In this weeks article we re-publish an article that originally appeared in print for the organization Food Not Bombs written by Greg “Goyo” Hernandez. Take a listen to Community Publishing’s Author Alex Paramo interviewing Goyo as a prep for the article!
Click to read Goyo’s Biography

Goyo Interview: Food Not Bombs

Punk Rock vs Social Media

It was just a mere wink in time when I was a young impressionable punk rocker just embarked on my seminal work as a artist emerging into sonic chaos in a garage of the suburbs of Los Angeles County. It was in the post proto-punk era of the garage land of bands that I found the explosive mid 70’s punk rock sub culture that had barreled all the way from the U.K. , NYC , D.C., which coexisted with California’s hardcore punk rock approach. In this sound I found instant awakening of my nerves, which resonated with the political spectrum of the times leading into Reagan-nomics. What I couldn’t grasp from this music and its lyrical message, heard on vinyl records or cassette tapes, I discovered through fashion, ideology, and fanzine journalism and its neologisms, which helped create and solidify this collective feeling of anti-establishmentism. As the punk rock sub-culture became more pervasive, bands such as Minor Threat carried the flag for the anti-inebriation movement in the United States; the song “Straight Edge” gave the scene a name. The sound was fierce and energetic to my carnivore senses and took a while to figure out this new anti-establishment lyrical message. Nonetheless its aggression was very parallel to the other political agents of punk rock subculture, especially in the hard core movement in California in the very late 70’s-80’s .

The California culture was primarily farming livestock. My family’s and friend’s backyard BBQ meat-eating culture and the Hedonism of suburban beer drinking of our teen adolescence just seems contradictory the very notion of vegetarianism and animal rights. The straight edge movement and its music were like a beacon of light whether or not we got the message. After all don’t most unpopular cultures go through exploitations until it trends? The straight edge movement went through its three eras of counter cultural since its early beginnings in the U.K. In the 80’s the counter-movement in the United States branched out of the bent edge from D.C., to the mid 80’s youth crew which became militant straight edge leading into the 21st century. Although a lot of counter culture groups philosophies bend marginally of their concepts of “a wellness thing,” the core of anarcho-punk and straight edge philosophy adheres to the refraining from alcohol, tobacco, and other recreational drugs, in reaction to the excesses of punk subculture. However most subculture groups could be categorized as adhering to anarchism without objectives, in that they embraced the syncretic fusion of many potentially differing ideological strains of anarchism: animal rights, vegetarianism, environmentalism and anti corporatism. Some anarcho-punks practiced pacifism much like the hippie counterculture or the Hare Krishnas. These avant-garde countercultures shared common moral and ethical code of health and self empowerment practices that elude corporate meat industries and consumerism.

Environmental Justifications

In the early 70s, other activists were considering how veganism might provide a viable alternative to existing food systems. In 1971, Diet for a Small Planet by the social policy activist Frances Moore Lappé introduced an environmental justification for going vegetarian or vegan to a global audience (it eventually sold more than 3m copies). In the same year, counter-culture hero Stephen Gaskin founded a vegan intentional community “The Farm” in Lewis County, Tennessee, bringing together some 300 like-minded individuals. Four years later, The Farm Vegetarian Cookbook by Louise Hagler announced: “We are vegetarians because one-third of the world is starving and at least half goes to bed hungry every night,” and introduced western audiences to techniques for making their own soy-based products such as tofu and tempeh. For so long veganism was synonymous with soybeans and brown rice, not the glamorous vibrant vegan food of today’s youthful practitioners who now radiate positivity from their Instagram feeds and other social media platforms. Photogenically speaking, this really helped to galvanize the hype of the low-attention-span internet age to brand an attainable and sustainable lifestyle change for carnivores to practice an ascetic diet or for the many “flexitarians” of today who still occasionally eat meat or fish. Some hard-line or straightedge vegetarians consider it troubling that the internet has transformed something with such a rich political history into “a wellness thing” that allows would-be consumers to label themselves vegans without having to engage with the “excess baggage” of the ideology.

American writer, Khushbu Shah, has argued that the popularization of veganism via social media has erased non-white faces and narratives from the dominant discourse, as white bloggers and influencers fashion a lifestyle in their image, something anarcho-straight edge punk subcultures would rail against, for their philosophy was to rebel through self-control which is the ability to control one’s actions even if that means the mainstream. Somehow the detail of the veganism political message which is rooted in social justice has faded from view in the 21st century and still perhaps out of fear is demonized as un-dietary and is shunned by people whose beliefs include derogatory name calling unlike other forms of bias (sexism, racism). This negativity towards vegans and vegetarians is not widely considered a societal problem but rather commonplace. As in the past and now vegan conversations of ideology and beliefs still stand with subversive views for environmental and social change, even if it means change to the industrial ways of farming just as the meat industry revolution of the mid 1800’s onwards.

Meat Eating Across North America

As a full-time musician and meat eater touring North America, the notion of where and what I’m going to eat was never too concerning although most of the time the options could be very malnourishing with the way of roadside gas stations and fast food options. But today newer industrialized systems are now starting to be more accessible in the far reaches of the open interstate from what vegans and vegetarian musicians and traveling artist are reporting. Fresh fruit in Europe and Mexico was more abundant to find than in North America and there are places in the world where I found meat is prohibitively expensive for many local people in those regions, leading to vegetarianism or vegan life style by necessity. Often we where graced with great home cooking while navigating through cities which was a great conduit to our anxieties from eating unhealthy even though meat was still a staple in our diets due to our Latin culture but I personally still looked out for fruit and grains which is a continuous challenge.

Vegaphobia

One thing I can’t understand is the phobia or hatred towards vegan or plant based vegetarians. I guess it’s just part of this polarized culture we live in which just reminds me of the 70’s and 80’s, growing up around homophobic assholes. It was definitely refreshing hanging with the punks who valued gender equality, anti racism , and anti fascism. This counter culture for most part evaluated themselves in terms of balance in authenticity. Todays internet the consumption of meat seems totally aligned with certain kind of conservative masculinity; so much for gender quality there. Who would think that a meat eater with punk rock ideology could possibly hang up a leather jacket, could be pro-active towards animal rights and environmental control? Why can’t it be possible for the collective consciousness of “a wellness thing ” whether left-wing, conservative or radical right to have existential beliefs in which veganism is a political personal choice instead of engaging in traditional political protest. Unlike other forms of discrimination, the aversions towards vegans still escalated, but only to micro aggressions, such as “vegaphobia,” a phenomenon which demonstrated a sociological sphere of negativity out of Britain. This terminology might have changed but the sentiment remains much the same in the 21st century. Outside the polarized moral lens there are more than 11,000 scientists from around the world who have come together recently at the 40th anniversary of the first World Climate Conference who have outlined vital signs of human activities that contribute to global warming and climate impact including human and livestock population, meat production, deforestation and fossil fuel consumption, just name a few.

Cultural Vegans

In many cultures the practice of abstaining from meat production and consumption has established a history with their belief systems rooted in non-violence. Many Rastafarians and followers of Jainism, and certain sects of Buddhism have sworn off meat, fish, eggs and dairy for many centuries. And it seems many countries are changing legislation such as South Korea ending slaughter and consumerism of dog meat, NYC council just recently passing a package of animal-welfare bills banning forced fed products and California Governor Gavin Newsom passing a bill to ban the sale and manufacture of new fur statewide, a first in the United States. It also seems veganism’s political ideology to change the world has its own new traditions such as “Veganuary,” a UK non profit that inspires people to go meatless in the new year to embrace the “wellness-thing,” end suffering to animals and champion the planet mother earth; sounds pretty punk rock to me! As I personally try to move away from perhaps my own disparity and hegemony to meat and dietary ideologies of my own political personal choice
I will rejoice in one my favorite anarcho-punk bands, Rudimentary Peni, song “1/4 Dead”:

“Three quarters of the world is starving, three quarters of the world is starving , the rest are dead the rest are dead, overdosed on insensitivity all varnished to crosses, Three quarters of the world is starving the rest are dead, the rest are dead". Rudimentary Peni - All Rights Reserved. 

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