On Being a Vegan

A very short explanation of why I am a vegan, written again for the chaplaincy at HMP Highpoint North. Hopefully, it will make people think a little before eating animal produce. The latest figures on the environmental effects of breeding animals for food consumption are shocking. Strangely enough, being a vegan is not as difficult in prison as it might seem, once the system is understood. Having said that, any vegan in a B Cat prison will need some money to survive and the treatment varies widely from prison to prison. If anyone wants to know the details, just make a comment.




On Being a Vegan

 

Let no animal die that I may live

Let no being suffer that they might give

My mind or body some passing pleasure

Leave them their lives, their peace, their leisure

 

By our existence, the human race

Confines into a smaller space

All other species on this earth

That they expire while we give birth

 

Let no-one think these words a plea

To those that with me disagree

That they should all their habits change

I merely ask they should think it strange

 

That I eat no meat yet am not ill

While they are told to eat their fill

Of other beings’ body parts

Ribs and rumps, heads and hearts

 

That I drink no milk and am still quite sane

Without this causing the slightest pain

To living creatures, great and small

Whose world we share for the joy of all

 

I ask, however, that when they eat

They sometimes accept to not choose meat

And some days if they simply could

Consume less animal-origin food

 

That they think upon their community’s health

And consider what comprises wealth

It can’t be just the things we’ve earned

It at least includes the things we’ve learned

 

Problems caused by food production

Far outweigh our taste’s seduction

The science has arrived at last

That can release us from our torturing past