Russell Simmons (Music producer)
"I was raised eating meat just like most other Americans. I believed that finishing my dinner and gulping down my milk would make me grow up to be big and strong. I was given a familiar message that kids (a...nd parents!) are still being spoon-fed today. Never once did I consider exactly what I was eating or what happened to the animal before it reached my plate... but it wasn't until about fifteen years ago when I began taking yoga classes at Jivamukti Yoga Center in NYC that I became vegetarian... Up until this time, a hamburger was something stuck between two buns -- not a cow, a wing was something you dipped in BBQ sauce -- not a chicken, and milk was something you drank as a human, never realizing it was only meant for a calf.
...The more I opened myself up to the idea of the full scope of exactly what non-violence translates to, the less interested I became in consuming the energy associated with the flesh of an animal that only knew suffering in his/her life and pain and terror in its death. The more I learned about factory farming and the cruelty animals raised for food must endure before they are led (or dragged) to slaughter, the more I realized that I could not, in good conscience, be a contributor to such violence.
"I was raised eating meat just like most other Americans. I believed that finishing my dinner and gulping down my milk would make me grow up to be big and strong. I was given a familiar message that kids (a...nd parents!) are still being spoon-fed today. Never once did I consider exactly what I was eating or what happened to the animal before it reached my plate... but it wasn't until about fifteen years ago when I began taking yoga classes at Jivamukti Yoga Center in NYC that I became vegetarian... Up until this time, a hamburger was something stuck between two buns -- not a cow, a wing was something you dipped in BBQ sauce -- not a chicken, and milk was something you drank as a human, never realizing it was only meant for a calf.
...The more I opened myself up to the idea of the full scope of exactly what non-violence translates to, the less interested I became in consuming the energy associated with the flesh of an animal that only knew suffering in his/her life and pain and terror in its death. The more I learned about factory farming and the cruelty animals raised for food must endure before they are led (or dragged) to slaughter, the more I realized that I could not, in good conscience, be a contributor to such violence.
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