Veganmofo: A Word about food choices

I know this month is about food and the awesomeness of vegan cooking, baking and food in general. Maybe its a downer, but our food sends an important message. Whether we buy eggs/dairy/meat/etc can be the difference for thousands of animals yearly and the industry knows it. Dean foods owns a soy milk brand (which brings about a whole other set of issues), if there wasn't money to be made selling dairy alternatives do you think this dairy giant would take the resources from their veal and milk to promote, produce and sell a vegan beverage?

Each time we sit down to eat we are making choices. We choose what to eat, what not to eat, what message to send, who should get the bulk of the profit, if money should be spent on chemicals, on health care for workers or if the money should be spent hurting animals.

I have never felt a greater urge or need to promote a plant based diet, because as much good as vegetarianism, cutting back and everything else does, they need more. They need us to make the choice, because not everyone is going to be moved by compassion. In fact, most will be moved by profit.

I just got back from yet another stockyard visit, and I will spare you the gritty details but to have looked the newborn calves in their teary eyes and have to explain to them why they were there. Why their mothers were being moved, and why large men where sizing them up has really gotten me thinking about how important what we put on our plate is.

November is a very special month for me.

Not only was I born 19 years ago in this lovely month, but coincidentally it also marks one of the most important days in my life. Maybe when I was born again, but that sounded a little too cheesy/mushy or darn right dirty hippy. November (the 5th to be exact) marks the day that I made a huge lifestyle choice, that in some ways now defines who I am in the eyes of most people.

That's right, from that day forth I became "The Vegan". I've posted about my "becoming" story, and really there wasn't a lot to it. I was ignorant, uber hella ignorant. I could and often did eat multiple steaks at resturants and my parents would chaste me, saying it was unhealthy, I would have a heart attack before 20 and I would be even fatter (something I hear a lot and could have fucked up my food relationship from the start).

Looking back everything leading up to the decision seems like a giant (and kinda lame coincidence), I was home some reason or another zane was in the other TV room letting me watch both tv and have the computer (this never happens), I was watching much news because well I was lame and in grade 9. Half assedly working on a paper that was probably due the next day, when much news came on. I never watched much news, in fact I even tried to avoid watching it on September the 11th when there was real news on it. I kept saying I would grab the remote in a second, and I just so happened to pay attention long enough to see the upcoming story. It was called simple plan get's bloodied up and showed the band covered in blood. I'm not sure why, but I left it.. I wanted to know what that was all about.

So the program came on and it turns out the band was doing an anti fur add for someone called peta. Now I have always loved animals, and thought fur was a stupid idea and like most ignorant animals-are-teh-cutes-don't-wear-them-but-i-can-still-eat-them people I vocalized that fur was pretty fucked up. Back on track, segment ended and it gave a web site for more info. So in my eagerness to not write an essay off I went. Peta.com and I searched the site for info on the add, turns out there was a video with the band and they ended up saying that the whole experience would be worth it if even one person stopped wearing fur, went veggie, did blah blah blah, or even if someone went Vegan, then it would be awesome. :laughter: but that's really unlikely, yeah, but it would be more than worth it.

Here's the part where my ignorance really shines, hmmm v-ee-gaa n? what's that. So I search the site again, it comes up with why someone would go vegan and what a vegan was. So I read. And read some more, soon I was learning all the horrible things that go on to produce meat, there were videos I didn't dare watch and after a while of reading I felt sick. Physically. That was that I thought, I'm now a vay-gun (and yeah I pronounced it wrong at first too). I had no idea what I was doing, or if it was healthy I thought it could possibly kill me to not eat this stuff anymore. But I also thought I'd cross to that bridge when I came to it, because I couldn't support any of this for another second and I didn't. Then I think I threw up.


And now as we approach November 5th I'm about to become a 5 year old vegan and not only have I survived but I've improved. My heath is finally good, my weight it down, and my relationship with food is slowly but surely becoming something healthy again. I have met great and amazing people, who share the same bond and beliefs as I do and I've managed to set a positive example and converted a 8 new vegans and a few veggies along the way. It may have been coincidental the way it happened, but I couldn't imagine my life if it hadn't. So in that case, I would like to think that I would have gotten hear eventual, if I'd survived through the bad times long enough this was where I would have ended up. And I wouldn't change it for the world.