I'm in ur kitchenz, ruinin' ur grilled cheeze...

Someone recently asked me, "why? veganism" and "why isn't vegetarian good enough?" and "why are dairy and eggs a problem?" and a few other questions in that vein. I wasn't going to address it on the blog (because y'all are sick to death of it) but a recent revelation made me decide to put it up anyway. If you don't want your diet brought into question, stop here.

I have been a vegetarian off and on since 1986. Throughout those years, I have crossed over from omnivore to vegetarian to carnivore (stupid Atkins diet...) to vegan and back again. Each time I made those shifts, I became more and more convinced that removing meat and animal products from my diet was the right thing to do. Not just for my health, and not just for my own personal karma, but for the good of our species, and the good of this planet.

Lately, I have been straddling the line between vegan and vegetarian. I usually eat vegan, but when stressed, or pressed for time, I sometimes consume dairy and/or egg products. In fact, anytime I am in want of comfort food, dairy is my drug of choice, and cheese is my favorite hit.

When I unpacked that statement, I realize something pretty unpleasant about myself. I am in want of comfort foods mostly when I am exhausted, lonely, sick, or emotionally wrung out in some way. In other words, I eat dairy when I am suffering. Not unusual, really; a lot of people turn to fatty, salty foods when they want to be comforted.

It's when you look at what milk really is, how it comes to your refrigerator via the local arm tentacle of your godless corporate conglomerate, that it becomes clear that our comforts are pretty unsavory. The dairy industry is horrific (go here and check out the podcasts if you somehow missed that memo) and the gooey, stringy cheese that pats me on the head and tells me everything will be ok, is the product of that horror. Disappointing, that. The conclusion it leads to is quite depressing...

I counter my suffering by enjoying the suffering of other creatures.

I am hurting, so I lash out at others who have no connection to my pain. Looking only at the link immediately before us, and not considering the rest of the causal chain, allows us to perpetrate this violence upon innocents without remorse. We would never tolerate this kind of thoughtlessness in our personal relationships, but we are fine with it in the kitchen and on our plates.

I know no one wants to think about it, but I don't see how you can avoid it. You are all smart people, who know the misery and pain and torment that food animals go through. You all know what animal products do to your arteries, your intestines, and the environment. You also know that it does something even worse to your psyche - it makes you not care. It makes you put your pleasure ahead of their lives, and lets you salve your petty hurts with massive, fatal hurts visited upon them.

Think about your consumption habits. Start with dairy. Ask yourself if you really need to ingest all of the suffering and fear and death that went into making that slice of Provolone.

%(This is a great strategy! On the heels of a post about torture, I put up a bunch of guilt about dairy products. This should drive readership down to zero in no time!)%