Darryl Grima: How can it make sense to kill six million animals an hour?

Right now, Europe is consistently talking about the need to ‘Go Green’: ‘Green Energy’… the ‘Green Deal’… ‘Green everything’, basically. And yet, the greenest thing there is, is a plant-based diet. There is nothing greener than that.

RAPHAEL VASSALLO: Veganism is a growing trend. But environmentalist, vegan and End The Slaughter campaigner Darryl Grima argues that this may well be a reaction to the sheer ‘insanity’ of today’s global food industry. Here is the interview:

RV: According to yesterday’s headlines: ‘Veganism on the rise in the EU’. That seems to be true of Malta [we met for this interview at a vegan restaurant, for instance]. Yet it was only a few years ago, that vegetarianism – let alone veganism – was more or less unheard of, locally. You were one of only a handful of pioneers (including the late Julian Manduca), back in the 1980s: and let’s face it, you were all widely regarded as ‘extremists’, at the time. Not so much today, however. So first of all: how do you account for this change?

DG: Let me start with this: I became a vegetarian when I was 18. At the time, I was a member of ‘Zaghzagh Ghall-Ambjent’: along with Julian Manduca – that treasured soul – and the rest of the ‘gang’. We weren’t all vegetarians: some of us switched; others – like myself – hadn’t taken the plunge, yet.

But we were all environmentalists; which basically meant we were all hunting abolitionists. As such, we used to have these regular conversations (or ‘discussions’, or ‘arguments’: call them what you will) with hunters…

And time and time again, I found myself confronted with the same old question: “If it’s OK for you to eat chicken… why can’t I eat quail (or turtle dove, etc.)?’ This went on, and on… and on, and on… until eventually, I said to myself: ‘Right! Now is the time to cut this argument out, once and for all. I already believe in it anyway; I don’t WANT to kill animals…’

So today, I actually feel the need – and I always say this – to thank the hunters, for giving me that last little push I needed, to finally go vegetarian.

But like you said, it was a different time, back then…

RV: You are also a member of the ‘End The Slaughter-Age’ Campaign, which argues that all animal-based food industries – meat, fish, dairy, eggs, etc. – have a devastating impact on the environment. How much of this recent veganism trend, would you say, is down to that sort of concern?

DG: Let me put it this way: everything I just said about the price of milk-products in Malta, applies just as much to how Europe approaches the same issues.

Right now, for instance, Europe is consistently talking about the need to ‘Go Green’: ‘Green Energy’… the ‘Green Deal’… ‘Green everything’, basically. And yet, the greenest thing there is, is a plant-based diet. There is nothing greener than that. Because we know that the meat industry, for example – and cows, in particular – generates more than 15% of greenhouse gases, globally.

So what we are saying, with the ‘End the Slaughter Age’, is that there are two options that we can take. We can either go along with a situation whereby Europe remains utterly dominated by these strong lobbies – the meat lobby; the dairy lobby; the fisheries lobby, etc. – that are basically contributing to (and profiteering from) the global environmental problem… Or else, we can explore other, greener options…

RV: Environmental degradation, has now grown so alarmingly visible – and yes: so ‘totally insane’, as you put it – that people are beginning to change their own eating habits, as a way of protesting against it?

DG: Perhaps, in a sense. But it’s not just about eating habits. I believe there are a number of pillars behind veganism. It’s more than just ‘the food you eat’… or even the ‘clothes you wear’, or the ‘cosmetics you use’, and so on. It’s a complete lifestyle.

In fact, there was even a legal case, in the UK, because someone wanted to grant veganism the status of a ‘religion’. Now: I don’t agree with that, myself. Certainly, I don’t believe in any God shaped like a ‘Brussels Sprout in the Sky’…

… but I would say that it does have the same sort of holistic vision. One ‘leg of the chair’, so to speak, is Animal Rights; and justice for animals in general. Another is ‘environmental justice’; the next one is ‘health’ – in other words, justice for humans – and finally, there is ‘social justice’.

This is why I find it difficult to accept that there are so many different labels, to describe the same thing. ‘Veganism’ is one label; ‘Fair Trade’ is another… but me, there is no difference between those two, whatsoever. If I feel bad about buying clothes, when I know that they were produced using child-labour in some factory, God-knows-where… it’s because there’s a social justice perspective to veganism, too.

For the same reason: as a Vegan, I feel that the food that I eat, should not just conform to the same principle of ‘respect for animals’… it should also be sourced locally, as much as possible. Because there’s an environmental perspective to that as well. Apart from the cost, in terms of carbon-footprint, of food transportation… at a time of food shortages, should I not support local farmers? Of course, I should! 100%…

Because they’re all interconnected: environmentalism, animal welfare, health, social justice… if you help one, you help them all; and if you help them all, you help everything. SOURCE…

RELATED VIDEO: