Veganism

“ Yet, in fact, few Vegetarians do confine themselves to this diet; and herein consists my difficulty in definition. We are open to the scoff of being, not Vegetarians but Brahmins, who do not object to animal food, but only to the taking of animal life. Few of us refuse eggs, or milk and its products. This is highly illogical, if we seek consistency with an abstract theory. I do not shut my eyes to it. The truth is, that in cookery we need some grease, and it is hard to eat dry bread without butter or cheese. Our climate does not produce the nicer oils. ”

“ If, then, it be a degrading occupation to kill animals, how can the habit of eating them be other than degrading ? If we condemn the ignorant and brutal butcher who supplies the flesh, how can we acquit the refined ladies and gentlemen who demand it ? The thoughtlessness alone enables people to endure such a system. From infancy they are taught to ignore what "meat" really is ; until they hardly think of oxen and sheep in connection with beef and mutton.
And now contrast with this diet the life of a Vegetarian. ”

“ To become a convert to this new order, adopting non-animal food and hygienic living, is not synonymous with monastical asceticism, as some imagine. Meat eaters when first confronted with vegetarianism often imagine their dietary is going to be restricted to a monotonous round of carrots, turnips, cabbages, and the like; and if their ignorance prevents them from arguing that it is impossible to maintain health and strength on such [Pg 105] foods, then it is very often objected that carrots and cabbages are not liked, or would not be cared for all the time. ”

“ The animal's instinct guides him aright, but man has lost his primitive instinct, and to trust to his inclinations may result in disaster.
The first question about vegetarianism, then, is this:—Is it the best diet from the hygienic point of view? Of course it will be granted that diseased food, food containing pernicious germs or poisons, whether animal or vegetable, is unfit to be eaten. It is not to be supposed that anyone will defend the eating of such food, so that we are justified in assuming that those who defend flesh-eating believe flesh to be free from such germs and poisons ”

“ When nature prompts a hen to cackle, do you think we are expected to look the other way? Why, Philip, you will be going back on honey next because bees make it. We are vegetarians because we no longer think it right to destroy animal life. We not only think it wrong to destroy, but we believe it to be our duty to preserve it wherever we find it. Don't we spread corn on the snow in the winter for the coons and squirrels? Come, now! We are not vegetarians at all. We are simply unwilling to take life, which leaves us to choose between vegetable diet and starvation. ”

“ They are free to take meat whenever they can get it, e.g., in their Inn if they have gone for a Barrister's education. If it be true that one can live on vegetable foods without injuring one's health, why should not all live on a vegetable diet because it is more economical than a meat diet? That vegetarianism exists in England there are living examples to prove. There are vegetarian societies and any quantity of vegetarian literature to testify to the existence of vegetarianism in England. ”

“ He would, therefore, caution all Vegetarians against too free a use of them. They might be advisable at their banquets and soirées, to demonstrate to strangers and inquirers what an immense variety of rich and nutritious dishes could be produced without animal slaughter; they might also be used as a transition diet of which flesh formed no part, but when circumstances would permit, an entire rejection of whatever was not simple in composition would be undoubtedly an advantage with regard to health and economy, as some Vegetarians had already found. ”

“ As Vegetarians — seeking a sound mind in a sound body—we would convert it into a paradise of health. Every staunch Vegetarian is an unpaid officer of health. Europe has been called the hell of animals, shambles, an Akeldama, or field of blood; our reform would turn it into a garden, a pleasance, a preserve for all innocent life. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all God's holy mountain. Strong meat will go the way of strong drink. The staff of life—wholemeal bread—is no rotten reed that will break under our weight ”

“ What I wish to insist on is that it is not “animal” food which we Food Reformers primarily abjure, but nasty food, expensive food, and unwholesome food. It is, therefore, absurd to twit us with the use of eggs and milk, because we do not eat fowls and beef. And the climax of absurdity is reached when Sir Henry Thompson gravely points out to us that the infant who thrives on mother’s milk is not subsisting on vegetarian diet! ”

“ And we all know that when men are in training for athletic contests it is customary to cut down to very small proportions the allowance of meat.
As to the effect of a vegetarian diet, we may reason by analogy from the animals. The strongest animals are vegetarian—the horse, the ox, the camel, the reindeer, and the elephant. In power and endurance the lion and tiger are no match for them, for the strength of the carnivora as a rule shows itself only in short efforts. The longest-lived of the mammals are vegetarian, the elephant living to an age of a hundred years. ”

“ From the earliest ages the doctrines and practices of vegetarianism have been observed, from necessity, as a religious duty, or on the grounds of health. So long ago as the time of Pythagoras, vegetarianism was practised, while the Hindus from remote antiquity have subsisted on vegetable food. In England the question has come to the front on the ground of dietetic reform, and a number of persons known as "Vegetarians" abstain from animal food altogether, or take it only in such forms as milk, cheese, butter and eggs. ”

“ Meat only rarely appears on their tables, and then it is meat of the poorest quality. The greater part of the rural population, although they raise cattle, also rarely eat meat; for they must sell the [458] cattle, and, with the money obtained, must satisfy other needs. To these numerous people who are obliged to live as vegetarians, a solid beefsteak or a good leg of mutton would mean a decided improvement in their nourishment. [265] If vegetarianism opposes the overeating of an animal diet, it is right. ”

“ Our position, therefore, is this—that while we make no exaggerated claim for vegetarianism, as in itself a panacea for human ills and animal sufferings, we insist on the rational view that reform of diet is an indispensable branch of social organisation, and that it is idle to talk of recognising "rights of animals" so long as we unconcernedly eat them. Vegetarianism is no more and no less than an essential part in the highly complex engine which is to shape the fabric of a new social structure, an engine which will not work if a single screw be missing. ”

“ Do Vegetarians take eggs, milk, cheese, butter, honey? Yes and no; some do, some do not. Officially, the Society proscribes fish, flesh, fowl. Outside the three F's, our members are free to range as other men; the Society is neutral. So the use of tobacco, tea, coffee, fermented drinks, is an open question with us. Yet very few Vegetarians use strong drinks or smoke. Many drink water only; some do not drink at all; the tendency is towards simplicity. Our action is providing substitutes for all animal substances. [4] A German firm advertises in our German organs vegetable milk and cheese. ”

“ Those who have conscientiously made a trial of vegetarian diet have not found climatic influences the smallest obstacle in their path. An English winter is undoubtedly depressing, but it is not more so because one’s food is pure.
3. The baffled advocate of flesh-eating now changes his ground, and adopts a high moral tone, pointing out at the same time some incidental difficulties and drawbacks of Food Reform. “Vegetarianism involves too much thinking about one’s food.” Hard-working men often seem to think there is a sort of merit in “not caring what one eats.” This is a fallacy ”

“ In the measure in which civilization advances, exclusive meat diet, as is met with among hunting and pastoral tribes, is partly replaced by vegetable diet. The variety of cultivated plants is a proof of higher civilization. On a given area, moreover, much more nourishment can be obtained by the cultivation of plants than by the breeding of cattle. This development gradually causes the vegetable diet to predominate. The supply of meat from distant countries, especially South America and Australia, will be exhausted in a few decades. ”

“ Disease among cattle, poultry, and fish has increased so alarmingly in the last few years that we should no longer depend on the animal kingdom for food. We should look to the grains, nuts, vegetables, and fruits for a better dietary than can be prepared [4] from the flesh of animals likely to be contaminated with tuberculosis, cancer, and other diseases.
In writing this book, the author has treated the subject from the commonly accepted definition of the term vegetarianism, which means to abstain from flesh food, but allows the use of eggs, milk, and its products. ”

“ Probably, strength of body and mind, as a general rule, depends upon breed, and this argument tells two ways—it does not follow that vegetarians will be necessarily strong, and will cease to be cruel; nor does it follow that those who have been accustomed all their lives to eat meat will cease to be strong should they become vegetarians. As we have said, the great motive that induces many to give vegetarianism a trial is economy; and if persons would once get rid of the idea that they risk their health by making a trial, much would be done to advance the cause. ”

“ The Vegetarian, then, is one who aims at wholeness, soundness, strength, quickness, vigour, growth, wakefulness, health. These must be won by a return to nature, and the natural food for man is a diet of fruit and farinacea, with which some combine such animal products as may be enjoyed without destroying sentient life.
In the German journals of kindred societies the true derivation has frequently been insisted on. Eduard Baltzer's Vortrag über Vegetarianismus, am 27 Juni 1870 im sächischen Hof zu Nürnberg gehalten. ”

“ Certainly not any a priori assumption that all animal substances, as such, are unfit for human food; for though it is quite probable that the movement will ultimately lead us to the disuse of animal products, vegetarianism is not primarily based on any such hard-and-fast formula, but on the conviction, suggested in the first place by instinctive feeling, but confirmed by reason and experience, that there are certain grave evils inseparable from the practice of flesh-eating. The aversion to flesh food is not chemical, but moral, social, hygienic. ”

“ It is rarely the case, however, that those who affect to practice this cult in reality live exclusively on a vegetable diet. As a rule it will be found that they are milk-drinkers, and not infrequently add eggs to their dietary. It is, of course, absurd to regard as vegetarians those who simply avoid meat, since it is true that the nitrogenous substances contained in milk and eggs differ in no essential particular from similar substances found in flesh of all kinds. ”

“ Thus in 180 years we shall have reached the limit where population, being over 1,000 to the square mile, must emigrate or be arrested by the difficulty of obtaining food, and the absolute necessity of reducing to a small number our stock of horses, cattle, and hogs, that human beings may have food,—vegetarian diet thus becoming a necessity, and bringing with it a great diminution of intemperance, and the crimes produced by the animal passions; for it is well established that vegetarianism restrains intemperance. ”

“ To this it must be answered that the immediate object which Food Reformers aim at is not so much the disuse of animal substances in general, as the abolition of flesh-meat in particular ; and that if they can drive their opponents to make the very important admission that actual flesh-food is unnecessary, they can afford to smile at the trivial retort that animal substance is still used in eggs and milk. It is not the mere name of “animal” food they are afraid of, but they consider the use of butcher’s meat at once unpleasant and degrading. ”

“ It would be contrary to all the ethical and æsthetic teachings of every religion, and antagonistic to the feelings of all who have evolved to the possession of a conscience and the power to distinguish the beautiful from the base.
When one accustomed to an omnivorous diet adopts a vegetarian régime, a steadily growing refinement in taste and smell is experienced. Delicate and subtle flavours, hitherto unnoticed, especially if the habit of thorough mastication be practised, soon convince the neophyte that a vegetarian is by no means denied the pleasure of gustatory enjoyment. ”

“ As to how far it is permissible to depart from the strictest adherence to the principles of vegetarianism that have been laid down, the individual must trust his own conscience to determine; but we can confidently affirm that the eating of animal flesh is unnecessary and immoral and retards development in the direction which the finest minds of the race hold to be good; and that the only time when it would not be wrong to feed upon such food would be when, owing to misfortunes such as shipwreck, war, famine, etc., starvation can only be kept at bay by the sacrifice of animal life. ”