So what do I do with my tried-and-true Doc Martens, or that leather wallet I got for Christmas? How do I feel about wool? I struggled with this for a while. Nobody wants to be hypocritical. So here's what I have came up with; maybe the logic is flawed, but I don't think there is an easy answer for this one:
When sheep stop producing wool, they are sent to slaughter. Lambs are killed for meat and their hides used to make, well, lambskin products. I really want to picture all these sheep hanging out, eating grass, being, well, sheep - for the rest of their lives. But I've got to be serious - if there is a sheep farm like this, it would be the exception and not the rule. Such a place would not be economically feasible. I think I'll have to start looking at what goes into the clothes I buy.
But that doesn't answer the question of what do I do with the clothes I have...
So my goal is to decrease the amount of animals that need to be killed for my taste and pleasures. The way I see it, throwing away a pair of boots that I bought 10 years ago will not save a single cow. It's also wasteful, in my opinion. Bottom line: I'm keeping those suckers. Let the vegan police come knocking on my door (They won't, by the way, and getting over this fear sure was a big help for me). But in terms of clothing/household items and cosmetics, I am moving forward from here.
My ultimate goal is to not actively promote the industrial meat machine. Like I said, I'd love to picture Old McDonald's farm (if you've read Omnivore's Dilemma or watched Food, Inc., I'm thinking of Polyface farms) with birds chirping and orchestral music playing, farmer in overalls with hay hanging out of his mouth, the chickens running around, following the cows, fattening themselves up on fly larvae and fertilizing the ground with their nitrogen-rich droppings, the cows acting as giant lawn mowers, grazing the land to perfection, the pigs acting as the farm's garbage disposal, everything organic and intertwined - the circle of life and death.
*cue record-screeching-to-a-halt sound* But let's face it - that is not how it works! And even though farms like this do exist, they're not economically feasible in the face of this country's meat obsession - they can't keep up! That's how we got in the factory farming mess in the first place! And not even these farms can slaughter their own cows - at the end of their organic, grass finished life, they are still sent to a factory slaughterhouse. Thank you, USDA! Besides, I can't help but be faced with the nagging thought: even if the Polyface farm ideology sweeps the nation, what is it exactly that justifies killing an animal because I want a hamburger? "It tastes really good." I know. I KNOW! And that used to be enough for me too, but something changed in me and, well, that isn't good enough anymore. I mean, I'm sure human babies taste exquisite, with their fat little legs lightly marinated and delicately twirling on the spit (I really think Thomas Swift was on to something) but I'm not sure that's a good enough reason to eat them. Ok, I'm kidding. I'm not going to eat anyone's baby. Anyone's. So I guess cows and pigs and fish and lobster are out for me, then. I get it: if it had a mother or came from a mother, I think it belongs to that mother and not in my mouth.
stormborns
kaledo-art
baratheonpilled
jbbartram-illu
izzy806
tangentwithtanner
titsay
turnnoffyourmind