OP
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US Values
- Thread starter JM1
- Start date
Ya know, being vegan is an ethical decision to avoid animal exploitation, which includes eating plant based. That's it for the diet part
Plant based diets simply avoid animal products. It's not extreme, it's not weird, it's as broad and varied or strict and limited as the individual wants to make it.
Omnis don't all eat gizzards, hearts, intestines or brains. They mostly don't eat insects--but all of those would come under the umbrella of being omni
Vegans can restrict their diet to whole plant foods only, or a huge range of every food from every culture.
Your questions sound as if your looking to write a thesis, with a very limited view
OP
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Thank you for your honesty
I am actually an anthropology student seeking insight about the Vegan world
Do you mind if I interview you for my assignment?
So, I did not grow up as a vegetarian/vegan, but it was something I remember being interested in at a very young age. For me, it's always been primarily about the ethics. I love animals, I feel compassion for the creatures I share the world with, and being able to live in a way that prioritizes kindness and reduces unnecessary suffering is massively important to me.
If I can enjoy a good, healthy life without contributing to needless suffering or exploitation, then I will. One thing that I've noticed, is that what started out as simply doing something "for the animals" has spread to change the way I view all sorts of things. Yes, I want the things I buy, use, wear, and consume to be vegan...but why should compassion stop there? I'm much more likely now to look for things are sustainably made and to buy from companies that treat their people well and pay them fairly.
It has become more than just a question of "is this kinder for animals".
It has become "Is this kinder for the world?"
Of course, it's pretty much impossible to live a modern life without contributing to some suffering or exploitation somewhere along the line, but I feel very strongly that in this case 'perfection is the enemy of good'. I'm always learning and adjusting and trying to make better decisions. I want my impact on this world and those I share it with to be as positive and compassionate as possible. For me personally, it all boils down to love, for animals, for people, and for the world I'm a part of.
I guess it’s the same values that keep « normal » (i.e. nonvegan) people from indulging in a juicy Golden Retriever steak or enjoying ice cream made from cat milk. I don’t really consider nonvegan items to be food.
Yes, when I first stopped eating meet some ~30 years back, and then, 20 years later, also all other animal products, in the first 1 to 3 months, there were moments when I was tempted to eat non-vegan foods, but that were only short thoughts, and remembering the reasons why I had made the decision to try not eating those foods anymore (in the first case watching documentaries about what happens in slaughterhouses, in the second case reading a book about the treatment of animals in the egg and dairy industry) quickly made it easy for me to stop those temptations.
And after some time it did not occur to me anymore.
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This sums it up perfectly.
When I was little I spent much time with relatives that ate innards, and all kinds of foods that aren't the norm in US anymore. I remember when I first learned what blood sausage was actually made of--a food I'd eaten and liked. It didn't take much to never want it again--it wasn't food to me.
In the first months of transitioning to exclude animals from my diet it was a struggle, because they still triggered that immediate thought of what to eat, but after a time they just didn't correspond to things meant to be eaten. Today my first thoughts of seeing food to see it as something vegan, and second to recognize that it is not.
Hog's Core Values
I would prefer to answer your question in the form of a short narrative.
I live in the middle of a desert in Central Arizona. Yet, we still have a dairy farm in my area. That can not be good for the environment. The cows produce so much poop that I can smell them from well over a mile away on some days. (Maybe even many miles away.) The stench is unbearable. The desert simply can not handle that much cow poop without messing up the local ecosystem. Cows were not made to live in the desert. I imagine that much of the feed is grown locally. Growing any type of crop in the desert will result in salinization of the soil over the long run.
By the way, we are in the middle of drought as a possible result of global warming. I imagine that cow farts, unsustainable farming practices, and the transportation of animal products contributes global warming. Thus, we are in some sort of perverted viscous cycle of global warming by growing unhealthy animal products that we don't need in a freaking desert in the middle of a drought.
Let us assume that everything that I just said is total garbage and lies.
The weather gets really hot in the summer. I mean $150 a month on air-conditioning for a small apartment hot. I sure as heck would not want to be a cow who lives in his own feces 24/7 when it is over 110 degrees outside while crowded with 999 other cows.
Lots of dairy farmers claim to put the cow's welfare first in part because it is a good business decision. What are they smoking? I wanna try it too. I must be some mighty powerful stuff.
I would prefer to answer your question in the form of a short narrative.
I live in the middle of a desert in Central Arizona. Yet, we still have a dairy farm in my area. That can not be good for the environment. The cows produce so much poop that I can smell them from well over a mile away on some days. (Maybe even many miles away.) The stench is unbearable. The desert simply can not handle that much cow poop without messing up the local ecosystem. Cows were not made to live in the desert. I imagine that much of the feed is grown locally. Growing any type of crop in the desert will result in salinization of the soil over the long run.
By the way, we are in the middle of drought as a possible result of global warming. I imagine that cow farts, unsustainable farming practices, and the transportation of animal products contributes global warming. Thus, we are in some sort of perverted viscous cycle of global warming by growing unhealthy animal products that we don't need in a freaking desert in the middle of a drought.
Let us assume that everything that I just said is total garbage and lies.
The weather gets really hot in the summer. I mean $150 a month on air-conditioning for a small apartment hot. I sure as heck would not want to be a cow who lives in his own feces 24/7 when it is over 110 degrees outside while crowded with 999 other cows.
Lots of dairy farmers claim to put the cow's welfare first in part because it is a good business decision. What are they smoking? I wanna try it too. I must be some mighty powerful stuff.
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I feel for you in the desert in the middle of that stench in spite of living miles away from the dairy farm... Today in my Biology class my peers did a presentation on Prions and 1 of the reasons that cows get this disease is because they live in feces. Then in turn we eat that meat and have the risk of getting of catching it too...
It makes me want to never eat a steak again...
Did you always have these thoughts and sentiments....or did you gradually become a vegan when you learn the disgusting environment that industrial agriculture animals live in?
"Did you always have these thoughts and sentiments....or did you gradually become a vegan when you learn the disgusting environment that industrial agriculture animals live in?"
I believed that going vegan was unhealthy for a very long time. I believed that eating animal products was a necessary evil. I wondered if going vegan was a practical reality. Thus, I looked up PeTA on the internet to see if they had any suggestions. I figured that they were a bunch of crazy whack jobs. But, I would take advice where ever I could get it.
Then I discovered that going vegan was remarkably easy. The whole myth of the complete protein is what initially scared me away from going vegan. I joined vegan forums within days of going vegan.
We did have some bumps along the way though. My wife developed a severe illness that put the family into a funk. The long time members of Vegan Forums may remember what happened. In any event, my sons were loosing weight at the time. Thus, I came very close to introducing cheese back into their diet.
I believed that going vegan was unhealthy for a very long time. I believed that eating animal products was a necessary evil. I wondered if going vegan was a practical reality. Thus, I looked up PeTA on the internet to see if they had any suggestions. I figured that they were a bunch of crazy whack jobs. But, I would take advice where ever I could get it.
Then I discovered that going vegan was remarkably easy. The whole myth of the complete protein is what initially scared me away from going vegan. I joined vegan forums within days of going vegan.
We did have some bumps along the way though. My wife developed a severe illness that put the family into a funk. The long time members of Vegan Forums may remember what happened. In any event, my sons were loosing weight at the time. Thus, I came very close to introducing cheese back into their diet.
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Hello there beforewisdom,
What are you favorite meals for breakfast, lunch, and dinner?
Do you find health benefits eating this way?
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Hello Permabulk,
I'm glad that you have the will power to motivate yourself to be vegan
I'm curios to what exactly grossed you out about eating meat?
Did you grow up vegetarian?
I also agree that animal products are expensive, specially seafood...
OP
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This is truly a remarkable experience. Thank you for sharing the books that causedthis breakthrough in your life
You mean to tell me that after years of eating animals you quit cold turkey, LOLjust like white no gray area in between?
Why is that so hard to fathom? I pretty much went vegan in this way. I thought I was going to transition slower, but ended up throwing out everything in my cupboards and fridge that wasn't vegan, pretty well overnight, and never looked back. For me, once I had my mind made up, it was an easy decision.
It's a choice you make, yourself. Whether that choice is now, as in cold turkey, or gradual, as in a slow transition, that choice is yours to make. It also really doesn't matter how long it takes someone. It's not like it's some sort of contest to see who gets there first. This is about what works best for you. I don't find it surprising at all when people go cold turkey.
Furthermore, we all don't go vegan for the same reason. Your reason might seem more urgent to do away with animal products, such as serious health conditions or ethical ones, religious, etc. Maybe I watched the documentary "Earthlings" and found it so horrific, which it is, I went cold turkey from that day forward. All of these reasons can motivate urgency.
@JM1
"TYPING IN CAPS = SHOUTING" This is considered rude on forum boards, in case you are not aware. If you wish to put emphasis on a sentence or phase, type in bold, not CAPS, please. Thank you.
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You truly have a very remarkable story, and I'm glad you did away with everything in the manner you saw fit to produce the necessary results.
I'm an anthropologist student studying the vegan community... With that said, I hope my previous question did not offend you... I've read lots of messages from people who seemed like they waver and go through a regression cycle before being fully committed. That's why I'm glad to have met you a person who's committed
Do you have time to be interviewed with maybe three more questions? Please
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I read Jonathan Safran Foer’s very good book « Eating Animals » in 2010 and was shocked to find out what animals in the « dairy industry » have to go through. Seriously, this might surprise many of you, but before that I had not really given much consideration to that other than assuming that cows like to stand in their pasture all day and eat grass, then return to their stables to « give us milk » out of the goodness of their hearts.
Even worse, I already had two kids at the time and had certainly observed that my wife suddenly was able to lactate and produce milk. I had just never made the connection to realize that in order to « give milk », a dairy cow has to get pregnant every year, and that the calves are taken away from her to, in 50% of the cases, be killed, or, in the other 50%, to have the same fate as her.
After reading that book, I also read Peter Singer’s « Animal Liberation », and listened to a number of podcasts, finally arriving at old episodes of « Vegan Freaks » and Gary Francione’s « Abolitionist Approach » podcasts.
The week I had first read « Eating Animals », I immediately realized that similarly as I had stopped eating meat some 20 years earlier, I could not really, in good conscience, keep eating eggs and dairy products and had my first cappuccino with soy milk. Strange at first, but totally acceptable after a few times. I was really, really missing dairy cheese, but could not countenance it any longer.
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FlandersOD
Forum Practitioner
Very very easy; I don't ned any 'core values' to stay vegan. -- at this point it's basically reached inetria.
and I don't want to participate in mass stupidity and mass delerium let alone this extreme selfishness over what people will defend by "it doesn't really matter". Why make the world worse if one doesn't have to.
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