VOL.74/2024.09

 

[Book × Animal]

For Planet Earth, Where We Coexist

 

2024.03.11

 

 

The vegetarian diet is a decision for animal rights and the environment

 

 

It doesn’t seem that long ago that the curriculum for students in Korea started covering animal rights. Especially in a country that went through a period of famine, animals were just a source of food for humans. Asking if someone has had a meal is a normal greeting for Koreans. People still commonly say, “How can you afford to take care of animals in a world where there is not enough food for humans?” The idea is that animals are just animals, and we don’t have to take care of them or think about their rights.
However, in the book Vegetarian Diet and Animal Rights for Future Generation (Chulsu & Younghee Co.) by Lee Youme, she argues that this view of animals has triggered the current global crisis. It may sound abrupt to those of us who have lived through wars and hunger, but the idea is that the post-industrial development of large-scale confinement of animals in livestock farms has led to many unforeseen problems. Even if it was then, the writer says that we should now be thinking differently. In fact, we have so much food that the cost of dealing with food waste alone is reaching astronomical numbers. There are people starving on the other side of the world, and if you look at some of the countries around us, there are still people dying of starvation. And with all the talk about the global climate crisis in the news, she says it is time to get to the root of the problem and do something about it. Our future generations, children and young people, have many more years to live on this planet, and it is important for them to be aware of this issue. It gives them one more important subject to learn and practice beyond what they are taught in school.
The term “doomsday” has begun to be heard in the context of the climate crisis. Technically, it is not the end of the planet, but rather the end of humanity. But, since the end of humanity is something we haven’t experienced, it is hard to imagine the actual terror. For some, the end of the world is just a rumor that’s been around for a long time. However, by now, we all know that it is no longer a rumor. Realistic fear kicks in once it becomes rational reasoning based on accurate facts.
The book is organized into three main parts – Earth’s past, present, and future. It begins with the birth of Earth as a planet in our solar system and shows how, through all the turbulence, nature has worked to perfect it. At this point, humanity lives peacefully as a small part of life on Earth. Human beings gather plants and fruits that grow and wither in the mountains and fields, and hunt animals to sustain their lives. It was a peaceful coexistence, not the growth and development we commonly talk about. However, with industrialization, people began to engage in competition to have more, eat more, and own more. Here, the writer mainly focuses on “animals” as the biggest victims. Due to human greed, ecosystems lost their balance, and life, which is intimately connected to each other, began to be treated like a commodity, manipulated by artificial manipulation, rather than through natural birth and death. Eventually, the harmony and balance of the ecosystems were disrupted, leading to a global crisis.
It is not that students should feel intimidated by this book. In the last chapter of the book, titled “The Future of the Planet,” the writer chooses to speak in a rather warm and hopeful language. She points out that the world is not only powered by huge systems of countries and societies, but by our everyday lives. It shows how, if we look closely, we can make choices that contribute to a healthy planet right now. It reminds us that the climate crisis is not something that happens in some faraway country, but rather hinges on our own healthy consumption, choices, and habits. Through this book, students will see a planet of hope, not a future of despair.

 

 

The meals we have every day mean so much more than you might think. We often start our day and end a long day with a meal. It connects the morning to the afternoon, the afternoon to the evening, and even our everyday lives. We celebrate good things at the table, and we comfort ourselves when things get tough at the table. Many of our interactions also take place around the table. Whether it be with family, acquaintances, coworkers, or loved ones, we build relationships over a meal.
Meanwhile, the meals we enjoy are the product of someone’s labor, and through them, we connect with others we don’t know the face or name of. This connection can also extend to the vast expanse of soil, sunlight, and water that produced each grain of rice, fruit, and vegetable. This sense of connection at the table invites us to imagine the process by which a bowl of food arrives in front of us, and the writer asks whether that process has been peaceful, and whether peace is in our meals.
Peace is the opposite of violence, and a peaceful society is also a society without violence. The writer argues that while it is important to speak out against the various forms of violence that exist in our society, we also need to think about what violence is also present in our everyday meals. Peace comes from the absence of painful cries and bloodshed in the process of getting a bowl of food in front of us, and that is how daily revolutions are connected to social revolutions. If we think about the process of how a plate of meat, a fish, a glass of milk, and an egg come to us, compared to a bowl of brown rice, a plate of lettuce, or an apple, the answer to what we should eat becomes clearer. The overarching theme of this book is that peace of mind and body, as well as peace in the world, can come from a meal of peace.
Dining Table of Peace (Rye Field) is a collection of columns posted on Peaceful Dining Table, which was serialized in local media, articles she wrote for various publications, and diary entries she kept for more than a decade after she started eating brown rice and plant-based diets. The writer’s desire to create a sustainable and peaceful world is reflected in her daily life and writings. The book is organized into four chapters. Chapter 1, “The Meals I Want to Prepare for My Children,” is about her heartfelt desire to prepare healthy meals for her children as a parent; Chapter 2, “From the Earth Under the Sky to the Sun and Wind,” is about her gratitude for the plants that grow in nature; Chapter 3, “A Plant-Based Diet for Peace,” is about the importance of plant-based food that she has learned through her many relationships and encounters; and finally, Chapter 4, “Coexistence Learned at the Table,” is about the realization that the value of peace and coexistence can start at the table. Each chapter ends with recipes from the writer, who has been studying natural plant-based meals, divided by season.

 

Things you can see as you get closer to animals

 

 

The three writers of Only the Stolen Pig Survived (Rye Field) - Hyanggi, Eunyeong, and Seomnari - are activists in the animal liberation network Direct Action Everywhere (DxE). Their different lives were connected under the common goal of animal liberation. When they rescued a piglet born at a pig farm in Gyeonggi-do in July 2019, they named him “Dawn.” The book’s title reflects the fact that only one pig, Dawn, whom they saved from the farm, survived until the end. Countless more pigs like Dawn would have died for human food. The title is a stark, realistic reminder of how tragic the activists’ work was, how pitiful and precious Dawn’s life was, and how much other lives would suffer.
The pigs depicted in the media are fat and greedy, sniffing around for food all day. Nothing about their eyes looking out at the world and connecting with other living beings is ever discussed. When they held Dawn in their arms, felt his body temperature, and made eye contact with him, he was no longer a farm animal, but a life not unlike our own. Even so, the situation was not easy: even with the 3600 square feet of land they had set aside to create “Dawn’s sanctuary,” the best the activists could do was to protect this one tiny life, which was comparably small. Still, they believe it could be the beginning of a world-changing animal liberation.
Animal rights activism is taking place in all corners of the world and is connected to every aspect of our daily lives. It is a world in which we take for granted a system that kills animals and profits from their hides, flesh, and milk. Created by big capital, this system makes most people unwillingly part of the abuse of animals. Individual efforts can be easily overwhelmed by the magnitude of the system. Yet, these activists are confident that it is always worthwhile and important to pay deeper attention to the realities of suffering animals, to ask what should be common sense, and to imagine what the future might look like.

 

 

The first chapter of the book tells the story of the activist who rescued Dawn and spent the next year in the closest relationship with him. It describes the process of learning, albeit imperfectly, about the existence of farmed animals. Chapter 2 shows how Dawn’s rescue led to the creation of Korea’s first sanctuary. It talks about the activists’ worries, concerns, and anxieties about establishing a sanctuary from scratch. Chapter 3 takes us back to the time when activists decided to openly rescue Dawn, as well as the testimonies of numerous victims beyond Dawn, and Chapter 4 summarizes follow-up actions and discusses the meaning of this struggle.
Our society has always grown better through all the confusion, turmoil, tumult, and chaos. Perhaps, through what the little life symbolizes, we can dream of a better world than the one we have now, because a world where animals are happy is no reason for humans to be unhappy.

 

 

The book We Will Meet Again (Go Tomorrow) is a collection of conversations that Lee Youme, an animal communicator, has had with the spirits of animals. Talking with animals is strange enough, but talking with spirits that have left their physical bodies is even stranger. At the same time, it is fascinating. The writer started out as an animal communicator, but she expanded her perspective beyond the pets we love and adore. This is because when we really get to know the minds of animals, we discover that there are no such things as pretty animals, dirty animals, or animals we consume for meat.
Connecting with the spirit of animals spans 22 episodes, starting with a puppy who is about to leave us, followed by cats, rabbits, and more. It teaches us that there are countless connections we never knew we had with the beings who live with us under the same roof as our pets. For those who love animals, their meaning will become even more significant, and they will be able to realize the noble mission given to each life. Also, readers will be further reminded of the meaning of life and death through the story of a stray cat’s death, which the writer witnessed while writing the book.

 

 

If we had known what it meant to live with them, we would have cared for them more and loved them more. Although we are left with regrets and remorse, this can also be regarded as suffering and a practice that the human soul must undergo. Through the stories of their pure souls, including the roles they each fulfilled, we might be able to learn some of life’s greatest lessons.
Beyond communing with pets and departed spirits, the writer has gone further and is active in animal rights and vegetarian activism as well as writing about it. She says that we have become a threat to the ecosystem because we have categorized living beings by need and treated them recklessly. She claims that the climate crisis is not a natural disaster, but a man-made disaster because humans have been dominating the world with their greed. Hence, she persuades us that how we treat lives will naturally provide clues to solving the climate crisis that the planet is facing today.

 

 

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Written by Lee Youme (Writer and animal communicator)