From time to time I come across someone who declares that they are a vegan. I imagine there may be plenty of other vegans who don’t announce themselves as such unnecessarily but they are not a problem.
I absolutely have no problem with someone choosing a particular diet, it may not be my own choice but they are free to eat what they like and I only really need to know if we are eating together and I either need to cook a meal that will meet their requirements or it affects our choice of restaurant.
The trouble arrises when they raise their veganism when it is not really useful or relevant information. This is usually because they want to persuade their audience that the world would be a much better place if only everyone confirmed to their own particular food fetish.
So yes we have multiple problems and the political system doesn’t seem to be able to find a way to respond because it is all too much to cope with.
So perhaps here’s a little idea to break the logjam...
It is often said that in the face of the type of crises we face individual action is ineffective and that the only way ‘progress’ can be made in changing things – is by mass collective action. On the face of it this is obvious.
Chapter 50 of "The Way" by Teddy Goldsmith contains a very important insight into the way population controls work in a balanced eco-system that both gives the lie to the simplistic Malthusian view of population issues and also points the way to a much more sophisticated discussion of population and how and why this needs to be folded in to our understanding of the crises we are facing.
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