In regards to eating meat

[Bring4th_Austin]

Monica, perusing through this thread, I can't readily find a clear answer to this question (though we've somewhat discussed it before):

Do you automatically equate meat-eating with cruelty to animals?

I answered that question in detail, in this post:

http://bring4th.org/forums/showthread.ph...7#pid14197

Yeah, I had browsed that post and I guess it answers my question (that you do equate any meat eating with cruelty to animals). Of course it's obvious to me you understand the difference between the typical meat industry and progressive meat industry.

I know the topic has been beat to death whether it's cruel to slaughter 2D beings in the form of plants, and we've even discussed this but I just have some new insights I wanted to smooth out, so I apologize if it's all been said in different words. If you're tired of typing the same thing so many times I completely understand if you don't wish to offer your opinion on this.


I spend a good 5+ hours a day in my produce garden. During this time, I slaughter literally THOUSANDS more 2D beings than with the meat production, and this is the beings slaughtered that aren't being eaten. Bugs and weeds, in order to have healthy crops, must be taken care of. Being organic, I have to personally slaughter these beings myself, and in a spiritual sense it takes a much bigger toll on me than when I slaughter other animals.

Sure, you can place plants or bugs into a "lower life category" than mammals (like your example of protecting a child over a dog). It's very hard for me to do this, especially when they are being slaughtered just for living and doing what they live to do (eat plants and share plant space with other plants) without being used for sustenance in any way. I can be thankful to my produce friends and my animal friends as they provide nutrition and sustenance for myself and my customers who care about how their food is treated (I'd say a good 80% of my customers take much care in knowing the animals are treated humanely and vegetables grown with care). How can I justify the slaughter of literally thousands of beings in my garden? My crops would die if I allowed the weeds to live, and I couldn't sell anything if I allowed the bugs to have their way with my produce. But their life is ended, abruptly and carelessly.

In the end, I feel much better about reuniting my goat and chicken friends with Spirit, knowing I cared for them and appreciated them their entire life, and knowing they provided their life to continue life.

I can't get over the mindless slaughter in my garden though. Thousands fewer 2D beings die in my meat production opposed to my produce production. It is weighing heavy on my heart. I say a prayer for each weed I pull, and each bug I kill, but in the end, it seems so mindless and useless. I long for a time when we can sustain ourselves without slaughter of any entity, whether it be a goat, chicken, aphid, worm, thistle, mushroom, weed, potato, beet, carrot...etc. But until that time, my own personal "hierarchy for life" has little separation from goat to weed, chicken to bug. And I must say, while I am completely free of judgement as you are, I cannot understand how the slaughter of entities to maintain a garden can be so easily brushed off and the slaughter of entities for direct sustenance be rejected.

It's not my place to judge you or anyone else. This isn't a game of "who's the purest of us all". It's a process of raising awareness, and changing our reality to one that isn't violent. You are part of that very important process of change. I commend you for that!

I really appreciate that, and I commend you as well for being so steadfast in your part of the process of change. It's all important.