For me Veganism is an ideology. In France, some vegans attack butcheries, other use soft methods under cover of defending animals.
THE VEGANISM:
As far as I understand it, the basic idea of veganism is that the animals being able to suffer have a dignity equal to that of a man. Not only, we must not eat animals, but we must completely stop using animals for anything, no longer exploiting them.
The consequence is that, not only must man no longer eat animal flesh, but we must give up breeding, consumption of all animal products, leather, wool, milk and others.
For me, vegans make a philosophical mistake and don’t realize the consequences of their program.
I am not talking here of those who wish the end of humanity to free the earth from its presence. I’m talking about the average vegan follower.
I am also not indifferent to animal suffering caused by humans and, in general, I agree to limit it as much as possible.
I) The philosophical error made by vegans:
It is that, on the one hand, they introduce an unjustified division between the animal and plant worlds, and on the other hand, deny the difference between man and animal.
In fact, there is continuity between plants, animals and men.
Studies show that plants have sensations, that they are able to fight, to cooperate. Some plant systems are as complex or more than the simplest animal systems.
Likewise, the most complex animals are able to feel feelings, reason, communicate, educate their young and, even for some monkeys, hold a ceremony for their dead. However, there is a fundamental difference between man and animal, which is the ability of man to have consciousness, and abstract thought.
Human beings have the knowledge of good and bad, and feel what modesty is.
In addition, it has never been shown that, in a general way, animals can access abstract thinking, use concepts. No animal write a poem mke a speech on an abstract topic, build an ideology.
I do not exclude that some animals do not have these tools or are not able to have them. Perhaps one day we will have to distinguish between animals, but we cannot generalize to all of them.
Finally, the relationships between humans and animals, complex, have been built over the millennia and vegans deny or refuse these relationships which are not only domination and exploitation, but which can also be of reciprocal affection, for example.
II) The consequences of the vegan program:
The first consequence is the difficulty for vegans to balance their diet. Indeed, humans need proteins and other elements which are found naturally in animal products. This need is especially important in young children whose brains are developing. Obvious cases of dietary deficiencies have been observed among followers of veganism.
To compensate for the shortages, vegans use dietary supplements made for them by the industry, which is not particularly environmentally friendly or natural.
The second consequence is that traditional and ecological agriculture are called into question. In fact, agriculture requires inputs, which can be either of animal origin or of industrial origin. Non-industrial agriculture therefore involves the use of animal products. However, it constitutes an imperative necessity.
Indeed, industrial agriculture destroys flora and fauna. Areas of industrial agriculture are almost biologically dead. This is the first cause of the disappearance of worms and insects, then consequently, the food chains being broken, of a whole series of animals, and their predators.
Some vegans try permaculture, without animal or industrial inputs or by limiting them as much as possible, without it sounding convincing. In any case, at the very least, they make good use of the products naturally supplied by the animals present on the farmed land or nearby, which seems to me contrary to their philosophy.
The third consequence is that the implementation of the vegan program in agriculture will lead to the disappearance of millions of animals and a questioning of the existing balances. There is a precedent in this area, with the shift from agriculture using animal traction to mechanized agriculture. Millions of horses and oxen have been exterminated in a few years, to the point that certain varieties have disappeared or almost disappeared.
Likewise, some animal species only exist in their relationship to humans and have no place in a “natural” ecosystem. The implementation of the vegan program will lead either to their disappearance or to the rupture of existing ecosystems by the massive introduction of new animals, ejected from human space.
Corsica gives an example with the multiplication of wild cows and pigs in an ecosystem where they have no predators and which is not designed to accommodate them. These animals, which are not afraid of humans, multiply, cause great damage and pose really safety problems.
The fourth consequence would be to break the daily relations between millions of humans and millions of animals, to deprive this old lady of her cat, this blind man of his guide, this homeless person of the company of the only being with whom he have a social and confident relationship.
In short, veganism is an ideology, a representation of the world, based on a false assumption and the implementation of the vegan program would lead to a planned disaster.
Incidentally, every human being destroys during his existence millions and millions of microorganisms, whether they are present in his organism, living in symbiosis, or attacking him and making him sick.
Implicitly but necessarily, vegans create hierarchies between animals.
