Often when we get huge numbers of new followers–which sadly brings in the haters as well–I have to tell the following backstory of EOM. It’ll help you better understand how this amazing community was built, and what makes it what it is today. So, grab your coffee or tea or whatever beverage you wish, and let me share with you the history of the Ethical Omnivore Movement.
Before EOM Came to Be
It all started with me, my passions, and my advocacy. I had been a Locavore, sustainable-agricultural advocate and environmentalist, as well as being a holistic health and functional fitness professional for 3 decades already. I also had two stints with veganism along the way.
I went veganism twice. Each lasted about one year. With my background in local, sustainable eating as well as health and fitness, I “did it” better than most. But each time it kicked my mental and physical health in the head as it did with many of my friends who tried it with me. I got sick of the shit it did to me, so I went Paleo before “paleo” had a name. It was my Naturopath who put me on it–at the time, best known as the “hunter/gatherer diet”. He got down to brass tax and told me that if I continued with this veganism ludicrousness he did not want to see me anymore.
See, I had been in a severe car accident and needed to heal. But I simply could not heal on a plant-based diet. When I traded grain, soy, and legumes for meat from a local farmer, my recovery was absolutely remarkable!
In 2012 I was very active in the Vancouver “Shark Fin Free” movement. It was then that I realized how loud the vegan voice was becoming. Apparently, you need to be vegan to save the bloody ocean. I have to blame Paul Watson–the non-vegan pretending to be vegan at the time–for a lot of that nonsense. I really admired him in the past, but his hypocritical fake food messaging and criminal activist status made me lose that respect and admiration for him. What a shame he went that way. Look at today: There are a ton of criminally-minded vegans doing so much damage out there with their activism-at-all-costs messages; young people are risking their very own health and futures to quite “save the animals.” Literally, they’re saving none.
After getting shit for wearing a thrift store leather coat to a Shark Fin rally by a crazy-eyed individual who looked like they should be hospitalized, medicated and fed, I decided something had to be done.
Also, around this time, “March on Monsanto” was gaining momentum. I was heavily involved with this. I started seeing a bunch of “Go Vegan” signs which I thought incredibly odd because, well, Monsanto pretty much responsible for growing their staple foods. When questioned about how they were protesting against the very hand that feeds them, none of them could give me a straight answer. Nine years later, with all we know about industrial monoculture crop production, these fools still think it’s more ethical than pasture-raised meat in every fathomable way. And they still can’t give a straight answer to that same question. Mind-boggling!
A Birth, and the Onslaught
On Earth Day in 2012, EOM was born. It was founded as a Facebook page. (This website and blog came much later.) Following that and almost immediately, and almost daily, came the attacks. They came when I wasn’t expecting it; I knew vegans wouldn’t jump up and down about the ethical eating of animals. But honestly, I didn’t think I’d get attacked as often and as viciously as I did.
EOM didn’t get bombarded from just one side. No, I caught a lot of flack from two sides. One was from the vegans. The other was from those who feed vegans: the Monsanto-supporting, Industrial-advocating, cash-croppers and conventional dairy and beef producers.
Every day I was told that I was a murdering, raping, secretion/corpse-eating, blood-mouthed Carnist, or I was an anecdotal-dreamer-idiot who was advocating for a form of agriculture that would never take off and could never feed the world.
You must remember that these attacks came when it was me and only me who was armed and ready to defend my page. I had no thousands-deep EOM community, nor a kickass admin team to back me up and take up the slack when I got tired of it all. It was just me.
Fortunately, though, I wasn’t alone for long. More and more people came to help me fight back. These amazing people became a part of the EOM community. The Regenerative Farmers and Ranchers were definitely not far behind! All these people helped build EOM into the amazing community that you see today.
It doesn’t go without saying that EOM has had its growing pains. Not only were we the proverbial David against Goliath, but we also had our own demons to face.
A Tiny Food-Sovereignty David Against Two Goliaths…
I and a tenacious group of EOMers were tiny but tough. We were highly equipped and very knowledgeable about regenerative agriculture and cutting-edge health. We went up against hundreds of vegan attackers at a time when calling them out wasn’t looked upon too fondly. At the time, they were seen as lovely, compassionate food activists, not the vitriolic asshats we know them as today.
You see, the vegan crowd willingly attacked the very regenerative agriculture heroes who grow and raise the most remarkable food; the kind of which earns us the right to call ourselves ETHICAL Omnivores. And we couldn’t let that happen. We refused to take that kind of crap lying down. In fighting swarms of vegans over the years, our war wounds came with most of us getting put in Facebook jail, or completely losing our accounts. I can’t count the number of times this has happened to most of us in these little wars for food sovereignty. But it was, is, and always will be, worth it.
We often received zero thanks from the farmers and meat-based companies we fought for. This hasn’t changed today. But to think that would slow us down? Only in your dreams.
When Appealing to the “More Balanced” EOM Backfired
A few years ago I started a group called Ethical Food Alliance. This was after getting sick of being called a vegan basher and hearing, “oh, I know plenty of good, balanced vegans who never judge what people eat or wear!” We had equal Vegan-to-Omni admins. The group was created to have this so-called “common ground” discussion on how to save the planet, in this fantasy-land idea that omnis would be working with vegans, shoulder to shoulder. At first, it sounded like a good idea, but then cold hard reality struck.
Can you guess what happened next? Well, let me tell you.
No matter how we dumbed down our message, taught about regenerative agriculture, cajoled and pacified the oft-hangry and -triggered vegans, Ethical Food Alliance became a literal and absolute shit show; a clusterfuck, if you will. The Industrial-Ag-supporting vegans didn’t stop calling us murderers, rapists, animal abusers and slave-owners. Our farmers were left open and vulnerable to attacks on them and their farms. And let me tell you, they certainly were attacked: Viciously, and without remorse.
The group was destroyed from within; no longer was it the place I had envisioned. Drastic measures needed to be taken, and some awful-smelly, vegan “cruelty-free” asses needed to be kicked out the door, including admins. I was left with no choice but to re-create it into the now vegan-free group, EOM Alliance, that it is today.
Lessons Learned
This tough lesson taught me something valuable: there is no such thing as a balanced vegan. This is my belief and a belief that many share with me. The very act–and belief system–of veganism is militant extremism. We ethical meat-eaters have zero in common with a community that screams about how honey is animal abuse, and yet supports the most horrendous form of agriculture that exists for any pollinator with its food dollars. Are we Ethical Omnivores really the oxymoronic hypocrites here?
Folks, if you truly have balanced vegans in your life–which I doubt–please ask them not to form alliances with meat-eaters. It’s impossible to maintain such partnerships without a shitload of push-back, especially from the vegan side. And for the love of sanity, have them support regenerative crop agriculture; get them to have the balls to stand up for their insane AF militant contingent. Maybe then we will make a dent in the corrupt, broken, food system. But until then…
Onward We Will Fight
In the meantime, we will fight our fucking enemies and defend our heroes with every fibre of our being, and every minute of every day. If you don’t like it or don’t like how we do it, then go ahead and join some vegan groups and brag to them how much of an ethical omnivore you are. I promise you will bleed out before you will be able to hit the “leave group” button. If you don’t believe me, go ahead and try it. But don’t come back to tell me that I didn’t say I told you so.
On that note, we don’t allow any vegan or willfully ignorant non-vegan to sully up to our posts. I’m talking not just on this blog, but also on our Facebook page. Come here with your abominable ignorance and inability to learn something valuable, and you won’t last long. Whine about it all you want, call us chickenshits, cowards, what-the-fuck-ever. That’s how we roll. And no, it doesn’t make us cowards. It makes us well aware that there are too many people out there–including vegans–who are out to destroy or adulterate Regenerative Agriculture, making it into something it isn’t.
To all the Regenerative Agriculture detractors and meat vilifiers: bring it on! We are your Huckleberries. If you don’t bring the fight to us, we’ll bring it to you.
Far too often we’ve had a vegan land on our page or blog posts scoffing at the notion of Regenerative Agriculture. Quick drilling into what they’re on about reveals that they don’t know a damn thing about regenerative agriculture. “MeAt iS mUrDeR” is their own go-to mantra as if it somehow means a singular relevant thing. It may to their shrivelled nutritionally-deprived brains. Sure as hell doesn’t to us.
(And this new fangled “veganic agriculture is supreme over regenerative agriculture?” Please. Until you can show us some actual evidence that it is legitimate and works beyond the suburban backyard, we’ll know you’re blowing smoke up our asses. Until there’s proof that it is truly sustainable, truly cruelty-free and death-free, truly better for the planet in every way, and can feed many families, you will be told time and again how “veganic agriculture” is as mythical as seeing a unicorn farting rainbows. You’ve been warned.)
We are Food System Sovereignty Warriors here. We are in a food sovereignty fight of our life, folks. Singing “Kumbaya” simply isn’t going to cut it anymore.
Join us and fight by our side, or leave and don’t come back until you are ready.
We are fearless, intelligent and highly informed so your best game is what you need. But be warned that that won’t even be enough. Not even near the neighbourhood of what “enough” is.
Ex-vegans are most welcome to our family! We will educate you and protect you from your former cult with as much vigour as we do for our farmers and our other members. Ditch the insanity and come on home my loves!
This is ratified air, folks. We’ve got it all. We have the pinnacle of animal welfare reform, optimal human health answers and pragmatic, real solutions to the Industrial Agriculture damage and devastation. We have the guts to stand firm in our resolutions and respond to the enemies of Regenerative Animal Agriculture. And we won’t back down.
That’s it, that’s all. Thanks for reading.
~Lana Joe Salant (EOM Founder)
For your reading pleasure, here is how we deal with vegans like that loud-mouthed, uninformed, ex-con, Joey Carbstrong and, hanging on by a nutritional thread, children targeting, propagandist, Earthling Ed who made the big mistake of coming against Regenerative Agriculture and Holistic Management.
Check them out here:
Curious Case of the Vegan War on Regenerative Ag: Joey Carbstrong
Curious Case of the Vegan War on Regenerative Ag: Earthling Ed vs. Allan Savory
More to come in this series!
