‘The Omnivore’s Deception’: The case of conflicted carnivores

I argue in 'The Omnivore's Deception' that we need civilizational reform, a new form of society. Choosing a vegan diet is a good start. But we also have a collective responsibility. We need to develop an oppositional culture and democratic movement capable of challenging and overcoming the systems of inequality, power, and violence that thwart human and nonhuman freedom alike. Call it a revolution in defense of life on Earth.

MARC BEKOFF: In his new book, ‘The Omnivore’s Deception: What We Get Wrong about Meat, Animals, and Ourselves’, Dr. John Sanbonmatsu does nothing of the sort. Rather, he forcefully argues that exploiting and killing other animals for human desires is morally indefensible, no matter how it’s done—whether on small farms or industrialized ones. Moreover, he makes the urgent case for why the self-deception that keeps us addicted to meat needs to end. Here’s what Sanbonmatsu had to say about his highly acclaimed masterpiece, a must-read for the unconverted and the converted alike…

Marc Bekoff: Why did you write The Omnivore’s Deception?

John Sanbonmatsu: The idea for my book came to me after reading Michael Pollan’s influential bestseller, The Omnivore’s Dilemma, which appeared in 2006. Pollan criticized industrialized agriculture, but celebrated smaller-scale animal agriculture, which he presented as a middle path between factory farming and vegetarianism. A portion of The Omnivore’s Dilemma was devoted to attacking animal rights and defending meat-eating, and Pollan personally killed dozens of animals in the course of his research so that he could write about his experiences. My own book is in part a refutation of arguments by Pollan and others who contend that animals can be exploited and killed ethically. But we can’t have our meat and our consciences too.

MB: In fact, though, your book goes far beyond a critique of Michael Pollan’s work to implicate our entire civilization, humanity as such.

JS: Imagine that one day we were to discover a species on another planet that had enslaved all the other conscious beings living there and that they were subjecting them to unspeakable acts of violence and cruelty. What would we think of the character of such a species? Well, that species is us. Each year, humans kill 80 billion land animals, up to 2.7 trillion marine animals, and trillions of insects in the global food economy. All of this violence causes unspeakable physical and psychological suffering to our nonhuman victims.

My book explores what it means to be human when we have organized our economy, our values, and even our existential identity around mass violence against the other creatures of the Earth. What we do to animals, I argue, is not merely “wrong,” but radically evil.

Perhaps the most shocking thing about our domination and cruelty is that none of it is necessary or even good for us. Nutritionists have found that people thrive on a vegan or plant-based diet and in fact have better health outcomes than people eating animal products on an “omnivorous” diet. Meanwhile, intensive animal agriculture and our destruction of animal habitats is creating new zoonotic diseases like avian flu, which increasingly poses a pandemic risk for our own species.

MB: So abolishing the animal system is also in our own interest?

JS: Yes. I argue in The Omnivore’s Deception that we need civilizational reform, a new form of society. There really is a better way of being human…

MB: What must we do to end animal suffering at human hands?

JS: We must shift immediately to an all-plant diet, closing down the animal food system once and for all. It’s the right thing to do, and it’s also in our own best interests. My hope is that people who pick up my book and read it through to the end will come to reflect on their own participation in this unjust system and take the animal issue more seriously than they have before. Choosing a vegan diet is a good start. But we also have a collective responsibility. We need to develop an oppositional culture and democratic movement capable of challenging and overcoming the systems of inequality, power, and violence that thwart human and nonhuman freedom alike. Call it a revolution in defense of life on Earth. SOURCE…

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