Why am I vegan?
I am vegan for many reasons. Any one of these reason is
enough to motivate me to be vegan for the rest of my life and combination of
them all makes it a really easy decision.
My children are young, and I have spent years taking them to
petting zoo’s. Petting and feeding the animals, looking into the eyes of a cow.
At the same time I am reading all about
the food system, the business of food, and the impact on animals, people, and
the planet.
These are the results of the food business world.
1)
Slavery.
Workers in third world countries are working in slave
conditions and are starving and working producing food for us. We get a lot of
food from the US, and the US does not have enough farm land to feed all of the
people who live here. We actually have very little farm land. A lot of our food
comes from other countries, poor third world countries. I have seen a picture of a man wearing an iron
mask, meant to stop him from eating the very food that he is farming.
The food that these people are producing in third world
countries are corn and wheat meant to feed the millions of animals that are in
factory farms.
Starving adults and children are producing our food. We are
then taking the food out of the starving countries, putting it on ships, and
shipping it to North America to feed the animals (food they aren’t meant to be
eating in the first place), and then the animals are then sold here in the North
America: home to the many people who are obese and obsessive dieters.
What is the ripple effect of the food companies producing massive
amounts of food this way? When people in third world countries are starving,
what are they forced to do for money? What do children do? What do women do?
For those of you who are aware of what goes on in developing countries then you
know how to answer those questions. It makes me sick to my stomach.
Also to add to the list, the people who work in
slaughterhouses, and factory farms, and their families are also affected. When
you are a parent and you go to work every day and then you come home. You bring
your work home with you, or at least your mood. When you work at a
slaughterhouse and you smell blood every day, you inflict harm and pain to
vulnerable animals, and you feel aggressive all day long. How does that not
transfer to your spouse and children? The reports from workers and the statistics
on domestic violence also make me sick to my stomach.
2)
Animals
We love our pets, we feel the need to rescue animals, be
concerned about animals that are becoming extinct. However, it’s perfectly acceptable to torture
torture torture and murder animals as long as they taste good.
Pigs are as smart as dogs and as social as primates. What
our society does to pigs, we would never ever do to a dog. And if we did, we
would be in prison.
Learning about how smart, emotional, and social farm animals
are, completely changed how I look at them. They are no longer items of meat,
but families. I can talk to people about the reasons why I am vegan, but I
cannot talk to anyone about how I feel about factory farming without crying.
This is the one subject out of all of my reasons that puts a lump in my throat
and I just can’t finish my sentences.
3)
Health
I watched Forks over Knives and that blew me away. Enough
said about that. All of my reasons for health are in that movie. I have been
vegan for a year, this May 8th, and I feel wonderful. I can tell
there is a big difference in my body. Reading info on our digestive system and how
our bodies are really built a lot more for a plant based diet than meat is just
information that makes sense to me.
4)
The environment
The effects our food system has on our environment and my
responsibility in my share of contributing to the mess is enough of a reason
for me to never eat animals again. Animal agriculture is the number one contributor
to climate change. You could combine all of planes, cars, ships, etc. and it
still wouldn’t add up the impact that eating animals creates. We are destroying
our oceans and ruining our rainforests.
All of the information about what is happening in our world,
and what the future outcome of what this will be is depressing.
5)
My children
This sums everything up.
Knowing everything I know, I just wouldn’t be able to look at my kids in
the eye with my head held high and say I did my best.
People imagine that 30 years from now eating meat will be
like smoking. We look back on previous generations and think…how could they do
that and it be so normal? What are the differences between cigarette companies
and food companies? The differences I don’t know…but there are a lot of
similarities.
30 to 40 years from now, what will my children think of me?
What will they think about what my values are or the decisions I have made?
I just want peace.
Years from now when I am older and I have all of the time in
the world to review my life, I just want to look back with a sense of peace. I
am vegan. I am peace.
Who am I? What do I value? What do I cherish? What am I
committed to? What do I want to fight for?
How can I not be vegan?
For information on all of my reasons here are my references:
Eating Animals – Jonathan Safran Foer
Stuffed and Starved: The hidden Battle for the World’s Food
System – Raj Patel
In Defense of Food – Michael Pollan
Food Rules – Michael Pollan
The end of Food: How the Food Industry is Destroying our
Food Supply – And what you can do about it
- Thomas F. Pawlick
Safe Food: The Politics of Food Safety – Marion Nestle
Veganist: Lose Weight, Get Healthy, Change the World - Kathy
Freston
Food Matters: A guide to Conscious Eating – Mark Bittman
The 100-Mile Diet: A year of local eating – Alisa Smith
& J.B MacKinnon
Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A year of Food Life – Barbara
Kingsolver
The art of Eating – M.F.K Fisher
Putting Food by – Janet Greene, Ruth Hertzberg, &
Beatrice Vaughan
The Inner World of Farm Animals: Their amazing social,
emotional and intellectual capacities – Amy Hatkoff
The Animal Manifesto – Marc Bekoff
The Book of Animal Ignorance: Everything you think you know
is wrong – John Lloyd & John Mitchinson
Movies
These are movies what have influenced me as well:
Forks over Knives
Food inc.
Eating animals
Stuffed and starved
Forks over knives
