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Is a Meat-Eating Cyclist a Contradiction?

(Photo: Sarah Gilbert)

In response to James McWilliams‘s still-reverberating post about why more environmentalists don’t promote veganism, a reader named Mary writes:

I have always wondered why environmentalists are so reluctant to promote veganism, but eager to promote alternative transportation. Many residents of the U.S. are currently locked in to their car-dependent lifestyle, with large mortgages in suburbs with no safe sidewalks or bike lanes and inefficient transit. Ditching their car is logistically much more difficult to do than buying beans instead of meat at the grocery store. Currently, the infrastructure for reducing car use is lacking in many communities, though vegan foods, like beans, grains, fruits, and vegetables, are much more easily obtained.

It’s an interesting point. A few related thoughts come to mind:

Do I contradict myself?
Very well then I contradict myself,
(I am large, I contain multitudes.)

What do you have to add?

If nothing else, Mary should be reading James Howard Kunstler and watching Portlandia .


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