Professionalism and Veganism

I am doing a food microbiology course, and we have just beed told that if we are vegetarian or vegan, we need to be “professional” and handle animal products in the exam anyway.

We were told that it was just necessary, just a part of being professional, and they had two vegan students achieve a distinction because they understood that it was just professional.

I could hear at the same time an alternative echo: ‘just kill those humans. I know it’s not comfortable, but it is what the regime requires’. Now, that’s an extreme example, but it’s the same basic structure.

So, there are a few points to raise about this:
1) For a food course to require everyone to default to omnivorousness is irresponsible given the state of the planet
2) The food course also clearly ignores the recent precedent, that ethical veganism is considered a religion and should be accorded the same rights.
3) To imagine that objections to killing animals is ‘wimpy’ is dismissing real objections, and is also encouraging and requiring killing.