I am vegan because I believe in social justice and in fighting to end oppression and exploitation of all earth's inhabitants. I believe that all oppression is interrelated and that we will never have a just world as long as the torture, slaughter, and mistreatment of those least able to defend themselves goes unaddressed.
That's the short answer.
But there's a longer answer.
In 2004, when George W. Bush was "reelected" president, I was devastated. It was definitely the most difficult political event I've ever had to deal with. I could not believe that my fellow Americans would want this person to continue to govern. I knew that I did not want to live in a country or world where that was the case.
At the same time, I started to think about and question how I was contributing to this world I did not want to live in.
While most of us recognize the issues of corporate power and money in politics and may even boycott some of the supposedly worst offenders, we generally shop at a variety of multinational corporations without any thought as to where our money is going. I know I did. But for some reason, W's reelection changed that.
I started researching corporate campaign corporations and stopped giving my money to corporations that supported Republican candidates and right wing initiatives. But my research didn't stop there. Over time, I started investigating the social justice and environmental impact of every purchase I made. I stopped buying goods produced in sweatshops or otherwise made by slave labor, started buying union-made or second-hand products and made numerous additional changes in my life to reduce my footprint.
As I started to consider all of my lifestyle choices, I decided that I was going to become vegetarian again. I did not even consider becoming vegan because only extremist animal rights crazies do that, and I certainly wasn't one of those!!
I had first become interested in vegetarianism in college, primarily because of the environmental impact of raising animals for food. The amount of water and grain used to feed animals is stunning and appalling when so many humans are hungry and without access to safe water. And I knew that rainforest was being destroyed to make room for cows that would eventually become fast food burgers.
As I continued to evaluate my choices and my lifestyle, several important things happened.
- In 2005, I met a wonderful person who would become my longtime partner. He viewed the world as I did, understood my desire to try to live in a way that doesn't exploit humans or the planet, and we pushed each other to do much more in this regard.
- In 2006, I made my first vegan friend. I started to reevaluate my conceptions of vegans and veganism and to learn more about vegan cooking.
- In 2007, my partner and I bought a house together and decided it would be vegetarian. We also started participating in activities hosted by DC-based animal advocacy organization, Compassion Over Killing (COK), meeting more vegetarians and vegans, and learning more about the treatment of animals raised for food. Also that year, I heard Bobby Kennedy Jr. speak about the toxins in fish at the Public Interest Environmental Law Conference in Eugene, OR, and I completely stopped eating seafood, the only meat I still ate on occasion.
- In 2008, I picked up the Sexual Politics of Meat by Carol J. Adams at MooShoes, a vegan shoe store in New York. (I began shopping at vegan shoe stores long before I was vegan because I learned that they monitored the labor standards of their shoes and often refused to sell shoes produced in sweatshop conditions). That book lays out the interrelationship between misogyny and sexism and meat eating. I told my partner I thought it was going to make me want to go vegan after she explained that eggs and milk are only available through the exploitation of the reproductive systems of female animals, animals who are first exploited because of their ability to become mothers and then exploited again when they are killed for their flesh. As a reproductive justice advocate, working to end the reproductive oppression of humans, particularly marginalized humans, this had a big impact on me. Nevertheless, it was awhile before we actually decided to become vegan.
- Later in 2008, COK and Sticky Fingers, the local vegan bakery hosted a vegan hotdog eating contest for national hotdog month, and Mike participated. They sent us home with a bunch of information about animal agriculture and an issue of VegNews. I'm still not exactly sure what happened, but we looked through the materials, and by the end of the day, we'd decided we were going to be vegan. (I don't necessarily endorse promoting overconsumption as a way to encourage veganism, but it worked for us!) Of course, we didn't go vegan that day because we had a lot of cheese we needed to go through and otherwise needed an adjustment period, but on September 15, 2008 - the day after Mike's 40th birthday - we eliminated all animal products from our diets and lives and never looked back. It was much easier and more enjoyable than I anticipated. I only wish I had done it earlier.
- With the rise of movies like Forks over Knives and growing awareness, many people are adopting plant-based diets for health reasons. When Mike and I stopped eating animal products, we didn't really know that there were health reasons. We weren't concerned about nutrition, as we knew many healthy vegans by that time, but we had no idea how much our health would benefit. I've learned a lot about nutrition over the last six years.
- While I, like most progressive, informed Americans had a general sense that the treatment of animals on factory farms was wrong, it is much worse than I imagined or understood. And the issues aren't limited to factory farms. Many cruel practices occur routinely as a part of animal agriculture on family, as well as factory farms. I've learned a lot about the realities of animal agriculture in the last six years. (Although I still won't watch undercover videos).
- While, as I mentioned, I initially became interested in vegetarianism for environmental reasons, I had no idea of the actual environmental impact of animal agriculture. In addition to using tremendous amounts of grain and water, animal agriculture is a significant source of water, air and soil pollution and is a public health nightmare for surrounding communities. In addition, animal agriculture is a leading contributor to global climate change. I've learned a lot about the environmental impact of animal agriculture in the last six years.
- When I became vegan, despite that fact that I had eliminated animal products from my life (to the extent possible), I did not yet believe that all use of nonhuman animals by humans was wrong or unethical. However, as I've learned more about other animals and about our attitudes towards them, I've come to realize that we have no more right to exploit other animals than we do other humans, that using species as a basis for oppression is no different than oppression based on race, gender, sexual orientation, disability, etc. I've become an abolitionist vegan. I've learned a lot about social justice in the last six years.
I am vegan for my own health, for the health of the planet, for the health of the animals and because treating other animals as though they're simply resources placed on this planet for humans to exploit is unethical. And I believe that veganism is a feminist issue and that a feminism that struggles to end all forms of oppression demands veganism.
That's the long answer. But there's an even longer answer (at least in time if not in length).
I'm vegan because I was raised in a family and a community that taught me to think critically, to question the way things are and the way things have always been, and to have compassion for all individuals. There's only one place that such a world view ultimately leads you.
For resources beyond those linked above, check out:
- The intersection between food justice and veganism: Food Empowerment Project
- The intersection between racism, colonialism, sexism and animal oppression: Sistah Vegan Project
- Green Shopping: Green America, Vegan Peace
- Abolitionist Veganism: Gary Francione: The Abolitionist Approach
No comments:
Post a Comment