"...Life is as dear to a mute creature as it is to a man. Just as one wants happiness and fears pain, just as one wants to live and not to die, so do other creatures."
Newly released, The Compassionate Diet, addresses health concerns both for the individual and the planet as a whole. It is scientific, pragmatic, and elegant in presenting not eating animals as beneficial to the physical and spiritual well-being of individuals and, collectively, a planet whose resources can no longer be considered inexhaustible.
Scientific arguments are presented for a compassionate diet addressing cancer, cholesterol, diabetes, antibiotics fed to animals, pesticides, coronary disease, genetically modified organisms, estrogenic hormones, saturated fat, obesity, osteoporosis, herbicides, factory-farmed-and-drugged animals, benefits of organic agriculture to the individual and the planet, and many stirring quotes from some unexpected, yet highly recognized leaders throughout history advocating a vegetarian way of life.
Approach your diet for your own health, a commitment to sustainable living, a contribution to lowering Global Warming if you believe it is real (as you melt) or simply a way of life that extends
our own personal humanity to the mute brothers and sisters whose stewardship we may or may
not choose to accept.
There are many arguments pro and con regarding a vegetarian way of life addressed by scientific data contained in this book. And there are stirring pleas, from Jane Goodall to Abraham Lincoln, from Mahatma Gandhi to kd lang, to consider the price each of us pay for the consumption of animals. Whether you are interested in improving your own health, the sustainability of our planet, or are stirred sympathetically by the plight of each mute animal brutally put to death in meat processing plants, "The Compassionate Diet" presents each of us something to contemplate if we are self-reflective about who we are and how we wish to carry ourselves in this world, as well as the planet our children inherit.
Just some thoughts late at night while the guinea pigs sleep soundly, their bellies full of sumptuous watermelon!
Does it address the use of leather, too? Even though we don't eat leather, animals are still put to death, to get it.
ReplyDeleteTo be honest, we just received the book and have only skimmed through it so cannot answer that question. We feel the degree to which one commits consumer dollars to buying compassionate "anything" is a personal choice based on conscience, not up for anyone else to judge. We're kind of all in this together, learning as we go.
ReplyDeleteNot judging, by any means, just questioning.
ReplyDeleteWe are, too. Like the 50 flies buzzing around my (not so clean) kitchen...what to do, what to do? Gonna clean the kitchen real good, open windows, entice them out...with Mozart. Yeah, that's a plan!
ReplyDelete