Am I Contributing to a Better World?

Raised in a country village in Holland killing chicken and pigs was as natural as drinking too much beer on a Saturday night.

So programming for the pig-industry was a normal way of progressing in life.

The South part of Holland was relatively poor due to sandy soil, compared to the rich clay of the northern part back in the 50ties. Business people as they are, help from the EU (Called Brussels at that time) was used to grow ever bigger farms and cattle. Both ICT and farmers were booming. Nothing wrong so far.

Most of my friends were farmers, working in an office supporting them with new technology seemed a fair choice, and well-paid at that time.

Visiting the farms I slowly noticed that the traditional red cheeks of the people who worked the lands got traded for the pale cheeks of the stable farmers. Some started to die from until then unknown diseases, lung problems, cancers, the works... all normal it seemed, progress comes with a price tag.

One day I asked myself: "Am I truly contributing to a better world?"... The answer was... I have no idea, but it doesn't seem right to produce more and more cattle in ever shorter time with less quality of life for both animals and care takers.

The business model of farming seemed too much focused on quantity of money and too little on quality of life.

Working in a slaughter house for a few weeks to install new software finally opened my eyes to the inhumane conditions, first for the workers and then for the animals. I saw no life in the eyes of the people doing the killing (day in and day out), it scared the hell out of me.

My father in law had a farm with some land, cows and pigs. One day I met him and a few neighbors in a field and asked what was going on. A truck was coming to the field and from all cows present, only one ran off, broke through various fences and halted about a mile further.  My father in law explained... that one has to go to the slaughterhouse today. He said it happened like this almost every time. Stupid cows... they don't have feelings and do not know things... think again human! They know. They feel in advance...

So I quit my job and started searching for alternatives.

Thanks to a meditation group I can now claim to "cook with love" and without blood on my hands.

It feels like one of the smallest things one can do to help bring more harmony and well being to this little planet.

Warm regards,
Wim Minten, Portugal

PS. If every one of us inspired ONE person to go meatless imagine the difference we could make in ten years time. I am going to collect inspirational vegetarian/vegan stories to share with everyone. If you think your story will inspire others, please share with me by sending it to info@veglov.com. I will post your stories on this www.veglov.com blog. I believe everyone has his/her own story, I think it must be great when we can share our stories and inspire others. Let’s make the world a better place. ~ Xiao Kang.