POLITICALLY CORRECT?
Is Offering a Food Choice (MEAT OR VEGETARIAN) Always Politically
Correct?
“For hundreds of thousands of years the stew in the pot has
brewed hatred and resentment that is
difficult to stop. If you wish to know why there are disasters
of armies and weapons in the
world, listen to the piteous cries from the
slaughter house at
When planning an event where food is to be served, offer everyone a choice: meat or a vegetarian/vegan alternative. Sounds so considerate, no pushing, offends no one, so politically correct. Or is it? Because what is really being offered is: Death and Violence. The choice: “Will you have the violent dish or the nonviolent dish?” That is, “Will you have the body of a dead animal, which once was a sentient being, very much like yourself, but now brutally killed to please your palate, killed by an industry using mostly indigent, low-paid workers, an industry which desensitizes its workers by the bloody work and injures them at an alarming rate, an industry which causes much pollution and devastation to the earth itself and, an industry which keeps the animals before their violent death, in unspeakably cruel conditions”[1] or, “Will you condemn all that and take the sometimes less popular, but much healthier, vegetarian alternative, thereby honoring a commitment to nonviolence?”
’Thou shalt not kill’ does not apply to murder of one’s own kind
only, but to all living beings; and this Commandment was inscribed in the human
breast long before it was proclaimed from Sinai.” Count Leo Tolstoy
To offer one type of food, just animal free food, at a food event obviously, is simpler than having to concern oneself about two types of food. This is especially true when there is no worry about all the problems meat can cause such as easy spoilage and contamination. True, then there is no choice, but who is going to demand meat? Who is going to say, “I must have meat at the particular time when this meal is served or I will be harmed”? The vegetarian food can be delicious. It should be very tasty. No one even will notice the absence of meat. It’s a “ no-brainer”. The arrangement is easy. No need for such choice.
"Nothing will benefit
human health and increase chances for survival of life on earth as much as the
evolution to a
vegetarian
diet." Albert Einstein
To be committed to nonviolent food does not require
taking on another cause. No extra energy
need be expended. It is not a matter of taking on something else (in what may
be an already very involved lifestyle); rather, it is a matter a getting rid of
something that is contrary to one’s integrity and contradictory to one’s
commitment to nonviolence. It will simplify and unify one’s life. How one lives
one’s daily life, especially in the life-supportive act of eating, is central,
not peripheral, to one’s lifestyle. To stop participating in the killing of
animals, in the violent system that provides meat and to stop exploiting
sentient beings in any way, only requires a change in lifestyle. It could be a
spiritual decision. Not to do so is to work against the calling for a
peaceful earth and justice for animals because truly, “Non-Violence Begins With
the Fork.”[2].
.
“There is not an animal on
the earth, nor a flying creature on two wings, but they are people like unto
you.” Qua’ ran
“For that which befalleth the sons of men, befalleth beasts, … As one dieth
so dieth the other. Yet they have all one breath. So that a man hath
no pre-eminence over a beast”. Ecclesiastes 3:19
It is not, “people or animals”; it is, “people and
animals”. It is not, “either-or”; it is, “both-and”. There need be no conflict
in one’s priorities nor one’s commitments. To eat or
serve meat, it must be emphasized, is to work against the animal cause. Just as
there can be no peace without justice so there can be no
peace without compassion for every living thing because the human heart can
abide neither injustice nor cruelty.
"The eating of meat extinguishes the seed of great compassion." The Buddha (circa 563-483 B.C.)
“Until he extends the circle of his compassion to all living things, man
will not himself find peace.” Albert 
Schweitzer
The really Politically Correct “choice” might be from among a variety of delicious vegetarian foods.
Animals, People and the Earth
Elizabeth J. Farians