The Importance of Animals in Permaculture Systems and Permaculture Diets, Including a Discussion on Veganism
by David Brown
In researching for this article, David changed his mind about a number of things and he came to the conclusion that a vegan diet is bad for the Earth, bad for species extinction, bad for climate, bad for health, and bad for animal rights – and should not be adopted except for medical reasons in individual cases. Another conclusion is that the global consumption of animal products is too high, and that although energy foods should be mainly animal, the bulk of our diets should be predominantly vegetable.
He brings new insights to permaculture:
- it is a hunter-gatherer mode of meeting needs;
- the right to kill is held by the biosphere or an ecosystem, not by any individual animal;
- plant-life has rights, not just animals (higher animals);
- a species is more important than its individual animals;
- we must distinguish permaculture from agribusiness, industrial processes, supermarkets. etc.;
- our human-centred ethics is narrow and unethical;
- in making ethical choices, we should try to judge holistically, taking into account all the consequences, and be willing to leave our emotional comfort zone.