speaking of african exports

driscoll, a vegan friend, and i once had a tussle about the ethics of my food choices. i choose to avoid eating things that contain gum arabic, which includes altoids, the source of the disagreement, but i eat meat. after dinner, he passed me an altoid, i turned it down, and he asked why. i explained: gum arabic is harvested by child slaves in sudan who are often murdered for poor production, illness, or sport. in fact, until recently, the u.s. banned the import of all sudanese products including gum arabic, but congress passed an exemption for the gum arabic because its loss would cause too great economic hardship on americans. (scroll down to "no more punishments?" heading.) i explained that i chose to try to avoid supporting slavery when i could.

at this point, he seemed almost offended. maybe he thought that i judged him as immoral for eating altoids. i didn't. that's silly. he shot back that i ate animal products. how could i avoid altoids but each animal products?!?

i understand the motivations that drive people to adopt vegetarianism and veganism. our house is notorious for its vegan-friendly dinner parties. personally, i work hard and spend excessively to buy animal products that are produced humanely - grass-fed beef, non-factory farmed, cage-free/free-roaming poultry (all hopefully from local farmers), organic produce, and so on. the thing is that i don't have a problem with killing animals for food. i do have a problem with torturing them while they're alive and during their death.

that torture is the problem i have with products that support war and slavery in africa. and not only is it torture of a living creature -- it's torture of human beings. if i were starving and had to choose between killing a stranger and killing my pet to eat, i would choose my pet. and i love my pets. they make me happy, and i work hard to make them happy. but they're still not people. (of course, i'd probably try eating the pages from books on the shelves before i submitted to either of those choices.)

it seems silly to begrudge someone for their moral stances on one front just because s/he doesn't accept or commit to each of the the moral stances you take. doesn't it?