Susan’s Childfree Story

A Child-free Life.

World population has doubled in my lifetime…

Born in London in 1956, my parents brought me to live in Norfolk before I’d reached the age of two. They said it was due to my reaction to the traffic noises of the city when they were pushing my pram along the street and I would try to cover my ears. Growing up I would avoid crowds and social gatherings as much as possible although I gradually learned to put on a front when that couldn’t be avoided. Aunts and uncles brought me dolls for birthdays and Christmases but it soon became clear that I had no interest in them and would only play with my toy wildlife collection and my felt horses and teddy bears. The natural world was my passion from a very early age, and my parents took me to the cinema to see the film Born Free which made a huge impression.

Around the age of nine, a man came to our primary school to talk to us about what we should do in the event of a nuclear strike. It was extremely traumatising for a child but my biggest concern was what would happen to all the animals and birds. As soon as I realised that ‘meat’ was dead animals I stopped eating it. At that time everyone thought that dairy was ‘humane’ - only dairy farmers knew about the anguish cows are forced to endure as their calves are dragged away within an hour or two of birth, and that that happens time after time until (aged less than 5) their milk production slows, they are no longer ‘profitable’, and they are sent off to slaughter at a fraction of their natural lifespan. The average westerner will eat 7,000 animals in their lifetime, and the madness of feeding 25 calories of plants to a cow in order to make 1 calorie of cow should not be lost on anyone capable of critical thinking. Most will come to the swift conclusion that that is unsustainable. As a nutritionist I also know that animal protein is at the root of most modern diseases and that plant based diets lead to better health outcomes, preventing the risk of premature death. The Doctors Association UK has written to DEFRA about this but the government refuses to share the information although it would save the NHS billions of pounds.

By the age of ten I was in no doubt that man’s impact on the natural world was devastating and unsustainable. I also knew I would never have children as the only sort of ‘maternal’ feelings I had were for vulnerable animals but I had also realised that every single extra person would only contribute to the pollution, and the demand being made on the planet.

In my opinion it is an incredibly selfish act to bring children into a world that is horrendously over-populated, dangerously polluted, past the tipping point for total climate collapse and possibly on the brink of nuclear war.

It was always said that not having children was a selfish thing but surely the very reverse of that is true???

Greenpeace tell us: “In the last few decades food companies have filled our shelves with meat, chocolate, cheese and eggs, which has resulted in an explosion of livestock numbers – especially cows, pigs and chickens. There are now so many that an estimated 60% of all mammals on the planet are livestock, while just 4% are wild (the other 36% is us). Farmed poultry account for an incredible 70% of all birds.” (https://www.greenpeace.org.uk/challenges/meat-and-dairy/ )

So our sheer numbers are squeezing out the last few oases of calm and beauty. I dream of a ‘selective’ pandemic that would only kill animal protein consumers because it’s the only way I can see any meaningful future for the planet.

It would de-populate those who pollute the most.