I've been mulling this all over in my head for a couple of days to try to explain myself more properly. (If that can really be done via the internet, especially when people's core values are being called into question.) At least, explain why I think veganism is/can be rather silly.
First, let's be clear on this, it's as much of a cult as the paleo and locavore crowds are. Question anyone on those diets and answers amount to "la la la nope nope nope DON'T QUESTION IT!" (For reference, I skew locavore myself, but I try to challenge my own beliefs and I'm frankly not going to beat myself up if I don't adhere 100% to eating locally. That's just silly.) It is also, yes, a rich world diet. People might have an easier time eating vegan in third world countries, but you have that choice. They do not, and would likely welcome a bit of animal protein into their diets if it could be afforded.
My biggest problem with veganism is that it sets itself up not only as the
healthiest of all diets, but also the most morally sound. But, the morals inherent in it just bring up more questions which seem to be glossed over by its adherents. Like, why is eating bacteria like yeast (a living organism) ok, but honey (not a living organism) isn't? You don't have to kill the bees to harvest honey, so that can't be the problem. And plenty of studies have shown that backyard beekeepers are actually staving off colony collapse disorder, thus preventing the deaths of all those bees and consequently ensuring that all of our plants continue to get pollinated. If the beekeepers take some honey in exchange, I consider it to be more of a symbiotic relationship than an exploitative one. The bees live, the beekeepers get a bit of food and wax and all the gardens for a 3 mile radius get a pollination boost.
No matter how I eat, something is going to die, whether it's a plant or an animal. Why do animals get special dispensation, but plants are disposable? Is it just the idea of sentience in one group? If so, please refer back to my comment about yeast and honey. Honey isn't sentient, but who's to say that bacteria aren't somewhat sentient? And what's to say plants can't feel? They turn their leaves toward sunlight. They might not be "smart" in the way we think of it, but they are still living organisms and they show an amazing ability to adapt to circumstances in their efforts to survive and reproduce. Not unlike people.
Animals eat other animals all the time. We are nothing if not animals. Rather intelligent ones, but I think we frequently overestimate our own smarts on both an individual and species wide basis. (Everyone knows that mice are the smartest, after all. :P ) So, why should we be any different from other animals? Doesn't that just put us in a special category, a way to actually differentiate us from all other animals?
If it's just the death of the animals which is the sticking point, eggs and milk require that the animals remain alive to continue producing the food. What's wrong with someone keeping chickens and eating their eggs? Would you have us relegate all eggs to simply being a waste product? We can't turn back the clock and make chickens go back to being wild creatures, and in a world with so much hunger it seems flat out irresponsible to say that people shouldn't eat a perfectly nutritious food because it came from an animal. It's not like the chickens are going to stop ovulating if we all decide not to eat the eggs, and unless there's a rooster handy the eggs aren't going to magically become baby chickens so nothing is being harmed.
Rail against CAFOs all you want, I am with you there.
If you still don't approve of humans eating chicken eggs, could a person feed them to their dog? It would avoid the waste, and it's incredibly healthy for dogs to eat eggs. But then, why is it ok for a dog to eat and not a human? Wouldn't you then effectively be divorcing yourself from animals once again, keeping them 'other'?
As for animal products such as leather, if all of them were made from animal hides from animals which had died naturally, would you still object to them? If so, what could be the purpose? We wouldn't be killing animals, just using a resource that's available and, in fact, honoring the animal by making it useful after death. The holdup can't be for environmental reasons, because the textile industry is a huge polluter, without even getting into the environmental toll of growing the crops, such as cotton.
As someone who eats animals, I also wear shoes made of leather and don't feel bad. I mean, I know the leather industry is awful, sickening, but I feel better about using as much of the animal as possible to avoid waste. And if I could change the industry itself to something a bit better, I would snap my fingers and make it happen.
If you're vegan because it's somehow better for the environment, I can promise you that the mitigation from not eating meat is severely lessened by the supplements and additives which you eat (very costly in every sense--money, environment, the fact that they need to be transported and manufactured and purchased, the raw materials harvested and grown....) and the costs of the milk replacement drinks you consume, like almond milk and soymilk.
If it's for health, if you feel great then it's probably fine. However, in terms of longevity a whole food diet of any stripe, so long as fruits and vegetables are at the core of the diet, is the way to go. (
http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2014/03/science-compared-every-diet-and-the-winner-is-real-food/284595/) So, giving up all animal products is no more likely to cause you to live longer.
From a farming perspective, animals can be grown on land which is marginal and not good for food crops, so it becomes more productive. Also, a polyculture farm is far, far more productive and efficient than pretty much any other type of agriculture.
I'm certain that I've offended some people, but if you'd like to enlighten me, please feel free to do so. You're not going to change my opinion on this matter any more than I think I've changed yours, but it's interesting to get a discussion going.
Mods, if you think this should be moved to a new thread, do so with my blessing. This one seemed to have stopped, so I didn't feel bad posting it here. Also, I figured the context would (hopefully) make it less offensive.