So fellow vegetarians, how do you square it?
In many ways, I don't. I accept that there's a very sound moral case for veganism. My main reason for not being vegan is that I struggle with the thought of how difficult it would make my life. Vegetarianism is reasonably easy these days (although there are still times I struggle to find decent food to eat), but outside of the big cities, finding vegan nosh can be quite a challenge. Then there's the issue of explaining it to your mates when you're eating our or going to their house for dinner. And I was vegan for two years and face all these problems, so I know they're not just in my head. But I also accept that this is partly selfishness, and I could make the effort if I really wanted to.
There are other issues though. There are, unfortunately, no moral absolutes. Dairy causes suffering... but so does consumerism, so does driving a car, so does eating any food produced in a poor country for export to wealthy western nations.
Another concern is that I can't see how our current model of living is sustainable. A vegan diet is dead easy in the UK, but that's largely because of our access to cheap imported food. Take that away, and it all becomes a lot more complex. Whether veganism is a sustainable way of living in this country largely depends on whether we can continue with some form of high-tech global market. If we're forced to fall back on feeding the country with locally produced foods, I find it difficult to see how this can be done without animals - especially if oil becomes increasingly expensive.
Bottom line for me is that our lives are a series of complex choices, and we select the moral battles that we're prepared to fight. Veganism isn't currently my battle. Having said that, I do make an effort to reduce the dairy that I consume, and I'm probably 95% vegan in the home.
Other meats cooking makes me a bit queasy but for some reason the smell of cooking bacon still smells good to me....
