veganism

Gary Steiner, a professor of philosophy at Bucknell University, the author of Animals and the moral community: mental life, moral status and kinship, recently went even more public with his veganist worldview (Animal, vegetable, miserable in NY Times, Nov.21,2009). He is veganism’s visionary, he wants to be a missionary too. And missionaries are urgently needed because he knows only five true vegans, they call themselves ethical vegans. They consider it wrong to kill animals for human consumption, food as well as products made of animals (e.g. leather, silk and wool, cosmetics and medications). Ethical vegans believe that differences between humans and animals have no moral significance whatsoever.

I doubt that Gary feels closer to the animals than I do. Gary’s veganism is justified by the fact that he feels better about himself. Otherwise, he misses the point. It is exactly the notion that the difference between humans and animals is insignificant that vindicates animals being human food. In the natural food chain, every animal is food for someone else. Humans have somewhat escaped the delivery position in the chain, but human bodies are also recycled into nature. Besides, there is no significant difference between humans and plants either. Does he think that plants feel less just because a plant does not run away when frightened? Did he ever care about a plant and did he observe the plant’s reaction? Did he talk to her ?

 2009-11-29 

previous