When I was diagnosed with food allergies in 2007, it took me more than a few months to accept the reality that I would have to give up many of the foods I loved. If you had told me then that I would, a few years later, decide to ditch the rest of the animal kingdom in my diet, I would never have believed you. I was having a hard enough time as it was.
Fast forward a few years. I was learning to cook gluten-free, dairy-free, sugar-free and egg-free. I was not only accepting my fate, but enjoying it as well. So when I took an Animal Law course during my last semester of law school, I was already in the mental state of “I can tackle any restriction life throws at me.” And speaking of mental states, I had already given up eating red meat years earlier, partially because I had an “I don’t eat cute animals” rule, and partially because I didn’t like it enough to justify breaking that rule. Silly, I know. Not exactly Aristotle-esque reasoning, but it was a start.
Animal Law turned out to be a months-long exploration of everything that’s wrong in the world. At least, that’s what it seemed like to me. Week after week, lecture after lecture, video after video, a whole new world unfolded before my eyes. Not a Disney Whole New World, but a a world where living creatures were tortured and abused, slaughtered recklessly in filthy conditions, neglected, beaten, confined. This was the world of factory farming. Many students pointed out, validly, that we could avoid this problem by purchasing ethically raised meat. Considering there are almost no legal standards in place to define what’s considered ethical or humane, relying on this moral loophole seemed problematic to me. But it doesn’t matter. I was too far gone — too scarred — to consider eating chicken again (the rest of the factory-farmed animals had left my diet well before this, as I mentioned).
While there are many reasons one might go vegan, there are also many reasons people don’t. For one thing, there’s the sense of a certain pressure — a certain standard — one invokes for herself whenever she tells her friends, “By the way, I’m a vegan now.” Because what follows is usually a foray into everything un-vegan about the newly-proclaimed vegan’s lifestyle. This is why I never said anything as I quietly overhauled my grocery lists, ordered tofu instead of chicken in my curry, and started looking for the “man-made materials” label whenever I shopped for shoes.
So why am I sharing this here? Because I think it’s important. I’m not perfect. I eat fish at restaurants when there’s little else for me to eat. I still wear the products made with leather that I purchased years ago, I don’t always do my due diligence by asking about hidden animal products when I eat out. But for the most part, I guess you could say I’m vegan — that’s the way I cook and eat at home, and it’s the way I strive to live. It’s not perfection I’m aiming for, but rather a more conscious way of eating; an acknowledgement of the consequences that come from the choices that I make. Knowing that I can choose the option of delicious food with the fewer moral consequences, I’ll take that option.
That said, everyone is welcome around here, vegan or not. I’m cooking for a man who still likes his meat — I figure, if I can keep him happy day in and day out, then it doesn’t matter what it is, as long as it tastes good, right?
Considering going veg or vegan?
Check out these resources for tips, information, and maybe a little kick in the pants:
Our Hen House: A clearing house for all things animal rights-related.
Vegan at Heart: A coaching program for those who are “vegan at heart, but not necessarily in practice.” It’s free — one daily email for a month, then one a week until you unsubscribe. It’s fun!
Meat.org: Ok, so this is a PETA run website with an agenda. But the “Meet your Meat” video on here was what really made me never want to eat meat again. Don’t watch it if Food, Inc. made you at all uncomfortable. This is like Food, Inc. on steroids. Narrated by Alec Baldwin.
Kathy Freston: She got Oprah do to a 21-day vegan, gluten-free and sugar-free cleanse. She is all about educating people on going vegan for health or ethical reasons, without getting preachy or intolerant.
Eating Animals: A great book that explores the philosophy behind the decision to not eat meat, our nostalgia about food, and why not eating animals might just be a good thing. Very well written, entertaining, and fair analysis of the concept of “eating animals.”
