My View on Veganism…

You may have heard me mention that I’m vegan or I may have said it in a comment on your blog or something, but I should explain how things came to be as they are.

In spring of 2008 I found out about veganism through a friend (read: euphemism, what actually happened: “Well, this friend of mine who’s vegan eats soy all the time” me: “Huh, vegan? What’s that?” *goes to Wikipedia and is enlightened*).

This was after a failed attempt at being a vegetarian. I tried it for 2 weeks, but I was attacked by a piece of fake meat and to top it off; it tasted bad (so bad actually that I wrote a piece in the school newspaper about how I would rather be a cannibal than ever eat fake meat again). So basically, after 2 weeks I magically *ahum*  ended up at the McDonald’s . But this was mostly because I didn’t really know what I was doing. That same friend who talked about her vegan acquaintance, tried to turn me vegetarian. She sent me all links about animals and how they were treated and you know the whole shebang…

Not to say that I hate animals, I simply didn’t feel so passionately about saving cattle. I wish I did but I wasn’t compelled to do anything about it – claiming otherwise would be a lie. However, when I went vegan, I researched and I found other reasons, like the fact that raising cattle for meat and dairy used way too much water, land and other resources. That other HUMANS were actually suffering from the bio-industry. When I read that the UN even came out with a statement saying that if everyone consumed less meat and dairy, it would curb global warming, I was pretty much convinced that I should do something too.

One thing held me back though: I love food! I was afraid I’d never be able to eat cake again or other yummy things, but then I googled and wiki’d and googled again and I found vegweb.com. From that moment on, I pretty much thought: “Ok, I’m going to be vegan”.

But as many newbie vegans, I was very enthusiastic and into the whole thing, spent hours checking labels and what not. Then I got questions and I could answer all of them with the help of the research I did, but at a certain point I realized that I was just regurgitating information. Did I really feel that way?

Don’t get me wrong, I really believe in veganism but a somethings got in my way…

For example, the honey thing. A friend of mine once specifically asked me why I was against honey and I just told him what I read *insert bee-suffering speech*. But he said, what about the beekeepers that really care about their bees? And to be honest; I agreed with him. Those caring beekeepers did exist. Then I went on to think abou why I was against honey. Was I really convinced it was bad? Or was it just part of the “rules” I accepted because I wanted to fit the mould of “vegan”? And I came to the conclusion that I (PERSONALLY) had nothing against honey. My reason for being vegan was because it was wasteful and I wanted to be the opposite of people nowadays (who consume TOO MUCH meat, TOO MUCH milk, TOO MUCH cheese, etc.). But I don’t think that the honey industry is really causing much pollution or using up that much land, water and crops (as cattle do for feed). So I decided to stand for what I believe in and not accept the rules that someone else wrote down. This doesn’t mean that I consume massive amounts of honey. I don’t even buy it, it just means that if there’s honey in something, I won’t avoid it specifically.

Another big change is that I’ve become less strict. I’ve heard many people say that being vegan is something you should strive for, because you can never be completely vegan anyway. I agree with this. It would mean that you don’t harm any living being in any way. You’d have to stay away from leather; know all the definitions of ingredient names; be careful not to tread on bugs; not harm other people (no more punching siblings). I’m not trying to be a pessimist or make fun of other people who do find this important but it’s just that I think that complete veganism is a utopia. I would be a complete hypocrite if I avoided honey because it caused bees to suffer. You know why? Because I wouldn’t think twice before whamming down my math’s book on one of those little buggers  (this has occured twice in class, the other girls praised me as a hero for my bravery).

This also has to do with limits. Everyone has their own limits, some people won’t eat horse meat or dog meat. Some people don’t eat meat but will eat fish or they don’t have issues with chicken for example. Everyone should set their own limits but they should be well considered limits! You should know what you eat. You should know where you stand!

A good example of people who tick me off are people who are in complete denial. A girl I once met said that she couldn’t eat anything that looked like an animal, so I asked if she was a vegetarian. She said no, only if it LOOKED like an animal, so she had no problems with hamburgers or nuggets, but if it was a rib then she would KNOW what it was and she wouldn’t be able to eat it… The incredulous look on my face was self-explanatory. I mean come on! This has got to be the most denial I’ve ever seen! Same is with people who are too chicken (no pun intended) to kill their own animals. Ok, I get that nowadays you don’t do it but there was this program about these people who went to the jungle and they were with this tribe, ate everything that they ate and one day the men had to come hunting. The tribe pretty much caught the goat, all the men had to do was slit its throat, but they were too scared! They REFUSED, yes you read that right, R-E-F-U-S-E-D to kill the goat, because they were “against killing”. Hypocrisy sucks…

But on the other side, I respect ALL attempts to make the world a better place. I have nothing but respect for people who only buy organic meat and dairy. Same goes for vegetarians, pescetarians, people who give to charities who defend animal rights! There are even people who eat vegetarian every now and then. I applaud these people! Because every little bit helps! It’s better to have a world of people eating a bit less meat and a bit less dairy than a few extreme vegans who don’t harm anything. That’s why whenever someone says: “Oh, I could never give up cheese/meat” I say: “You don’t have to give up anything, I’m just offering you a piece of vegan cake”… Just kidding, but you get the picture…