“Let no man pull you so low as to hate them” — MLK Jr. — In Defense of Meat and not Hating Vegans
I don’t hate George Monbiot or Pat Brown or Bill Gates (or Tara Garnett or other vegan proselytizers and animal ag shamers.) I just wish they’d open their eyes a bit to the obvious efficacy of Holistic Planned Grazing to restore soil, including soil carbon and biodiversity. This isn’t complicated. At the end of the day, the veganic reliance on GMO soy for fake meat burgers is far more villainous from an ecological and moralistic standpoint than moving animals in a proper way and — heaven forbid — eating them. The death toll comparison between an industrial soy field and a healthy pasture used for beef cattle is not even close. The soy field is the definition of death — death to soil, death to plants, death to micro and megafauna. Death. Death. Death. On the other hand, the pasture is the epitome of life. Life for soil. Life for bugs. Life for birds. Life for plants. Life. Life. Life.
I just wish they’d open their eyes a bit to the obvious efficacy of Holistic Planned Grazing to restore soil, including soil carbon and biodiversity.
The mutualistic partnership between soil, perennial plants, and ruminants is what created the climate suitable for human evolution in the first place, which, combined with the meat and animal fat consumption, fueled the larger brain and higher order thinking, including language and planning, that defines us. Humanity and our climate is literally inseparable from ruminants, perennials and soil. We are “one thing.” We have, admittedly, fallen out of synch with that dance of nature, but it’s not the animal’s faults, nor ours, really. It’s simply the blindness of evolution, doing what’s best at any one moment, but, without foresight. Well, now we have foresight, and we can, literally, direct evolution. If we’re smart, we can direct it toward a new level of mutualist partnership with nature. No, CAFOs and factory farms aren’t part of the rhythm, but proper planning for the moving — and eating — of animals is. We can do this. We have to. In the spirit of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day, which is tomorrow, I implore thee. Let us at least try.
Thank you, and God Bless You. — Seth
