Yes he does, according to his partner Kim Eng.
It’s such a curious question isn’t it: “Are spiritual people, truly enlightened people, vegetarians?” And the answer is clearly “not necessarily.”
If you look at the great spiritual masters, there’s no common theme with regards to meat eating. Buddha wasn’t rigid about it and said it was okay if you were offered it, the Dalai Lama follows this path and is vegetarian at home but will eat meat if away.
Jesus fed the 5000 fish and loaves which he magically produced. Jesus said “What goes into someone’s mouth does not defile them, but what comes out of their mouth, that is what defiles them.” Matthew 15:11. And “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat; or about your body, what you will wear.” Luke 12:22
And enlightened master Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj, of “I AM THAT” fame, had no issue with meat eating or even smoking. Here’s an excerpt from I AM THAT…
Q: My body influences me deeply. In more than one way my body is my destiny. My character, my moods, the nature of my reactions, my desires and fears — inborn or acquired — they are all based on the body. A little alcohol, some drug or other and all changes. Until the drug wears off I become another man.
M: All this happens because you think yourself to be the body. realise your real self and even drugs will have no power over you.
Q: You smoke?
M: My body kept a few habits which may as well continue till it dies. There is no harm in them.
Q: You eat meat?
M: I was born among meat-eating people and my children are eating meat. I eat very little — and make no fuss.
Q: Meat-eating implies killing.
M: Obviously. I make no claims of consistency. You think absolute consistency is possible; prove it by example. Don’t preach what you do not practise.
Similarly, here’s what Ramana Maharshi had to say on the subject:
M: Habit is only adjustment to the environment. It is the mind that matters. The fact is that the mind has been trained to think certain foods tasty and good. The food material is to be had both in vegetarian and non-vegetarian diet equally well. But the mind desires such food as it is accustomed to and considers tasty.
D: Are there restrictions for the realised man in a similar manner?
M: No. He is steady and not influenced by the food he takes.
Eckhart Tolle sees life as one dynamic whole; an inter-connectedness, an inter-action, oneness. Life eats life, everywhere…
I saw on TV the other day, whales hunting. They pincered a shoal of fish and then came from underneath to catch thousands in one mouthful. Does that make a whale evil?
Having had my head into nutrition for over 20 years, I’m uncomfortable from a health point of view with pure vegetarianism (and the dairy industry is crueler than the meat industry so I’m told by vegans).
Interestingly, I’ve seen Eckhart Tolle dodge this question many times in seminars and TV interviews. He just advises to…
Be present with whatever your food choices are and then the right food choice will happen for you… it needs to come from within rather than as something from without.
This view is perfectly echoed by non-physical beings Abraham, channeled by Esther Hicks…
Imagine if you could let being aligned be your first priority — a lot of vegans would be inspired to a lot of eating that their veganism would not allow, but the source within them would call them toward.
— Abraham-Hicks
Yet another echo of the same perspective from Adyashanti:
Safransky: Could killing animals to eat them come from wholeness?
Adyashanti: Sure. Life is killing. If we eat a vegetable, we’ve killed it. If we eat an animal, we’ve killed it. To be a living organism is to kill. There is no life without death. When we die, we’re going to be nutrients for something else.
I don’t see life as “anything goes,” but I have seen wholeness move through different people in different ways. That’s why I’m always talking about action that comes from wholeness, not from division, nor rejection, nor grasping, nor pushing away. What motivates us when we’re not pushing or grasping, not relying on conditioned concepts of right and wrong, good and bad? Is there something else that can move us? And what is that? Action that is an expression of a clear and undivided state of consciousness is what the Buddha meant by “right action.” To exercise right action we must be functioning from a place outside of all egoic self-interest. We must be awake within the dream and be able to express that perspective.
The take-home message…
…from these spiritual masters is clear: Be whole, then see what you do.
People’s pre-judgement on the basis of this issue would be detrimental to their own enlightenment. Because if you saw as Eckhart does, life as oneness, then you would probably also not be overly concerned about any particular FORM, as all the forms are continuously morphing and changing. In fact, there is only life and it is ONE life, there is no death anywhere to be seen! And… life eats life, everywhere. My cat isn’t evil for eating mice.
What do you think? Do you think vegetarians are more spiritual? Please let us know by leaving a comment below.
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Lions would also gladly eat humans and sometimes do. Many people are killed by predators. The purpose of animals is not to awaken but the purpose of humans is to awaken. If a human kills another human to eat their meat, then why it is wrong since “all is one consciousness” anyway? Cows and other animals will run away in fear and fight for their life, but they are killed against their will. Animals cannot choose compassion. Eating meat requires suppressing your compassion. Killing is violence. If killing animals against their will can be justified, then why not murder rape and slavery too? If you love another being as you would yourself, then you would not selfishly harm it. We are here to evolve which means having respect and compassion for all beings and contributing to the least amount of harm.
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If a vegan is physically and mentally broken after 20 years on the diet, where does your compassion lie now?
If a 100,000 acres of rainforest is cleared to grow palms for palm oil, where is your compassion?
If a child is mentally disabled from being poisoned by Roundup sprayed on genetically engineered corn fields, where is your compassion?
If a family live in part of the world that is rocky, no crops grow, but livestock can be kept to provide a livelihood, where is your compassion?
Is your compassion for the baby gazelle being hunted, or for the lions cubs who are hungry?
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Oh, that is beautifully put, Mike.
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If you buy animal products then you are supporting genetically modified food companies. 75% of the farmland in the US is used to grow grain for animal feed, mostly genetically modified corn and soy beans, which are sprayed with roundup, and fed to animals. The pesticide and other toxins are stored in their fat which can’t be washed off. If you eat conventional animal products you are eating pesticides. The reason that meat is so cheap is that grains are heavily subsidized. It takes 16 pounds of grain to make one pound of beef. Animals are fed grains because it fattens them quicker. Imagine if this land was used to grow healthy food for humans instead. Most of the forest in the US and in the Amazon is being cleared to grow grain for animal feed.
If cows were fed only grass meat would cost over $25 a pound because there is not enough land to feed enough cows. GMO corn and soy beans are grown because they give the most tons of carbohydrates and fat per acre. Super Immunity by Dr. Joel Fuhrman explains the ideal diet. Wheat, sugar and processed foods are empty calories, but animal products are considered empty calories too.
Fact: 75% of Americans re overweight, 40% die from heart disease and 25% die from cancer, because what you reap is what you sow.
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I’m not in favor of industrial agriculture or growing grain to feed cows. This is not a natural model. I disagree with Joel Fuhrman’s approach to nutrition, it doesn’t actually work, it doesn’t actually fit with cutting edge science for things like essential fatty acids. People’s health go downhill long-term on vegan diets. It can take 20 years.
If we look to NATURE for the answers, they are there, both for our health and for the environment. Cutting rainforest to grow grain is not in harmony with nature, but natural prairie is turning to desert, prairie that would and SHOULD feed herbivores. In a rainforest environment, use species that are natural to that ecology. It’s a simple and sane answer.
Use the land to provide abundance, growing what is natural. Very simple.
When you have a system where each person is responsible for their own welfare, you create insanity. People will go after the money because they have to provide their own security. This create evil outcomes (outcomes of suffering, bad feelings). Billions of bad decisions are made every day to choose personal security over what is good for people and nature.
A return to nature and community has every answer built in. Every problem is addressed by it, every bad feeling healed by it. The answers are there right now, but it’s not veganism, which will destroy health and mean that land suitable for livestock that would naturally be there is not useable. Grain based agriculture is the most destructive practice on the planet. And humans aren’t naturally grain eaters.
You see the whole solution is holistic… what will heal humans, what will heal the planet is nature, using nature as a model, as a guide. It’s all there… nature exists as ecology, a synergy of countless animals and plants interacting. Humans are the ones out of step.
It’s not hard to look at anything at all in the light of nature and immediately see the red flag. By using what is locally a resource, by caring for it sustainably, by sharing networks and community so that no person’s welfare comes before another’s, worldwide ubuntu, then we have sanity restored. The system is currently way out of step with human nature. It’s easy to look at what is there now and see “it is NOT GOOD.”
Community, sharing, nature, solve everything. It’s a way off, but it’s coming. Veganism will just create more suffering. Humans are not naturally vegans.
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Joel Fuhrman and the nutritionist Gary Null have been vegan most of their life. Gary Null is 69 and he has been vegan for over 40 years. You can get ALL the essential fats from greens, beans and seeds and nuts. Your body converts omega 3 into DHEA.
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And you didn’t tell me where your compassion lies in those circumstances, it’s more complex than your simplified world view. Veganism does not provide the answers we need, but community, creating abundance, sharing, nature, these things do have all the answers.
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The body is generally not efficient at converting plant-based omega 3, which is why we are now seeing algae-derived DHA and EPA on the market, and it gets worse with age. The same is true of many nutrients e.g. vitamin A.
If you are really eager to make a vegan diet work, then you are going to last longer for sure. There are so many red flags with vegan diets, but you can ameliorate many of them by being very careful. This care will not parlay to the general population however, who are very sloppy and undisciplined generally… and rightly so, they are busy living their lives.
Using nutritional science you can last longer before your health nose-dives, by supplementing B12, DHA + EPA, choline etc but the diet is not robust at all, and I see no value in it, because all the solutions for our health and that of nature do not require it. And people won’t even do it, they like animal foods for good reason, we evolved for the last 2 and a half million years because of them, no animal foods, no big brain, no human.
The whole vegan dogma is just a house of cards — flaky and lacking any logical credibility whatsoever.
Oh, and a diet based on the foods you mentioned will mean a terrible omega-3 to omega-6 ratio which will promote inflammation. And all the grains you’re eating are going to cause intestinal permeability and other problems leading to autoimmune diseases. ETC, The list of red flags is very long indeed.
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You can apply all of this to flesh eaters that have mental breakdowns. Look into all of the rain forest that is destroyed to feed the animals you consume and this is actually more environmentally friendly than grass fed cows considering all the land that would be needed to feed over 7.5 billion humans. Where is your compassion for all the diseases that are spread through the consumption of animals or how about salmonella for ex. The lions do it out of necessity as well as raping in some cases to spread their genes. Its funny how humans like to pick and choose certain traits from animals to justify their bad habits. Anecdotal evidence is anecdotal for a reason. For every one vegan you name that has a health issue i could name you 10 flesh eaters that are worse off. Ive been vegan for 5 years and i feel better than i ever have eating 100 percent whole plant foods and on top of that I’m spending less money than i did consuming flesh. So for me its a win win. Bet you go to the grocery store were you can easily be vegan but you like to justify your actions by talking about the 1 percent of humans or tribes that feed on animals because its required for survival. How about since you love eating dead animals so much for your health go join a tribe and do all the other things they do which is easy to look up and i bet you wouldn’t last a month which i know for a fact i wouldn’t be able to or willing because deep down you like living in a civilized society so how about to start taking action instead of preaching.
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What you’ve done there is make assumptions about Michael and then judged him for it. Your assumptions were wrong.
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5 years isn’t long. There’s little doubt that veganism can be wonderful short term. It’s long term outcomes that are the issue. You can read about this here: https://happy.guide/2014/03/16/vegan-diet
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You can bet Eckhart does not eat meat from factory farms and slaughterhouses. This is one of the worst apologist articles ever.. You clearly choose what parts you pay attention to..
“How is it possible that humans killed in excess of 100 million fellow humans in the twentieth century alone? Humans inflicting pain of such magnitude on one another is beyond anything you can imagine. And that’s not taking into account the mental, emotional and physical violence, the torture, pain, and cruelty they continue to inflict on each other as well as on other sentient beings on a daily basis. Do they act in this way because they are in touch with their natural state, the joy of life within? Of course not. Only people who are in a deeply negative state, who feel very bad indeed, would create such a reality as a reflection of how they feel. Now they are engaged in destroying nature and the planet that sustains them. Unbelievable but true. Humans are a dangerously insane and very sick species. That’s not a judgment. Ifs a fact.” (The Power Of Now)
Then let your peace flow into whatever you do and you will be working on the levels of effect and cause simultaneously. This also applies if you are supporting a movement designed to stop deeply unconscious humans from destroying themselves, each other, and the planet, or from continuing to inflict dreadful suffering on other sentient beings. Remember: Just as you cannot fight the darkness, so you cannot fight unconsciousness. If you try to do so, the polar opposites will become strengthened and more deeply entrenched. You will become identified with one of the polarities, you will create an “enemy,” and so be drawn into unconsciousness yourself. Raise awareness by disseminating information, or at the most, practice passive resistance. But make sure that you carry no resistance within, no hatred, no negativity. (The Power Of Now).
With the timeless dimension comes a different kind of knowing, one that does not “kill” the spirit that lives within every creature and every thing. A knowing that does not destroy the sacredness and mystery of life but contains a deep love and reverence for all that is. (The Power Of Now)
Another aspect of the collective dysfunction of the human mind is the unprecedented violence that humans are inflicting on other lifeforms and the planet itself the destruction of oxygenproducing forests and other plant and animal life; illtreatment of animals in factory farms; and poisoning of rivers, oceans, and air. Driven by greed, ignorant of their connectedness to the whole, humans persist in behavior that, if continued unchecked, can only result in their own destruction. (A New Earth)
Once there is a certain degree of presence, of still and alert attention in human beings’ perceptions, they can sense the divine life essence, the one indwelling consciousness or spirit in every creature, every lifeform, recognize it as one with their own essence and so love it as themselves. (A New Earth)
The stronger the ego, the stronger the sense of separateness between people. The only actions that do not cause opposing reactions are those that are aimed at the good of all. They are inclusive, not exclusive. They join; they don’t separate. They are not for “my” country but for all of humanity, not for “my” religion but the emergence of consciousness in all human beings, not for “my” species but for all sentient beings and all of nature. (A New Earth)
In the forest, there is an incomprehensible order that to the mind looks like chaos. It is beyond the mental categories of god and bad. You cannot understand it through thought, but you can sense it when you let go of thought, become still and alert, and don’t try to understand or explain. Only then can you be aware of the sacredness of the forest. As soon as you sense that hidden harmony, that sacredness, you realize you are not separate from it, and when you realize that, you become a conscious participant in it. (A New Earth)
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I don’t see anything there about not eating animals Joe. Actions speak louder, Eckhart “eats anything” according to Kim Eng. Unfortunately we have a system of economics which creates the madness. Every time a consumer chooses lowest price, it’s a vote for cruelty and abuse.
The answer to all the insanity is the creation of community, and a massive return to nature, producing food in natural ecosystems. The need for money of each individual is at the very roots of the insanity. Only last night I saw about the millions of tons of mercury polluting nature in Peru due to illegal gold mining. What is the root cause? No social guarantee of well-being for the individual. Leaving the individual to fight and compete, otherwise why bother with gold? If you are born in a village that looks like paradise, where food is grown as far as the eye can see, growing naturally, where all that is needed is available. where is the need to pollute, to cheat, to be greedy? Where is the need for money? If you want to talk about solving REAL problems of evil, the REAL causes of suffering, then “the system” is it.
Why would any farmer have to use methods to cut costs without competition? Competition is the insanity, it causes people to make bad decisions against life, against people and nature. It ain’t about eating animals or not, believe me, monoculture, agriculture is the biggest KILLER there is. A field of wheat is absolutely dripping in blood. If you care about LIFE, then you create abundant ecosystems, not kill millions of acres and plant one crop and then continue to kill via chemicals, via the death and destruction involved in fossil fuels, carbon inputs as fertilizer etc.
If you truly care about solving problems created by humans then the answers are co-operation, sharing and creation of abundant self-maintaining ecosystems for food.
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Eckhart Tolle’s teaching is primarily to awaken, then awakened action will result from an awakened consciousness. People who live in 3rd world countries or in arid or cold climates, and in cultures that have to produce their own food may not be able to be vegetarian. We have supermarkets, they don’t. No spiritual person would want that fellow members of their society have to harden their hearts inflicting harm on other sentient beings in slaughter houses. Wayne Dyer does mention in his new book I Can See Clearly Now that he does not eat meat because he does not want to contribute to fear in the world , which the animals feel. Concern for the suffering of sentient beings is going vegan.
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If awakened action meant being vegan then Eckhart would be, but he isn’t.
Killing doesn’t mean suffering. Lions hunt herbivores, a dance that’s been going on for millennia, perhaps you would advocate removing all the lions from Earth, so as to prevent suffering of wildebeest and gazelles. But then why stop at lions?… let’s take out every species that eats another species, chameleons, birds, dolphins, venus fly traps… etc. Long list, prob 70% of life on Earth.
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Lions will go vegan after humans go vegan first. Humans are herbivores, our physiology is like that of large primates like gorillas. Where do gorillas get their protein?
“Since all worlds are interconnected, when collective human consciousness becomes transformed, nature and the animal kingdom will reflect that transformation. Hence the statement in the Bible that in the coming age “The lion shall lie down with the lamb.” This points to the possibility of a completely different order of reality. …We are not separate from our world, so when the majority of humans become free of egoic delusion, this inner change will affect all of creation. You will literally inhabit a new world ” The Power of Now
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No, our small intestine is twice the relative volume and our colon half the relative volume of other primates. Gorillas get their protein by consuming huge amounts of vegetation, and fermenting fibers in their huge guts, providing them with a diet high in the resulting fats. Humans can’t do this. The gorilla/protein argument is frankly laughable. We can’t handle much fiber at all.
Maybe there will be a different order of reality. In this one though, my brain and body need a level of nutrition that science now has clearly identified, and that fits entirely with our evolution as hunter-gatherers. E.g. a certain need for EFAs, in a certain ratio. When you take all the puzzle pieces and view through the lens of evolution, it all fits. And that ain’t veganism.
And every time you quote from The Power of Now or A New Earth, you simply reinforce my point that enlightened people who would say such things, still “eat anything.”
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And by the way, the Bible is chock full of symbolism. Taking everything literally will lead to errors of understanding. Much of what is written is intended to create understanding by causing a search for meaning, and a certain resonance with the deeper self. The resonance creates a curiosity and interest but the mind is confused, and therefore you have a search for meaning.
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I find the answers from these spiritual masters frustrating. Be present, operate from the vortex, see what feels right. The question we all really want to know the answer to is: “When a person is spiritually enlightened, how will they feel about eating meat?” But none of them provide a clear answer.
For me, the most important question is: “What is a healthy diet for a human being?” If our optimal diet includes meat (which it certainly seems to), then the individual must first decide if they’re happy to be sub-optimal.
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Well, the silence is deafening. If vegetarianism and being enlightened were synonymous, then they would clearly state so. But we don’t have Jesus saying “Blessed are the vegetarians.” But the opposite is the case, Abraham and Eckhart are basically saying “get out of your mind and FEEL if your Inner Being wants it.” THAT means dropping all ideas and being completely honest in the moment.
The conflict for me comes with the fact that we don’t ourselves do the killing. How would my Inner Being feel about killing? People say that if abattoirs had windows everyone would be vegetarian but this isn’t true. In other countries I have seen animals displayed in the street… like whole sheep’s head, and for them it is normal.
Is it just my IDEAS that are confused, conflicted? My Inner Being seems to love roast chicken :-)
Anyway, the fact is clear that enlightenment (Oneness with Being) does NOT cause a repulsion of animal foods. And Abraham is clear that our Source, would lead us to non-vegan foods.
I remember reading about Kabbalah and that in their theology, it’s actually an obligation to eat animals, and that it transforms that energy.
I think if I was really hungry and living in nature, it would be a no-brainer. And all inner conflict would be gone. :-)
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Yes, I tend to agree — put hungry people in a natural environment and small animals will look like food rather than pets :-)
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Yeah… reminds of when I was on holiday once and there was a native guy catching fish by basically spearing them with a pointy stick. It was so easy! He was spearing one every few seconds. And it FELT so natural, it really stuck in my mind. Another thing that stuck in my mind was the guy who did the raw food experiment in the zoo… eating like an ape, and when they had a chance for a bit of fish he said I’m glad it was cooked but I would have eaten it raw.
Also, there was a feral girl found in France, and she lived on frogs, rabbits, fish, leaves and roots… lots of animal foods.
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Updated article with direct quotations from Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj, Ramana Maharshi and a perfect explanation that echoes Eckhart Tolle’s view by Abraham-Hicks.
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Thanks for the reply Michael. I still think you need to have better references if you are going to claim that Tolle is a meat eater, but putting that aside I pretty much agree with your interpretation of Tolle’s teachings on diet. My main trouble with most meat eaters is how separated they are from actually killing and butchering the animal, and thus the reality of the whole situation. Can you imagine Eckhart Tolle looking an animal in the eyes, an animal like a cow or pig or tender young lamb or calf, then cutting it’s throat and watching it’s blood drain out, then butchering the animal. Humans share a lot in common with animals, and in fact any sensitive human with an open heart I think would find this whole process utterly horrifying. And imagine how the animal feels.
If Eckhart Tolle does eat meat though I wouldn’t be surprised, because he is a millionaire who drives a Jaguar and an Infinity, and lives in a luxury condo. I really don’t understand a lot of his teachings in the context of how he lives his life. If we are all one, and the ego is an illusion he shouldn’t mind giving me a little bit of his millions, or give me the keys to his Jaguar. Or maybe he could give me his dog to eat when I run out of pigs. Maybe he could donate most of his fortunes to charity and help some of the starving people in the world.
By the way, I actually do love a lot of Tolle’s teachings. But I would love to sit down with him and ask him some tough questions. I watch the videos on his website where people ask him questions and I have yet to see anyone give him a really hard question. It’s easy to talk about “presence” when you have had a relatively easy life like his, and now on top of all of this he is famous and wealthy. And even in this midst of his wealth he still charges exorbitant amounts for people attend his talks, and charges fees to watch his videos on the internet.
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You’re right, I definitely should have noted the reference, it’s a shame I can’t find it now, it seems to have been removed, although it’s fairly well accepted that he is not vegetarian. People have seen him in restaurants etc, and I got the info from Kim Eng! It was an Q/A with her, I do remember that. There are a couple of references on the net but not much. As I say, he clearly does not want to talk about the issue and for good reason…. people will JUDGE him for it, and incorrectly IMO. Eckhart sees life as a dynamic whole, life eats life. If you are a seer, and you have a higher perspective, people will LITERALLY CRUCIFY you for that perspective, that TRUER perspective.
I know exactly your feeling about killing but I am conflicted (this is the mind of course, the conflict is mental, a battle of thoughts). Am I conflicted if I don’t think? No. Trouble is, I spent years researching nutrition and alas, it is clear to me that we do need animal foods to be healthy.
Is it fair to say that if someone who HAS NEVER had to kill to eat CANNOT kill, then they SHOULD NOT eat it? I think not. Children who are hunter-gatherers are not squeamish about it, and therefore, the condition comes about because of culture. We live in a culture where we grow up watching Bambi and hundreds of other cartoons depicting animals with human emotions. And we never have to actually kill. So it’s a very strange and unnatural situation.
I believe it is good to look to nature for answers. In Lierre Keith’s book The Vegetarian Myth, she recalls a conversation on a vegan message board where they actually seriously talked about how good it would be to partition the Serengeti and keep the carnivores on one side (they can live on grass), and the herbivores on the other. In reality, nature is exquisitely balanced and every part plays its part in the health of the whole. I recently saw an article on wolves and how they benefit the environment in so many ways. In a national park in the USA, wolves were reintroduced to provide these benefits — the herbivores were failing WITHOUT them. We need a broader and truer view of nature.
If you want to look at what is natural for any species, then look at that species in the wild, how it lives and eats in nature. Humans hunt and gather, without exception.
I agree with you about Eckhart’s lifestyle to some extent, I was very disappointed after The Power of Now, when all these other materials came out, and it just became a typical marketing exercise. That does not jive with me at all. But really who are we to judge? There are so many SHOULDS in your statement. SHOULD according to you, but I’m sure Eckhart does not MIND. He ALLOWS life to take whatever path it takes and TRUSTS that things work out perfectly.
Who am I to say he should or should not live a certain way? Perhaps his lifestyle is countering the paradigm, that spirituality and lack of material possessions go together. Osho was another who scoffed at that idea. Only recently has the IDEA of abundance been attached to spiritual memes.
“How spiritual you are means how PRESENT you are.” ~ Eckhart Tolle. END OF STORY, no other DEFINITION. So by what mechanism do we judge Eckhart’s food choices or car choices? A conditioned idea, and THAT is NOT spiritual. If we want to understand people like Eckhart, then we have to BE like them, there is no other way. Words do nothing to give experience. And when you reach that state, be careful what truths you speak of, because people will crucify you. People hate having their world view and their beliefs threatened, and they will fight tooth and nail to defend them, even from (especially from) the truth.
Lierre Keith’s book is a good one to read by the way, for a different perspective and one I share. Lierre was vegan for 20 years. I feel, like Eckhart actually, that we should end cruelty, industrial farming methods, move into holistic ways of producing food and then see where that takes us. If you take an acre field of wheat and compare what is happening there, the death to existing life, the chemicals, the soil erosion etc and compare that same acre put to permaculture, the benefits are incredible. I think if you care about LIFE, then the big picture is a lot more than the question of whether to eat animals. There is no death-free food. We need to understand the big picture to make better choices. Health is part of that too… and health and the environment, allowing animals freedom to live natural lives, care for the Earth etc. can all be achieved holistically.
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