Families At Risk

I worry about our food supply; it’s another of the necessities of life brought to us by the for-profit industry. Humans have essential needs such as food, water, housing and medical care. When these are delivered through a system inherently and necessarily forced to seek the least expensive process to ensure the most profit, it’s likely there will be problems. One of these problems is contaminated food.

The last occurrence of contaminated spinach in Central California did not begin to identify the seriousness of the food contamination problem that exists in this country, nor the real cause. Based on information at www.cdc.gov it seems reasonable to conclude, food borne illness is a serious problem in the United States. According to this website food borne illness accounts for approximately 76,000,000 illnesses, 325,000 hospitalizations and 5,000 deaths per year. I don’t wish to minimize the awful tragedy which occurred because of the contamination of some spinach recently, I just want to bring out points I think should have been made.

The typical reports could have you believing no one should eat spinach again; that spinach is bad. In the various reports there were references to the possibility of the spinach market being devastated and there was speculation about whether it would fully recover in the near future. Some of the writers were careless enough to state ‘People had become ill from eating spinach’. The truth . . . the  illness was caused by the contamination on the spinach. One of the things which didn’t seem to get any attention, is anything can be contaminated in the same way as the spinach, and it happens all the time.

The majority of these reports missed the point. Yes, it’s good to know how the contaminate got there. But, the contamination occurred for the same reasons it has before, and I suspect it is likely to occur again for the same reasons. What is most important; is what will be done to prevent this from happening again.

Those at greatest risk are pregnant women, infants, children and elderly. People are dying year after year from contaminated food. Is this something we should be tolerating? We put our health and our lives at risk every time we eat. Does this seem reasonable? We are an intelligent species and we are perfectly capable of making the changes necessary to guarantee a much safer food supply.

But, it may not be reasonable to expect any such thing in the foreseeable future; as a source of this problem is very deeply embedded in our culture and the lives of most people. Most people enjoy the very products, and the way of life, which contribute to the contamination of our food. To talk about the causes of food contamination in this situation, requires talking about a huge industry in this state; in fact a huge business throughout the nation. It also requires talking about tradition, culture and myth.

 

 Specifically, I am referring to animal agriculture; the process of producing, distributing and using animal products and byproducts for human consumption and pleasure.

 

How can anyone suggest this huge, well supported, well paid industry share the blame for society’s most serious health problems? This article is not intended to be about all the negative aspects of the animal industry, and there are many, except to focus on one—the pollution of the environment by the animal industry as it pertains to contaminating the food supply. Should this be of concern to us? Should we care about the millions of people who get sick each year and the thousands who die? Are we concerned someone close to us may be next? The animal production industry contributes to the destruction and pollution of our land, air and water and contributes to the major diseases plaguing humans in the developed countries.

What happened? A contaminate got onto a vegetable crop, in this case, spinach. The contaminate was put there, not necessarily intentionally, but it was the result of human activity. It ended up in our food supply and people were hurt . . . and some people died.

What is this contaminate? It is a bacterium called E. coli. More specifically—E. coli O157:H7. Turns out there are many strains of E. coli and most of them are harmless; some even beneficial. But the strain of E. coli identified with the designation O157:H7 is dangerous. It produces a toxin, which causes the problems associated with the recent contaminated spinach.

Where does E. coli O157:H7 come from? Usually—cows; although it is also carried by chickens, pigs and deer. These bacteria live in the intestinal tract of animals and are spread many possible ways.

How does our food get contaminated with E. coli O157:H7? Fields may be fertilized with contaminated manure. The waterways may be and are contaminated by runoff from livestock operations, again contaminating the food supply. And people can be infected with this organism and spread it when handling produce. It is reported that ingesting 10 to 100 of the E. coli bacteria will infect a human, and one cow can dump billions of them into the environment, the land, water, air and our food on a daily basis. And it is not just E. coli O157:H7; there are many pathogens which are spread because of the animal industry. This is why you are instructed to handle animal flesh with such extreme caution. It is recommended you chlorinate any surface the flesh touches and cook the animal well. And, make sure you don’t cross contaminate any of your other foods or surfaces by letting them come in contact.

How does this organism affect humans? Once ingested the E. coli O157:H7 bacteria may cause symptoms of food borne illness in three to nine days. The bacteria produce a toxin that may cause severe diarrhea or even kidney damage, and is sometimes fatal.

Should this concern us? Absolutely! But, we are part of a culture which has and will risk a lot to fight for its right to consume alcohol, smoke cigarettes and eat products which are known to contribute to disease. At this time most people have accepted the fact that cigarettes and alcohol are dangerous and contribute to many deaths. Still,  some realize an incorrect diet or a polluted environment will contribute to ill health also. But for the majority of the population to seriously consider the idea that the production of animals is bad for us and is damaging to our food supply, among other things, is contrary to what most people have been taught. And is therefore contrary to what most are willing to believe, regardless.

Don’t we have free choice in this matter? The concept of producing animals to provide raw materials for anything we want; including food, entertainment, clothing, research, medicine, cosmetics, etc. is taught to us from infancy and has been for a long time. We learn it at home, at school and through every media that can be used on us. We don’t choose–it is taught to us–before we are able to choose anything; and it doesn’t stop here. For our entire lives we are constantly bombarded with the notion we must have animal products every day from all of those who prosper from the animal related industries. It even comes at us from the nutrition and medicine industries. It’s in our culture, it’s in our lives, it’s business and it’s thought by most to be okay. Consequently, by the time we are old enough to think for ourselves it is part of us. So do we have free choice?

How is this relevant to the contaminated food crop? It is relevant because it is wrong. It’s relevant because everything about it is damaging; and we accept it. It’s relevant because it is foisted on a culture that is almost powerless to do anything about it. And it is relevant to the solution because without a real look at what is happening, without real, individual decision making, without dramatic change it will not get better. People will continue to die unnecessarily. The statistics that tell us how many suffer and die because of food borne illness is just an unnecessary fact of life that we continue to see year after year. Just as we continue to see the same dreadful statistics on death from drunk drivers and coronary and cancer related deaths. Even though we know what accounts for the majority of these deaths and we know the remedies are easy and inexpensive, we continue down the same destructive path; the same path we teach our children to follow.

My research leads me to the conclusion that the animal production industry is to blame for much of the problems confronting the human and animal population of the planet. From food borne illness to cancer, from polluted water to polluted air, to antibiotic resistant bacteria and massive destruction of rainforests; the animal industry is a major factor. But this industry wouldn’t exist; it couldn’t exist if there was no demand for its products. So the blame must be shared by the very society which is sickened and killed by these products, because we want them, and would no doubt fight, if necessary, to have them. The very people that suffer and die and watch their loved ones suffer and die from diseases that are known to be related to this industry are the ones who support it and make it thrive.

Our society can continue to waste time and money looking for things to feed the cows to minimize the gas problem and can spend more money trying to figure out what to do with all the waste products. And surely many millions of dollars can be spent searching for ‘magic bullet’ vaccines to put on the market to inoculate everyone for each of the various bacteria one may encounter because of this industry. People can continue the endless research and expense of trying to figure out how to avoid contaminating the food supply, the water, the ground and the air. But this will not solve the problem anymore in the future than it has in the past. Or—we could eliminate the problem at its source.

If just one person was caught running their household sewage on to the ground it would be front-page news—we would deem that person disgusting and deserving of punishment. But dump the bodily waste of billions of animals on the ground, into streams and rivers as well as the air and ultimately onto our food and what happens. Nothing! Nobody seems too concerned, except for the poor souls who are downwind or are sick and diseased from it. And if anyone has convinced you animal waste on the ground isn’t as dangerous as human waste on the ground, you may want to reconsider that idea. Ask those who have contaminated wells or have homes which stink of animal waste because of neighboring feedlot operations. Ask those that have lived through or lost someone to an illness that was produced by the animal industry. Animal waste carries many pathogens which are dangerous as well as many chemicals the animals ingest daily as food and medicine, including antibiotics. It seems as though we remember our ancestors being so foolish as to allow their water to be contaminated by their own sewage. They suffered many diseases and deaths from this stupidity. I probably shouldn’t call it stupidity because I don’t think they knew better . . . we do!

I read a brief report stating the source of the bacterial contamination of the spinach had been determined and verified by matching DNA. It was reported to be cows in a particular area in the Central Valley. A week later I read an article stating it was ‘wild’ pigs, wild pigs broke down fences to get to the spinach crops and contaminated them. In my entire life I haven’t noticed fences around large vegetable crops. Why is the story changing? Does our attention need to be deflected from the real cause again?

There have been comments about the animal industry being more careful and some official sounding statements have been made about the State requiring more stringent guidelines, but I think this is a battle which cannot be won in this way. We need to stop doing the wrong things and stop looking for ways to do the wrong things better. According to Thomas Paine,

 A long habit of not thinking a thing wrong will give it a superficial appearance of being right.’

My appeal is to those who have pride in trying to make the right choices. To those who want to do what is right regardless of what everyone else is doing; regardless of what they have been taught. My appeal is to those who know ‘pride’ is not a concept to be associated with money, color, gender, nationality or looks. Pride belongs to those who earn it by doing more than is expected; by doing more than is easily done. Being born white or male, owning a Corvette, or living in the same town as the winning sports team are not things to be proud of. Making the right decisions, especially the difficult ones, even when it doesn’t conform to tradition in one’s culture or family—is something to be proud of. We are destroying our lives and our environment; we are destroying our children’s future. We need to make the right choices if we want any hope for their future and perhaps our own. And if you have children and grandchildren you probably want them to have a chance, you probably want them to have a future worth living in.

If you do any research to discover for yourself what is going on you will be amazed at the unbelievable levels of waste, pollution, damage and hurt that comes from this way of life. It has been amazing to me to learn what I have learned, knowing that earlier in my life none of this was reality to me, none of it mattered. The question I have is:

How is it hid from us so well?

 

Not Just A Food Choice

“My wife and I avoid social gatherings where food is involved, even family gatherings.” I was trying to excuse us from joining our neighbors for a meal. The neighbor replied, “It’s a shame that you let your food choices alienate you from so much.” Well . . . she didn’t understand, and I couldn’t explain it in a way that she could. What I wanted her to understand is that it’s not just a food choice; it’s a lifestyle choice. My wife and I chose the vegan lifestyle, and it’s absolutely about more than food.

It’s about . . . right and wrong!

A unique thing happens to some people, setting them on the path to vegetarianism. It’s the realization that there are important choices to be made when it comes to food; there are right and wrong choices when it comes to how we eat. Yes; our choices regarding food are either moral or immoral! And, accepting immorality as ‘right’ just because most others do—doesn’t make it so.

A long habit of not thinking a thing wrong gives it a superficial appearance of being right.” ~Thomas Paine

A few hundred years back Paine made this astute observation regarding our species’ knack for twisting wrong into right. History verifies that throughout time and place, most cultures have accepted, and lived, immoral lifestyles. The proof of this statement is in gender inequality, child labor, slavery, cannibalism, sacrifice, honor-killing, infanticide, female circumcision, vivisection and much more. There is no denying that as a group we are wrong about many things while being perfectly capable of acting as though we’re right.

I think the human ability to live on the periphery of truth, straddling the moral fence has everything to do with the unsatisfactory condition of our species. There is no doubt, the human species has serious problems, and for it—we suffer! This is a complex issue. Regrettably, the majority of those reading this will find much of it disagreeable . . . simply because it is not what most of us are taught to believe; therefore it is not what most of us are willing to believe. But I assure you this doesn’t make any of it necessarily untrue.

Over the history of humankind untruths have disseminated throughout cultures. And unfortunately, because of the primitive workings of the human mind and nervous system and the influence of our innate survival instinct, these faulty beliefs are unknowingly passed through generations. Because of our inability to recognize or understand some important truths in life we suffer more than need be. And because of the inevitable condition created in the psyche there must be an ongoing adaptation of our sensibilities to allow us to accept and live with internal conflict. This is no doubt, a major source of dissonance in our lives; therefore destructive to the heart of humanity.

Sadly, many people suffer because of lack of ‘truth’, but it doesn’t need to be this way. Consequently, until we learn to be open and receptive to concepts which ring true, withstand rational scrutiny, and pass the test of a young child’s unadulterated morality, our chance for improvement remains diminished. Until we learn to make morality decisions rationally instead of emotionally, our evolution toward our potential will remain inhibited. Harvey Diamond has been quoted with this challenge:

Put a baby in a crib with an apple and a rabbit and if he eats the rabbit and plays with the apple I will buy you a new car.

I don’t claim knowledge of any culture other than my own. Mine was the culture of a typical male growing up on the west coast of California in the middle of the 20th century, but from what I’ve read of other cultures—they aren‘t much different. As my culture helped shape who I am, likewise other cultures shape how other people become who they are. In one sense we are not much more than the end product; the product of raw materials shaped by our circumstance. What we are destined to become is heavily subject to society’s mores as these shape the institutions and the attitudes that we live with. So . . . when you start with the wrong beliefs—you end up with the wrong institutions and wrong attitudes. This is the way it is!

To begin to understand what we are up against in the search for truth and the quest to live right, one must realize there are factors in our physiology and psychology which work against us. These are unknown by most, partly understood by few, innate and learned limitations which actually can and do deprive us of being the persons we should like to be. For those who seek the truth there is a struggle against our genes and memes. We have to overcome the false realities resulting from our psychological and physiological shortcomings and the incorrect beliefs we inherit. This involves looking beyond what is normal, familiar and comfortable. I liken the situation to that of trying to get correct answers from a computer with a flawed program. It really sounds like an impossible task in some regards, but one worth pursuing in my opinion. I mean, what are our options?

There is a simple explanation for much of our self-imposed problems. In a nutshell:

We are taught wrong—then we teach wrong.

The result of this is that we live wrong, we value the wrong things, and we miss out on the important things. Our ancestors up through our parents taught us what they were taught, but it’s flawed—it isn’t enough. There is plenty of room for improvement in the way we do things in our culture, but until we get the focus in the right area no amount of restructuring or infusions of money will ever fix anything important. Nothing will help us, or those following us, until we learn to make the ‘right’ decisions.

For those who come to the realization that we can do better—it is usually later in life, after the tainted information has already been passed to the next generation. The interesting but difficult part of all this is that our own minds and bodies resist even positive change once a system of beliefs is in place. When we are at the threshold of change and improvement, our own chemistry holds us back. This is the tragedy—this very mechanism which causes so many problems, was by nature’s design—for our own good. The mechanism I refer to is our belief system.

The reason I mention belief here is that in response to the notion that my wife and I alienate ourselves I want to support the fact that sometimes we have no choice. Our choices are based on our beliefs and our beliefs are based on our reasoning of ‘truths’. So, what one accepts to be true, for whatever reason, governs one’s choices. Therefore, I touch on varied subject matter necessary for explaining our choice, and why it’s important for all of us to make the same choice, and finally, why it’s so difficult to do so. Our neighbor perceived it only as a food choice. My goal is to demonstrate it is a lifestyle choice—a moral choice—perhaps our most important choice.

Many people have suggested to us that the answer to this comes down to individual choice; that each of us is free and justified in whatever we choose regarding the use and exploitation of the animal inhabitants of the planet. What I bring with my response are factors which have brought the human race to this point and factors which tend to hold us here, along with the notion that we need to start making the right choices or continue suffering the worsening consequences. None of this is new; there has always been a small percentage who seem to see things differently than the masses. Quoting a couple:

Non-violence leads to the highest ethics, which is the goal of all evolution. Until we stop harming all other living beings, we are still savages.” ~ Thomas A. Edison
Any society which does not insist upon respect for all life must necessarily decay.”          ~ Albert Einstein

Like most people I had became the person I was, largely in response to my environment. I do think our genetics contribute to the kind of persons we become, but perhaps more importantly, what we are taught to believe to be right, true and good makes virtually indelible imprints on us. I think all the complicated stuff boils down to this simple hypotheses; your genes and the influence of your immediate world (memes) produces the person known as . . . you! It is a process; it takes time. But eventually . . . you are complete; in one regard. Whatever and whoever you are at this time seems to be who you will be for life; change being the rare exception.

Like everyone else, I didn’t make choices—they were made for me. We all think we made choices, but family, friends, teachers, preachers, doctors, corporations and governments made the decisions; we just accepted them—including Santa and the Tooth Fairy. I have suggested to several people we stop perpetuating the idea that Santa Clause exists. I suggest the holiday is fine, but that we could just offer Santa as a fable—a happy childhood story. But the people I have spoken to suggest Santa is a harmless little lie and they will continue to tell it in their families. One even suggested I was nuts for thinking of such a thing, but tell that to the adults who still carry the scars made when they found out those they loved and trusted—lied to them. Tell it to those who came home with a bruise because they fought with the bully who said Santa wasn’t real. They don’t carry a scar because Santa doesn’t come around; they are hurt because of the lie. Yeah! On the whole—we’re a bunch of liars, and this is the kind of reality we introduce our children to before they are even a couple years old. Isn’t it odd that we scold them when they don’t tell the truth? But the important point I want to come out of this is that while we develop during childhood—we believe. We can’t help it. We believe! We believe anything we are told—and we will defend it. We will defend it as if it is pure truth and we will even die for it! Just the way we are, it’s our nature . . . and it’s our problem!

The way we approach careers, fashion, leisure, morality and social responsibility; all programmed during youth. Most people adopt the religion they are exposed to, most work and live in familiar strata, most eat the way they were taught and carry into adulthood the social paradigm inherited and cultivated in childhood. There are complex reasons for this, but for this article, suffice to say, most people have less to do with fashioning the person they are than does their culture. Human nature is to conform and follow, so for the majority there is no friction; there is following. But for some there will be difficulties. Some want to know and will search for answers.

At some point in my teenage years I began to notice there were things which didn’t seem right. Strangely, other people didn’t seem bothered, certainly none in my family. Eventually, I found myself needing to know what is right. At first I experimented using the mental toolbox I inherited from my culture. Like everyone else I didn’t doubt the ‘truths’ in my culture, even though our ‘truths’ are not universal. I learned, like everyone else, the ‘truths’ which didn’t agree with mine are . . . incorrect! My country was better, my religion, my color, my government, my economy—all better. Everything about us was better—even being male (this is what one learns). I could have gone along and got along, but unfortunately for me that wasn’t acceptable.

After more disappointments in my family, my neighborhood, at work and in the military, I tried religion at 21 years of age. There were disappointments there as well so I dropped that and decided it was time to figure out what is right so I could live the ‘right’ life. It’s not easy! This quest unearthed another problem; it’s not easy to find out what ‘right’ and ‘truth’ are. It may be that there are no such realities as ‘right’ and ‘truth.’ It may be that these are only concepts we use as needed to maintain an acceptable appearance of civility—whatever that is at the time. But if this can be proven to be the case should we abandon all vestiges of civilization, should we use and abuse others to our hearts content? Or can we, even without a written golden rule, figure out what is right and wrong?

Thinking back, I seemed to have started from the premise that at the core of a legitimate lifestyle choice is a system of legitimate morals. This moral system provides feedback to each of us as to whether what we do is right or wrong. In trying to understand and explain my choice it became evident I would have to try to understand morality. There are at least two ways of thinking about morality. One is absolute morality and the other is relative morality. If you lean toward absolute morality then right and wrong are the same for everyone, every time. If you accept relative morality you can get away with almost anything—you just have to get the group to go along. To us, cannibalism is wrong, but there are, or have been, societies where it was right.

What is moral, and how do we know? One of the ways people establish a morality is to use religion. We refer to the Bible, or whichever text a particular religion uses to establish a moral guide. During my years in religion I learned that people in different churches use the Bible to argue different opinions, and that people in the same churches couldn’t even agree. This has contributed to the huge variety of religions. But this solution is fairly easy to use; just find the one that accommodates your lifestyle best and the chances of wrong-doing are instantly mitigated.

Another way to define a morality is by way of tradition. Our ancestors believed it; it was taught to us and we believe it. We don’t have to ask any questions and we don’t have to feel bad about anything we are skeptical of. Everyone we care about is doing it—so it’s okay. It doesn’t matter what it is as long as ‘everyone’ is doing it. This way we won’t be wrong and we won’t look stupid. If everyone puts bones in their noses and dusts themselves with ashes, we’ll all look cool—but if only one does it he, or she, will look pretty silly. If we all circumcise our daughters we can’t be accused of butchering our own children; it’s what’s best for them, no matter how much it hurts. If some of us beat our dogs to death with bats and eat them; it’s just tenderized meat. If we test weapons on animals or perform operations on them while they are conscious and it’s for medical or military research; it’s easy to justify—no matter how much it frightens and hurts them. It is simply the way we do things. In the culture I grew up in you probably would have been prosecuted, maybe even lynched by a mob, if you circumcised your daughters as they do in some cultures. And you may have been ostracized by your community, at least your family, if you didn’t circumcise your sons. In some cultures killing children has been ‘right.’ If enough people are behind it we can have our own slaves. If the slaves don’t obey—we can abuse them; even kill them, and….it’s okay. You can earn a fortune at grave cost to other’s lives and contribute heavily to the contamination and destruction of the environment and be a hero to society in your own day. How you earn your fortune is not as important as how much you accumulate. Heroes are made this way! War generals are heroes when battles are won—it doesn’t matter that thousands upon thousands of boys and young men are sacrificed. All that matters is—we won! And if you speak out against any of this, you may be abused, at least ostracized; even though you are right. Fact is . . . if you don’t go along you will be in the minority—you won’t fit in. You will seem to be the one in the wrong, even if you are the only one doing the right thing.

So far neither of these two methods of establishing a moral baseline, religion or tradition, are adequate for a rational group of people. Neither lends itself to scrutiny because neither is rational and logical; these do not require thinking—only following.

A third way to establish a moral baseline is by way of rational thinking. This is different, and not very common. This requires that we actually make our own informed choices. This method demands that we, with open minds, research the important questions and objectively consider how we should live. Our search for the truth can lead to better decisions. Then we must support these decisions—regardless of what others are doing. In the midst of fighting for civil-rights Martin Luther King Jr. took a stand against the Vietnam War. When challenged by his friends and others that this was out of his league, that he should be concentrating on his people’s plight; he said the war was wrong and if he had to stand against it alone that is what he would do. When I heard that I realized, ‘this man is for real, he is a good man.’

When it comes to justifying a morality the large majority of society fits into the first two categories; religion and tradition. In the U.S. most people claim to believe in god and follow traditional influences. So the question of right and wrong, moral and immoral, isn’t too complicated for those who do. You just pass along some version of religion and some version of tradition to your children—and you’re set. If it’s religious it’s condoned by god and if it’s traditional it’s condoned by ancestors. Either way you’re covered! If this is right, great. If it’s wrong, it’s okay too because you’re following the crowd. In the crowd, even when the crowd is wrong, you are safest from bigotry.

If you aren’t in these groups you are in a tiny minority; you question religion and tradition because you want get as close to the truth as you can! I once heard an acquaintance say he would rather be wrong with the crowd than take a chance and stand by himself on an controversial issue. But what if you can’t accept this, what if you need evidence? What if you are bewildered by societies which eat and drink themselves into unnecessary suffering and early graves? Do you have a way to rationally explain people trying to save the environment while supporting an industry that cultivates millions and harvests billions of animals for human consumption in the US? In your mind is it hypocritical for people to ‘save the whales, the greyhounds or the mustangs’ and stop at the hamburger stand on the way home? Is it rational to talk about the right way to cook food to kill the worms in the animal’s flesh so you won’t get sick when you eat them? Is there some level on which it makes sense to eat from a food source which is known by modern science to be a major contributor to heart failure, stroke and cancer? Can you make sense of feeding those you love foods which requires treatment of every surface it touches with bleach? Are parents innocent or guilty when their children get ear infections, get fat or succumb to any of the diseases and disorders associated with diet? Do you believe you live in an egalitarian society? Have you noticed that those in the working class are not treated the same as those in the wealthy class? What if you can’t accept that different people are judged differently? Do you believe what we are taught in childhood, that we too can have it all? Can you see yourself as the Lotto winner? Do you notice there are multi-millions of Lotto losers traversing the landscape? It is public knowledge that the odds against winning are astronomical! Do you try anyway? Don’t be dismayed—this is the way we are taught to see the world; this is the way we are taught to act. And no . . . you are not exempt—your perception has been tainted just like everyone else’s.

Where this gets tricky is trying to determine what is right and wrong because our common sense, our intuition and empathetic ability has been altered by our childhood programming. How do we get the rose colored glasses off to see things as they really are when we don’t even know they are on? Or once we are aware—do we really want them off?

While my wife and I were visiting our oldest daughter I witnessed her sister-in-law chastising my ten year old granddaughter for telling her ten year old son where meat comes from. This woman thought she had to stop the ‘truth’ in its tracks before her children started believing it. At another time my brother asked me and my wife to never tell his young daughter where meat comes from. Apparently he was aware that in training her to fit into our society we could be an unwelcome impediment. We never said anything. But he did! He had to lie to his own child to prepare her for living in our culture. He was fitting her rose-colored glasses.

One example of unnecessary suffering; my brother’s daughter had a big problem with ear infections. This is not uncommon in young children who consume dairy products—just check the children’s medical books. We suggested he try adjusting her diet to exclude dairy, at least until they find out if it was related. But no! They took her to the hospital to have tubes inserted into her inner ears for drainage and sometime later another operation to remove them. To put their daughter at risk with these medical procedures rather than adjust her diet would not be considered immoral in our time—but I think it will be someday. They chose to put their daughter through unnecessary suffering and risk at considerable expense and most of society thinks no less of them for it. In fact society would surely applaud them for this misguided behavior. Based on recent news, society would without hesitation, prosecute them for not turning their daughter over to the medical-practice institution in this case.

When our senses send information to the brain one of the first things that happens, beneath the conscious level, is this new information is compared with the individual’s existing paradigm. If the new information isn’t in agreement with the existing paradigm—the new information is wrong! Wrong-wrong-wrong! So it’s discarded. It just doesn’t make it through the mind’s filter. But here is the interesting part—none of it has to be right or true. For information to be acceptable to the human mind, to be deemed worth living with—and even dying for—it just has to agree with the existing belief system; even if it’s all false. It takes a special mind to be willing to consider the value of new information when it’s different. Think about this! Consider this the next time you are making an important moral judgment; especially a choice you can’t take back. You may be making the wrong decisions and not even be aware of it at that moment.

The system my wife and I have developed is simple—we must do all we can to maintain our health for each other; and it’s wrong to indulge in animal consumption in any way. For us there is no question: humans have no innate right to use and abuse the other inhabitants of the planet, humans or animals, period. A fellow vegetarian once told me he would kill animals if his family were in danger of starvation. He was implying he would give up his own objective, adult conviction of morality and revert to what his culture had taught him was okay when he was a child. This is evidence of the tenacity of childhood training. In times of stress our childhood training will have more control over us than our ‘informed’ adult convictions. This is why ‘there are no atheists in foxholes.’ I wonder, what he would say if I were to ask him what he would do if we ran out of animals and his children were starving. It is my opinion that he wouldn’t kill people to feed his children; he would only go as far as his predecessors told him it was okay to go. This is based on the fact that in the parts of the world where people are watching their children starve to death every hour of every day there are no reports of people killing people and feeding them to their children, not that I’m aware of. The norm seems to be to only go as far as one’s childhood beliefs allow. Certainly an exception would be cannibals if there are any left, but even then they would just be doing what their families told them was okay when they were children.

What my wife and I believe are the beliefs of the minority. Although I almost never meet another vegetarian, probably only a couple per decade, when the subject comes up they tell me they would like to eat less meat, or no meat. Some say they are absolutely justified in eating animals, but absolutely will not kill them. These comments suggest to me that there are a lot of people with reservations about the way they eat. I think there are a lot more people who would like to be different than they are, but are just not able to make the choice yet. Living indecisively in this regard can have deleterious effects. When a coworker was telling me he doesn’t kill the animals that end up on his barbecue I wondered how this is not perceived as hypocritical to him or those around him. It reminds me of a woman I know who turns the television off if a movie portrays an animal being hurt, then goes into the kitchen and puts a rack of ribs in the broiler. I also wonder if those who only buy their animals in cellophane wrappers despise those in the slaughter houses doing the dirty work for them as the slave owners despised the slave traders.

The moral foundation I had growing up provided a different feedback to me than the one I have now. My childhood feedback system informed me that if I killed an animal, it was okay. In fact when I killed them just for fun, it was okay. Who was there to tell me any different? What could they tell me, how to do a wrong . . . correctly? If I were to grab a stray dog or cat in the neighborhood, kill it, clean it and throw it on the barbecue everyone would have thought I was a warped little psychopath. But they would have been wrong. Because that is what the majority of the population does, just usually not with cats and dogs, at least not in this country. And if one of my family members, relatives, neighbors etc. were to say anything about this behavior it would just make them hypocrites as well.

Is it possible my food choices alienate me from anything? Am I worse off by not eating dead animal flesh, even if it is cooked enough to kill the worms in it—whether the worms in fish or the worms in pork? Am I losing out when I choose not to be around people eating dead animals and contributing to pollution of the air and water, antibiotic resistance, children’s ear infections, ensuring more people die from the complications of atherosclerosis, clear cutting forests for grazing land for animals, the suffering and death of billions of animals every year, child delinquency from mixed, confusing signals, deaths from food poisoning, increased incidence of cancer and violence in all forms? The fact is my food choices haven’t alienated me from anything I should have ever known. If family members want to get together and eat animal flesh, drink alcohol and watch multi-millionaires play games on television—I think there is only one intelligent response from me. No thanks!

At 21a nice lady told me I could have some affect on my health and the health of my family if I were selective about how we ate. First time I heard that. I made the choice and changed the way I eat instead of continuing to eat the way I was taught, which was the exception to the rule. I learned I could choose—prior to that, like everyone else, I had made no choices. My parents decided how I would eat: just like they decided which religion to expose me to, which language I would learn, where I would live, how I would dress and so on. I didn’t decide which school to go to and which neighborhood to run around in; these were decided for all of us. It is even possible my parents indirectly persuaded me not to continue my education at that time by demonstrating with their lives that it wasn’t necessary and wasn’t important. I didn’t pick my likes and dislikes, my prejudices and biases any more than I picked my hair color, my gender or sexual preference—these were given to me. My father liked brown bread, so that’s all I would eat. My mother was a Protestant so I figured there would be no Catholics in heaven. These are the types of things we end up believing for no reason other than someone told us it is so.

Since that time I have made some of my own choices, but it hasn’t been easy. It isn’t easy because when you choose to make your own choices, not accepting what was handed to you as a child just because it is easy, then you will find yourself virtually alone and not as well liked. Furthermore, and this is a big one, when you accept the responsibility of making your own choices you’ll discover a substantial, concomitant burden of responsibility for the outcomes. Or you’ll continue doing what your family and culture told you was okay.

At the heart of living in the U.S. is the eating experience. It is an important part of our culture and it is one of the rare facets of life which is both important and enjoyable. We do place a high value on the ways of our families in this regard. Food, dining, family and business; all intricately linked emotional bounds. Consequently we end up with a society and economy structured by a culture which relies heavily on the production and consumption of animals. Just look at any menu at virtually all public eateries. Most of the entrees are based on animal products. You will find animal products in most foods. This is the case everywhere: restaurants, schools, hospitals, airports—even vending machines. A person in a hospital for a bypass is likely to get the same kind of food that put him, or her, there in the first place. A lot of the advertising we see and hear is slanted toward meat, egg and dairy products; they don’t seem to push the broccoli and tomatoes with the same fervor. It doesn’t become obvious how prevalent animal products are until you try to live without them. This adds to the difficulty of trying to live differently in a culture such as ours in the U.S.

I heard an obese mother say about her obese daughter who had a stroke in her 40’s, “These things just happen.” Well , , , not really! Like the rest of us this young woman was ‘taught’ how to eat by those who loved her. Researchers have verified that the tastes we become familiar with during infancy and childhood tend to be our preferred tastes for life. This young woman, like her mother, was overweight for a long time. Unfortunately, the result her lifestyle seems to have been catastrophic for her. Obviously, the mother didn’t take any blame for her daughter’s condition, she didn’t have to. She taught her daughter what she was taught by her mother—she taught her what her culture teaches. She didn’t question, she just passed it along. In fact she will surely still defend what she taught her children. The mother simply taught her daughter the cultural habit of animal consumption and some poor dietary choices in general—even though science had provided evidence that this behavior produces unhealthful side effects. The mother is off the hook. But the daughter isn’t; she will struggle with the resulting disabilities from stroke for the rest of her life. There are right and wrong choices when it comes to eating! So, perhaps society can share the blame with the mother since society perpetuates the very lifestyle which stole so much from the daughter.

I have been vegetarian since 1971 and only two people have been positively influenced by my example. That is a little better than one every twenty years; not very good. Making choices different from tradition is difficult and rarely happens. Most people continue to follow their predecessors traditions without question; all the while thinking they are making their own ‘free’ choices. So for the two I know who made the choice to try to do better, I am glad.

For most people life is a daily grind; working at a job Monday through Friday making someone else wealthy. Weekends are spent working on their own place, if they are among the fortunate. Many are caught up trying to blend with society while pushing to do better and to have more than those around them. We are taught to live and behave a certain way in our culture as are people in each culture. ‘Worthy’ goals and expectations are set before us from the time we first begin to understand words. Teachers in the first years of school define the boundaries for most of us by asking us what we want to be when we grow up. We are taught to think of ourselves in terms of what we do to earn a living and to consider our worth and success by what we acquire. From the first time we are paid by the hour we inadvertently begin to establish what our value is in society. For most people this is the beginning of a lifetime of being worth an hourly rate. This is the way it is and this is the way it must be for our economy to continue to function the way is has. Which means for us; we must fit in and we must cooperate and be productive most of our life.

There is a very small percentage of our population who are true capitalists. These are the ones who earn their living with their money. The rest of us are workers. We earn our living with our time; we trade our time and talents for money. To keep this system working every generation ‘must’ believe we can have whatever we want by participating fully in the existing economic model. The paradigm in which we function is bequeathed to us by our families, and our culture. The majority of us will accept and learn to live in a system we had nothing to do with creating. Each of us must be nurtured to live and function in this system, and defend and die for it, if necessary. Else—it will fail to function!

The system has plenty of flaws, but for most people, not so much it can’t be tolerated. But no doubt, changes will be required if people ever start wanting things to be fair and intelligible. If everyone were to wake up one morning aware they had been scammed, it would be interesting. If all of a sudden it became clear to the majority that they have no more chance of realizing their fondest dreams than they do of hitting the lottery, there would be some serious changes in life in the U.S. Fact is the statistics will bear this out. Most of us will not win—unless you consider earning an average income at a job five days a week for most of your adult life—winning. Therefore, we are of necessity, imbued with the belief and the hope we can win from the time we begin to understand the words being spoken to us. Without this false hope our type of economy cannot function any more than the lottery can function or multi-level marketing succeed without the blinded, obedient, supportive citizenry.

Perhaps the millions of lottery ‘losers’ are lifted in spirit even when another person wins the lottery. This proves to them it’s possible to win; ‘so they can win too.’ This proves they are not foolish for virtually throwing their money away week after week on millions-to-one odds against them. They can fantasize it is them on TV—or will be the next time. It will be them moving into the palatial home and buying the extravagant gifts for the loved ones. I heard a fellow say “I have as good a chance as anyone of winning.” Nope, he has as bad a chance as anyone of winning. A disheartened individual is watching TV as his or her hero runs across the goal line to score for the team. I suppose this poor soul is vicariously scoring a touchdown; lifted in spirit for a short time from what may be an iffy existence. Seem far-fetched? How many people living highly satisfying lives will waste their time watching others live their lives?

For those at the ‘financial’ pinnacle to live the life they live, we must be willing to live the life we live—and teach our children to do the same. And apparently we are willing and we do teach our children to do the same! We take it, we gag on it, we say thanks and we ask for more. Think not! How many will stand in line to watch a president, a Queen or a princess drive by? How many will ask for an autograph if a movie or sports celebrity is near? How many will drool on their own lap while wasting time watching ‘Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous’? How many magazines featuring the idols of the average American are sold? How many watch the awards programs on TV. I suspect most people don’t want to admit to these things, but it is the way it is.

I think a lot of people sense that important things in their life are askew. But I think most are virtually powerless to do anything about it. We, like individuals in all societies, are nurtured to fit. And even though this has seemed to function for a while; what has been the true cost? Unfortunately, this all takes its toll. We live in a reality which seems to be wrong in so many ways. But generation after generation we accept it, but at what cost? Living with so much wrong may be costing us a lot more than we have imagined. I believe this could and does impinge on a person’s ability to find contentment, health and happiness. I believe our lack of sufficient virtue, our inability as a society to change when we know we are doing wrong—destines us to more of the same, and probably worse! History has recorded the fact that societies and empires come and go, and there are reasons for this. Beware, we are not exempt!

The sad truth is for us to live in the social stupor we have inherited and passed on to our children requires that we be brought up ‘correctly.’ And we are! From the time we say our first Pledge of Allegiance and read our first text about the virtues of Capitalism, we are being prepared to fit into our place in the machinery. From the time our first grade teachers urge us to decide what we want to be; nurse, pilot or dog walker; our box is being fashioned for us. Our first Bible stories are a prepared morality for us to live by in the hope we will all think similarly, blend in and do what we are supposed to do. It is not a pleasant thought, but the majority of the population . . . is the machinery. We are unwittingly nurtured to support the status-quo, and interestingly, our physiology and psychology make us the perfect raw materials for this to succeed.

One thing that is quite evident is that tradition is a powerful force. It seems to have a path to our inner most parts that does not traverse the brain. I have learned that to overcome the nearly indelible imprint of tradition requires a strong conviction which is supported by rational deliberation, but driven by—emotions. The key which unlocks the way to those inner most parts is emotion. But, until a strong emotion creates caring in us sufficient to produce change, we cannot see or feel outside our own box; we remain trapped in by conventional wisdom. What I haven’t learned, is how to elicit caring in others.

The responsibility our generation has relinquished, like the generations before us, is that of deciding rationally what is right and wrong and making the changes necessary to correct the way we live. Have my choices alienated me? All I can say is if choosing to do what is right alienates me from something—I think I need to be alienated from it—whatever it is. To be alienated from all I think is wrong . . . is a most worthy goal in life.