Why I'm Vegan

Several years ago, my son (#6), then 6-years-old, asked if he could stop eating meat.  He had decided that humans were animals and, since he didn't eat humans, he didn't want to eat other animals either.  My husband and I had been vegetarian for nearly a decade before we started having children.  At that point, with me craving meat, we went out of his way to find local farmers who took care when raising their animals and slaughtered them "compassionately" as we transitioned back into meat-eating.  Over the next nearly fifteen years on the meat train, I found myself questioning why, when I ethically believed in treating all animals- human and not- with compassion (and not killing them!), I continued to eat meat and meat by-products.  Rather than answering that question, I pushed it into a back compartment of my brain (probably the same one where my PETA "I am not a nugget" messenger bag from twenty years ago resides) and kept on cooking.  Enter MD and his desire to go veg.  "Sure," we told him.  I began making an additional dinner option (but didn't eat it) and life went on.  

Cognitive dissonance is an interesting thing.  You can believe one thing and do the exact opposite.  Shocking, isn't it?  I knew that I was complicit in a horrific industry, but just couldn't seem to find my backbone.  Even as my husband and I would have chronic philosophical discussions, I just couldn't make my lifestyle connect with my ethics.  When we came across a YouTube video by the Cosmic Skeptic, in which he discussed the cognitive dissidence associated with veganism, (along with a second video we saw later although it was created earlier) a switch in my head flipped.  As much as I didn't want to admit it, I was a hypocrite.  A huge, bacon-eating, leather-wearing hypocrite.  It was time to, as the saying goes, fish or cut bait.

So, I cut bait.  December 17th.  I had already planned out and purchased Christmas dinner.  I was actually making dinner when I listened to the first video.  I was screwed.  As I sat at the dinner table, I couldn't fore myself to put meat on my plate, let alone bring a bite to my mouth.  I ate the vegan items on the table and, when my husband quietly asked if I was okay, quietly explained we could talk later.  That night, I explained that the video had slapped me hard across the face and that I could no longer endure the dissonance.  He, too, he confessed, was struggling with the exact same thing.

As we cleaned out our fridge and pantry of animal products, he took the harder (in my opinion) journey of eating the meat products and by-products so that they would neither be wasted nor discarded, and I put my love of cooking to use by planning out meals that would be nutritionally dense and ethically sound.  Eighteen days in, and each day is a culinary adventure.  Some days are amazing; other days, brownies were more of brown glass food substitute that had to be thrown in the garbage because my recipe didn't quite work out.  Trial and error!  (Recipes can be found on my food blog, The Rantings of a Domestic Goddess.)

At the end of the day, I am vegan because I cannot ethically endure the suffering caused to another being for my benefit.  I can live just fine and even more health-consciously on a plant-based diet with no animal products or by-products.  In addition, I am extremely concerned about the health of our planet.  I have five living children; I want them to have an earth left to live and thrive on.  The way we abuse the planet for the sake of growing and slaughtering animals is offensive.  I am grateful to be able to spend my time caring for my family and making a career of writing and lecturing. Now, perhaps it's time to add vegan advocacy into that path as well.