I'm feeling very stressed at the moment. I don't know what the heck to do.
I'm a strict vegan, and passionate about animal rights.
I'm self-employed, with a background in the arts, and usually work from home. However, I lost a lot of work due to the pandemic; and have been doing other bits and pieces of casual work on top, to make ends meet. Last year I worked on a fruit farm for a couple of months, picking strawberries and other things. I have to say I loved it - being outdoors, working hard etc. So I decided to do it again this year. Unfortunately it's not going nearly so well. I discovered the full-time year round workers are basically all fascists! Well, that's an exaggeration, but all much more to the right than me, with terrible attitudes to immigration etc. Then about two weeks ago the farmer used a very racist word, which I won't repeat. I politely explained the word is very offensive, and to be fair he apologized.
But the final straw came yesterday, when he told me that he shoots rabbits and, on occasion, badgers, on the farm, if he thinks they're a threat to his crops. I was aghast.
I've been up half the night feeling upset. I was planning to do work there (not every day) till early August. But feel like such a hypocrite if I do. But, I haven't got much other work lined up till then, and desperately need the income.
Would you leave immediately? Wait till you've found something else? Just stick it out for the next few weeks, knowing you wouldn't return next year? Have you ever done work that clashes with your beliefs?
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Non-vegan work, huge dilemma
WanderingFruitWonderer · 22/06/2022 05:29
Kiitos · 22/06/2022 05:34
I don’t mean to sound patronising but this is very normal on a working farm and it was possibly a bit naive of you to not have considered this in the past. You yourself are not harming animals but if you are this upset about it maybe you won’t be able to continue the work
SpinningRoundRightRound · 22/06/2022 05:47
I thought you were going to start talking about pesticides tbh.
xxcatcatcatxx · 22/06/2022 05:47
Oh mayt, definitely work on getting out if you went on an anti badger cull march. Obviously stay for the mo if you can as you need food/living etc but it just seems a bit too directly opposed.
You could literally drive yourself mad with the hypocrisies in life/ values so I’d try not to think about it personally. It’s awful when you figure out how the world works so I’d just stick to the morals that work for you to navigate life💕 Much love xxx
Zigzagzoozoo · 22/06/2022 06:07
I think, as a vegan, you are kidding yourself if you think that the food you eat isn’t grown by farmers who do shoot and destroy pests in order to protect their crop.
Ironically, certain foodstuffs which are popular with vegans come with a much higher body count than meat. To produce soya, rainforests and other land may have been cleared resulting in the death of thousands of animals in addition to the permanent destruction of their habitat.
You have simply come face to face with the reality of food production. It’s a shame that more vegans can’t do the same, it may lead to a slightly more balanced perspective on the morality of different diets.
Zigzagzoozoo · 22/06/2022 06:07
I think, as a vegan, you are kidding yourself if you think that the food you eat isn’t grown by farmers who do shoot and destroy pests in order to protect their crop.
Ironically, certain foodstuffs which are popular with vegans come with a much higher body count than meat. To produce soya, rainforests and other land may have been cleared resulting in the death of thousands of animals in addition to the permanent destruction of their habitat.
You have simply come face to face with the reality of food production. It’s a shame that more vegans can’t do the same, it may lead to a slightly more balanced perspective on the morality of different diets.
Zigzagzoozoo · 22/06/2022 06:07
I think, as a vegan, you are kidding yourself if you think that the food you eat isn’t grown by farmers who do shoot and destroy pests in order to protect their crop.
Ironically, certain foodstuffs which are popular with vegans come with a much higher body count than meat. To produce soya, rainforests and other land may have been cleared resulting in the death of thousands of animals in addition to the permanent destruction of their habitat.
You have simply come face to face with the reality of food production. It’s a shame that more vegans can’t do the same, it may lead to a slightly more balanced perspective on the morality of different diets.
Kiitos · 22/06/2022 05:34
I don’t mean to sound patronising but this is very normal on a working farm and it was possibly a bit naive of you to not have considered this in the past. You yourself are not harming animals but if you are this upset about it maybe you won’t be able to continue the work
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