The inspiration came from an article by Jack Rear on Pretty52 concerning 'Why we should all be vegan from the perspective of a non-vegan' (actually the author is someone who though I've never met, has been a reasonably close acquaintance of mine for quite a few years and I tend to take a look out for his articles as they are always engaging and thought-provoking). You will probably get more out of this blog having read that first, but I will say that generally I found that the article made me feel very optimistic about the future of our dietary habits. As someone on the cusp of going vegan, and having experienced all of the narrow-minded attitudes of our culture, it does occasionally feel as though I'm part of a vegan echo chamber. Reading and agreeing with articles encouraging veganism is one thing, but the authors of these are normally 'staunch vegan activists' such as the woman interviewed in the article. People like this have taken on all of the same values that I have over an extended period of time, and thus are not as reflective of wider society as I would like. This article stood out to me as something written by someone who for the most part has not been as close to it, yet was still geared very much towards veganism being the way to go. Seeing someone logically weighing up all the data from an outsider's perspective and reaching that conclusion is refreshing, if anything.
A bit about my own background on this… I'm not quite a full-time vegan yet, but I am well on my way to it. I became vegetarian when I was about 15 - I was studying Food Tech for GCSE and it was as simple as the fact that the vegetarian module appealed to me more than I expected it to and I decided to give it a go. This was before I was as politically aware as I would later become, but I suppose in a way the decision was a pre-curser to that - I don't think I could ever do the work that I do on my campaigns whilst eating meat. Becoming a vegan is more a political decision. Last year I decided to take part in Veganuary, and it was an awful struggle. This was partly due to the fact that at the time I was living in Colchester, which is not known for the forward-thinking viewpoints of its residents. There was very little I could substitute for animal products, so I ended up just having a very limited diet. There was no way that I could keep it up full-time, but it did lead to me making a decision for how I would go vegan: every year I spend a successive number of months following a vegan diet, until either I'm doing it all year (which won't happen until I'm 34) or until I don't want to stop at the end of my cycle (which is a lot more likely to happen). I have had quite a lot of people laugh at me for this, but to me it's a very logical approach - I don't like cutting down gradually because I think you just end up compromising more and more until you're as bad as you were to start with, so spending increasing amounts of time being vegan seems like a better way of handling it. Plus, during my cycles I learn more about different substitutes for animal products, which I continue to use when I'm not on a cycle. It's nearly the end of my 2017 cycle, but when I stop I will be eating fewer animal products than I was before - who knows, maybe next year I'll be doing it for good.
I'm not going to talk about the reasons why everyone should be vegan because the vast majority of it is talked about at length in the article I've linked to. I'll just go through a few things that people don't always realise, though it is of course all my subjective experience:
- Becoming vegetarian is markedly easier than becoming vegan.
I love being vegetarian. It's a lot more than just something that is fuelled by a political belief, it's a lifestyle that I get an immense amount of enjoyment and satisfaction from. I do not miss meat at all, and whilst I remember the taste I cannot remember what it was I ever liked about it. Yes, I do frequently get the 'But bacon!' response from people, and it really doesn't mean anything. It's probably not something that a non-vegetarian can understand, but once you're doing it you come to notice a host of flavours that you were never aware of before. I think a lot of the time meat is overpowering enough to drown out the flavours of other things you're eating. Becoming vegan is different. Whilst this cycle has been a lot easier than last year, it varies from day to day. Sometimes I feel great about it, sometimes I'll get a lot of cravings for things, most commonly cheese and chocolate. The bottom line is, I believe passionately in veganism and I think if I wasn't doing it I'd be a total hypocrite, so it is going to happen. I guess you can get used to anything and I'm getting used to this - who knows, perhaps one day it will give me as much pleasure as vegetarianism does. It's just a harder road.
- If you're vegan, people will feel threatened and take offence.
I read a Facebook meme recently that made me chortle: 'Today I saw a dietician. Well... actually they weren't a dietician before, but when I told them I was vegan they immediately became one.' It's sad, but true. From the scepticism of 'You can't possibly be getting enough protein!' to the downright bizarre 'Oh, you think you're better than everyone else, don't you?' being vegan seems to be something that really gets on people's wick. Jack talks a bit about this in the article, how being vegan is associated with moral righteousness. I'm really not sure where this comes from. There are of course quite militant vegans, just as there are militant people representing every social movement (and these people tend to shout the loudest); but I tend to feel that people see you as being militant even if you're not being. I don't think I'm militant with anything except possibly smoking, but I know that I'm thoroughly irritating when I talk about my beliefs, be that diet or anything else. Being irritating is not something I set out to do, but it's quite evident that this moral righteousness is something that is associated with me. It can be a little bewildering at times, but I tend to feel that if you know you are talking sense, that shouldn't matter. If someone tells you that you think you're better than them, it's probably because they are insecure about themselves - even if you do think you're better than them, what's so terrible about that? You're allowed to think things about yourself in relation to other people, that's how human beings are. Ultimately, I think that everyone should do their research and form their opinions accordingly, and dissenting opinions are only worth listening to if they are coming from a place of reason and logic, as opposed to personal threat.
- Veganism is not a religion.
This is particularly important. Another meme I recently came across detailed the following exchange:
'I would be vegan, but I couldn't give up cheese.'
'Then GO VEGAN EXCEPT FOR CHEESE!'
The way the world is right now, it is not physically possible to live a 100% vegan lifestyle, as so many things are made using animal products - the new £5 note being a topical example. I can talk until the cows come home about how most of the so-called health detriments to being vegan are nonsense, but ultimately everyone is different, and some people are more suited to adopt a vegan diet than others. The bottom line is that everyone should be as ecological as they are physically able. This goes beyond just animal products - there are a huge number of food brands that I boycott because they do something which goes against my own causes. The list could by rights be a lot longer, had I not as a consumer stepped in and pointed out to myself that in order to live, I have to make compromises. If I boycotted everything I had something against, I'd never eat, drink or wear anything at all, and there comes a point where you need to prioritise yourself. Having accepted that, you can then start to decide where you are going to start. As I have detailed above, I don't feel able to completely convert to veganism right now, but I am well on the way and I have a clear system for how this is going to work. I think everyone should have some kind of moral standard that they live up to, but this should be something that they set themselves. Once we have accepted that, we can sit back and feel content in the knowledge that, whilst we may disagree on exactly what form this takes, ethical eating is here to stay.
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