rampant use of chemicals. Pesticides used in agriculture kill insects, rodents and worms. Even though you're not directly eating an animal, your food is still produced using violence to various forms of plant and animal life. The destruction of plant and animal habitat in order to create farm land for food production - that karma is also on you buddy. When you consume food wrapped in plastic and the plastic ends up in the land or marine foodchain, it is again your problem. The pollution caused by the ships and trucks that bring your fruits and vegetables from the farthest corners of the world, refrigerated, is harming animal life through climate change. Buying local and organic is one way to reduce your pain-to-animals footprint, even as you eat vegetarian.
I find veganism to be a rather western reaction to the food problem. You don't wanna kill and eat animals or consume their products, because they have eyeballs and they bleed. It is a step ahead of vegetarianism, which somehow allows for the destruction of beehives and the slavery of cows and sheep, or even the consumption of leather, silk and wool. But it is a step behind really thinking through where your food is coming from, and what impact it has on the planet.
I suppose, in the end, it is better to eat roadkill from across the road, than organic quinoa from across the planet.