Why I've been a vegan for nine years

This year marks my ninth year as a vegan so to mark it I thought I'd dedicate a blog post about the question I'm often asked (not as much as 'How do you get your protein?') 'Why are you vegan... out of curiosity?'

Well, I believe simply that animals are beautiful creatures with a right to life (as wild or domestic animals would normally have) and rear their young. To kill them for food or clothes, to breed them just for slaughter or their produce FEELS wrong to me, especially in this modern, industrial, mass production age.

Cowspiracy.com

I want to avoid the dairy industry because it can be very cruel. Baby calves are dragged away from their mothers (and then killed or put on the same cycle) so that the mother can produce enough milk for the consumer market. Hundreds of baby chicks are either gassed or ground up alive because they are 'surplus' and won't grow up to produce eggs. Chickens often live maimed and kept in cages and cows are injected to speed their growth and impregnated unaturally.

I think there's also a huge discrepancy between the brutality and killing of the animal and the neatly packaged 'family friendly' food presented in the supermarket. I met a vegetarian once who said they didn't eat meat because if they were faced with actually killing the animals themselves they wouldn't be able to do it. Paul McCartney fronted a campaign years ago about 'if slaughterhouse had glass walls' which addresses this same concept. If you actually saw what was being done to the animals would you feel the same about eating the meat? We grieve over the death of our pets but not the slightly different looking animals that are bred, raised and killed out of sight. I don't want to cause harm to animals, even distant harm that I can't see and being vegan allows me to feel free this way. 

Peta.com

I also don't see a distinction between my animal companions and industry-bred animals. Moby once wrote that he became vegetarian when he realized he saw his dog as his friend. Personally I wouldn't eat my own animals so I can't justify eating others. 

There are many physical, health and environmental benefits I haven't even touched on (so helpful infographics attached!). Although these weren't my primary reasons, they always reinforce for me that veganism is positive in more ways than one.

I don't see a vegan diet as restrictive but liberating from a food industry I disagree with. I think 'living off the earth' or being plant-based is beautiful both because it is natural  and because it's cruelty free (also you can still eat chocolate...).

 So that's why I'm (still) a vegan, since you asked... 

Literary Vegan Feb 16