“Visions of a Farming Past – and a Vegetarian Future” by Michael
Klaper, M.D. is a must read article in the winter 2009 issue of
“Health Science,” the membership journal of the National Health
Association.
Based on a speech given by Dr. Klaper to the New Zealand Vegetarian
Society on World Vegetarian Day, September 28, 2008 in Auckland, New
Zealand, this article takes the reader on a fascinating,
autobiographical journey from a childhood on an uncle’s dairy farm in
northern Wisconsin to a vegan lifestyle.
“On the farm I saw that no dairy cow dies of old age. My uncle would
keep each cow for a few years, getting as much milk and as many calves
from her as he could, and when their milk production began to fall off,
he called the knacker’s truck, and off they would go to be killed and
made into hamburger. In reality, the dairy barn was a short stopping off
place on the way to the slaughterhouse. Milk and meat – it was all the
same, blood-stained industry.”
After receiving his medical degree from the University of Illinois
College of Medicine in Chicago in 1972, his experience working at Cook
County Hospital, where victims of violence were brought to be treated,
“made an indelible impression” on him. The effects of violence were not
limited to the physical – there was “damage inflicted by mental,
emotional, and sexual trauma upon body, mind and spirit.”
His transformation was accomplished through facing the truth. In Dr.
Klaper’s words, after describing his awakening to the fact of fish on
lines fighting for their lives, “…if I wanted to stop lying to myself, I
found myself a vegan. Thankfully, I also found a world of delicious
vegan cuisine and soon began feeling lighter, happier, more in truth
with my inner knowing – and less complicit in something deeply hurtful
to the life that I had come to love.”
There is much more to the article, such as the deleterious effects of
industrial production of animals on soil and water. But Dr. Klaper is
hopeful that “…by becoming the change we want to see in the world – we
can help create a brighter future for us all.”
Also visit:
http://www.all-creatures.org/anex/index.html
For health articles, visit:
http://www.all-creatures.org/health.html
For great-tasting recipes, photos, and information, visit:
http://www.all-creatures.org/recipes.html
