The only diet for a peacemaker is a vegetarian diet

[Guest guest]

*Vegetarianism and Peacemaking

 

The only diet for a peacemaker is a vegetarian diet

*National Catholic Reporter

 

By Father John Dear

 

http://ncrcafe.org/node/1965

 

In Fort Lauderdale, Fla., last week to speak at the National Convention

of Unitarian Universalists, I met my old friend Bruce Friedrich. We

spent eight memorable months together in a tiny jail cell, along with

Philip Berrigan, for our 1993 Plowshares disarmament action. A former

Catholic Worker, Bruce is now one of the leaders of PETA, People for the

Ethical Treatment of Animals. He gave a brilliant workshop on the

importance of becoming a vegetarian, something I urge everyone to consider.

 

I became a vegetarian with a few other Jesuit novices shortly after I

entered the Jesuits in 1982 and later wrote a pamphlet for PETA,

" Christianity and Vegetarianism. " I based my decision solely on Francis

Moore Lappe's classic work, Diet for a Small Planet, a book that I think

everyone should read.

 

In it, Lappe, the great advocate for the hungry, makes an unassailable

case that vegetarianism is the best way to eliminate world hunger and to

sustain the environment.

 

At first glance, we wonder how that could be. But it's undisputable. A

hundred million tons of grain go yearly for biofuel -- a morally

questionable use of foodstuffs. But more than seven times that much --

some 760 million tons according to the United Nations -- go into the

bellies of farmed animals, this to fatten them up so that sirloin,

hamburgers and pork roast grace the tables of First-World people. It

boils down to this. Over 70 percent of U.S. grain and 80 percent of corn

is fed to farm animals rather than people.

 

Conscience dictates that the grain should stay where it is grown, from

South America to Africa. And it should be fed to the local malnourished

poor, not to the chickens destined for our KFC buckets. The

environmental think-tank, the World Watch Institute, sums it up:

" Continued growth in meat output is dependent on feeding grain to

animals, creating competition for grain between affluent meat eaters and

the world's poor. "

 

Meanwhile, eating meat causes almost 40 percent more greenhouse-gas

emissions than all the cars, trucks, and planes in the world combined.

(The world's 1.3 billion cattle release tons of methane into the

atmosphere, and hundreds of millions tons of CO2 are released by burning

forests due to dry conditions as in California or due to purposeful

burns to create cow pastures in Latin America.)

 

And global warming isn't the only environmental issue. Almost 40 years

ago, Lappe spelled out the environmental consequences of eating meat in

stark relief. But more recently, her analysis received some high-power

validation. The United Nations recently published " Livestock's Long

Shadow. " It concludes that eating meat is " one of the most significant

contributors to the most serious environmental problems, at every scale

from local to global. " And it insists that the meat industry " should be

a major policy focus when dealing with problems of land degradation,

climate change and air pollution, water shortage and water pollution,

and loss of biodiversity. "

 

Much of our potable water and much of our fossil fuel supply is wasted

on rearing chickens, pigs, and other animals for humans to eat. And over

50 percent of forests worldwide have been cleared to raise or feed

livestock for meat-eating. (A recent protest in Brazil denounced

Kentucky Fried Chicken for clearing thousands of acres of untouched

Amazon rain forest for chicken feed.)

 

As a Christian, I became a vegetarian because of the Gospel mandate of

Matthew 25, " Whatever you did to the least of these, you did to me " --

because I do not want my appetites to contribute to the ongoing

oppression of the world's starving masses. As a Catholic and Jesuit, I

want somehow to side with the poor and hungry.

 

But another issue arises, too, over the decades, I've learned that our

appetite for meat leads to cruelty to animals -- chickens pressed

wing-to-wing into filthy sheds and de-beaked, for example. And since

I've always espoused creative nonviolence as the fundamental Gospel

value, my vegetarianism helps me not to participate in the vicious

torture and destruction of billions of cows, chickens, and so many other

creatures.

 

The chickens never raise families, root in the soil, build nests, or do

anything natural. Often they are tormented or tortured before they are

slowly killed, as PETA has repeatedly documented in its undercover

investigations -- for your chicken dinner or hamburger. (All this is

documented on a video narrated by Alec Baldwin, at www.Meat.org.)

 

Animals have feelings, they suffer; they have needs and desires. They

were created by God to raise their families and breath fresh air; and if

chickens to peck in the grass, if pigs to root in the soil. Today's

farms don't let them do anything God designed them to do. Animal

scientists attest that farm animals have personalities and interests,

that chickens and pigs are smarter than dogs and cats.

 

Animals figure in the Gospels. They brim with lovely, respectful images

of animals. Clearly Jesus was familiar with animals, and cared for them,

as he urged us to look at the birds of the air or be his sheep. He even

identified himself as " a mother hen who longs to gather us under her wings. "

 

And animals figure in the Hebrew Bible. Isaiah 11, a vision of

reconciled creation, dreams of a day when " the wolf shall be a guest of

the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; the calf and the

young lion shall browse together with a little child to guide them. The

cow and the beast shall be neighbors, together their young shall rest.

The lion shall eat hay like the ox. The baby shall play by the cobra's

den and the child lay his hand on the adder's lair. There shall be no

harm or ruin on all my holy mountain, for the earth shall be filled with

knowledge of the God of peace, as water covers the sea. " (Isaiah 11:1-9)

 

A vision of a nonviolent world, all creatures nonviolent, children

safely at play with them, and no violence anywhere. That is the peaceful

vision of creation that we are called to pursue -- in every aspect of

our lives, from the jobs we hold, to our use of gasoline and alternative

energies, to what we eat and wear, say and do.

 

I admire the Bible's greatest vegetarian, Daniel, the nonviolent

resister who refused to defile himself by eating the king's meat. He and

three friends became healthier than anyone else through their vegetarian

diet. And they excelled in wisdom, for " God rewards them with knowledge

and skill in all learning and wisdom. "

 

In his workshop at the Unitarian Universalists convention, Bruce added

another beautiful image, the Garden of Eden. The Bible opens with a

vision of paradise where God, animals, and humans recreate in peace

together. Clearly, the Bible calls us to return to that paradise.

 

And Bruce reminded us that from the beginning we are directed to be

vegetarians. Genesis 1:29 says, " See, I give you every seed-bearing

plant all over the earth and every tree that has seed-bearing fruit on

it to be your food. "

 

Biblical images and justice issues aside, there are medical reasons to

stop eating meat. Vegetarian diets help keep our weight down, support a

lifetime of good health and provide protection against numerous

diseases, including the U.S.'s three biggest killers: heart disease,

cancer and strokes.

 

Dr. Dean Ornish and Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn both have 100 percent success

in preventing and reversing heart disease using a vegan diet. Meanwhile,

Dr. T. Colin Campbell writes that one of the leading causes of human

cancer is animal protein. More, vegetarians are also less prone to

developing adult-onset diabetes. And then we have to contend with the

spread of Mad Cow disease and Avian influenza. One could almost argue

that the human body is not designed for meat-eating.

 

But for me being vegetarian boils down to peacemaking. If you want to be

a peacemaker, Bruce said, reflecting the sentiments of Leo Tolstoy, you

will want to eat as peaceful a diet as possible. " Vegetarianism, "

Tolstoy wrote, " is the taproot of humanitarianism. " Other great

humanitarians like Mahatma Gandhi, Albert Schweitzer and Thich Nhat Hanh

agree. The only diet for a peacemaker is a vegetarian diet.

 

" Not to hurt our humble brethren, the animals, " St. Francis of Assisi

said, " is our first duty to them, but to stop there is not enough. We

have a higher mission: to be of service to them whenever they require

it. If you have people who will exclude any of God's creatures from the

shelter of compassion and pity, " he continued, " you will have people who

will deal likewise with other people. "

 

So it was good to visit with my friend Bruce, and hear once again the

wisdom of vegetarianism. It's a key ingredient in the new life of peace,

compassion and nonviolence.

 

John's autobiography, A Persistent Peace, (with a foreword by Martin

Sheen), available Aug. 1, can be ordered at

href= " http://www.amazon.com " >www.amazon.com. See also:

www.persistentpeace.com. John's pamphlet " Christianity and

Vegetarianism " can be read online at www.peta.org or free copies of the

pamphlet or a free CD of John reading the pamphlet can be ordered by

sending an email to VegInfo. You can listen to or download John

reading the pamphlet at www.ChristianVeg.com. See also: _www.johndear.org_