How Ethical Omnivores Embrace Their Ethical Nature
While many vegan diets are concerned with avoiding animals as an environmental, social, and health goal, some advocates eschew any animal product whatsoever. These advocates are conscientious omnivores, too, they say, but they are also ethically omnivores.
Though they often bear the image of “the ideal omnivore,” various practices and occupations that have arisen out of these ethical forms of veganism can sometimes make them difficult to be accurately described.
Here are some ethical strategies some ethical omnivores are employing to be better in the world.
Toward the aim of being an ethical omnivore: It starts with being present in the moment.
“Do we like to fight and continue to fight, not to just stay here in the moment?” says Genevieve Frydman, a writer for Pacific Organic Living. Frydman founded the San Francisco-based lifestyle and ethical lifestyle company, home to the blog Earth Grown.
What an ethical omnivore makes clear to the people around them is that they simply care about living a better, more ethical life. “We try to make sure that everything we do is in that moment—our intention,” says Frydman.
If you can, do a compassionate act before you walk through the door for your daily commute.
From the time you step out of your door, Frydman recommends being compassionate toward everyone you encounter. Take your time to stop and smell the flowers; pause to take a deep breath before you eat your first meal; offer kind words to the person next to you on the bus.
“For us, our way of being is not just a decision at the end of the day. It’s just the organic way of being,” Frydman says. “And it’s really living in it, in our life, in our choices.”
Frydman says that one of the most important ethical actions an ethical omnivore can take is to live with intentionality. “We never expect our values to be shared with anyone else, and when we start seeing that, it really is an amazing feeling,” she says.
Similarly, taking a deep breath before we eat our first meal helps us to experience the moment as more than just another piece of food.
