Veganism on the Road

Knowing where your meat and dairy products come from, how the animals were raised, and how they were killed takes research. This means that whenever I'm traveling, I pack food, or I eat vegan. I can't pack everything though. I try, but this week especially, I haven't had time between getting back from Iowa, going to Baca, and leaving for DIA an hour after getting back on campus. So I only have enough packed food for about 50% of my meals. Our coaches always bring us to a grocery store to get food, but the problem is, it's always Walmart. Thus, I have a choice to make- I need a balanced diet in order to race. So do I choose to get vegan protein from Walmart, or forego veganism for vegetarianism when we eat at restaurants?

Sitting in the car as I made my decision, this is the information I had available to me: Walmart is a conglomerate giant that probably ships it's products from all over, so the fuel impacts of vegan versus Walmart are fairly similar. We have already looked at the treatment of animals in the dairy industry- the living conditions of laying hens, the constant calving of dairy cows, their living conditions, the fates of the dairy cows' male calves. What about the impacts of Walmart? They hire people part time, in order to save on benefits that they would need to give to full time employees.

I believe that animals and humans should be equally morally considerable. Thus, by both of the ethical theories we've studied (Utilitarianism and Kantian) I should have picked the Walmart alternative. The abuse of animals via the dairy industry causes considerably more pain than the economic limitation of humans: employees still have social services available to them, and are not being de-fingernailed (what I imagine the human equivalent to de-beaking would be), raised in closets, or having their children sold off to be fattened up and killed as a delicacy (veal). Thus, Utilitarianism dictates that I should go to Walmart. The animals are being used as a means  more than the Walmart employees are. Walmart employees could, theoretically, terminate their contract (although one could argue that quitting might not be an option for employees because of their economic situation), implying that they have some control over their own lives.Walmart is making a contract with their employees, rather than owning them This suggests that walmart employees might be treated as means in some cases, but to a lesser extent than animals in the dairy industry.

But I didn't pick the Walmart option. Instead, I had bagels and cream cheese for breakfast, and pizza with cheese on it for dinner. So why did I make this decision? I didn't sit down for half an hour and think about the pros and cons, the ethical consequences. I simply acted on instinct. There's something weird about Walmart. Maybe that's because I've always avoided Walmart; my parents taught me to. Normality dictates that it's more okay to eat dairy than it is to go to Walmart. Perhaps it's also because of my instinctual preference for my own species. Is that ethical though? Is a bias towards one's own species acceptable? As much as I believe equal moral consideration should be accorded to animals when making ethical distinctions, I think that a preference for our own species is important in making the most acceptable decision. (The most acceptable and the most ethical decision aren't always the same.)

I also wanted to look further into Walmart's practices, my instinctual leeriness of the business. Walmart is not  environmentally sustainable. ( http://www.sierraclub.org/pressroom/media/2011/2011-06-walmart.pdf)
Based on this information,  my earlier assumption that dairy and Walmart foods had roughly equal ecological impact is probably incorrect, although it would be very difficult to compare the two without spending an incredible amount of time on the issue. It imports many of it's goods, forcing US suppliers out of business. Furthermore, it closes local businesses in many of the small towns it moves into. It is anti-union, and provides  few opportunities for employees.(http://www.pbs.org/itvs/storewars/stores3.html). Although the pain caused by Walmart might be less significant than the pain caused by the dairy industry, the company is much more widespread than the dairy industry, and as such, might actually cause more overal pain. Thus, by utilitarian theory, I made the correct choice.

Did I make the right choice though? What if this decision was evaluated using Leopold's land ethic? In this case, the environment becomes morally considerable as well. To what extent is the land ethic a more relevant/valid or less relevant/valid theory when making a decision between Walmart and veganism?