A Question Of Moral Integrity<\/h2>\n
Ed Winters is a vegan educator, TEDx speaker and the author of the meat-free manifesto \u2018This Is Vegan Propaganda: (And Other Lies The Meat Industry Tells You)\u2019 (Ebury, \u00a314.99)<\/a>. Under the moniker Earthling Ed (@earthlinged<\/a>), he gained viral attention across social media for his 2018 university lecture \u2018You Will Never Look at Your Life in the Same Way Again\u2019 which has been viewed a staggering 35 million times. In the talk, he explains how every time we eat, we have the power to radically transform the world we live in. Food, he says, is a simple form of micro-protest that can either alleviate our problems or add to them, taking in issues as pressing as climate change and human exploitation, animal cruelty and deadly viral pandemics.<\/p>\n Referring to what sociologists have coined \u2018The Meat Paradox\u2019, Winters explains that humans have a long-standing flaw in our judgement where we have favourable views towards animals and unfavourable feelings towards hurting them; we eat factory-farmed pigs but say we abhor cruelty to dogs. Tradition and culture, he says, largely influence these decisions. \u201cThrough our daily choices, like food and clothing, we directly fund the very industry we morally say we\u2019re against. There\u2019s a dissonance between the purchase we\u2019re making and the consequence of what we\u2019re funding, and that\u2019s something we really need to think harder about in the future.\u201d<\/p>\n Despite food labels assuring consumers of decent welfare, when it comes to the treatment of farm animals, he believes there\u2019s a moral grey area. \u201cIn the UK, we tout having the best welfare standards in the world; that we treat farm animals better than anyone else,\u201d says Winters. When you look at the legal standard, that’s not untrue, but even so, we still use a number of farming practices that few could argue are humane. \u201cWe use gas chambers for pigs and poultry, we mutilate animals by cutting off their tails, we still raise many [animals] in cages, and we forcibly impregnate them. Beyond all that, we ultimately take their lives away,\u201d says Winters. All of this, he explains, is not just legal, but standard practice in farming which consumers are often blissfully unaware of when they do their weekly shop.<\/p>\n \u201cWe go to the supermarket, and we see a label like \u2018free range\u2019 or \u2018humane\u2019 and we take that label as meaning something beneficial for animals, but ultimately, it’s a marketing ploy to sell us a product. When we view these catchphrases objectively, it becomes so obvious that the notion of a \u2018humane slaughterhouse\u2019, or a \u2018high-welfare farm\u2019 is an oxymoron in itself. These places are set up with the sole purpose of exploiting sentient beings.\u201d<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/formnutrition.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2022\/02\/TIVP_Cover_Matt-Haig_FINAL-1-1.jpg\")
\u201cIn 2022, we often frame veganism as simply being just a diet choice,\u201d says Winters. \u201cThere\u2019s a good reason why, as food is the biggest reason why we choose to harm animals, but there\u2019s also a major moral issue we need to consider too.\u201d<\/p>\n