We've had this question before...

[franklanguage]

How do you graciously return a gift from Heifer International? It seems one of my well-meaning clients will be giving her corporate gifts from them, and if so I may be a recipient.

Considering that the gift is given in your name to someone else, it's especially tricky. I certainly don't want a cow slaughtered in my name—although they also do goats, sheep, and bees.

Comments

Now I'm wondering...

[franklanguage.livejournal.com]

Is a vegan farm actually possible? Most people say it isn't, and any biodynamic farms I know of rely heavily on animals to create the "dynamic" aspect. Conventional wisdom says most animals have to eat animals to survive, and veganism is just an aberration. Even chimpanzees and gorillas eat some meat.

So isn't veganism just a luxury, considering that it's so rare for humans to be vegan? Even Ted Danson puts his stamp of approval on Heifer International.

Re: Now I'm wondering...

[suegypt.livejournal.com]

I think veganism is a chosen discipline (I am not vegan, so i'm just giving an opinion formed by admiration) and is not natural to humans, who are omnivorous in the "wild." Like chimps and other high primates, in the wild, if we were in the trees and forests, I imagine we would eat mostly vegetables and fruit, grains and nuts, with meat from capture or hunting.

As we became "civilized," one of the first things we humans did was invent agriculture. Bread was the great life-saver. But, through the ages, most of us ate meat and certainly milk and eggs, etc when they were available. Because this meat-eating wasn't dictated to us back thousands of years ago like it might be now by our present-day society, I believe this was our natural way. The choice of vegetarianism and veganism goes against nature for most of us, but is not a negative thing to my thinking. But it is a choice. And a choice of someone with many options to select from.

A vegan farm? With just kitties and doggies running around free, no cows, chickens? No horses used to plow, no bees to make honey? I guess you could plant seeds with machines, harvest them with machines and human labor. Have grains, nut and fruit trees, fields of corn and vegetables. But it would probably take much more work in the US, and might be marginalized out of existence by the big corporation farms.

I'd like to think we could support vegan farming. But, yes, in a poor country where people have to fit for themselves, it is natural and necessary, I'd argue, for people to eat and use the gifts of animals.

Re: Now I'm wondering...

[dagda-ollathir.livejournal.com]

Yeah, it’s pretty possible… there are some sustainable eco-communities with vegans who maintain their own mini farms… it’s really easy to set up diff. plants to keep the soil healthy without using animal poop for fertilizer.
We’re not wild animals, and we can survive being vegan, so we should stay vegan.

I don’t consider it a luxury- the diet of most impoverished countries are largely vegan (I remember reading Wangari Mathai’s autobio, and she mentioned how the only meat her family would ever eat was chicken, but her mother never wanted to (they had to cook chicken when she wasn’t at home, because her mom did not want animals killed for food). & if you look at their health (before other social forces stepped in to mess with the food supply), they’re really healthy off a largely plant based diets. & considering in most 3rd world countries, meat is the luxury item in their diet…