It is a fact that all plant foods have all 20 essential and non-essential amino acids, period. By examining such facts, day by day, we are beginning to see that there is no reason to use animals for any human purpose whatsoever. This is why animal use is animal abuse.
The current education system is deeply rooted in the archaic idea that it is
necessary to exploit animals for our human well-being. The presence of useless
animal experimentation requirements and the absence of plant-based nutrition
training in core medical curricula illustrate this foundational bias.
Nevertheless, it is jarring to see the following sentence in the middle of a
well reasoned article written by a respected academic from an Ivy League
institution in a mainstream journal:
“That will mean transitioning our current system of highly consolidated,
intensive-confinement animal factories with its vast manure lagoons to a
well-managed, pasture-based system with significantly fewer animals.”
The author is Viveca Morris, Executive Director of the Law, Ethics and Animals
Program (LEAP) at Yale Law School and her article entitled, “The Cow Shaped Hole
in Biden’s Methane Plan” exposed how the Biden administration was downplaying
the methane emissions from animal agriculture through a statistical sleight of
hand, courtesy of the Environmental Protection Agency. Yet even she threw in
that “well-managed, pasture-based” sop to the animal agriculture industry, even
though Ethics is embedded in the title of the program she leads at Yale
University. She couldn’t imagine transitioning to a whole-foods, plant-based,
healthy vegan food system that eliminated animal agriculture altogether.
If we can live and even thrive without exploiting animals, should we not
consider it unethical to continue doing so? The common excuse we’re given for
humanity’s continued exploitation of animals is that animal bodies and
secretions are an essential source of that “most vital of all nutrients,
protein.” To address this concern, I prepared a “Guess the Protein” quiz for the
Climate Healers’ Earth Day presentations at schools next week.
From the three amino acid profiles shown in the graphic above, A, B & C, can you
guess which is an animal food protein, which is a vegetable food protein and
which is a fungus protein?
Indeed, it is a fact that all plant foods have all 20 essential and
non-essential amino acids, period. By examining such facts, day by day, we are
beginning to see that there is no reason to use animals for any human purpose
whatsoever. This is why animal use is animal abuse.
James Lovelock correctly pointed out that if the earth improves as a result of
human presence, we will flourish; if it does not, we will perish. To ensure the
earth improves as a result of human presence, we need to train ourselves to
become Vitally Engaged Guardians of Animals and Nature (V.E.G.A.N), not the
compulsive exploiters of animals and nature that our current education system
fools us to be.
That might require an entirely new education system, especially at the
University level, with new curricula focused on all aspects of becoming
V.E.G.A.N. A group of us brainstormed about this over the weekend and you are
welcome to look through our proposal, listen to our deliberations and join the
google group, if you are interested to help pursue this further. As Eric Hoffer
said,
“In times of change, learners inherit the earth, while the learned find
themselves beautifully equipped to deal with a world that no longer exists.”
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