Intermittent Post: Why Vegan? +Personal Tidbit

This Earthling is beautiful.

I've decided to make a blog post detailing why I'm vegan.
It's strange how I avoid the issue on here, seeing as it's a vegan blog.
I'm always afraid to sound preachy. The enormity of the issue might sometimes require it, but it's a turn-off to my nonveg friends.
However, I'm not really here to please anyone. And not many people read this thing anyway.

However, people ask me really often and I oftentimes don't have enough time to detail to them why I'm vegan (if they really are interested. If they seem condescending I just say, "For the animals and the environment and the respect of my body."). I can simply refer them to this post, and if they are truly interested, they will read.

Here lies my personal reasoning behind being vegan (which is similar to every other vegan on the planet, minus the ones who do it for religion):
You may just want to skip to the ten second video premiere of my boyfriend making a pecking tongue at the bottom of the page.

1. The animals. Their conditions. Their bodies.

I lived for a very long time in the ignorance of the hell endured by animals to become my dinner. I thought I promoted peace, love, and unity through my life, but that's just not possible for me if I live a life involving the torture and brutalization of other beings. Cows and chickens are no different than cats and dogs in their ability to feel pain, suffer, and love. They have family bonds, they have friendships, they have habits and enjoy certain activities over others. If bulls were so happy to be part of a slaughtering operation, we wouldn't have to turn them into steers. It doesn't matter what kind of farm the "food" comes from; free range, organic, or factory farm operation, it's all in support of the same bloody end. This, to me, is unacceptable. It's not conducive to a peaceful life to literally shell out my financial support to this type of activity.

*Edit. As an abolitionist vegan, I do not condone confining animals "humanely" or in "good conditions." Some people advocate for this, and that is all very well. I do not. I would not want to be set up in a mansion with all the amenities and still have my breasts sucked dry, be continually re-impregnated, and be slaughtered only 1/5 of the way through my lifespan.

2. The Environment. It deserves much better.

It wasn't until I first decided to go vegan that I learned anything about meat and the environment. That information is just not disseminated to the public (and for those whose interests lie in the industry, with good reason).

I learned right before I became vegan of the disastrous effects of the environment on our planet. There's a saying that "A vegetarian in a hummer has less of an impact than a meat-eater on a bicycle." While this is not numerically sound, the image is still something to remember when considering the eating of meat from an environmental perspective. Eating meat has a drastic effect on the amount of pollution a person creates.

I had always considered myself to be pro-environmentalist, saving water and using low-impact lightbulbs, shutting down my idle computer, unplugging my phone charger, etc. But even driving a Prius and conserving water can't account for eating meat. Eating animal products is against my principles of sustainability and longevity for the earth.

3. My Body (is Not a Graveyard).

This is the third and final section of my vegan life's beginnings.
I wasn't healthy before I went vegan. I ate whatever I wanted. I didn't eat hamburger meat, because it made me want to vomit. I didn't drink milk for the same reason... but I ate cheese, beef, chicken, pork, dairy, lamb (hell, I even raised a lamb for slaughter in the 9th grade). I never thought of the impact of this high-protein, low fresh veggies lifestyle would have on my body (or what impact it was already having).

The rotting flesh that was inside of me was taking its impact. As soon as I stopped eating it, I felt better, lost weight, made more frequent bowel movements, and dropped two cup sizes on my once oversized breasts (that were before beginning to cause me back problems). I pretty much stopped getting ear infections, which were once common to me. (That could be coincidence, but I've read that dairy is related to ear infections.)

Flesh+flesh is not the best.
We don't make buildings out of buildings, we create them from building blocks. That's what my body needs. Building blocks from which I can create something healthy and new.




This could be my manifesto, and it may seem silly and insignificant, but it's why I do what I do. Some people claim to me that I don't make a difference, but as Edmund Burke eloquently stated, "Nobody made a bigger mistake than he who did nothing because he could only do a little."

I do make a difference, if only to myself and the few animals that may not be slaughtered because of my actions out of the billions that are terminated each year to satisfy the greed of the American appetite.

Overall, I'm vegan to uphold the life I want to live; not hurting others and living simply.


Live simply that others might simply live. -Elizabeth Seaton


Someone may someday come across this post and decide to also live simply.


P.S.
As a personal tidbit from my life, and as the explicit result of a terrible smoothie, I give you: This Video.


james

ashley | MySpace Video

So, I made a terrible smoothie. I had raw, shelled sunflower seeds and tried to blend them into a smoothie with a hand blender without soaking them overnight or anything to that effect, and they were still big enough to chew when the smoothie was done. I finally convinced my boyfriend to try this damn smoothie, because it was made from beets and I had a feeling he hadn't eaten many beets lately, and he then proceeded to try and get the sunflower chunk off of his tongue... onto my arm... very innocently.

There you have it.