Cruelty to Vegetables

Good morning, my fellow activists! Today's entry comes from our dear friend Ronald Holden, a writer for the "Seattle Food Examiner." Holden writes:

"Pity the parsnip. Rue the rutabaga. Artificially germinated, forced to sprout in a furrow, nurtured (if you can call it that) in a bed of manure, raised with indifference, virtually ignored until it reaches market weight. Then it's thoughtlessly deracinated, mechanically decapitated, mercilessly skinned, and, in a final act of stultifying callousness, boiled alive.

"Fruit and veg of other species fare no better. Corn is stripped from its parental cob. Parsley is hacked to death. Spinach is chopped and creamed, potatoes routinely whipped, pumpkins eviscerated, grain thrashed and flailed. Who's there to coddle and console a carrot? Provide foster-care for an orphaned banana? Instead, there's jubilation when cherries are doused in alcohol and set afire.

Think about this: by "harvesting" a string bean, we're kidnapping the plant's children. What does it do to our humanity, when, three times a day, we kill vegetables just to feed our voracious animal appetites?"

Thank you, Ronald, for your compelling words. Friends, let us not forget that we have an important duty to protect and preserve our veggie friends everywhere -- if not for them, if not for their families, then for our own sense of well-being. When the world screams for caesar salad, carrot sticks, and creamed corn, we must answer them with the demand of justice for our sprouty friends. Always remember: love vegetables, don't eat them.