I am noticing that veganism is becoming a dangerous movement because some people totally identify with the label of being a vegan, and direct verbal abuse at those whose way of living is different from their own.

Attacking others who believe in a different way is an ego operation

What you identify with is all to do with content; whereas, the unconscious compulsion to identify is structural. It is one of the most basic ways in which the egoic mind operates. 

Eckhart Tolle, A New Earth

When you identify with any kind of belief and attack others when the belief is challenged, it means that the ego took over.

It’s the ego that needs to strengthen itself with beliefs, belonging to groups or buying things. I’m not saying that if anyone has a belief or belongs to a group is in the ego grip, but when self-identity is derived from such stances or communities, then that’s definitely it.

When the ego identifies with some belief, it feels itself stronger because of itself it’s nothing. But since the ego is absolutely weak no matter how much it strengthens itself, whenever it is attacked, it is like a death threat to it though the attack could be very small. Thus, the ego mercilessly attacks in order to, as though, preserve its life.

So this is the first thing one should notice. Veganism, conservatism, meat eating, healthy lifestyle… It can be anything. As soon as you feel the need to defend some label you have identified with, as soon as you attack those who disagree with you, it’s not you who’s doing the fighting, but your ego.

Destroying the person who doesn’t believe like you do

She spoke out; in fact, she wrote a book about it. And how was she awarded for her honesty? Her public image was totally destroyed, outraged vegans kept creating “debunking” videos about her, and she even received death threats from these “animal lovers”.

The people’s sweetheart has become an enemy of the nation overnight. And that’s another feature I’ve noticed about the psyche of the masses; as long as you’re a leader of a trend, you are a hero to them. But dare to change your mind, and your public image will be killed.

When I checked the vegans that attacked Jordan on YouTube, most looked like walking dead – prematurely aged, with very thin hair, wrinkles and dark circles under eyes. I think many vegans experience health issues but they hide them because of their investment in veganism.

I’m not saying veganism cannot work. But you really have to be in the know about what you’re doing. Otherwise your health will suffer.

Again, I’m not saying all vegans are this cruel, but this trend is scary. There’s something really wrong in the psyche of some of them; they love animals but kill the person’s public image, and even threaten to physically kill!

Gaining nourishment from supplements – is that even healthy?

It’s not natural, and I don’t even think healthy, to gain your daily mineral and vitamin intake in the form of supplements. Unless the brand is totally organic, there could be health dangers such as zinc toxicity if one relies too heavily on supplements.

This means that only the rich would be able to afford enough good-quality supplements to maintain a healthy vegan lifestyle, and I think no organic supplement beats obtaining minerals and vitamins directly from food sources anyway.

Vitamins and minerals sold as supplements are synthetic or processed; it’s best to eat food that is unprocessed or very little has been done to it before it reaches your table (like it being cooked).

Also, who profits from all those supplements and the whole veganism trend in general? Could Monsanto be behind the growing veganism trend? Could this company play in the same way that political parties do, one party being against one thing and another – in favor of it, yet both at the end of the day being bed-fellows.

A Guardian reader rightly expressed her concern:

Could Monsanto et al be behind the relentless drive to veganism? Scarlett Conlon reports (18 August) that the fashion industry is creating mass-market synthetic leather from genetically engineered yeast and pineapple leaves. They will also need to find ways of producing artificial, plant-based wool.

Vast numbers of new factories will be required to mechanically replicate milk, butter, cheese, eggs, meat, leather, wool and feathers, producing highly processed foodstuffs and engineered materials to replace all natural animal products.

And what of fish? Will cats be allowed to eat them? Will it be acceptable to use human excrement as an organic fertiliser base, replacing animal dung, blood, hooves and horns?

In the new puritan, domestic-animal-free world, will down, moor and pastureland, with the ecosystems they support, be replaced by endless GM crops and factories? Judy Stevens Brighton

Source

Vegan lifestyle is unsustainable – here’s why

It’s environmentally unfriendly to import all sorts of supplements from all over the world; and that’s what’s needed for the vegan diet to work. It’s just not possible to get all the required supplements locally.

This, of course, is not environmentally friendly as flying supplements from different countries leaves a huge carbon footprint.

Veganism encourages monocrop farming as only the richest can afford buying locally grown organic vegetables and grains. The more people become vegans, the more this practice will spread; and when vast fields growing the single kind of grain or vegetable are mechanically reaped, animals such as rabbits and mice are killed as a result of this process.

Therefore, it’s not true that veganism doesn’t cause any animal deaths.

If many people would go vegan, there would be required vast lands for crop growing because vegans have to eat a lot of greens to not feel hungry. When clearing of forests happens to grow crops, natural habitats of animals are destroyed, causing their quicker extinction.

This world is based on sacrifice

There is a recurring teaching in Vedas that this whole world is based on sacrifice and without sacrifice nothing would exist. We live because other beings die; even when we walk we crush live microorganisms under our feet.

When our mothers give birth to us they sacrifice years of their youth and strength; when we breathe the air we take away the freedom of airborne microbes by taking them into our lungs; the asphalt roads that we walk on caused the destruction of many plants and prevented the future existence of other greenery.

Plants are also conscious and alive. They don’t speak, but they feel. This whole universe is conscious. It’s not right to blame meat-eaters for the destruction of life when this destruction is taking place even as a result of our breathing.

We too will all die someday, becoming the food source for all sorts of organisms living in the earth. Or, if cremated, we will be devoured by the element of fire for it to exist, however ephemerally.

If one doesn’t want to hurt any living being, one really cannot exist. So the best solution to the taking of life problem is living the life that was worth the sacrifice of many millions of beings.

There should be balance

Veganism is one extreme, and excessive meat eating – another.

Our bodies have the DNA of our ancestors who were more than likely meat eaters. It might be very stressful for the body to be suddenly left without any meat sources. That explains why many vegans look so pale and lifeless, and suffer from premature ageing and the falling out of hair.

However, current excessive meat eating creates many health disorders as well, such as cancers, high blood pressure, high cholesterol and heart problems. It also causes unnecessary deaths of millions of animals who are kept in cages just to serve as a food source.

I would rather see them all being free and people in need of meat could simply hunt them. I believe hunting may have been outlawed not so much because of its abuse, but because it being competition to commercial meat production. Hunting would give a chance for animals to escape, and only those appointed by the destiny to die would get caught.

I believe there would be much fewer animal deaths if people would actually have to do the job themselves rather than picking some meat-can off the shelf. They would know that they are taking a life, and they may become much more humble and compassionate, knowing that someone has to die for them to live.

There must be balance, therefore. If people would eat only natural food that’s most packed with minerals and vitamins; and, most importantly, if they would listen to their bodies about how much to eat and what to eat, all would be well and we would not experience deforestation due to veganism nor unnecessary killings of animals due to meat eating.

But the issue cannot be solved at the level that it was created. All of us have to go beyond the surface to discover the mechanism that makes us go into extremes; it’s the ego that’s responsible for extreme veganism as well as excessive meat eating. The ego always tries to fill the void that it is with labels, food, groups, experiences, and anything else it can get a grip on.

Therefore, when we stay mindful, we don’t give the chance for the ego to grow through filling itself with all sorts of things. That is the only real way to end the problem of extremes and excesses in our society, and that is the only true solution to bringing our Mother Nature back to balance.

Continue to part two.