On this day devoted to love, perhaps focusing on the statement made by Joaquin Phoenix at the Oscars is in order.  If you missed it, he won Lead Actor at the Oscars and in an emotional and undoubtedly heartfelt plea, asked us all to become vegans and said the life of a scallop is worth same as the life of a human.

             This is not a statement of love; it's a statement of hate.  I'm tired of being called a murderer and told that I can't love anything because I'm not a vegan.  This kind of public display of sanctimonious moral extortion is not about love; it's about "put the heretics on the rack" like the Spanish Inquisition.

             Does any non-vegan ever tell vegans they're committing planticide?  Or that their mono-crops of plants destroy wildlife habitat and erode soil?  Or that their tillage or chemicals to grow said mono-crops kills billions of worms and insects?  If a scallop merits this human equivalency, can flies be far behind, or mosquitoes, or rats or mice? 

             Everywhere I turn these days I'm seeing mounting evidence that a vegan diet, especially for children, stunts their mental acuity, retards brain development, and stymies physical health.  I'll make an assumption here:  I assume that Joaquin Phoenix is in favor of government health care.  If that is true, I'm offended that he thinks those of us who eat responsibly should pick up the mental and physical health care tab for those who prefer to abuse themselves with a vegan diet.

             Do some people thrive on a vegan diet?  Absolutely.  And many people thrive for a few months or even a year; but very few thrive beyond that.  A handful do, but most eventually develop brain fog, ligament breakdown, and overall physical degeneration.  Around here at Polyface we can spot vegans a mile away.  Sunken eyes; sallow cheeks; anemic appearance; muscles that look like toothpicks.

             Look, if you want to do that to yourself you'll hear no argument from me.  My libertarian stance even means if you want to throw yourself off the Golden Gate Bridge I won't stop you.  Proceed.  I'm a pretty liberty-minded self-affirming kind of guy.

             But don't get in my face after you've destroyed whole ecosystems through mono-cropping, chemicals, and tillage, and accuse me of being a murderer because I choose to eat scallops.  This whole issue stems from a fundamental ignorance of ecology.  There is no animal-less ecology.  Everything is eating and being eaten.  To equate a human life with a scallop is to disregard the specialness, the responsibility, the opportunity of humans. 

             The truth is that because humans occupy such a vaulted place in the ecosystem, we alone can be blamed for lack of stewardship, lack of love.  Nobody blames the lion for being unloving when he attacks a gazelle.  Nobody expects the scallops to save the oceans or replenish the tired fisheries, or build more habitat for wildlife and insure the health of pollinators.  That's not up to the birds, the bees, the bats or the bison.  It's up to us.  Heavy rests the head that wears the crown.

             To put humans on the same level as a scallop is to abdicate all our responsibility; to turn us into victims; to eliminate stewardship as a value of human endeavor.  You and I can wish all day that the scallops would rise up and save our ecological womb.  I could pray for it, ask for it, wish for it, crusade for it.  I've got news for you; the scallops ain't gonna do it.  It's up to us.

             We're the ones who determine how many scallops to eat.  We're the ones who determine how many carrots to grow.  We're the ones who determine where the wheat grows and where the gazelles range.  Scallops can't do that.  Cows can't do that.  Oak trees can't do that.  It is not arrogant, greedy, or selfish to recognize human stewardship responsibility; that's stepping up to the challenge, repenting of our sins, dusting ourselves off and participating with renewed conviction, innovation, and energy in healing and redemption.

             So don't demean humans with such hate-speech, Joaquin.  It doesn't fit you well.  If you want to be vegan, great.  But I challenge you to take your position far more seriously than a scallop.  I think you're worth way more than a scallop.

             Are you worth more than a scallop?