Chris Hedges was a war correspondent, worked for the Greens in 2008 and 2012, and was part of the “Occupy Wall Street” movement. He’s also, interestingly enough, a Presbyterian minister. He is known to me personally mostly as the author of War is a Force That Gives Us Meaning, a book which is at once interesting, powerfully written, and quite disturbing. It was so powerful, in fact, that I couldn’t finish it. Forcing myself to finish it would be like forcing a vegan to watch slaughterhouse footage. I get it already; I don’t want to watch it.
Chris Hedges is also now a vegan, citing serious environmental concerns. He describes this in his recent article, “Saving the Planet, One Meal at a Time.” His conclusion: “becoming vegan is the most important and direct change we can immediately make to save the planet and its species.”
Hedges has clearly done his research. He cites both the FAO (2006) report on “Livestock’s Long Shadow,” as well as Goodland and Anhang’s revolutionary article “Livestock and Climate Change” in WorldWatch magazine (2009). He’s even read Richard Oppenlander’s books, which he cites, and has seen the movie Cowspiracy.
The message that veganism is an integral part of the environmental movement is spreading. Hedges’ article will make it more and more difficult for liberal-leftist types as well as environmental organizations to continue to ignore this issue.
Thanks for posting. Very interesting.
Vegans come and vegans go. If it’s not done for compassion for the animals, you usually end up going back.
The evidence doesn’t support this generalization. Check out chapter 9 of Nick Cooney’s excellent book Veganomics, which discusses people who quit being vegan or vegetarian. Only one study shows that anyone goes back to meat because they don’t believe in the ethical arguments any more, and that was only 3% of ex-vegetarians. Cooney concludes: “Nearly everyone who goes back to eating meat has a how-related reason for doing so,” e. g. health challenges, don’t know how to cook, or something like that. “Why” just doesn’t play that much of a role.
I should have said it seems like they go back. Thanks for the information.
I decided to go vegan mainly because I didn’t want to participate in the cruelty.As time went by I felt more and more repulsed by the idea of consuming flesh of any kind.Eating any animal,as we are animals, is the same as cannibalism.I cannot unknow this,and I am glad of it.
Once that veil is lifted for a person, there is no going back.
Mr. Hedges article is great. I just finished reading “War is a Force that Gives Us Meaning” by Chris Hedges, which is great, too. I put together war and flesh eating, like early Unity people did. I see now that practically any war is an effect of a cause, such as animal-flesh eating.
Vedic scriptures totally support this idea: flesh eating contaminates mind and boosts hubris: anger, hate, gluttony, and the rest.
In a recent article, Hedges connects animal slaughter with war: “Once we desanctify animals we desanctify all life.”