veganism

A recent post on 'One Green Plant' by Leslie Irvine, a scoiologist at the University of Colorado, outlines three options for companion (nonhuman) animals, specifically related to what we feed them. Irvine provides her rationalisations to the ‘difficult position’ in the context of ‘ethical veganism’ (for me there is one form of veganism, and coming up with labels such as ethical is as problematic that for vegetarianism — see the redicularity of the term ‘pescatarian’ for example. To create a demarcation here, anyone who is not an ‘ethical vegan’ is not a vegan: they adopt a plant-based diet).

Some time 2007 I changed the design of this website to incorporate the sunflower image that has become the symbol of veganarky, of what it means to me. The image is of one of a small number of similar sculptures of sunflowers in Front Street, Toronto (Ontario) [I have made some minor modifications to saturation and hue, and to remove any background]. I have now found some words to describe part of what the image represents for me.

Today, I came across a blog for the first time, and wanted to share the first post I read from it. There is an effective use of analogy to comment on some key issues for activists and society to reflect on. [I have not included embedded video, links or footnotes]

when we fight we let them win
http://vegina.wordpress.com/2010/08/02/when-we-fight-we-let-them-win/

I remember first coming across Propagandhi’s How to Clean Everything around mid-late 1994. I was becoming more aware of how fucked up many things were in the world – yet not fully able to grasp or comprehend what was actually going on and why. Recently prior to this, I had an epiphany – one that I could not fully explain: it was wrong to hurt animals which led to my becaming a vegetarian. Hearing nailing Descartes to the wall / (liquid) meat is still murder really helped me clarify some things and began the process, for me, of opening my eyes to deeper issues. It was the line ‘I have recognized one form of oppression, now I recognize the rest’ that made it possible for me to verbalise that which I had become aware of, yet could not grasp.