I am 97 years old today. I did not think I would live this long but 30 years ago I watched a film called “What the Health” and I transformed overnight. I could no longer bear putting into my mouth what I called food but what was clearly a life stolen from another living, feeling being. I did not know then that I was doing the one thing that would bring me such a long and fulfilling life. It took years to learn what all the effects of eating only plants would have on my health, on the environment and on the very continuance of life on earth. But through this one film I came into community of other people who were getting all their sustenance from plants and a whole new world opened up for me.
It’s now 2050 and earth has been saved from mass extinction. In 2024, The Most Important Generation Living on Earth Today (the MIGLETS, all the young people) came together and rallied their parents, grandparents and even great-grandparents to stop ignoring the cow in the room and actually take action to ensure they had a future. There was so much social media attention given to the plight of the animals raised and slaughtered for food that children could no longer bear it and collectively gave their relatives an ultimatum- STOP the killing or we will have nothing more to do with you. Every parent, grandparent, great grandparent, uncle, aunt had to show their MIGLET what specifically they were doing to stop the killing of animals for food for they had learned that it was killing the planet.
It forced the older generations to get creative. Some protested at slaughterhouses and factory farms. Some began growing their own food in their yards or community gardens. Some planted trees to start replacing all those cut down in the Amazon rainforest for growing feed for the animals. Some became activists rallying for the end of all fishing and whaling. Some put pressure on their local and national governments to stop the subsidies for animal agriculture. Many became vegans quickly… and some slowly, because the MIGLETS had shown them they could get all their nutrients from plants. By 2026 there was 1/5 the demand for animal products and the world had largely become vegan.
Within 20 years 1.5 trillion new trees populated the land again and started to draw down the methane and carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Today we have more than restored the 3 trillion trees cut down by the Anthropocene age. Wild animals have re-populated areas where their habitats had been razed. The ocean is living again, corals, fish and all marine life has been restored. But an unintended consequence occurred that not even the MIGLETS had anticipated. Everyone was kinder and more compassionate to all living beings because they realized that by caring for the life of other sentient beings, they were no longer living the lie that animals didn’t matter. They grew spiritually into wiser, more tranquil human beings. They transformed themselves from Homo Sapiens to Homo Ahimsa and the world is now at peace.