Freegan - A new ethics-based dietary approach.

I respect vegetarians and vegans. I think it takes will power and a sense of social consciousness to make the sacrifice to eat in that manner, at least in the USA.

I myself was vegan for about a year. Before that, I ate a normal American diet. After that, I resumed a normal American diet. I have toyed with the idea of returning to a vegan, or at least vegetarian, diet, but it is not yet a priority compared to other ways I am trying to grow and change in life.

I was thinking the other day about the difference between vegans and vegetarians. The way I think of it, the vegetarian values animal life, but is okay with animal servitude (to get milk, eggs, honey, etc.); however, vegans value both animal life AND animal freedom, and thus will not eat anything that is a by-product of animal servitude.

This let me to consider my own view, and I realized that I may be more concerned with animal freedom than animal life. In the wild, animals eat other animals. Everyone dies, people and animals. Death is necessary, it is not evil. Slavery, though, may be a needless evil.

So, I think I may prefer a world where people can eat animals, but they cannot enslave them. I can say to the animal kingdom: "I may eat you, but until that time, you can roam free to live and evolve naturally."

This could be called being a "freegan."

I guess I'm not actually a freegan, but I'm not sure I'm a vegan, either. Eating is a tricky proposition. When I figure out what I think should be the ideal moral stance on food sources, I'll let you know, but I have not yet done so.