Morrissey Urges for Vegan Food at Climate Change Concert
Morrissey has just taken his vegan line in the sand to new levels, exhorting music festival Live Earth 2015 to serve vegan-only fare at this climate change awareness event.
Morrissey is long known for refusing to play concerts at venues unless they serve vegan nosh only while he performs. And his open letter to the Live Earth organizers is pure gold simply because it reminds people that we do have a moral obligation to take this very simple concept — stop eating animals — and align it with nearly every aspect of our lives.
In this case, it’s climate change. In his letter Morrissey writes, “Serving meat and dairy products at an event to combat climate change is like selling pistols at a gun-control rally.”
Morrissey states in his letter that if the festival does not offer 100% vegan food, “the event will make no sense — it’ll be greenwashing.”
Morrissey goes on explaining, “We already know that raising animals for food is a leading cause of climate change and that moving toward a vegan diet is necessary to combat climate change’s worst effects.”
Having just shared the Cowspiracy documentary with a small number of my co-workers, reading Morrissey’s letter is what it must feel like to parade your perfectly coiffed pageant queen out onto the stage to have her win by a landslide.
Morrissey hasn’t necessarily won anything yet — but he is certainly succeeding in making people stop and consider how their actions have a direct effect on climate change at the very least.
What do you consider your line in the sand to be?
When do you put your foot (sporting cruelty-free materials) down hard (yet carefully so as not to crush any bugs) and take a stand for veganism?
Since I don’t hold sway over millions like Morrissey does, I usually take the bubbly but honest approach to letting people know about how amazing veganism is. And that means I take the lions, canines, ancestors, protein, natural, normal, and necessary punches with a smile and see it as a chance to educate people who are curious.
Gary Yourofsky, on the other hand, refuses to eat with his family unless everyone eats vegan meals. He reports that once he sat down to eat with his family and they could not not order the cheeseburger. Gary got up and walked out. And that’s why he no longer speaks with his mother, sister, sister’s family and most of his extended family members — “because they can’t go one meal without eating animal flesh and secretions.”
Morrissey states, “If you choose to serve animal flesh at Live Earth, you’ll be making a mockery of the very concept of the event, in which case it should be renamed ‘Dead Earth: We Contributed!’”
Read the full letter below, courtesy Rolling Stone:
Dear Mr. Gore and Mr. Wall,
I am writing to ask you to do the one thing that will do the most good for the planet and the majority of its inhabitants: not serve meat or dairy products at Live Earth 2015. I don’t mean offering a vegan option-I mean not serving animal products at all. Otherwise, the event will make no sense-it’ll be “greenwashing.” Serving meat and dairy products at an event to combat climate change is like selling pistols at a gun-control rally. Your responsibility is to alert people to a crisis, not sell out to the vendors responsible for it.
Not only is it possible for venues to provide a 100 percent meat-free menu-as is done now at every concert venue in which I perform, including Madison Square Garden, where I have a show at the end of June-it’s also a moral duty.
We already know that raising animals for food is a leading cause of climate change and that moving toward a vegan diet is necessary to combat climate change’s worst effects. Animal agriculture severely affects the world’s freshwater supply and is a major contributor to global greenhouse-gas emissions, deforestation, loss of biodiversity, and air and water pollution, among many other harmful effects.
Since you can’t miss the fact that meat consumption is killing the planet-your own sponsor organization, the United Nations, states this-and since venues can and will cater vegan food for events, if you choose to serve animal flesh at Live Earth, you’ll be making a mockery of the very concept of the event, in which case it should be renamed “Dead Earth: We Contributed!”
Don’t be a denier of the causes of climate change. You know the facts. Make the right choice.
Sincerely, Morrissey
Originally published at earthix.org on April 30, 2015.
