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Title: In Defense of Omnivorousness Source: Retrieved on February 16, 2011 from [[http://flag.blackened.net/radicalanthropology/writings/wildroots-omni.htm][flag.blackened.net]] Authors: Wildroots Topics: Food, Veganism, Primitivism, Rewilding Published: 2011-02-17 09:21:12Z
Anarchist literature tends to be saturated with vegan and vegetarian propaganda, and I donāt think our canon should be so singular and Iād like to present an idea that is not necessarily in opposition of those ideas, but is a better alternative. So Iāll share with you my ideas on nutrition and the ethics and politics of putting food in our faces, and maybe Iāll even give reasons for why I hold these opinions. First though a bit on my credibility ā Iāve never tried veganism for its own sake (occasionally I notice that Iāve gone many days without animal products, but I donāt go and eat steak tartar and veal as a response!) So Iām sorry I canāt speak from experience here, but I have read a lot about veganism and vegetarianism and have talked to many people about it, and was never sufficiently motivated to try either. I respect the people who practice them and agree with the reasons for why they do it, the conventional meat industry is absurdly destructive to people and nature.
First off my maxim on nutrition, āIf you hunger for it, find it tasty, and it is natural, then you will do no harm to yourself or the environment in eating it, and you probably shouldā. Obviously that is a bit naĆÆve when applied to people that have potentially fatal food allergies. Those are a problem of civilization like asthma or osteoporosis or suicide, car accidents, and testicular cancer being the main cause of death in my demographic. So I wonāt worry about it because civilization will soon shrivel and die because I am aborting and many others soon will.
1. If you hunger for it. We are animals, and we have instincts just as strong as every other life form. Animals have ethics too: they donāt systematically exterminate their competitors ā lions do not kill or injure hyenas unless they are invading a kill inappropriately- animals do not systematically exterminate the competitors of their food supply ā deer do not cut off and spit out undesirable plants because they are competing with the desirable plants. However civilized human do and these are pathological traits that will lead to the destruction of the civilized human and will and has caused the extinction of many life forms in the process. Farmers kill āpestsā, coyotes, wolves, raccoons, weasels, mink, and āpossums to protect the animals and plants that have been artificially selected to be too weak to protect or provide for themselves. Gardeners and farmers kill āweedsā that are in competition with the food supply.
1. and find it tasty -Your taste is how your body informs you what you do or donāt need, and when youāve had enough. If it didnāt work for that purpose then the human species would have died out before we had specialists to tell us what is good and what us not, what is banal and what is gourmet, and what is healthy and what is unhealthy. In defense of omnivorousness, I find meat and insects to be very delicious and so did every tribal society that has been studied by anthropologists (if you trust those specialists). I think you would find it delicious too!
1. Then you will do no harm to yourself or the environment in eating it I consider natural synonymous with wild, beef is not natural, chicken is not natural, milk products are not natural ā these not part of a primitive or aboriginal diet. Those animals did not exist 15,000 years ago and there is no method for getting milk products from wild animals. Obviously the precursors to modern domestic animals did exist, and they lived wild and on their own terms of survival. Modern polyploid grains and vegetables are not natural and they are nutritionally inferior to their wild ancestors. Modern wheat is 12% protein while wild wheat is 24% protein. Protein is for growing strong healthy bodies, whereas the remaining grain is made of carbohydrates. Carbohydrates are fuel for doing work (or making fat reserves if you arenāt working at the same rate you are eating). Which makes sense when you consider that hunter/gatherers of the world do only 2ā4 hours of work a day and us smart civilized people with our ālabor-saving devicesā work about 12ā14 hours a day (unfortunately women in our society work significantly more than that) so we need that unnatural excess of carbohydrates to do all that extra labor.
Veganism and vegetarianism is only possible in the civilized world of B12 shots, vitamin supplements, strict and scientific dietary regimens and heavily processed soy products. These are dependant on the very system that exterminates life forms at an astonishing rate, which is a contradiction of the vegan ideals. I do not believe that these harmful effects can be eliminated from civilization; the entire package must be dumped to solve those problems.
What is the fundamental difference between killing a plant, an insect, an animal, an amphibian or a reptile anyway? Some people say plants donāt feel pain or comprehend their death. We may be more or less perceptive or empathetic of the changes they go through in anticipation of death, but all life forms go through those changes and they could all be called pain. Plants shrivel and wilt and their roots are slowly consumed by soil bacteria when they die and they send out chemical signals to alert nearby plants of danger (so they can boost their immune systems in case the danger is a disease). How can we discount the importance of their analogous screams and convulsions just because we canāt easily perceive them as such?
I do not condone eating conventional, domesticated animal products, or even plants products because they are raised in a manner disgraceful to life on earth, and often in ways that cause death row life forms that do not provide sustenance for the killers: coyotes die, āpestsā die, soil bacteria doe, wolves dies, waters are poisoned, the atmosphere is polluted, āweedsā die, forests are cleared of ultra-productive ecosystems to make room for our paltry fields of grains, vegetables, and pastures. I propose we receive from the earth what is provided for us, rather than forcibly stealing land to use as we see fit and incarcerating animals to abuse and eat. Letās minimize the amount of all life that we take rather than minimizing the death of an exclusive category of life that we artificially deem more important. Here is a scale that in my opinion accurately represents the amount of earth and life harmed in the production of a food source:
The further left you go on the chart, less damage is done to the environment and life in general. Iām trying to go all the way, but the milieu makes it quite difficult. Please everyone do the best you can! Stop raping the earth and taking from it whatever you desire, relax and trust that your needs will be met and trust yourself and you will be provided for free of charge. The earth is generous!