So I’m a vegan. I fully admit I care about animal rights and health food. If it’s cold out, I wear socks with my sandals – I’m that kind of vegan. Does my gleeful obsession with durian make sense now? I care a lot about where my food comes from and how it was grown. A lot. And durian troubles me. I’ve now spent so much time in orchards all over the world that sometimes I wonder if even my beloved fruit isn’t very vegan after all.
Six years ago, I went vegan because I was angry with the factory
farming industry in the United States. I was also an eighteen year old
living in Eugene, Oregon, and it was a hip thing to do. So was riding a
unicycle to university classes (which I saw a lot of other people do) but that’s besides the point.
Let’s just say going
vegan was one of my better decisions. It was the reason I discovered durian in the first place. Going vegan inspired me to think for the first time about how
my food decisions affected not only the health and well being of my own
body, but of the farmers who grew it and the ecosystem at large. Still, it wasn’t until I started visiting durian orchards that I figured this out:
Murdering animals is routine in most fruit orchards, durian included.
It’s
not just that pesticides kill insects, or fertilizers
wash into rivers and watersheds, killing fish and polluting groundwater.
It’s also not the fact that most fruits are grown in enormous
monocrops, hundred or thousand acre plots of stale homogeneity that take
up precious habitat and drain surrounding rivers and aquifers. Those
problems can largely be avoided by small scale, organic farming
practices.
There are a few other things that even small, organic fruit farmers around the globe do that bother my vegan sensitivities.
Like shooting stuff.
One of the most intense experiences we had on our Year of the Durian was when a
farmer shot down a squirrel nibbling durians and then taunted his five mangy
dogs with the carcass.
I was more
than a little uncomfortable.
But apparently, getting rid of vermin is a necessary part of life on the farm, even the fruit farm. Otherwise it wouldn’t happen everywhere in the world with every type of fruit crop. Farmers in my home state
of Oregon regularly knock off coyotes, possums, raccoons, gophers, and, apparently, the
occasional Big Foot. In Australia, where I’m writing from now, farmers take down feral pigs, fruit bats, and cockatoos. In Italy, the fruit bowl of Europe, farmers routinely hunt rabbits and the wild boars that uproot the famous vineyards.
In Malaysia, it’s monkeys, civet cats, and wild boars.
In Indonesia, it’s sometimes elephants.
It would be too easy to vilify the farmer. Why can’t they just use these eco-guides to keeping pests out of the garden or protect their fruit crops with wildlife-friendly netting?
The reality of fruit farming is more complex. For one, netting or electric fencing is expensive and difficult to use correctly. Most small farmers, especially in third world countries, don’t have the resources or economic incentive to pay for the more expensive solution. Many are just barely eking it out as it is. Bullets are cheap. Poison is cheaper.
 |
| Squirrel damage |
Feral pigs or wild boars make up the biggest percentage of the body count. They have few natural predators left and breed like crazy. Some
countries, like the United States and Australia, encourage hunting just
to keep the population under control. Wild pigs are incredibly destructive, gouging meters wide holes in the ground, uprooting trees, and generally creating a giant, head-ache inducing mess. They can wipe out a farmer’s livelihood in a few nights, ending years of patient labor and waiting with a few leisurely mud baths.
I’ve now seen a lot of dead pigs at durian orchards. I’ll spare you the photos.
One of the farmers we visited kept a rifle over his shoulder the entire time we visited, just in case a wild boar appeared.
Another pointed at the muddy hills and hollows left by boars and gleefully told us he’d poisoned them the night before, using a durian laced with pesticides. In his face I could see relief that, for the moment, his trees were safe.
Fruit laced with cyanide or pesticides is a common way to finish off an unwanted orchard robber. But sometimes, it misses its mark and gets human thieves instead. In December of 2013, two boys were admitted to the hospital after eating a poisoned durian intended for marauding boars. In 2004, a man died.
Dead pigs make me upset. Dead people make me more upset.
And somehow, dead elephants make me the most upset.
Elephants are very good at destruction. They’re big, they’re bulky, they knock down young fruit trees as easily as my dog ruins a game of scrabble by meandering onto the board.
They’re also very fond of durian. Who could blame them for that?
In Malaysia, there’s a government department that deals with human-elephant conflict: the Elephant Management Unit. When a 50 year old bull wandered into a durian orchard in 2012 and started in on a durian feast, the unit mobilized to haul him away to a conservation area. Injured or orphaned elephants go to the Elephant Sanctuary.
Not everywhere with elephants has an Elephant Management Unit. Or a conservation area.
Some areas are left to manage their elephants themselves, and usually not in ways approved by the WWF. Currently, elephants are dying in Borneo and Sumatra at a rate that should alarm everyone. The main cause of death: poisoned fruit from farmers trying to protect their crops.
I realize now that anytime I buy durian at a market, or any fruit for that matter, it’s likely that more than one or two animals met its end during the growing of that fruit. It’s the result of animals and humans competing for the same thing – food (and amazing durian) – and humans being really good at winning.
I also know that, compared to fruit industries like bananas, pineapples, or – shudder – palm oil, the number of animals dying in durian orchards is pretty minor. That doesn’t really make me feel any better.
Durian demand is growing worldwide as more people fall under its hypnotically creamy spell. That means farmers are incentivized to plant more durian orchards (yay!) and at the same time, more animals will find themselves unwanted trespassers on what used to be free land (oh noes…).
I’d like to believe that there is a way for fruit farmers and wildlife to live in harmony. I’d love if my fruitarian friends were right, and a diet of fruit really doesn’t cause any death or suffering. My friend Mango has written an entire book about the topic, which you can read here.
I’m not convinced that Mango’s fruitopia can ever happen. To be perfectly honest, I’m even questioning if my dietary avoidance of causing animal suffering isn’t just a self-delusion. I love durian too much to ever give it up, no matter how many squirrels get shot. How’s that for ethical purity?
It would take an unimaginable amount of resources and community support to stop farmers from protecting their crops via lethal methods. There would need to be organizations to remove problem animals from the farms, and safe places to leave them. Also necessary would be ways to control population sizes, so that conservation areas don’t get overrun with mud bathing piglets. Most importantly, there needs to be people who care enough to make it happen.
That said, I’m sure we can come up with a solution to preserve both elephants and durian farms. The solution starts here, with you. Leave your comments and ideas in the box below.
Roseminda and Fillmore Sagario says
You are right Lindsay, the best thing is to plant more fruit trees specially durian species so during fruiting seasons we can have plenty for the market and for profit, but we can also spare some for our neighbors, the animals, for those who just like to fill their hungry stomach, and to help address climate change or help address carbon monoxide pollution.
[email protected] says
Thanks for taking the time to write me a comment, Roseminda! It’s good to know there are others who care about the situation.
Unknown says
the problem is money isn't it, and the economic paradigm that we've imprisoned ourselves in as species. so what if a percentage of your crop is taken by animals, can't we share, shouldnt there be enough for everyone? there should be but when the farmers are desperate to make as much money as they can, they aren't willing even to part with a few fruits lost to animals. i have a mature pear tree in my backyard, every year a few squirrels visit it, probably daily over its fruit ripening time, and take a fruit or two. all in all i'd say 10 percent of the crop is "lost" to squirrels. but so what,i dont mind one bit, there is plenty left for me, so im glad the squirrels get to enjoy the pears they eat.
Eddie says
Good essay, Lindsay!
But while you've hit the nail on the head — "humans are very good at winning" — in re the fundamental problem, we've been "winning" (read: destroying habitat) now for so long and with such efficiency that we've painted ourselves into a corner.
Given current trends, it appears energy and resource limits will begin to knock Industrial Civilisation off the rails even within the next couple of years; while Climate Change and our inability to properly contain our Nuclear Waste are going to take the species — and many others along with it — out of the game entirely; probably by mid-century.
In the meantime, establishing fruitarian communities attempting to live completely technology-free, or as close to as possible, may be the least-harmful choice that one can make.
Lindsay Gasik says
Hey Eddie! Thanks for the thoughtful reply! I agree that we as humans are really getting ourselves into trouble when we don't consider ourselves part and parcel of a holistic eco-system.
My point isn't to tell people not to be vegan (I will probably never stop being vegan) but to drive home the point that eating fruit is just one step in the right direction, and if fruit-eaters want to make a real change in the way agriculture effects the environment they need to be making a conscious decision to buy their fruit from local, small, organic farmers.
Bret says
I would imagine that it's deforestation caused by mining and big plantations that is responsible for driving the elephants into conflicts with small scale farmers, and question that the main cause of death is from farmers poisoning them. Maybe if you're counting palm oil plantations. In Hawaii, the pigs are invasive, non native pests responsible for much damage to the environment. They haven't bothered any of my durian trees yet, but I completely support local hunters who kill them to feed their families. In SE Asia, the natural predator of pigs has been big cats and man. Since the big cats have been decimated, the pig population is probably out of balance. They're very tough and reproduce rapidly. So, like rodents, their populations will never be in danger. However, poisoning them isn't cool.
Jason King says
Great article. Truth is, pretty much every food product one can buy or eat was produced by someone coming in and cutting down the forest to grow it. And that includes killing most or all of the wildlife that used to call that forest home. Sad but true. You could become a Jainist? They are so dedicated to non-harm that they walk while brushing the earth in front of them so as to not step on any bugs…
Where I live, it's snails. If I don't kill them, they will eat all my food! Rodents do serious damage too…
It's just a lesson about life on earth. Yes, it could be done so much better… but it is what it is..
Fruitarian Mango says
Brian, by stating so blatantly that the world will never be perfect, you help push its inevitability further away. I'm an optimist and believe that such a scenario will one day become a reality. I believe the real truth is that an Eden like planet is basically not more than a few small shifts in consciousness away. In any case, I am pretty sure that envisioning such a paradigm, certainly helps bring something resembling it closer to us.
But it's very true, undeniably so, that the way things are now, fully following vegan guidelines of doing no harm is virtually impossible, especially while we rely predominantly on others to source our foods. The only way it can really work is for there to be an abundance. Such a quantity of fruit food, that there is enough for everyone, even the squirrels cockatoos and fruit bats..
In any case, I still fully believe that fruit, despite the obvious current ethical dilemmas involved, is still the best of all choices causing the least harm, and the more we can all see that, the more fruit will become available, and the more we embrace non-violence, the more the concept will spread and help move the human race, and ultimately all life on earth, positively forwards.
Lindsay Gasik says
Hi Mango, thanks for responding! It's true that we can only do our best in the current situation, but I feel like a lot of vegans and folks in the high-fruit raw lifestyle end up ignoring the real effects of their diet in the celebration of the suffering they're not causing, when effort is needed in encouraging and supporting environmentally and ethically sound ways of farming. We'll have to chat about it next time I see you 🙂
BrianJewett says
The world is far from perfect and never will be. Humans are communal animals. We need other humans to survive and our purchases and dietary choices can have only a small effect on their actions. No one of us can control everything about how humanity functions anyway. We can increase our influence in some areas only by narrowing our focus but then that leaves other areas uncovered. Being a pure vegan or not does not make you a good or a bad person. Life is a never ending stream of choices. We do the best we can and move on. Personally, I think you're way ahead of the curve.
Anonymous says
Lindsay, how can I get seeds from you?
Thanks,
Chris
Lindsay Gasik says
If you sign up for my mailing list I'll send out notifications when I have them.
Erwan Compes says
Excellent article! I'm grateful I have friends who grow durian ethically here in Tahiti. That said, I will start growing my own this summer. Keep it the good work, guys!
Lindsay Gasik says
I didn't know durian could grow in Tahiti! Very cool. Let me know if you want seeds 🙂