Getting into the trough at Thanksgiving is seldom a challenge. Today however opened a new boulevard of indulgence; namely, a vegan meal (containing no food or other products derived from animals).

The foundations of veganism include ethical, moral, environmental, health and humanitarian arguments. Veganism excludes all animal use, for example in food (meat, fish, eggs, milk and dairy products, honey), in clothing and industry (leather, wool, fur and some cosmetics), entertainment (zoos, exotic pets, circuses), or services (guide dogs, police dogs, hunting dogs, working animals, or animal testing, including medical experimentation).

Fruits, vegetables, legumes, nuts, grains and mushrooms are the basic elements of vegan food. Since ancient times individuals have been renouncing the consumption of products of animal origin, but the term “veganism” is modern: it was coined in 1944 by Donald Watson with the aim of differentiating it from vegetarianism, which rejects the consumption of meat but accepts the consumption of other products of animal origin, such as milk, dairy products and eggs. Interest in veganism increased significantly in the 2010s.

I’ll cut to the chase.  The traditional pumpkin pie dessert this afternoon was embellished with molasses. The whipping cream was made with coconut milk. I am neither a culinary nor a gastronomic expert so I won’t attempt further to identify the sumptuous meal we enjoyed today. We had hors d’oeuvres in addition to the main course which – however it was concocted – was tasty, gratifying and filling.

This is only the second time in my life that I have addressed the topic of vegan dining.  The first happened to be with the same woman Anne-Charlotte when we lunched together at the golf club earlier this summer as part of a small family gathering.  My goddaughter Jennifer, who was also in attendance, is a vegetarian but I hadn’t fully appreciated the difference between vegan and vegetarian.

Overview. Vegetarians don’t eat any food products made from meat, fish, shellfish, crustacea (such as prawns or crab) or animal by-products (such as gelatine or rennet). Vegans don’t eat any food products that come from animals, including dairy products and eggs.

What little I had discerned of the vegan undertaking was that it may just be good for you.  The inference naturally is that much of the carnivorous diet is unhealthy. Of course there is a readiness to object to the latter proposition as contradictory to centuries of conflicting realities. Nonetheless the scope and appeal of the vegan diet is compelling if you’ve tried it. While I regret the loss of honey (those poor little bees must work so hard to replace what the beekeeper routinely pilfers from the hives) I can’t but imagine as a result whether the little plants are likewise suffering an indelicate end. I say this not to excuse my carnivorous yearnings (which frankly have diminished over the years) but rather to contemplate the meaning of life and the extent to which it is sheltered from every avenue of despoliation. This extremity or logical subterfuge then engages me in pondering whether it is the prescription of life that, from the smallest to the largest, there is a hierarchy of evolution which of necessity involves consumption of one by the other (a paradigm which may in turn be manipulated to synthesize untold violations by one species or variety thereof by another to the point of sanctioning warfare which to my thinking is utterly offensive).

I grant that this makes for comic debate material but it also provokes me to ruminate upon what are so-called inescapable theses, that is those assertions which in spite of their harshness or moral indigestibility are for whatever other reason tolerated as inexorable or preordained by Nature. Nature in this context is a catch-all which overtakes rationality and spirituality.  Nature is a blunt instrument. If it is natural, then it is defendable, nay even predictable or incontrovertible.

Personally I have some acquaintance with the abuse of Nature as an answer to all sustainable principals.  In short there are those who for the convenience of argument employ Nature as their overriding strength when in fact very often those same people have no idea what they are taking about. What is determined at times to be a product of Nature is often entirely misguided even though near the mark. But I am reminded of the adage, “Close only counts in horseshoes and grenades!” There are other was to get stuffed!