Social justice movements are tenacious, brazen and most importantly — successful. Many of us baby boomers remember the enormous resistance we got from the “establishment” in the ’60s and ’70s. Today we are the establishment, and considering the far-reaching implications of our lifestyle choices, we now have to ask ourselves, what side of history do we want to be on?
Over the course of my lifetime, I have witnessed many societal changes here
in the U.S. — from civil rights, to women’s liberation, to the peace
movement, Earth Day, smoking bans, gay rights — all are historically
significant. Today we are on the verge of another enormous social change.
The trend is clear and the momentum is building as educated and caring
people are beginning to see non-human animals as feeling individuals with
their own desires and rights. They are shifting away from seeing them as
property and resources for food, clothing, experimentation or entertainment.
As baby boomers learned early on, we don’t need a majority of Americans
behind a cause to effect change; it occurs at a tipping point well below 50
percent. It actually requires almost single-digit percentage numbers to make
change possible throughout the entire country. As cultural anthropologist
Margaret Mead famously wrote, “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful,
committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that
ever has.”
Animal agriculture is wreaking havoc on Earth. With 8 billion humans
inhabiting the planet, we are running out of land and resources to produce
animal foods for the masses. As Michael Pollan, author of The Omnivore’s
Dilemma, says in the documentary Cowspiracy, our survival as a
species depends on drastically reducing animal food consumption “to about
two ounces a week.”
Other reasons people are embracing veganism are to feed the world’s hungry,
preserve peace, conserve natural resources, improve health, achieve
sustained weight loss, and to demonstrate love and compassion for all
animals.
Social justice movements are tenacious, brazen and most importantly —
successful. Many of us baby boomers remember the enormous resistance we got
from the “establishment” in the ’60s and ’70s. Today we are the
establishment, and considering the far-reaching implications of our
lifestyle choices, we now have to ask ourselves, what side of history do we
want to be on?
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