By Višnja Čirić

When you ask a regular person on the street whether they love animals, everyone will say that they really love them, despite the fact that they eat them. No one notices any contradiction in that.

I guess we are used to saying one thing and doing the opposite, we don’t mind as long as our lives are not at stake

As long as the suffering is far away, where we don’t see it, we don’t hear it and we don’t have to talk about it- it’s all good.

How is it possible that humanity takes pride in any “progress” when it still spills blood every day to feed itself? 

What kind of beings are we if we eat the flesh of fellow beings, and on top of that say that we love them?

What kind of a monster can care for an animal for months and years just to betray it one day with a knife down the throat? And who in normal mind would eat a dead corpse?

Yet, it is happening every day on a scale we cannot imagine. Billions of animals are in prison waiting for the execution to fill the bellies of seemingly decent fellows in suits and ties. Humanity is producing so much suffering without even noticing it, it’s “just a part of culture”. 

What’s even more amazing is that humans are expecting happiness in their own lives while they produce misery in everyone’s else’s. How can I be happy if I’m making others unhappy? We don’t need anyone to tell us how wrong it is, just a working heart and a bit of brain. But it is no wonder that we lost both (the heart and the brain), because in order to participate in many harmful habits, like this of eating flesh, we have to supress all the feelings and thoughts that arise, otherwise we may go mad if we realize what we are doing. We are use to supressing any internal reactions in order to fit in the culture that we belong to, oblivious to the price we are paying as emotional and intelligent beings (we actually are, or have a potential to be).

Nowadays many people have realized the cruelty and lunacy of meat eating and have changed their eating habits to vegan. This is a great leap for humanity to get back to the natural state of empathy and restore health to one’s body and mind. 

However, just because it is vegan it doesn’t mean it is healthy and most people feel drained due to lack of vitamins and minerals in food. 

Most food are grown in laboratory like conditions and are treated with all kinds of chemicals that are actually poisonous not only to humans but to all life forms and to the earth. Knowing how many times per year apples are treated with chemicals, it is definitely better not to eat an apple a day . That is why organic agriculture is important, it doesn’t cause damage to the body nor environment. 

However the fruits/vegetables should be picked when they are ripe, that is when they are full of nutrition and the reason they taste so good. Unfortunately all food, organic or not, when grown for sale have to be picked when they are green and thus still are not nutritious. Not to mention the subtle elements that also play a role, for example: who takes care of the food ( a free person on their own will or a paid person, usually against their own will), through how many hands the foods goes till it gets to the market etc. These are all subtle influences on food, yet they play critical role on the effect food has on our body, mind and senses. 

Growing our food is the only way we get all the benefits we hoped for, and the many wonderful surprises we discover about nature and ourselves along the way. 

However, living so removed from food and nature most people don’t know where or how to start something on their own. That is why it is best to join workshops on similar topics where one gets the basic knowledge on how to go about growing their own food. There are also opportunities to join organic farmers and live with them while learning and helping out (WWOOF hosting).

Also there are many independent communities and eco villages where one can stay for longer periods of time and  learn various skills while living in a community (ic.org ). These are all ways one can ease himself into a new lifestyle so necessary for him, planet and probably the whole universe.  

The future of humanity is not parasitic lifestyle we have today where we produce mostly misery to planet, animals, and other humans who slave to produce goods that we too easily buy and even more easily throw away. No, if we are to continue on this planet we must be more sensitive to life around us and produce ourselves what we use and need. That way we wouldn’t be so careless with food/things we use, knowing how much time, effort and love we put in growing/making it. Thus becoming more self aware, more self responsible and more caring to others. That is the only way we can reach our human potential of empathic, intelligent and competent beings. 

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