Harvest Double-Talk
Animals: Tradition - Philosophy - Religion Article from All-Creatures.org

FROM

Judy Carman, Peaceable Table
November 2014

So to use that word to refer to animals who suffer terribly in the process of being “harvested” and who have no seeds to be planted once again in the soft garden soil, is to attempt to numb us all to the deadly truth. I imagine it helps those who are directly involved in the killing to numb themselves as well.

As I was harvesting tomatoes from my garden today, it occurred to me that many farmers, ranchers, fishermen, and hunters refer to killing animals as “harvesting.”

Deers, ducks, cows, pigs, chickens, and especially fish are all “harvested” either to be eaten or used in some gruesome way. Why would they call that harvesting?

I think it is because the word harvest brings to mind reaping the beautiful, colorful, life-giving plants that we have sown. Each plant carries within it the seeds of the next season of plants to be sown and sown again. So to use that word to refer to animals who suffer terribly in the process of being “harvested” and who have no seeds to be planted once again in the soft garden soil, is to attempt to numb us all to the deadly truth. I imagine it helps those who are directly involved in the killing to numb themselves as well.
 
Harvest of Kindness

As we enter this season of gratitude for the harvest of plants in all their rainbow colors, let us send loving comfort to the animals who are so brutally killed as if they are unfeeling products useful only to gain a profit; and let us also send the Light of Truth to all those who continue to kill animals for profit and to those who purchase them. The season of harvest is a time to reap what we sow. The true harvest that they are reaping is violence that continues to harm them and the earth.

Thanksgiving Prayer

Divine Intelligence, Divine Love—we give thanks for this beautiful blue-green planet upon which we live and for the bounty of plants that sustain us. We ask for and see Divine Wisdom and Grace encircling each person who is involved in killing and eating animals. We see each of them, one by one, looking into the eyes of an animal near them. The hardness in this area of their hearts, the false words that try to veil the truth, the ignorance of the violence they are reaping—all fall away and their whole hearts are set free to love the animals as is their true destiny. We also offer profound love and gratitude to every single animal on earth: We are here for you. And we will not give up until you are all free from human oppression. It is then that humanity will at last harvest kindness and fulfilment, and live in peace with all of you.
-From Prayer Circle for Animals Newsletter 182.  Used by permission. 

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