usually whenever we write a post it’s to tell about a delicious meal we had or about some new culinary creation that happened in our kitchen, but this is no such post. i need to rant a bit.
i was reading a few blogs yesterday (on my new macbook pro!! sweet!) and i stumbled across a website that was talking about vegans and the vegan diet. the author of the article mentioned that she used to be vegan for quite some time, but that it all ended when she was out to lunch with a friend who ordered a caesar salad and she found herself drooling over the cubes of feta cheese when finally her friend said “just eat it already!”..and she did. you could tell the article was geared towards a more skeptical audience…the author made it seem like vegans are starving martyrs who are constantly on the edge of giving into that bit of cheese and cutting their losses.
we’ve all met the type. the “oh, i used to be vegan” or “i used to be vegetarian”..as if it’s this phase that we all end up going through. one of my friends from school chose to go vegetarian about a year ago and when he told his mom she said “yeah, i was vegetarian in college too”, as if to say, you’ll get over it soon. i never know what to say to those people, the ex-veg’s of the world. i always wonder why they aren’t vegan or vegetarian anymore, how they could choose such a compassionate and healthy lifestyle and then give it up after living that way for sometimes years. i guess i could possibly see a vegan going back to vegetarianism…possibly. but a vegetarian going back to eating meat? and i’m talking about the ethical vegetarians, the ones who chose to be vegetarian for the animals. how could you know what you know and then decide one day to eat that hamburger and never look back?
it’s always boggled my mind. i mean we all have our cravings. we all have our achilles heel..usually the thing that took the longest to choose to stop eating. i think cheese pizza was my last non-vegan food to stop eating, and it also happens to be what i crave every once in a while. my mom’s biggest craving is scrambled eggs..but i think it’s more of what we associate with those foods and not really the food itself. for me cheese pizza reminds me of trips to new york or those weeknights when we would order pizza when we didn’t feel like cooking. scrambled eggs is my mom’s comfort food. it’s what she would always have my dad make her when she was sick, scrambled eggs and toast. it’s that comforting feeling you get from the food, not the fried chicken embryos and the knowledge of how those eggs were obtained.
i guess i just don’t understand how there can be such a gap in understanding. how people can claim that they’re animal lovers, be vegetarian or vegan for however long, and then go back to eating meat as if nothing ever happened. as i’m writing this josh is watching one of those animal cop shows on animal planet, where these “animal cops” goes and saves dogs and cats who are being abused by their owners. they talk about “how could people treat these animals like this” as they hold a starving dog who’s been kept in a tiny cage for months on end. everytime i watch this show (which isn’t often because it’s hard to watch) i find myself yelling at the tv about how if they want to see some animal abuse and if they really want to protect animals from animal cruelty they should go down to their goddamn slaughter house. i guess the only animals they care about is the ones that we call pets. i bet after these “animal cops” go out every day and save these dogs and cats they come home and eat a steak (i told you i needed to rant.)
anyway..i guess i just have to take comfort in knowing that for as many ex-veg’s and “i’m an animal lover but i still eat meat”-ers our there, there’s just about as many truly ethical vegans out there, and it’ll take a lot more than a bit of cheese to bring us down.
I’m glad you posted this rant.
The choice to become a veg*n should be a lifelong one. People too often get in their mind that they can just change their mind when they can’t take it anymore and succumb to their own gluttonous desires. The hypocrisy just astounds me.
I totally agree with your rant. I don’t believe it when people say “I love animals but I can’t go vegetarian.” Well they obviously don’t love animals. People don’t say they love their boyfriends/baby/family and then kill them and eat them…
I had a girl tell me that she was sorry I’m vegan. That pisses me off so much too.
Good rant. I can’t understand it either. ‘I used to be vegetarian’ is right up there with fish eating ‘vegetarians’ in the list of super annoying people of the world.
I completely agree with you. It seems that every person I meet claims to have been a vegetarian or a vegan in the past. Hearing them say this discourages me so much. I really don’t understand how people who were passionate ethical vegans/vegetarians could somehow go back.
For me, they were never truly vegans/vegetarians…
And they probably never understood the choice they were taking. Its just like Romina was saying, peolple oftenly mistake “gluttonous desires” as the same thing as nourishing their bodys. I know that “craving’ is some how very intense nowadays, specially with all the adds and marketing knockin you every moment. Any way,dont belive in EX-veggies… just like the way I do with my EX-girlfriend. lol!
Hey Chels, glad you got that mother of all vegan frustrations off your chest. We all know exactly what you’re feeling. Among the scores of REALLY infuriating ethical hypocrises we are confronted with daily coming from the mouths of others (so often including people we care about and love, the hardest part), for me the hunting issue is right up there among the top 3, with meat eating being condoned by God, “See, it’s in the bible”!, and the dairy/slaughter/meat connection.
You know how many otherwise kind, compassionate, environmentally aware people out there who (many millions I’m afraid) are affected by that very powerful cultural indoctrination and mass marketing brainwashing you mentioned remain flesh and dairy eaters? You know, take this majority group of humans, all zombie meatheads if you will, and make the argument or case against sport hunting and wildlife management for that purpose and what do we get? Every friggin time; “Oh, well if we don’t let the hunters kill them then they’ll all overpopulate and die from cruel starvation”. Uh huh. And it’s better to intentionally mass overpopulate them through “game management” and then allow 15 million ecologically ignorant sport killers and sadists to invade our wildlands each year to harrass and murder them for macho shits & grins, and so many wall trophies?
Hey, guess I needed to rant too. You keep up the important work of spreading the enlightenment.
Peace,
Dad
A much needed rant, my wonderful daughter! Let me add another dimension….as a parent, I was always infuriated by people I spoke to about my choice to be vegetarian, way back in 1990, and then the inevitable question………”are your children vegetarian too?!?! What about protein for growth? Don’t children need meat to be healthy? Shouldn’t you let them decide for themselves when they get older?” I knew there was no other choice but a compassionate lifestyle for our family after I learned about the horrors of factory farming and animal research. Dad and I knew our ethical choice was also supported by undisputed medical evidence of the benefits of a vegetarian diet. It took us too many years to become vegan but with yours and Josh’s example we are proud to have completed the journey to a way of life filled with animal grace.
Just found your lovely blog. I wanted to give you one reason why some people leave veganism. We were vegan and most our diet is still however we are vegetarian because I developed a horrible soy allergy. Too much of a good thing had the effect of what was diagnosed as rheumatoid arthritis until I went on a major cleanse and found I react strongly (negatively) to soy products to include joint swelling, painfull teeth/jaw, mobility problems, etc…I use rice prodcuts and I do use a bit of dairy for now and hope that one day I can add soy
back into my diet.
First of all let me say that i totally understand where you’re coming from. Second, i admit to being an ex-vegetarian. I was a strict vegetarian for two years and i loved it, until i graduated from college and moved in with an omnivore.
Temptation is a dumb excuse, i know. Taking pleasure in another creature’s dead flesh is perverse. But here’s how i see it, anyway: I’ve got just this one life to live. I don’t believe in an afterlife or reincarnation or anything like that, so it’s just this once that i’ll be able to experience everything the world has to offer. One of my favorite things is food and eating out, and as a vegetarian in the midwest any given restaurant has maybe one or two vegetarian choices. It gets old fast, and choosing not to eat meat means never getting to experience 90% of the culture of where i live. It’s exhausting to always be focused on the death and suffering that is MEAT, and it’s rather satisfying to let go of that and settle into my own narrow-minded perspective and just indulge.
You’re also very fortunate to have such a supportive base for your decision–a vegan partner and entire family and probably friends as well. I don’t know any other vegetarians personally. It’s still worth doing and i’d like to get back to it one of these days, but for now i’m being partly selfish. I am in no way trying to justify myself, either, but you said you didn’t understand the attitude and so this is my explanation.
You’re also lucky to have
Hello!
I’ve been vegetarian since I was 8 and vegan since 16, by my own choice (I’m 22 now) and I’ve honestly never struggled with it. I love being vegan and I feel it’s a really important part of my life. My family eats meat, my long-tern boyfriend who I live with eats meat, and most of my friends eat meat. I was the only vegetarian growing up, etc.
I guess what I wanted to say is that while I agree with you in some regards about the “I used to vegetarian” thing, I really think you should cut people some slack. It doesn’t work for everyone. What’s easy for you might not be easy for others. For example, I loved cheese SO much before I went vegan, but I don’t crave it, ever, and you do (the cheese pizza thing). Does that make me a “better vegan” than you? No, because there’s no such thing. (I’m not trying to say that you were being holier-than-thou at all, I thought your rant was really sweet and generally non-offensive, i’m just trying to make a point).
I don’t like the label of veganism and sometimes I’m ashamed to take part in it. I’m doing my part to make a difference and some people do other things. I don’t volunteer in soup kitchens, or tutor impoverished children, or donate to AIDS funds, or anything. Plus, there are many people who do eat meat but make a point of buying grass-fed, orangic, hormone free meat, and that’s most of it, right?
Anyways, I hope this didn’t come off as angry or mean, I just wish people would see veganism as more of a personal choice. Thanks.
hey charlotte- thanks for your comment. i understand what you’re saying, that it’s easier for some people than it is for others. i think what i was just trying to say was that it’s hard for me to understand how someone can go as far to make the choice to be vegetarian or vegan and then find a way to say that they can’t or won’t do it anymore. and i’m talking about the ethical vegetarians..those who learn about the horrors of the meat industry and who claim to love animals enough to commit themselves to eat a diet that doesn’t include them, and then decide one day that maybe it’s just too hard.
i for one am an ethical vegan. my parents chose to become vegetarians when i was 4 years old. i can remember there was a field of cows on the road going into town where i used to live, and when i was young my parents would always say, “say hi cows!” when we would drive past them. after they went vegetarian they started saying to us, “say hi hamburger!”..and quickly i made the connection. those cows that i loved to see every day also happened to be my lunch. i chose on my own to stop eating meat. fast forward 14 years later, and i chose to be vegan for the same reasons. the health and environmental benefits are just perks for me. so while i see your point about those who eat organic, hormone free, etc meat, to me and many others it’s just a way to ease their consciences while they feed their children dead animal carcasses. murder is murder, regardless of whether the animals are “hormone free.” and from a health perspective, animal protein itself is the stuff you need to look out for.
i totally agree with you about veganism being a personal choice. i don’t agree with the people who come off as “vegan police” and the like. no one vegan is better than another, although i don’t agree with those who still eat cheese and other animal products and continue to call themselves “vegan.” i feel that only sends mixed messages to non-veg people. but yes, it is a personal choice and one that we all choose for different reasons. but i still don’t understand how ethical vegetarians or vegans, not the ones who cut out red meat to get a better health report, can make the choice to eat meat again.
Im lucky to have someone like chelsea in my life that feels the same way about so many things, i couldn’t have said it better myself. Being an ethical vegan is about more than just not eating meat, its about doing your part to end as much suffering as you can. No one is perfect, by any means, and i appreciate any form of veganism, but i dont see how anyone being an ethical vegan can one day just give up all those ideals. I do think about cheese sometimes, i dont ever really crave it. I think what i miss most is the convenience of eating cheese, going to any restaurant and being able to order a cheese sub or grilled veggie sandwich w/ cheese. Bottom line is i love animals, all living things, i do all that i can in my life to end suffering, and i love all the people that do the same.