EVANA asks: What changes do you expect in tomorrow’s vegetarian world?

Leonardo Bezerra: 'Mankind will realise the importance of ethics, understand the value of life'

September 2009

I think that the vegetarian world is the world of he future. Without pollution, without destruction of forests to make room for new pastures, hence without the terrible global warming. At the same, time it will be a world where many illnesses such as heart diseases, cancer and other health problems caused by meat eating won't be known. Mankind will have achieved its greatest victory, "reason will have triumphed over the brutality of the livestock industry". Mankind will recognize the importance of ethics, understand the value of life.

This world, which now looks like a dream, has in fact already begun all over the world. It's the world of vegetarians. However, at the moment, they still may look like dreamers, suffer indifference, criticism and sometimes even prosecution. They are confronted with a society brutalized by millennia of cruel traditions. These traditions celebrate the joy of weddings, Christmas, birthdays and many other events with death. Yes, the death of animals, that people enjoy eating without the slightest need, just by following savage and cruel customs.

Many people claim to like animals and even have pets. However, if they are carnivores, they are a bit hypocritical, because whoever buys meat is also financing the salary of the one who killed the animal. How can anyone care for one animal and keep a clean conscience when paying for the death of another?

The dawning of a new world, totally vegetarian, is a slow process, but a one without return. In times to come, the vegetarians of today will be considered as people far ahead of their times, who thought and acted as if they were already in the future. Those who three hundred years ago spoke in favour of releasing the slaves, certainly were ahead of an era in which society considered slavery as the most normal thing in the world. Today the same is true regarding the rights of animals.

So slavery has not ended, just masters and slaves are different now. Nowadays the masters are the food industries and agri-companies, and the slaves are the animals. However, what happens now is even more brutal because the slaves are not only exploited, but they are also killed for the benefit of the master industry.

Therefore, being a vegetarian today is to be a person ahead of his or her time. The opposite can be also true. Not being a vegetarian means being stuck in time, almost accepting slavery and not even having an own opinion.

Those who do not take a moment to consider the benefits of vegetarianism and the value of each animal's life prefer to follow the most ridiculous and meaningless traditions.

Source: Leonardo Bezerra, EVANA correspondent Brazil
Author: Leonardo Bezerra

Link: Jornal Defesa dos Animais