Two Decades a Veggie – My Thoughts.

Here are some musings I have on being a veggie, but first lets clear up the inevitable questions –

Q. Oh my god, soap box vegetarians are so preachy, why are you trying to convert me to your hippy ways?

A. I am not in the business of converting anyone to anything. These are my life choices, I am far to busy/lazy to make yours for you as well, so until my mind control ray device is finished … *cough* .. erm, I mean …so lets live and let live.

Q. Aren’t you going to try and emotionally blackmail me into taking up the diet of a rabbit?

A. Again, no, if something I say affects you emotionally that seems like something you need to explore.

Q. OK, so you’re sure you’re not trying to convert me?

A.Nope, no conversions going on here. Not even subliminal messages, neurolinguistic programming, psychological tricks or hypnosis… aren’t I being a good little neuroscientist!

So on we go to my half autobiographical ramblings. It’s hard to believe, but I was a very naive and positive preteen, I know, what happened right?! This pessimistic misanthrope bears no resemblance to that sweet girl who thought that really all humans are nice people with good intentions. However, what that child and I do have in common is a willfulness, or if you ask my very patient parents – stubbornness. So when aged 11, I saw some documentaries on  farm animal welfare some of my emerging world view was shattered. To this day the sound of pigs screaming can make me feel sick. Obviously I knew in some abstract sense where meat came from, but like most people were and are, I was very removed from the reality of where my food came from. I had assumed that the animals were kept like my beloved pets and died painlessly after a well enjoyed existence frolicking in a field. As I read and watched more it became painfully obvious to me that this was not the case. These documentaries were not vile exceptions, they were very much the norm (80% of meat in Europe is factory farmed). So I went home one day –

“Mum, Dad , I want to be vegetarian.”

After a brief shocked “Er.. ok *Lemming, why?”

I like to think what followed was an articulate and logical explanation of my findings regarding farms and animal welfare, but I was 11 and so, lets face it, it probably went like this…

“Animals hurt, bad people … sad animals, make me sad.”

I was not an articulate child despite being reasonably bright. Anyway, I made enough fuss that my parents eventually agreed, probably suspecting it was a phase. They have thoroughly given up on the phase idea now and are incredibly supportive.

Like most decisions a person makes this one was a combination of emotion and reason. I am not Vulcan after all, despite my best efforts there is always a bit of Klingon raw emotion that sneaks in. Emotion drove the motivation to become veggie, but I find reason and science very much sustain it.

So I was vegetarian and later on, around aged 20, I became vegan. Funnily, when I first became vegan I lived in the mecca for the rabbit diet inclined, Brighton. A long consideration of the interaction of the dairy and meat industries and the environmental impact of even animal byproducts had lead me to conclude that veganism was the way to go. Everyone warned me how hard being vegan is, but Brighton made being vegan seem normal. There are veggie fast food joints, lots of vegan cake, many vegan friendly pubs and lots and lots of restaurants and stores. There was even a vegetarian shoe shop. So it wasn’t hard at all, but of course being young and big headed, I thought this was because of my special will power. Then I moved to Sheffield. Turns out it was mostly easy due to my special environment. Still with a little expansion of my pallet and the finding of some awesome eateries and markets, it is still enjoyable to be vegan. I am the type who thoroughly enjoys eating and food. Plus I can now make my own excellent cakes and desserts.

Being vegan can have some interesting effects on your social life, cue lots of fart jokes. No not because of unwanted guffing! A lot of socialising revolves around food, so it is usually something people end up finding out about and their reactions can be strange. Most commonly people will: make jokes (fair enough if you can tell me one I haven’t heard I will by you a beer, a veggie one of course), ask a lot of often ridiculous questions, get unnecessarily angry (again not trying to convert anyone here) or justify every life decision they have ever made to me (not here to judge you, no honestly). However, the most inconvenient, when you are trying to enjoy your dinner are the questions, oh god the questions make it stop, I just want to eat. Here are a few especially reoccurring ones:

Q. Do you eat …..? (Insert huge list of foods.)

A. You have the definition, you are an intelligent person, lets get those brain cells rubbing together and you working it out so I can go back to the cake… please, I just want to eat the cake… No chickens not vegan *gently sobs into cake*.

Q. If you were …on an island, in the dessert, in the jungle, lost at sea, in the arctic (delete as appropriate) would you eat meat?

A. Well I don’t personally live in any of those places so it’s not immanently an issue, and if I did find myself transported suddenly to a remote location I would probably wander around confusedly, constantly checking my cell phone reception and maybe even shout for help, rather than internally debate veganism.

Q. I could never get enough calories being vegan, I don’t know how you do it?

A. *Looks up from cake, wipes frosting from mouth and clothing, pulls up jeans to hide muffin top* Yes, yes that is a problem. I am practically wasting away eating all this lectuce.

               Q. How do you get enough protein?

A. Every cell contains protein. It is what DNA codes for. I am sure I will be fine. Also, do you know anyone with a protein deficiency who doesn’t have a medical problem?

Q. If you kept an animal as a pet and it lead a long and happy life would you eat it?

A. Well it is not typical for humans to eat their pets, just so you know, but I get your point and no, because the meat would be old, tough, sad and likely treated with human poisoning medications.

Q. Would you eat meat if … insert massive list of situations?

A. ..er… takes cake and leaves, politely of course I am British, I would probably apologise as I left.

However, there is one question friends and strangers pose which I do think about often “why are you vegan?”. Yes I could give you the talk on the environment – 3rd biggest producer of carbon emissions, cause of rain forest loss… blah blah. I could talk about animal welfare – painful procedures without anesthetic, terrible husbandry, awful slaughter blah blah.  I could even give the information on the human impact- couldn’t feed everyone a western diet on the available resources blah blah. And these would all be valid points with scientific support (if you are interested in reading more, there are plenty of erudite articles/papers on the topic).  But really, for me, it comes down to a core idea and way of living. See I don’t believe we can guarantee there is anything beyond the brief existence we enjoy. There is a great likelihood that after this life we will once again merge with the abyss from whence we came. Therefore, life is essentially without any greater purpose than that which can be observed extantly around us. Given this, improving the experience of sentient life is the only tangible way of producing a greater purpose of life and the only thing we can really do in this life which has any real impact or hope of producing ‘good’ both now and in the future. I also don’t believe that my sentient experience should be prioritised above others, there is nothing special about me compared to you, or anything particularly special about being a human (certainly with regards to biodiversity we are axiomatically unremarkable). Since the study of animal psychology and neurology has proven the stark sentience of their existence and the neurological potential and capacity for consciousness, it is clear humans aren’t unique in their visceral experiencing of the world. Thus being human does not give me privilege to unnecessarily harm others sentient creatures. 

Improving, and/or at least not harming the sentient experience of human and non-human beings through my existence is, therefore, important to me. I wish to live without creating harm to others. Eating meat and animal byproducts creates proven harm to sentient creatures, and thus an easy way to reduce the harm of my existence is to reduce demand for such products and that is basically it.

Woah that got heavy!  Here’s some funny dogs –

http://www.buzzfeed.com/erinchack/dogs-who-forgot-how-to-dog

http://www.buzzfeed.com/newu1085/21-dogs-who-dont-realize-how-big-they-are-654m

 

Also, you know, there is the whole vegan powers perk 😉

 

(*Lemming has always been my Dad’s pet name for me. Even now I am almost 30 the epithet sticks. I like to think it came from the period of childhood during which I would randomly, enthusiastically and inconveniently run away from my parents regardless of where we were and the potential dangers. I would see something interesting and, wosh, Lemming like, I would be gone. These childhood adventures in independence have left their scars, particularly when in Germany I choicely legged it in a supermarket, into a shopping trolley and cracked my skull. Cue lots of blood, my sister screaming, my mum fainting and my poor dad trying to explain the whole messy situation to horrified German supermarket staff.  I think I was 8 before they dared take off the child reins.)