Us Omnivores Through History
In all of this history, both known and unknown, there were tragedies and comedies, and everything in between. An endless diversity of settings and situations, across a slowly morphing landscape, always imperceptibly, yet profoundly, defined by era, climate and geography. Meanwhile, our history with food, if we could (highly unlikely though) recreate with some exactitude across the multitude of eras and peoples, would similarly reflect such a rich diversity, almost like a spectrum of color. In short, people ate a lot of different things and had to make due with a lot of different situations.
From our perspective in the 21st century, it’d be the height of ignorance, as a vegan let’s say, to condemn hunting tribes and fishing peoples for eating, living and staying warm by the aid of animals. They might earn some credit on this side of history, yet there wouldn’t be much of a history to report! Both them and their families likely would have met a most short-lived demise. Yet conversely, it’d be equally short-sighted to project and institutionalize, from whatever bits we can historically recreate, as some sort of ‘be all, end all’ of human tradition. After all, which people’s, which era, which tradition, which fallible recollections of such a small sliver of our history, would we pick to meet the standard? And why?
It’d be a trying phenomenon to form some sort of ‘law’, to say the least, though we in the modern era sure want to. The more you delve into it, especially with a modern reductionist bent, the more you get lost in a rabbit hole slowly but surely going from ‘scientific’ to just pure ideological fanaticism. It’s simply all too easily disguised too, when done by ‘those in charge’. Perhaps because the question itself is a more psychological reflection of ourselves, some drive for control and order, than some truly definitive or even practical perspective on life. For while there may be a uniformity to the universe, deep, deep down in its quantum mechanics, or even a constancy to timeless forces, when it comes to the way our lives look, what we do and how we eat, there seems nothing but color and diversity. It’s as though, for what’s relevant in our daily physical lives, life unveils the game board and says: ‘ok, here’s your options, good luck!’. And that can likely look mighty different, given the situation…
Perhaps that’s the lesson from our history. Not that some random human tradition, in some random era is ‘the way it is’ (and has to be). But that, good or bad, right or wrong, life is what we make of it. Nevertheless, wherever we find ourselves on planet earth: era or geography, family or genetics, life fine tunes the options we do have. Almost like a puzzle to be built, with less of a ‘right’ answer, and more just different ‘effects’ or consequences for whatever decisions we do make.
But when it came to food, our human ancestors had less choice than we do today. Clearly we know enough of our history by now to say ‘animal foods’ played a role in that history. Not everywhere, nor at all times, nor were all ‘animal-based’ diets the same. Nevertheless, in many places, meat and milk were essential. They allowed us to live. As non-carnivorous mammals, they represented a most clever technology, allowing us to stay around long enough to grace planet earth with a lineage and history.
It’s fascinating! Still, you wonder how we are left to contextualize whatever history we do have to our modern world. Which era to choose, which people, which geography, which story? Which side to take (for or against)? The traditions truly span the gamut. Regardless it all seems only mildly relevant today. Whatever we take from it all, similar to each of our ancestors, we too are faced with a unique setting and context, a ‘menu of the times’ in essence, with a variety of decisions before us each and every day.
Whatever similarities we may share or whatever timelessness to our collective stories, we have a freedom today completely unprecedented. With modern technology, it’s to almost pathological proportions and it’d be simply unfathomable to our ancestors. Even most of us are not quite ready for it all. Suffice to say, it can be confusing striking a balance. To be simultaneously so far removed from the land yet still so reliant upon it; so unimaginably ‘in control’ yet still so vulnerable; so filled with a knowledge, yet so ignorant for what to do with it. We’re simply bursting at the seams with freedom! And it’s all the modern dilemma…
For people in Central Asia, a few hundred years ago (or even today), it was easy. Do this or you die! Same with the peoples near the poles. We are still like them in that we are indeed human. But our setting is way quieter; our daily itinerary vastly more open-ended too. So much so, it can be paralyzing. Whether good or bad, premature or timely, opportunity or curse, or some middle ground, simply think of all the freed-up capacity (both intellectual and emotional) we have today by comparison.
As such, the question of vegan stems precisely from this freedom and modern setting. The question itself is not to make some grand, categorical generalizations of life or human morality, or ‘the way things are’. Or, some ideology to judge one another on. Us humans really like to do that, it seems! But it’s a question that arises naturally by virtue of this context, regardless of what people may have done or not done in our past.
However, much of our consumer decisions today, unfortunately, are out of sight, out of mind. So much so, we almost fail to take an interest. Meanwhile, our food is disguised (tastes good too!). We have a system very much inclined to a certain status quo, the likes of which blindly encourages the misplaced overextension of ancestral stories (or elements we like from them) into the domain of biological truth, or our notion of ‘the way things are’. There’s much, much to it all. But those personal questions or concerns which naturally arise on stable footing, or ways we’d ordinarily take an interest, are unfortunately somewhat incapacitated because of it.
Nevertheless, we still do truly have a choice in the matter. So it’s only food for thought, what, if anything, it’d all mean to us if we could temporarily suspend the illusion that we don’t. What questions might arise, what changes might we wish to make, if it were all no longer, ‘out of sight, out of mind’ too? And how might we otherwise react, if we removed all disguises?
How would most of us feel taking the baby calf from her mother, killing the pig, or beheading the chicken? How about instead, our bare hands in the soil, planting and harvesting? Do we feel differently killing our food verses picking our food? Is that not a question being directly put to all of us, all the time, though others do it for us?
How about in our towns, would we want more hog farms or strawberry fields? Egg hatcheries or vineyards? What is a more pleasant sight or even smell? Isn’t this something we’d take more of an interest in, if we indeed lived nearby?
What about the part of the store most prefer? Is it that section that wreaks of fish, surrounded by body parts sitting on beds of ice? Or, alternatively, the produce aisle? The smells of pineapple and basil in the air, sights of colorful sweet potatoes, luscious mangoes and fresh vegetables. Where would most of us want to spend our time, and what does that mean?
Which tastes more appealing in its most natural form: unseasoned meat, or fresh picked berries? A cow’s milk or fresh coconut water? Which is more exciting, and what do we make (both intuitively and scientifically) of where our senses lead us?
But more, what of the modern behind the scenes tour of how it all comes to be? We chop down rain forests; ransack oceans; pump antibiotics; kill wildlife; pollute air, water and land; and so on. There’s seemingly endless negative ‘externalities’ to our: ‘the way things gotta be’. Not to mention, the sheer torture and inhuman lot of modern, automated factory farming in the name of efficiency to make the numbers work (and they still don’t!). How then do we feel, up close and personal, about all of the downsides our present traditions require?
Out in the open, it’d all naturally makes us pause, regardless of how we’d decide to respond. This would be almost a purely academic exercise too, if it weren’t for the fact that we truly do have a choice. Both science and testimonials are pointing in favor of more (or exclusively) ‘plant-based’. There’ve been ‘vegan’ peoples in history too, despite only accidentally so. Not to mention, for us primates, frugivore came first. But it’s all beside the point. We can live healthy lives as both omnivores and vegans. We can make things work, if need be. The question is, where do our senses lead us? What of our conscience, our wisdom, our common sense? What is the ideal in the present, all things considered?
Like never before, we have a lot more say in our decisions. It’s not only in freed up emotional capacity, but quite literally in options and possibility. The modern phenomenon before us (consumer or not) is sitting with it all. It’s looking at it quietly, thinking about it and seeing how we feel. It’s less braving the elements and the seasons no longer forced upon us like those before us, and more braving whatever we got going on inside. Clinging to tradition as though we have no choice in the matter feels psychologically suspect. How are we to neglect intuition and conscience, facts and figures, all for the sake of an idea, one who’s relevance fades almost completely in the modern context? What would we say of that in psychology text books to hide, disguise and swallow everything, pretending our hand is forced one way when in fact it’s anything but?
Managed dissonance is a bizarre standard for a so-called ‘advanced’ people. Certainly, it can be difficult to have gotten used to one thing, and then suddenly consider another. Especially for industry (which seems to play no small part in this!) But it’s far better to slowly consider an inspired alternative, then to pretend it doesn’t exist. Or, to get a little uncomfortable now, if we truly are, then to try and mask it with whatever clever means at our disposal.
There was an undeniable harmony to much of our past; something both pure and naturally regenerative. But any symbiotic ecology has virtually gone away in the modern era, plant-based or not. Nevertheless, it was the ecosystem itself, not the food consumed (animal or plant) that’s of relevance. We could just as well do (or better said, ‘allow’) any one ecosystem, whether or not we’re vegan. We can let animals roam, take down fences, and even promote permaculture. We don’t gotta eat anyone! Regardless, we don’t honor old ways by isolating ends, (say, eating meat) with whatever industrialized means at our disposal. The only overlap between now and then, is that someone is being killed and eaten. But the contrast of how that all comes to be (namely now verses then) is troublingly stark.
We seem more like Don Quixote in our historical ideation. After all, most of us are nothing even remotely like our human ancestors living off the land. We can indeed borrow from their past (and I certainly hope!), but if it’s just to make up our shopping lists or guide us in ordering at restaurants, you can’t help but think we massively miss any worthwhile lesson or tradition.
Maybe we decide there are some things we’d like to hang onto for forever in human society. You’d venture to imagine they’d be quite nice things! Nevertheless, we have a well-justified romanticism for the past. But if we’re to stand shoulder to shoulder with our ancestors, perhaps it lies less in our seemingly misplaced imitation of their past, and more the degree to which we can make the best of our present.
The ways to eat are almost infinitely diverse, from food choice to scale, vegan, or not. We can even see it in our history. People can thrive as vegans or omnivores, or similarly NOT as either or. Health and wellness depend on the lifestyle of each. That’s not the question (at least not here). It’s simply trying to decipher, once we clear the air and consider what’s there to be considered, how we wish to eat.
It’s a question up to each of us, that can go 1 of a million ways. Yet, with everything in the way, we’re almost desensitized to its existence. Out of sight, out of mind is a conflicted, almost schizophrenic standard (especially when intentional). Nevertheless, this question is still not quite to say ‘how things need to be’. Only that any culture worth having, in whatever time or place we find ourselves, will flow best when we’re all honest and open.
There’s undoubtedly a dilemma before us today, just as much ‘clearing the air’ and realizing there’s one, as the dilemma itself. As crazy as it sounds, it all boils down to some animal in our stomachs! But it’s hard to imagine the compulsion is so strong we’re willing to disguise, hide and go to extreme measures, just to compulsively do that. So what is the dilemma? It’s certainly not a foregone conclusion, for either side, simply in want of some clever defense. But surely, whatever the dilemma is, it’s up to each of us to decipher.
The ways to eat are almost infinitely diverse, from food choice to scale, vegan, or not. We can even see it in our history. People can thrive as vegans or omnivores, or similarly NOT as either or. Health and wellness depend on the lifestyle of each. That’s not the question (at least not here). It’s simply trying to decipher, once we clear the air and consider what’s there to be considered, how we wish to eat.
It’s a question up to each of us, that can go 1 of a million ways. Yet, with everything in the way, we’re almost desensitized to its existence. Out of sight, out of mind is a conflicted, almost schizophrenic standard (especially when intentional). Nevertheless, this question is still not quite to say ‘how things need to be’. Only that any culture worth having, in whatever time or place we find ourselves, will flow best when we’re all honest and open.
There’s undoubtedly a dilemma before us today, just as much ‘clearing the air’ and realizing there’s one, as the dilemma itself. As crazy as it sounds, it all boils down to some animal in our stomachs! But it’s hard to imagine the compulsion is so strong we’re willing to disguise, hide and go to extreme measures, just to compulsively do that. So what is the dilemma? It’s certainly not a foregone conclusion, for either side, simply in want of some clever defense. But surely, whatever the dilemma is, it’s up to each of us to decipher.
