Animal Rights Zone

Fighting for animal liberation and an end to speciesism

Vegan Simplicity ~ Mylene Ouillet ~ My Face is on Fire Blogspot

Vegan Simplicity




When I started writing My Face Is on Fire a couple of years ago, I did so with a couple of intentions. I wanted to write about veganism, but I also wanted to write about other issues
involving the ethics of consumption that have to do with
over-consumption
in general. Cheap oil (among other factors) has facilitated a sort of
rampant consumerism in "developed" countries, and this consumerism has
enabled our becoming disposable societies. Cheap oil facilitated the
Green Revolution,
which has left us with a hyper-industrialized agricultural system which
has poisoned the land, water and air around us, and which has also left
global food production--much of the world's actual
seed supply--in the hands of a very few gigantic biotech companies. It's also left us eating questionable concoctions out of disposable (albeit sometimes
recyclable) paper, plastic and metal packaging--foods whose ingredients
sometimes travel halfway around the world to get to the machines used
to slap them together before they hit the store shelves.

So along with talking about the ethics of veganism, when I started this blog, I wanted to focus on the things we can do to reduce our consumerism by eating lower on the food chain, relying less on manufactured goods, and supporting agricultural practices that
don't involve tithes to Monsanto (i.e. practices which are instead focused on
supporting organic agriculture, and on even growing some of your
own food
while avoiding chemical fertilizers, pesticides and frankenseed). I
think that with veganism as its foundation, an ethical consumption
mindset that also involves consideration for treading lightly can lead
to a lifestyle that is healthier for us, for non-humans, as well as for
the environment we all share. It can also be a fun and educational
process, as you teach yourself methods you can use to simplify your
life and pass on any acquired knowledge or skills to others interested
in learning more.

I'm sure that some vegans get a bit of a negative knee-jerk reaction to mentions of things like "locavorism" and
"small-scale organic farming" because of the emphasis often placed on
animal use and exploitation when discussing either--particularly in
purportedly hip mainstream articles about either topic. The truth is,
though, that there are so many benefits to be enjoyed from
incorporating a variety of fresh and unprocessed plant-based foods into
your diet and in knowing what's been used to grow them. I also think
that along with treading more lightly when choosing what we eat, that
we have so much from which to benefit in learning how to simplify our
lives in other ways that leave us consuming--and
spending!--less.

I've been chatting with a number of fellow vegans (as well as non-vegans)
over the last few months, mostly via email or in some discussion
forums, about how pricey or difficult to track down certain processed
vegan items and personal care products can be. While doing this, I've
realized that there are too many instances where veganism ends up
deemed "too difficult" because of the expense or scarcity in some
stores of items with otherwise readily-available non-vegan equivalents.
In many cases, the items in question are, in fact, items that are
neither critically essential nor completely unaffordable if consumed in
moderation. That being said, while extending the blog's focus to
include the exploration of less expensive lifestyle choices for vegans
that rely less on manufacturing and instead lean more towards
sustainability and
voluntary simplicity, that could be an interesting "issue" to tackle. Over
the next while, I hope to include tips, tricks and do-it-yourself
instructions for a variety of things that may be helpful to those
interested. I look forward to getting some feedback on it all in the
posts to come.


http://my-face-is-on-fire.blogspot.com/2010/04/vegan-simplicity.html



Views: 28

Add a Comment

You need to be a member of Animal Rights Zone to add comments!

Join Animal Rights Zone

About

Videos

  • Add Videos
  • View All

ARZone Podcasts!

Please visit this webpage to subscribe to ARZone podcasts using iTunes

or

Enter your email address:

Delivered by FeedBurner

Follow ARZone!

Please follow ARZone on:

Twitter

Google+

Pinterest

A place for animal advocates to gather and discuss issues, exchange ideas, and share information.

Creative Commons License
Animal Rights Zone (ARZone) by ARZone is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
Based on a work at www.arzone.ning.com.
Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at www.arzone.ning.com.

Animal Rights Zone (ARZone) Disclaimer

Animal Rights Zone (ARZone) is an animal rights site. As such, it is the position of ARZone that it is only by ending completely the use of other animal as things can we fulfill our moral obligations to them.

Please read the full site disclosure here.

Animal Rights Zone (ARZone) Mission Statement

Animal Rights Zone (ARZone) exists to help educate vegans and non-vegans alike about the obligations human beings have toward all other animals.

Please read the full mission statement here.

Members

Events

Badge

Loading…

© 2024   Created by Animal Rights Zone.   Powered by

Badges  |  Report an Issue  |  Terms of Service

Google+