Eating Our Way
by Francisco Martín
from IVU Newsletter, February/March 1996
This is a summary
of a talk given during the European Vegetarian Congress in Bratislava, Slovakia
July, 1995.
We generally have a very limited concept of the meaning of food
and how it affects and shapes our lives. Food is not just what we eat, but everything
that can influence and condition our behaviour and the way we feel and think;
all that we assimilate through touch, sight and hearing. For example, if we were
truly aware of the cruelty involved in food production we would be utterly incapable
of biting into a piece of flesh cut from an animal that has been abused and then
slaughtered, because only ignorant people could regard as pleasant something that
is intrinsically abhorrent to our human nature. Everything we consume becomes
a part of our identity and beliefs, conditioning our behaviour as it becomes part
of us. Therefore, consuming products obtained through cruelty - or, alternatively,
adopting a non-violent diet - can determine, for good or ill, not only the nature
of our actions but our whole personality.
Likewise, we must broaden and redefine
our concept of food and the role that it plays in our lives. If we agree that
no one can live in total isolation, socially or environmentally, then in the broadest
sense food is not just what the stomach can digest, but that which exerts an influence
on us, making us behave in a particular way towards everything around us, and
which can be assimilated through our senses until it becomes a part of our own
identity. But if we are what we eat, we are also the way that we eat, and in order
to be well-fed mentally, physically and spiritually we need to re-establish a
specific relationship or affinity with all that we need and are capable of assimilating,
and to do so in the best possible way.
The violence that leads to so much
suffering for humans and non-humans alike stems from behavioural problems caused
by an improper assimilation of ideas and of food. It is hard to understand why
humans behave as they do, destroying other forms of life and the beautiful natural
areas that make up our essential habitat. Why are wars seemingly inevitable when
our wish is to stay alive and enjoy peace? Why are there dictatorships? What causes
racist and supremacist ideas? The answer lies in our own personal attitudes: if
we truly believe that we are more important than other animals, then, in certain
circumstances, we are likely to believe that our own selfish individual or ethnic
interest should prevail over those of others and it is thus that humans legitimize
ethnic cleansing and the destruction of the so-called enemy.
Nor should we
forget that all wars - in which animals as well as humans die - are organized
by people who believe that human beings are more important than all other animals.
When we alienate ourselves from all that surrounds us and become isolated entities,
the physical, mental and spiritual harmony of health breaks down, as well as the
necessary interrelationship with our surroundings which alone can make us whole,
leaving us free only to pursue our own selfish goals without regard to the welfare
of others: it is for this reason that all dictators are ruthless megalomaniacs.
We must strive to be more open-minded and to reject all rigid and judgmental attitudes.
To refuse to talk to those who have not changed their ways as we believe they
should is to deny all evolutionary progress. Believing that one has a monopoly
of universal truth can be a very negative factor in ones relationship with others.
The more we learn about ourselves and everything that surrounds us, and the simpler
our social interaction with others, the greater the harmony and progress we shall
enjoy.
Each individual is a complex mixture of physical and spiritual needs.
If we do not feed our bodies and minds properly, we shall not be able to enjoy
optimum health. whilst one cannot claim that any individual who consumes natural
foods must necessarily be healthier than anyone consuming cooked or processed
foods; the essential property of raw natural products is their simplicity as wholesome
foods. They should therefore be regarded as complete and not as complementary
foods, being pleasant enough to eat in their natural state and providing a healthy
liberation from dreary cooking chores.
The less our food is processed, the
greater the benefit to our health. Just as the consumption of the flesh of other
creatures can influence our attitudes and mislead us into thinking that we have
a predatory nature, and just as the consumption of products obtained by cruelty
can make us selfish and violent, dependence on artificial foods may distance us
from nature because instead of associating the produce that we consume with the
countryside, as other animals do, we may come to identify our food with the factories
in which it is produced. Moreover, if we choose simple non-processed natural foods,
obtained without violence, and if we accept that we have no right to exploit or
harm other beings whether animal or human, we shall achieve a more peaceful co-existence
and be in a better position to appreciate and protect our planet and those with
whom we share it.
If we want a better world, we must act positively to achieve
it. History has taught us that human evolution is a slow and painful process with
little change in the myths passed down from one generation to another over long
periods of time. If we could overcome the myths - the wrong attitudes or concepts
that we generally accept without question - inherited from our parents or from
society as a whole, progress could be achieved much faster.One thinks, for instance,
of how long it took for the United States to accept the new basic food groups
- fruit, vegetables, grains and legumes - replacing the old mythology based on
the consumption of meat and milk. On the other hand, although vegetarianism is
becoming more popular every day in the western world, the idea that we have no
right to eat our fellow beings is still far from being generally accepted.
In seeking to change the world, we must have a clear picture of who we are and
what we want to achieve. We need to spend more time showing our concern for the
world around us than pondering over our relationship with God, because only when
we know who we really are and how we should be acting, will God be able to communicate
with us. Since I became aware that there is no justification whatever for giving
tacit support to the widespread myths which only a predatory society is unable
to question - for instance, the idea that being Spanish implies condoning atrocities
such as bullfighting - I have realized that pain, cruelty and injustice continue
to exist only because we are not sufficiently affected or interested to identify
and eradicate them.
Our relationship with others and with our environment
is determined by the personal affinities that we have or believe that we have
towards everything which becomes part of our lives, but only those who survive
the strong conditioning process which begins in infancy can maintain an ethical,
compassionate and caring attitude towards other living beings. However, if we
can manage to re-educate all our senses - our moral sense as well as our taste
buds - we can attain the clear mind and the simple heart necessary to distinguish
between right and wrong and to act positively to make the world a better place.