Note: Though Tolstoy advocates vegetarianism in his 1892 essay—which became the preface to the book The Ethics of Diet: A Catena of Authorities Deprecatory of The Practice of Flesh-Eating not necessarily my intent here; rather, it’s to demonstrate the abhorrent abuse and cruelty that pervades the industrialized meat facilities, as I wrote of in considerable depth in my article Ethics In Diet. For me, it’s not so much about humans eating meat, but rather how the farm animals are treated during their short lives before slaughter. Again, see my article Ethics In Diet.
And though I do agree with Tolstoy in that initiating violence towards others, and/or supporting a government that does, i.e., institutionalized violence (see my article Statism Is Immoral) is not compatible with the teachings of Jesus, or true Christianity (see Tolstoy’s essay The Law of Love and The Law of Violence), I don’t believe that eating animals for the sake of our own survival is quite the same thing as initiating unnecessary violence towards others—but rather, how those animals are treated during their life is the issue: do we treat them humanely and ethically, and raise them in a natural, healthy, happy environment? Or do we torture them, treat them horribly, and force them to suffer their entire life in an unnatural, unhealthy, stressful environment (which is even bad for us, as it results in poor-quality meat (and eggs) which are in turn unhealthy to consume)…?
In his essay, Tolstoy portrays this inhumane and unethical (and in today’s industrial processing even unhealthy) treatment of farm animals during his visit to the abattoir (slaughterhouse) in Tula, Russia, wherein he describes:
• The indifference and psychological numbing of the butchers
• The palpable terror, resistance, and agonizing deaths of the cattle and sheep
• The unnecessary cruelty inflicted purely to satisfy the culinary preferences of wealthy citizens
As a result, Tolstoy concludes that vegetarianism is not merely a minor lifestyle choice, but a profound moral awakening, and is “the first step” towards humanity’s true moral progress.
You can download The First Step, or The Morals of Diet by Leo Tolstoy from our Free Ebook Library.
