buddhism on a plate

Buddhism on a Plate

the case for buddhists to go vegan Samacitta

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Buddhism on a Plate

the case for buddhists to go vegan Samacitta, Birmingham Buddhist Centre

This article appeared in Shabda, the Triratna Buddhist Order’s

monthly journal, in November 2011. Reprinted with permission.

This is one of an occasional series of essays on the Dharma

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Buddhism on a Plate

the case for buddhists to go vegan Samacitta, Birmingham Buddhist Centre

This article appeared in Shabda, the Triratna Buddhist Order’s

monthly journal, in November 2011. Reprinted with permission.

One of the practices for the arising of the Bodhicitta is to

contemplate the sufferings of living beings and, sadly, there are

plenty of different kinds to contemplate. Relieving suffering is

surely a concern for all members of the Triratna Buddhist Order,

but faced with the huge range of urgent problems in the world,

where does one begin? It would be naive to suggest that any one

approach will be the solution to them all. Moreover, any action

taken to relieve suffering in one sphere is likely to have

implications in another, both positive and negative. The picture


is horribly complex. Understandably, we tend to engage more

with those issues that touch us personally.

What is it for you? Is it climate change, famine, conflicts, poverty,

species extinction, over-population, drug trafficking, water

scarcity, HIV/aids, the widening gulf between rich and poor,

corruption, pollution, child pornography, bear bile farming, the

plight of the honey bee, natural disasters, dictatorships?...Here, I

would like to discuss the issue of food production and factory

farming from a Buddhist perspective. This issue is both global

and individual, both abstract and concrete.

Firstly, let us consider some fundamental principles of Buddhist

ethics in general.

Secondly, I will introduce the problem itself as I understand it.

Thirdly, I shall borrow an idea from Steven Covey's 'Seven Habits

of Highly Effective People'. And fourthly, I will attempt to apply

both the Buddhist ethical framework and Covey's model to this

particular global issue. Then I will make some general points

before concluding.


1. Buddhist Ethics in general

Firstly, as Buddhists, we undertake to abstain from taking life

and from harming living beings. We recognise that all sentient

beings can suffer just as we can suffer.

'All tremble at violence, all fear death. Putting oneself in the place

of another, one should not kill nor cause another to kill.' -

Dhammapada 129

'All tremble at violence, life is dear to all. Putting oneself in the

place of another, one should not kill nor cause another to kill.'

Dhammapada 130

Our metta practice can awaken a sense of connectedness to other

living beings, and an identification with their experience. When

you feel connected to other living beings through metta, you can

empathise more easily with their experience and if you are

aware of their suffering you want to relieve it - urgently - just as

if it were your own suffering. The starting point and basis for all

ethical conduct is the First Precept, that of non-harm or loving-

kindness.


Secondly, Buddhist ethics are progressive.

The Precepts are not a tick-list; we can always go further with

any one of them. They are our guidelines for training in the

spiritual life, something we become more and more skilled at.

The Dharma is 'Opanayiko' meaning 'leading forward', 'leading

onward', 'progressive'. You don't achieve perfection all at once.

Thirdly, Buddhist ethics are ethics of intention

The mental state with which an action is performed is the main

factor determining the ethical quality of that action. Intentions

are a karmic force, not to be underestimated. Even if we only

form an intention to become more skilful in some area of

practice, there will, in time, be positive consequences both for

ourselves and for others.

So Buddhist ethics are based on non-harm or loving kindness,

they are progressive, and intention is crucial.


2. The problem: just what is wrong with factory farming?

In a nutshell, factory farming strives to produce the most meat,

milk, and eggs as quickly and cheaply as possible, using the

minimum amount of resources possible, resulting in unnatural

and abusive conditions for the animals involved. This article is

going to take a peek behind the scenes of factory farms. Many

different species are farmed commercially but here I will look at

just two types of ordinary everyday farm animals: poultry and

cattle. Let us consider first how they would live naturally.

Chickens are complex, intelligent birds who would normally

roost in trees, search for tasty food by scratching and pecking the

earth, dust-bathe to keep their feathers healthy, and engage in a

range of fascinating social rituals. They have a powerful nesting

instinct.

Cattle are herbivorous, herd-dwelling, social animals. Easily

domesticated, they generally behave like 'gentle giants'. What

they mostly want is what all of us want - food to stop hunger,

safety from danger, freedom from disease and pain, contact with

others of the same species, and the opportunity to engage in

natural behaviours like reproduction and nurturing their young.


Just like human mothers, cows have a strong maternal instinct;

they are devoted to their offspring and highly responsive to their

needs. Cows appear to be extremely patient because they will

keep munching, plodding, standing and waiting in all sorts of

conditions and environments without complaint and it is all too

easy to assume from their placid behaviour that they are

contented.

How do the descendants of these ordinary creatures live today?

The green pastures and idyllic barnyard scenes of years past are

a fantasy. On today's factory farms, cows, calves, chickens,

turkeys, ducks, geese, and other animals are confined in huge,

stinking, windowless sheds for the entirety of their miserable

lives. Sometimes they are unable even to turn around. Giving

them space for their comfort is uneconomical, and depriving

them of exercise conveniently means that all their energy will go

toward producing more milk, eggs, and flesh. They are never

allowed to raise their offspring, root in the soil, build nests nor

do anything that is natural and important to them. They are

subjected to selective breeding which results in massive

distortions such as 'drumstick' thighs and oversized breasts in


broiler chickens, so that their genetically manipulated bodies can

barely support their short lives. Even before they reach the

abattoir, animals on UK factory farms die every day by the tens of

thousands, of neglect, disease and even of thirst and hunger. This

is no exaggeration!

Then there are the terrors of the journey to the abattoir.

Chickens are grabbed with bone-crunching speed by workers

paid by the number of chickens loaded within the shortest

possible space of time. They are rammed roughly into crates and

loaded onto lorries which, these days, are enclosed to keep the

doomed, miserable creatures out of sight of other drivers on the

motorway. Upon arrival at the abattoir, they are shackled upside-

down, and thus they enter a conveyor-belt of horror, to be

scalded, electrocuted and finally sliced apart.

The kill floor for cattle, where the unfortunate beasts are also

hung up for 'processing' is no less gruesome and bloody.

Interestingly, in June 2011, Animal Aid mounted a successful

campaign to introduce CCTV cameras in UK slaughterhouses

www.animalaid.org.uk/h/n/CAMPAIGNS/slaughter//2420// in

order to introduce some kind of brake upon the worst instances

http://www.animalaid.org.uk/h/n/CAMPAIGNS/slaughter/2420/


of animal abuse and sadism in what must be one of the most

brutalising environments on earth.

Obviously, working in any part of this hellish industry is as

unethical as is working in the arms industry, or trading in drugs,

alcohol or poison.

There are numerous health issues regarding meat, eggs and

dairy products. Cittapala outlined some of them in his article,

'The Compleat Vegetarian' which can be found on his website at

www.cittapala.org. But this article focuses mainly on the ethical

issues from a Buddhist point of view.

In a talk given in April 2010, Ratnaghosha states,

'...sometimes Buddhists are in danger of elevating the subjective

and ignoring the objective...However mindful we are, however

much bliss and rapture we experience in meditation, there are

some things which are just plain wrong and cannot be purified

from the inside out, so to speak.' ('Another Look at Right

Livelihood')

../../x%20-%20book%20publishing/www.cittapala.org


In The Ten Pillars, under the First Precept (p.63), Sangharakshita

writes,

'Observance of the First Precept will, in fact, naturally result in

one's being a vegetarian.'

But - is vegetarianism enough?

If we can empathise with animals farmed for their meat and if we

can decide to give up meat-eating for ethical reasons, then we

must be capable of empathising with animals who are farmed for

their offspring, their body parts, and other extracts from their

bodies such as their milk, eggs, bile, feathers, fur, skin, trotters,

tusks, horns, etc. Sometimes, there is a vague assumption that

because animal products such as eggs or milk are only by-

products of the meat industry, their procurement does not

directly harm the animal itself. But the animal is still being

exploited in every way imaginable throughout its unnatural and

painful life.

In order to boost milk production in cows, they are forced to

produce calves. But the calf is not simply sent out to play in the


fields, leaving the mother to get on with being milked by us. It is

removed from the mother within a few days of its birth, causing

extreme distress to the cow who begins bellowing desperately

for her lost calf. This is a deeply traumatic event in the life of a

new mother. The calf is then slaughtered for its meat. Veal is

considered to be better quality if the meat is white, so the calf

may be imprisoned for the three months of its short, tortured life

inside a crate which is barely larger than the calf itself (1 foot 10

inches wide by 4 feet 6 inches long), isolated from its mother and

from all contact with any living beings, bovine or otherwise, and

fed a liquid diet which ensures that instead of developing

muscles, its body is kept in a state of prolonged infancy and its

flesh remains white rather than becoming pink or red.

Meanwhile, the grieving mother cow will soon be impregnated

with her next calf. Her body has been manipulated to produce

milk in quantities that are totally superfluous to the natural

needs of her offspring so all her physical energy is channelled

into milk production for humans, at the expense of her own

health. The stress of carrying udders equivalent to the weight of

a full-grown man typically causes leg and foot problems. In this

way, a dairy cow is worked so hard that she can barely sustain


the way in which she is forced to live and tends to be 'spent'

before she reaches her second birthday, despite the fact that her

natural lifespan would be 25-30 years. The picture of an

emaciated, exhausted cow with heavily bulging udders that are

painfully infected with mastitis gives some idea of what is really

going on in the lives of what people like to assume are 'contented

cows'.

Eggs are mass-produced in similarly intensive conditions. All

egg-laying chickens will come initially from a hatchery and in the

vast majority of cases the male chicks, which are useless to the

industry, are disposed of by being ground up live in gigantic

mincers. The females are then channelled into huge chicken

sheds where the overcrowding is so severe that they will never

have enough room even to stretch their wings, let alone fly. They

will be subjected to extremes of temperature and unnatural

cycles of light and dark. They will suffer from their confinement

and overcrowding and many will die from suffocation, crushing,

and all manner of illnesses such as broken bones and tumours.

Before arrival, they are debeaked because the conditions they

must live in can lead to cannibalism and feather pecking. In the


sheds, they are unable to engage in any of their natural

behaviours or develop social relationships with one another as

they would in the wild. Sometimes they desperately try to bury

themselves underneath the bodies of other hens in order to gain

some cover for egg-laying. Once egg production declines,

typically 12 months, they are considered 'spent' and those who

have survived will be slaughtered for use in pies, soups, etc.

Some vegetarians take comfort in labels such as 'free range' and

'organic' but unfortunately, these labels afford very little

protection for the hens. The 'organic' label has to do with the

amount of drugs permissible in the hens' feed, which affects the

chemical substances in their eggs. As for 'free range', Jonathan

Safran Foer points out in 'Eating Animals' that 'You can keep a

dozen turkeys under your kitchen sink and torture them every

day, and still qualify for the free range label.' In terms of animal

welfare, these labels are almost meaningless. Some people will

argue that there are many farms in the country where the

animals are treated quite well - but virtually all the animal

ingredients in the foods you buy from the supermarket, or in the

meals you order in restaurants, come from factory farms.


Even on the best and kindest family-run small-holdings, animals

are still being treated as 'meat' rather than as sentient creatures

who have a right to their own lives. Recently, I happened to see

part of a TV programme called 'Countryfile' which obviously tries

to present farming in a positive light. The cheery farmer, who

was pleased with his second lambing season of the year, talked in

a completely matter-of-fact way about how quickly the cute little

lambs would be fattened up and 'ready for the table'. All farm

animals are being exploited and all will end up on the kill floor of

an abattoir, probably before they reach adulthood.

The Buddhist position on how to treat living beings is perfectly

clear because 'All tremble at violence, all fear death. Putting

oneself in the place of another, one should not kill nor cause

another to kill.' - Dhammapada 129.

Furthermore:

'One who, while himself seeking happiness, oppresses with violence

other beings who also desire happiness, will not attain happiness

hereafter' - Dhammapada 131


In the egg and dairy industries, animals are kept alive for years

on end in conditions of violent oppression, in order to obtain the

products of their bodies. Arguably, such cynical and ruthless

exploitation causes even more suffering than does the meat

industry. Those animals who are farmed directly for the edible

meat in their own bodies are, in many ways, the lucky ones.

In the Ten Pillars (p.61), Sangharakshita writes:

'Observance of the First Precept means that, as a result of our

imaginative identification with others, we not only abstain from

actually killing living beings but operate more and more in

accordance with the love mode and less and less in accordance

with the power mode.'

Most Triratna Buddhists choose to be vegetarians for a number

of very good reasons - reasons which apply equally to veganism.

Many of us enjoy reasonable health and would be perfectly

capable of giving up all animal foods out of mercy and

compassion for animals - or at least of moving in that direction.


3. Steven Covey's 'Seven Habits'

In 1989, Steven R. Covey wrote, 'The Seven Habits of Highly

Effective People', which many Order Members will remember as

a 'buzz-book' in the movement around that time. The subtitle

was, 'Restoring the Character Ethic'. This was a new kind of

success book because it suggested that effective living depended

upon and began with integrating some basic ethical principles

into one's character. Covey taught these principles in terms of

'habits' to be developed, and the first of the habits was: Be

Proactive. To teach this habit, Covey devised a simple model, that

of the Circle of Concern and Circle of Influence.

Within the Circle of Concern are all those issues which interest

us in any way, whereas those issues in which we have little or no

interest fall outside our personal Circle of Concern. Examples of

things outside our Circle of Concern might be the fate of planets

in outer space, or who was in last year's Big Brother contest.

Examples of things inside our Circle of Concern might be our

health, our work, current affairs, public services, global warming,

recycling, the internet, music, eBay...in other words, the full

range of issues which engage us emotionally to any degree.


Within our Circle of Concern, there will be some things we can do

something about and others over which we have no real control.

Those things over which we do exercise a measure of control can

be delineated within a smaller circle: our Circle of Influence.

Covey's teaching is that proactive people focus their efforts in the

Circle of Influence, whereas reactive people focus their efforts in

the Circle of Concern, resulting in a tendency to blame others and

to feel victimized. Interestingly, Covey suggests that the Circle in

which one focuses one's energy will be the Circle which tends to

expand. So if we can learn to focus our energy within the Circle of

Influence it will increase the effect that we may have on those

issues and concerns that really do matter to us.

4. Buddhist ethics plus Covey, and the problem of factory

farming

Now let us consider the difficult and thorny problem of factory

farming in the world today using Covey's model within a

Buddhist ethical framework.


Buddhist ethics are based on non-violence - and factory farming

is based on violence to living beings from start to finish. Is this of

concern to me? Do I have any feelings about it? If so, it falls

within my Circle of Concern. Where is my Circle of Influence in

relation to this area? Factory farming is well established in

today's society. Is there anything that I can do, personally, within

my own life, that would have an influence on this situation, if I so

choose?

Buddhist ethics are progressive - and focusing on my Circle of

Influence will make it increase. According to Sangharakshita,

'Non-violence, or Love, is a principle, and being a principle there

is no limit to the number of ways in which it can be applied...no

one is so skilful in his conduct that his practice of it could not be

better. As the most direct manifestation of one's Going for

Refuge, the potentialities of Non-violence, or Love, are infinite.'

(Ten Pillars, p.63).

Vegetarianism is an expression of the First Precept in relation to

food. Can I take my practice of the First Precept any further?

Obviously, this question applies to vegans and non-vegans

alike; any of the Precepts can be practised more and more


intensively. Veganism is a practice which can always be taken

further, regardless of one's starting point.

Buddhist ethics are about intention. It may be that, for whatever

reason, we cannot adopt a fully vegan lifestyle at this point in our

lives, whether for health reasons or for some other reason.

Perhaps the practice of veganism is simply outside our Circle of

Influence. But that need not be the end of the story. We can still

cultivate an intention to reduce our intake of flesh foods to

whatever degree is possible for us. Our intentions do fall within

our Circle of Influence. Part of spiritual practice is being aware of

the tension between what we would do ideally, and what we are

doing actually - and letting that tension flower into a genuine

aspiration to change ourselves.

In applying a Buddhist ethical framework, plus Steven Covey's

ideas, to the problem of factory farming, I have tried to show that

it is possible and desirable for all Buddhists to move in the

direction of veganism. I am aware that some Order Members will

feel that I am taking an extreme position but, to my mind, the

situation itself is extreme.


The situation today

Because the problem is so huge, there is always the danger of

apathy and inability to connect with the issue. But I believe this

must be due to a lack of knowledge about what is really going on,

and perhaps a failure of imagination. In fact, it doesn't really take

much imagination: despite the efforts of the farming industry to

keep things hidden, sometimes we still do see lorries crammed

full of cattle and sheep on the motorways, or we might catch a

whiff of the odour of the poisonous slurry from factory farms as

we drive past them in the countryside.

We have all heard the horror stories of what happened to Jews

all over Europe in the Second World War. We may have seen

Schindler’s List and The Diary of Anne Frank. People sometimes

marvel that the ordinary citizens of Europe did so little to avert

such unimaginable evil as the systematic transportation and

extermination of millions of people. Even today, people

sometimes ask the older generation of Germans, 'How is it that

you didn't do anything to stop it?' and some responses that have

been reported are along the lines of 'but it was normal, everyone

was part of it, yes we knew it was wrong but what could one


person do, we had other problems, problems of survival, we

didn't have time to do anything about it...' Of course, the

Holocaust involved transporting and killing millions of people,

whereas factory farming only involves transporting and

killing animals - this is obviously a major difference. I have no

wish to minimize the Holocaust, nor to over-dramatize factory

farming. There are many significant differences between the two

scenarios, but there are some obvious similarities as well. The

main similarity is the systematic violence inflicted upon the

innocent by the more powerful, and the fact that this evil was/is

being conducted on an industrial scale, with the complicity of

society in general.

One interesting difference between the two scenarios is that in

the Holocaust, the main negative emotion driving it was hatred -

hatred of Jews, gypsies, homosexuals and anyone considered to

be unacceptable - whereas in the case of the animals suffering on

today's factory farms, the main emotion driving the animal-

based food industry is human greed and craving. My observation

is that most people don't actually hate animals or consciously

feel any negativity towards them; it is just that their own


perceived needs and pleasures are given far more weight than

any inconvenient truths about how those needs must be met by

the unfortunate sentient beings who are being exploited. Greed is

just as destructive as hatred; it seals the fate of millions of

helpless creatures whose entire existence is used to satisfy

human craving.

The future

Let us take a more optimistic look at the problem of industrial

animal production and, just for a moment, let us imagine a

different scenario. Let us imagine a world in the future where

animal suffering is taken as seriously for farm animals as it is for

domestic pets today. Let us dream for a moment that the

majority of the world has become vegan or vegetarian, and that

there are no more intensive factory farms crammed full of

tormented and distressed animals. Just as we now no longer

punish criminals by disembowelling them in public and hanging

them, in the same way imagine a more civilized world in which

people generally disapprove of all forms of cruelty. Imagine a


world in which it is no longer politically correct systematically to

exploit and butcher millions of helpless animals on an industrial

scale. Then imagine how those people of the future will think of

this period of human history, the late 20th and early 21st

centuries, when the scale of factory farming reached its peak,

when powerful corporate interests drove industrial animal

production to the very limits of depravity. Perhaps those people

of the future will ask - 'How is it that you didn't do anything to

stop it?'

According to Bhante, 'The Buddha says that if one has only

compassion for the sufferings of other living beings, then in due

course all other virtues, all other spiritual qualities and

attainments, even Enlightenment itself, will follow.' (The

Essential Sangharakshita p.563). There are many people working

to improve conditions for animals today. See for instance the

ordinary but heroic people on this inspiring 'Mercy for Animals'

video http://mercyforanimals.org/i-am-mfa.aspx . Within our

Buddhist movement, I find it heartening that most if not all of our

retreat centres do vegan catering, and that many of our urban

Centres, including Birmingham, have a policy of buying only

http://mercyforanimals.org/i-am-mfa.aspx


vegan products for the Centre (apart from dairy milk for classes).

I hope that all my brothers and sisters in the Triratna Buddhist

Order will continue to support this positive trend, will continue

to develop compassion for the sufferings of sentient beings, and

will undertake a progressively more thorough-going practice of

the First Precept by moving more and more towards veganism.

Samacitta,

Birmingham,

November 2011


Resources

World Vegan Day (www.worldveganday.org.uk) is held on

November 1st annually.

The Vegetarian & Vegan Foundation (VVF) has a million recipes for

such nice things as vegan crème cheese/vegan sour crème/cheesy

sauce and mayo: all at www.vegetarian.org.uk.

www.worldveganday.org.uk

http://www.vegetarian.org.uk/

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