Why Did You Go Vegan?

Kerri

Vegan Happens

There is something very liberating in the philosophy of not using animals for our human needs. I believe in it as an evolution of the human mind, body, and spirit; an evolution that seems to be taking place among many of us on this planet at this time in history. I am writing this to document my personal journey because I had no idea I would be asked so often "What made you want to be Vegan?" And there is no simple answer. I am very glad people are curious and want to be enlightened. Honestly, I was just not prepared for people to be so interested in something I had chosen for myself. And there my friends, is a lie. I didn't choose to be vegan. Veganism happened to me.

From the time I was born to about the age of 14, I lived on a farm. Not a typical farm that people make their living off of, just a family farm to feed the "family". A couple cows, pigs, horses, dogs, and cats. We lived on 13 acres surrounded by woods just outside the city limits. We had a cherry tree, a pear tree, apple trees, plum trees, and a fabulous garden. It was a perfect place to raise children.

My Father was a hunter. And also was responsible for raising the livestock we kept for eating. We roasted whole pigs on the barbecue, usually for guests. We raised cows for food. He shot deer and strung them up in our garage while he butchered them. He shot coyotes thinking he was getting rid of the pests, when in fact if you shoot one, it prompts the pack to immediately start breeding. He would shoot bats out of the sky to entertain guests. He shot one of our horses once because it got stuck in the mud. Gee, there was just no getting it out I guess. Better shoot it. In fact, he had a large closet type room full of guns, ammo and loading equipment. We kids just knew not to ever, ever touch them.

My youngest brother and I were not sheltered from these things in any way. It was life. We had to pluck feathers from dead ducks, and even eat our own pet rabbits. For some reason my Father tore the cage apart and said that the dogs had eaten them, but wouldn't tell us what kind of meat we were eating for dinner. Hmmm... Like I said, it was just life. You don't know anything else when you're little, but the life that you are living. As far as why he felt rabbits were different, who knows. I'm sure I was just as attached to the cows.

It's amazing that as a kid I watched all this death and butchering with quite a bit of indifference, sometimes a "yuck" or two. It's funny that I never ended up doing anything like shooting an animal or even gutting a fish that I had caught. I suppose it just wasn't expected of a young girl. As I got older, and moved away from home, I naturally tried cooking for myself. I think I mainly bought for convenience. Boneless, skinless chicken, fish fillets all-ready to cook. But I made a huge revelation when I thought about cutting costs and buying a whole chicken to cut up. I couldn't stomach it. I think it goes along the lines of people not wanting to recognize that what they are eating used to be an animal. We have hamburger patties, and chicken nuggets, breaded fish fingers, hot dogs, and so on. It simply seemed grotesque and barbaric to have to tear apart an animal with my hands. I went fishing with my first husband, overjoyed to be sharing one of his favorite pastimes with him. I was so disappointed in myself that I couldn't bear to gut my own fish. I truly believed in the idea of "you catch it you clean it". But could I do it? NOPE. I gave up and went back to convenient no muss no fuss grocery store meats.

Jump to about ten years later. (I'll bet you're quite relieved) My favorite meats to cook were the ones that required little or no prep. Pork tenderloin that you could just throw in some marinade and into the oven, deli meats, and the good ole' boneless skinless chicken were my faves.

I had a baby girl about the time of the Jack in the box poisonings. E-coli deaths of children were big in the news, and Mad Cow was making the rounds too. There are even reports that many cases of Alzheimer's were actually mad cow showing up in humans. But the Government (bless their sneaky little hearts) could confidently say there was not one trace of Mad Cow in humans in the US. Well that's because it's not called Mad Cow in humans. They call it CJD or Cruzfeldt Jacob Disease.

My Mother felt compelled to educate me on things she had learned from listening to Art Bell late at night. For example, the dangers of cow's milk because of the antibiotics and hormones present. She knew the time was coming to introduce cow's milk to Holly. (Holly's favorite thing to say is that she doesn't drink cow's milk because she's not a baby cow). She was approaching two. She was basically on cow's milk because I had only pumped my milk for her for 4 � months, and she was on formula. Marital stresses just made it too difficult to carry on with the milk pumping routine. And she was an abnormally healthy child. No ear infections, no colds, no colic, no nuthin! Thank God, the fates, guardian angels, or just good old Mother's milk.

Something in me didn't want to give her cow's milk. Especially after hearing about teenage girls hitting puberty earlier & earlier all the time. But I didn't know what the options were. I started to look into it on my computer. I actually started to look into vegetarianism to get away from meat eating too. Something in me didn't feel right about putting my daughter at risk by buying her a Happy Meal that turned out to be not so happy. This is why I say veganism happen to me. It was pulling me or leading me somehow. I read the word vegan and thought, what the heck does that mean??? That is when I found out the biggest news of my life... Humans do NOT need to have animals to survive or get proper nutrition. WHAT!? We don't need to kill anything???? Wait a freaking minute.. My Father fed us animals all the time! My whole world changed right then I suppose. Why had I never heard this before?

I had beautiful thoughts of my daughter growing up in a kinder gentler world, never having to think that it's a natural, normal, acceptable thing to kill any living creature. So many people think that it's the natural order of things, and that we are at the top of the food chain. If we think ourselves so superior that we are at the top of the food chain, why can't we be so evolved that we are completely separate from the food chain? Doesn't it stand to reason if we are not killing, imprisoning, and using animals for our own "superior" purposes that we would be less inclined to treat fellow humans in a less than kind way? Some people say that it's only natural for us to kill animals or use them for our own purpose because we are more intelligent. If that is so logical, why don't we eat retarded people?

I suppose I should get back to my progression. I stayed home with Holly for three years. So I guess I spent a year researching foods to eat. Things I needed to make sure Holly and I had in our diets. I spent much time experimenting and trying recipes. Not an easy thing when your husband has no interest in it. But I was lucky enough to be able to feed Holly and myself before Ken came home or simply fix an assortment of foods for all three of us.

My education about being vegan opened my eyes to the many facets of being vegan. There is a vegan lifestyle and a vegan diet. A vegan lifestyle means you don't include the use of animals in your day to day life, as much as humanly possible anyway. Not buying leather, wool, and some don't even buy silk. This is where things get muddled for me. (The distinction between bugs and animals). I still eat honey even though it is made by bees. A vegan diet is usually adopted by people who do it more for themselves than the animals. It is proven to be the healthiest diet by far and vegetarians & vegans live longer.

I have also been more enlightened about organic foods, and healthier kinds of fats. I have been very much enlightened about what the FDA says is oky doky for us to be putting in our bodies. Why do we listen to a government agency when it comes to what is doing our bodies good or harm?? That's just plain scary to me. You want to know who I give the most credence to? The meat inspectors, slaughterhouse inspectors, and employees who simply cannot stomach it anymore. I've read their stories. They turn vegetarian or vegan because they know. And anyone can know if they simply look for the truth. Not from people who are paid to say "Milk does a body good" on your TV. Not by the "Beef, it's what's for dinner" people. You find the truth from people who have been there done that and came away enlightened and empowered with knowledge. There are scads of articles and videos available about what happens to animals at the hands of humans. Most of us don't want to face it because we are scared we don't have the backbone to actually make a change. My ex-Mother-in-law actually said this to me once: "It doesn't matter what you do, you are only one person. Nothing you do is going to make any difference." Her saying that to me showed me a lot of differences in her and I. I had immediate pity for her. Someone must have said that to her once upon a time, making me see why she has always resigned herself to a life of general unhappiness. It's always made me want to buy that vegan T-shirt that is covered with animals. It shows how many animals' lives you can save in a year by being vegan or vegetarian. Yes, just one person.

Reasons to be vegan are many. (Very simplified of course) It's an environmental issue due to the fact that so many more people could be fed by using livestock land for crop land instead, not to mention conserving water. It's a health issue because an animal protein and animal fat diet is just not healthful. It's an ethical and moral issue about not killing when there is simply no need to.

It's not easy. Doing good things and doing the right thing is hardly ever easy. But there is a philosophy that the more you do "the right thing" the easier it is to keep doing it. The more you do wrong thing or bad things, the easier it is to keep doing them. I am doing what I know is right for me. And I know that it's turning into the right thing for many, many people. If I can help someone with that journey, I will. Because after all, it's saving lives. All of them.

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