Al Vegan Gore

As a natural born vegan, with occasional indulgences of ice cream, I claim no high moral, environmental or even culinary ground on account of my diet.

Veganism is just some food that you shove in your mouth, chew, swallow and then hope for the best. Not that different from non-veganism, I suppose. So I have no particular response to former U.S. Vice President and inventor of both global warming and the Internet Al Gore going vegan.

I am writing this post purely because the headline came to me first and it sounds quite weighty. When you say “My name is Al Vegan Gore” it carries conviction. Trying chanting that name. I guarantee you would be aroused into starting an environmental revolution.

According to The Guardian newspaper, Gore has apparently gone vegan and will likely switch this Thanksgiving, that is tomorrow, by consuming quinoa instead of the traditional turkey. Quinoa, about which I found out only on reading the story, is a plant of the amaranth that is mainly cultivated in Peru, Bolivia and is part of the local staple.

If the former vice president so desires I can send him a mindboggling variety of vegetarian recipes from my home state of Gujarat and India generally. There is enough to last him for generations.

It is commendable that people are thinking about ways to strike a balance between humans and other sentient life. However, we all need to recognize that to be born on this planet, or for that matter any other planet, is to be part of a naturally exploitative cycle. Unless we stop eating altogether there is just no escape from exploitation. The question is the kind and scale of exploitation of natural resources. With the earth’s human population at seven billion and rising consuming anything at all poses some serious risk to natural balance.

So while Gore going vegan is good for him, it is anybody’s guess whether it can really change the order of things. Just saying.