I am wondering if this subject has been discussed before and would be interested to hear peoples' views on it. I have looked on the site already to see if anything similar has come up, but have not found it so please point me in the right direction if I have missed something.
When I was 14 someone told me about the conditions animals were kept in before being killed. The next day I turned vegetarian and have been vegetarian ever since. I could cope with the concept of killing to eat but not the cruelty and imprisonment - my thoughts then, as they are now, were and are that if you are going to eat meat you hunt and kill it yourself. Aside from the issue of cruelty and imprisonment, the disconnection from what you are actually doing and ingesting seemed disturbing to me. For example, I once saw a documentary on the San people who are hunter-gatherers. The documentary filmed them hunting and I saw them in silence imitating the animals and tracking them for quite some time before killing them in what at least seemed to be a more respectful manner. I also lived in wilderness for quite a long time and was amidst hunter-gatherers, although I only ever gathered! To me, this contrasts quite sharply with the food production and consumption systems we see today.
I have a desire for self-determination of all beings. I want to extract myself from enslavement of others. And this extends to plants, fungi, bacteria... I have quite a strong gut reaction to domestication of plants and animals and industrial agriculture. I have so many questions in my head regarding this subject and would really welcome ideas and comments on this subject. From my own research in this area, I have come to the thinking that many hunter-gatherer societies are/were freer (in the physical sense at least) and often healthier. I believe agriculture played a large role in the enslavement of humans and depletion of human health. Since it is all tied in to enslavement: the need for domestication/enslavement of plants to feed the enslaved/domesticated animals to feed the enslaved/domesticated humans, where does it all end? And what would its opposite (liberation) mean on a global and cosmic level?
I am imagining that others here may have mentioned/thought/written about this already and maybe the Cs comment on this? I have not read the Wave yet, so if it's there please guide me to the relevant part.
When I was 14 someone told me about the conditions animals were kept in before being killed. The next day I turned vegetarian and have been vegetarian ever since. I could cope with the concept of killing to eat but not the cruelty and imprisonment - my thoughts then, as they are now, were and are that if you are going to eat meat you hunt and kill it yourself. Aside from the issue of cruelty and imprisonment, the disconnection from what you are actually doing and ingesting seemed disturbing to me. For example, I once saw a documentary on the San people who are hunter-gatherers. The documentary filmed them hunting and I saw them in silence imitating the animals and tracking them for quite some time before killing them in what at least seemed to be a more respectful manner. I also lived in wilderness for quite a long time and was amidst hunter-gatherers, although I only ever gathered! To me, this contrasts quite sharply with the food production and consumption systems we see today.
I have a desire for self-determination of all beings. I want to extract myself from enslavement of others. And this extends to plants, fungi, bacteria... I have quite a strong gut reaction to domestication of plants and animals and industrial agriculture. I have so many questions in my head regarding this subject and would really welcome ideas and comments on this subject. From my own research in this area, I have come to the thinking that many hunter-gatherer societies are/were freer (in the physical sense at least) and often healthier. I believe agriculture played a large role in the enslavement of humans and depletion of human health. Since it is all tied in to enslavement: the need for domestication/enslavement of plants to feed the enslaved/domesticated animals to feed the enslaved/domesticated humans, where does it all end? And what would its opposite (liberation) mean on a global and cosmic level?
I am imagining that others here may have mentioned/thought/written about this already and maybe the Cs comment on this? I have not read the Wave yet, so if it's there please guide me to the relevant part.