I've been published! Yayy -I think.

My writing career started when I got myself involved with the student literary publication of De La Salle University in Manila during my third year. Really I thought I was a clever writer and I had a huge crush on the Editor. Since then I've had my words published in an in-house company newsletter, then I moved up to a small circulation Australian magazine, and I even got paid for a piece I wrote for an industry magazine in the Philippines. Today was my biggest writing coup, I managed to get into the Sydney Morning Herald's Heckler column. This is my widest readership ever.

So the good news is I got published, Yay! The bad news is it wasn't as good as I thought it would be. The piece was published in a way that I had not anticipated. I expected that the editors would have to trim and tweak the piece to fit into the word budget. Unfortunately, I feel that too much was lost from the editing. I've already had feedback asking me what was my point in the article?

Rather than explain myself, I decided to re-publish my original submission to Heckler right here on this blog. No word limits here, so read it as I wrote it. Was it better before editing or not? You tell me.

Vegans Raise My Hackles

It rankles me when vegetarians justify themselves by saying they want to be cruelty-free. Mind you it's my fault for pressing the point and insisting that they explain why they have to make life difficult by going vegetarian in the first place.

If they had just said that "I just like vegetables more than I will ever like meat", then there would be no more argument. It's when they go all holier than thou, yes I'm looking at you hot vegan chick, and declare that we should be of a higher consciousness to be able to live without harming our fellow creatures that my primitive hackles arise. To thee I exclaim absolute bovine excrement!

There's a good reason we are the dominant species on this planet. We got ahead on the food and nutrition stakes above all other creatures by eating them. Oh yes baby, it's called the food chain. Our brains and bodies were so full of yummy protein we were able to evolve and outsmart every other creature in existence. In fact we got so smart we domesticated some of them. And in their defence, they managed to survive in symbiosis with us. How many chooks, sheep, and cattle do you think there would be now if we as a race weren't so addicted to eating them? For as long as the human race exists, they will too, and in greater numbers. I dare say when we venture out to colonise space, they're coming along with us. Something they could never accomplish on their own. All in exchange for being consumed at the artificially determined end of their lives, ie. when they are at their tastiest.

Cruelty you say? Have you seen what old age does to animals in the wild? No one has, because sooner rather than later, they fall prey to disease, hunger, misadventure or predation. Of those choices, which do you think is the least cruel? Slaughter is just a more efficient form of predation.

Do not fool yourself by thinking that if you don't partake of flesh or flesh products that you have removed yourself from the evil system of animal cruelty. When you drive your car, you are killing hundreds of insects (just ask any motorbike rider). You want to be conscious? Think about all the connections. Soybean farmer may or may not use a tractor or pesticides, but at some point in the process any or all of these things get involved: plow, spade, watering can, harvesters, sickles, hose, buckets, barrels, sacks, water, oil, fuel, electricity, roads, telephones, computers, planes, trucks, trains, ships, cranes, warehouses, forklifts, boots, refrigeration, factories, satellites, etc. You get the idea? It would be impossible to get everything cruelty free. Just being born in a hospital built and maintained by meat-eaters you have already compromised your position.

The only way to take yourself out of this animal exploitation system is to divest yourself of all the benefits of the system. You can't say you are cruelty-free for as long as you use your mobile phone, blog on the internet, sip your organic soy latte while munching on your vegan chocolate muffins baked in oven made in Italy with components made in China of raw materials mined in Tanzania.

Yes commercialisation of food production is ultimately cruel to animals, but without that commercial efficiency, our civilisation would not reach the zenith we are now enjoying. Can you imagine how far we would get if we are restricted by antiquated farming methods? We'd not be able to feed as much. Too busy making food to survive, no time to ponder arts and science, and engineering. We'd not be able to reach this cultural and technological apex that is still continuously evolving.

So unless we abandon all that our civilisation has to offer, unless we happen to be Jake Sully from the movie Avatar and go completely native, we can never be fully cruelty-free. The best we can do is minimise it, accept that we are doing the best we can, and enjoy our steaks.

*update 9 Feb 2010: In the SMH site, a lot of the counter arguments (apart from the yukk you're eating corpses variety) were talking about environmental impact of livestock ie. water, carbon emissions, etc. Well now you can have your meat and eat it too -kangaroo meat

**update 17 May 2018. Interesting piece that echo my sentiments above, but much better researched. Bravo! http://medium.com/@drewfrench/grass-fed-beef-the-most-vegan-item-in-the-supermarket-8c46b45a0d47