So, earlier this year I was volunteering on a stall for an animal charity, and was discussing eating habits with lots of passers by. A women asked what the charity was about, to which I said "a Vegan animal charity' and she replied "I come from a family of animal farmers". I interpreted this as that she wasn't really interested in the charity, or willing to try a vegan lifestyle, because she comes from a family that farm animals.
This got me thinking about other conversations I have had in the past, where people have said "Oh I come from a big meat-eating family' or 'its part of my countries culture' as reasons to justify eating animals. Wrongly, their actions are based on following traditions or what is considered the 'norm', instead of assessing life and food choices, and having their own individual outlook based on logic. An attitude that says 'everyone else is doing it' or 'my family have always eaten this way' to justify their actions is limited and doesn't make sense. An example of this is say, lets go back in time to when slavery was legal in America. I am living in this time, and I am white. I go to a talk and theres a stall there, I ask what its about, and they say 'equal rights for all humans'. To which I reply 'my family run a big pea plantation, with 100's of human slaves working the land', 'also my family has lots of slaves that clean the house and do the cooking, we have had slaves in out family for years, its the norm'. That acceptance of human slavery is not based on logic, but traditions and the so called norm.
Now back to the present and a lot of my elder relatives and family ate/eat meat, but I took a step back from what they considered the 'norm' and gave up eating dead animals. I gave it up because I view it as illogical, cruel, unnecessary, weird and abnormal.
The next time this topic is brought up I will remember to remind the people that they are not traditions, they can do different things than their families, that they are an individual and that they should question the so called 'norms'.
This got me thinking about other conversations I have had in the past, where people have said "Oh I come from a big meat-eating family' or 'its part of my countries culture' as reasons to justify eating animals. Wrongly, their actions are based on following traditions or what is considered the 'norm', instead of assessing life and food choices, and having their own individual outlook based on logic. An attitude that says 'everyone else is doing it' or 'my family have always eaten this way' to justify their actions is limited and doesn't make sense. An example of this is say, lets go back in time to when slavery was legal in America. I am living in this time, and I am white. I go to a talk and theres a stall there, I ask what its about, and they say 'equal rights for all humans'. To which I reply 'my family run a big pea plantation, with 100's of human slaves working the land', 'also my family has lots of slaves that clean the house and do the cooking, we have had slaves in out family for years, its the norm'. That acceptance of human slavery is not based on logic, but traditions and the so called norm.
Now back to the present and a lot of my elder relatives and family ate/eat meat, but I took a step back from what they considered the 'norm' and gave up eating dead animals. I gave it up because I view it as illogical, cruel, unnecessary, weird and abnormal.
The next time this topic is brought up I will remember to remind the people that they are not traditions, they can do different things than their families, that they are an individual and that they should question the so called 'norms'.
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