An excellent follow-up on your last essay, Hadden, thank you! I’m looking forward to the next one.
There was a sentence I felt compelled to respond to:
“No matter how hard some of us may try to avoid it, whether through vegetarianism or veganism, death will always be with us, inside us, and fuelling us.”
This is probably going to sound like I’m moralizing or something but honestly I don’t mean to be: the truth is that I’ve been a vegan now for the last 15 years or so, and it’s been a central part of my life from the time I started. I mention this only because i can assure you it wasn’t to avoid the infliction of death. Only “fruitarians” can avoid that! It was to avoid the infliction of misery. For someone like me, who doesn’t work the land and take care of the animals I would otherwise end up eating -- or know anyone who does -- the idea of being complicit in the machinery of torture and slaughter that offers me the meat, milk, and eggs of these animals was too much to bear. This is fully consistent, I think, with the sort of practice you’re describing & praising in your essay: I don’t mean to be criticizing that at all. But I do want to point out that not everyone who’s drawn to avoid eating animals, and what they give of their bodies, is in some sort of denial about the death that’s an essential part of life.
In any case I thank you again for this fine essay, may God be with you!
Thanks, Matthew for this, what you wrote is a really helpful framing, and one I am sympathetic to, knowing full well how much moral evil is carried out in our food systems.
I have known a few vegans/vegetarians in my time and I have always been sympathetic to them (and vegan food often tastes wonderful!). It is interesting to note the differing reasons. For some (and probably most), it is along the welfare lines similar to you. For others (and perhaps this is more the case with vegetarians) it is that can't stomach eating something that has had to be killed.
I always appreciate your engagement with my writing
Oh my, thank you so much for finding me, your writing is profoundly beautiful and compelling, this gave me “truth tingles” throughout. And, having just dealt with a horrible, untimely but very necessary death on our farm, really struck close to home. As farmers we are truly stewards of life and death. Thank you for putting it so perfectly.
My pleasure Carly, it is always an honour to have a real farmer comment on my writings, and I am very glad this was fitting for you - comments like this make my day. You farmers have a tough but very beautiful job and I wish you were more valued for it by society.
Thanks Brian, by all means, feel free to post your writing in the comments, I want to encourage other people to share their work and I have added your article to my reading list.
Excellent to hear FPR are publishing your book, they are such a great publishing outlet. I am going to pitch a few essays to them at some point. And I should be fairly easy to spot at the conference - I will be one of the few with a strange English accent...
It was interesting to see you draw out the various juxtapositions: other vocations, farming vocation; time to learn and steward life, time to learn and steward death; good farmer, bad farmer; abundant harvest, dying field; intentional death, unintentional death. Practices, dispositions, their effects and the economic pressures.
You’ve painted a compelling picture that draws out the tension of it all.
Indeed, life is full of an abundance of tensions, contrasts and paradoxes. Part of what I aim to do is bring these to our attention so that we can navigate them with wisdom.
An excellent follow-up on your last essay, Hadden, thank you! I’m looking forward to the next one.
There was a sentence I felt compelled to respond to:
“No matter how hard some of us may try to avoid it, whether through vegetarianism or veganism, death will always be with us, inside us, and fuelling us.”
This is probably going to sound like I’m moralizing or something but honestly I don’t mean to be: the truth is that I’ve been a vegan now for the last 15 years or so, and it’s been a central part of my life from the time I started. I mention this only because i can assure you it wasn’t to avoid the infliction of death. Only “fruitarians” can avoid that! It was to avoid the infliction of misery. For someone like me, who doesn’t work the land and take care of the animals I would otherwise end up eating -- or know anyone who does -- the idea of being complicit in the machinery of torture and slaughter that offers me the meat, milk, and eggs of these animals was too much to bear. This is fully consistent, I think, with the sort of practice you’re describing & praising in your essay: I don’t mean to be criticizing that at all. But I do want to point out that not everyone who’s drawn to avoid eating animals, and what they give of their bodies, is in some sort of denial about the death that’s an essential part of life.
In any case I thank you again for this fine essay, may God be with you!
Thanks, Matthew for this, what you wrote is a really helpful framing, and one I am sympathetic to, knowing full well how much moral evil is carried out in our food systems.
I have known a few vegans/vegetarians in my time and I have always been sympathetic to them (and vegan food often tastes wonderful!). It is interesting to note the differing reasons. For some (and probably most), it is along the welfare lines similar to you. For others (and perhaps this is more the case with vegetarians) it is that can't stomach eating something that has had to be killed.
I always appreciate your engagement with my writing
Oh my, thank you so much for finding me, your writing is profoundly beautiful and compelling, this gave me “truth tingles” throughout. And, having just dealt with a horrible, untimely but very necessary death on our farm, really struck close to home. As farmers we are truly stewards of life and death. Thank you for putting it so perfectly.
My pleasure Carly, it is always an honour to have a real farmer comment on my writings, and I am very glad this was fitting for you - comments like this make my day. You farmers have a tough but very beautiful job and I wish you were more valued for it by society.
Nicely assessed, Hadden, and a theme I've often addressed in my own writings. One cannot farm, at least thoughtfully, without meditating on one’s role in the cycle. Here (if you don’t mind) is a somewhat humorous piece I wrote: https://www.wingedelmfarm.com/blog/2019/12/21/angels-the-phone-always-rings-twice/
Cheers,
Brian
PS I might see you at the FPR conference this fall. They are publishing my book in October, Kayaking with Lambs.
Thanks Brian, by all means, feel free to post your writing in the comments, I want to encourage other people to share their work and I have added your article to my reading list.
Excellent to hear FPR are publishing your book, they are such a great publishing outlet. I am going to pitch a few essays to them at some point. And I should be fairly easy to spot at the conference - I will be one of the few with a strange English accent...
This was good-- thank you!
I was wondering, and maybe you’ve said it before and I missed it, are you yourself a farmer?
Thank you Sarah,
No, I am a student currently studying agricultural development.
As my wife would concur, my practical skills are fairly primitive, although I do grow enough tomatoes in our garden to start a small business!
It was interesting to see you draw out the various juxtapositions: other vocations, farming vocation; time to learn and steward life, time to learn and steward death; good farmer, bad farmer; abundant harvest, dying field; intentional death, unintentional death. Practices, dispositions, their effects and the economic pressures.
You’ve painted a compelling picture that draws out the tension of it all.
Indeed, life is full of an abundance of tensions, contrasts and paradoxes. Part of what I aim to do is bring these to our attention so that we can navigate them with wisdom.