Through the past year I've been having ups and downs in my vegetarianism. A few nights back I went to see 'The fast food nation' and it put me right back on track. I think this was the first movie I've ever seen that used the images of animal treatment on big screen and well, it worked. I support some cases of animal activism, but have always avoided looking at the pictures and videos they display in the streets - I've seen them once and don't really need a repeat. Having been 'forced' to see them again last night put me back in touch with some of the reasons why I used to be more strict about my diet.
I think everyone should read the book 'Guns, germs and steel' (or see the movie, as I lazily did). The author, Jared Diamond, sets out to explore the roots of inequality in the world's distribution of wealth today and I think has a some good points to his thesis. He starts his analysis at the point before the rise of the great civilizations and walks the reader through the development of human societies around the globe. In his thesis a society's success boils down largely to 'geographical luck' - lands that were home to most nutritious crops and most easily domestic-able animals had the winning card in the history, as they were able to produce enough food to allow a percentage of a community's individuals to not farm the land, but develop new technologies, skills, philosophies and culture. From then on, the colonization came with Euroasians' technology, animals, foods, and their immunity to diseases acquired from their long cohabitation with domesticated animals - their attributes made colonization a relatively 'smooth' process. Diamond's theory sheds light into histories of lands like Africa and societies such as the native Americans and Australians. This is not to say that his arguments fully explain the phenomenon of the rise of the modern-day West versus say China or India, which is altogether a more complex issue and perhaps depends more on cultural, economic and technological advancements.
In the developed countries, food is no longer a problem. Agricultural technologies and widespread distribution on the market has led to an ease in both providing and acquiring nutrients. True, humanity got where it is largely because of how they harvested animals, but you would think that at least in the highly developed parts of the world, societies will soon reach a level in which they can substitute meat nutrients with the variety of foods they provide. The shopping cart is one of the easiest ways to send a message to the providers around the world - a consistent message on what people want can steer production and marketing around the world. Also, through human history force and violence has become less and less acceptable in most societies - both towards other nation states and to members of the same communities. Penalties such as cutting off thieves' hands are no longer in the books, except in certain fundamental societies. Perhaps this lessening in accepting of cruelty not just to humans, but also to other creatures such as the animals we farm is going to be the way to go a 1000 years from now. Maybe in another 1000 years (if our lovely kind is still there) people will look back at factory farming and think of it as today we think of stoning women for adultery?
p.s. I don't want to send another bulk email about this, but my photo site is actually supposed to be at http://web.mac.com/paulinadavis rather than at the link i sent out in the 'just making sure...' email...sorry for the confusion everyone.
