147- The Vegan tag

November is International vegan month. I follow my wife's example and participate in the vegan tag - in blog form.

The Vegan Tag Question, followed by my answers:

-- Are you a Vegan? Yes I am 

-- When did you become a vegan? >After research and a 9 months process, my first day as a vegan was 6/06/2003 

-- Why did you become a vegan? > as a vegetarian, I learned about the link between certain food industries and decided that I couldn’t participate in animal cruelty, direct or not. Eating animals or products that are possible only with their exploitation and circumventing their natural pregnancies are all wrong and we have no right to do that just so we can eat, especially since there are alternatives. That was my first reason : the ethical and moral grounds, after which followed the ecological and health ones – there are plenty.

-- What was the hardest part about becoming vegan? > living in a world where industries like using odd ingredients in products, the hardest was finding all those small and big animal-based ingredients in food, cloths, cosmetics, soaps, etc, in order to eliminate whichever’s possible in order to achieve a humanly, realistic level of being vegan – though there are evidently many things we cannot avoid in this imperfect world. 

-- Is it difficult to be vegan? > to the extent that shopping has to be done in stores that sell non vegan products, I must pass hours avoiding seeing and passing in front of far too many gross and grotesque corpses, Yes, that aspect is very hard for me. The second hard part is that I have to read all the damn labels and have a huge diploma to decipher long names of ingredients, and when in doubt, abstain until I can research at home. Being vegan itself is easy, but the steps to get there and make sure I don’t use or eat animal based tidbits takes a lot of effort and research. 

-- Do you let certain things “slide” from time to time? (for example, use/purchase non-vegan items. etc.) > I have had a few times let slide cruelty free eggs from a neighbor who has chicken in her garden and sells them, but it hasn’t been a regular exception and is the only one I have had. 

-- How do you deal with people who are close minded about your lifestyle?> I have had some unpleasant discussions with people who wanted only to fuel fights, and I learned that it’s far better to avoid them all, so that’s what I do, for many reasons.

-- Do you support Vegetarianism and or (“something’s better than nothing’s”)? > yes I do, any kind of personal attempt to limit participating in animal cruelty is important, especially if it can lead at some point to come closer to veganism. What I don’t like, on the other hand, are pseudo-vegetarian labels to excuse egocentric wishes to eat some animals, and not others, and self-proclaim as actually being veg. 
-- What is your favorite specialty vegan item? (name as many as you’d like!) > I would say vegan cheeses – homemade or those we can buy here (thus far, only cheezly in our stores) 

-- What is your opinion of the meat and dairy alternatives? >as I had been vegetarian most of my life, I never needed to substitute for animal products, because I didn’t miss eating them (I had eaten very little meat in my entire life). But I do understand that to some, this is important. I have been making my own vegan milks the past few years. 

-- What is your opinion about palm oil?> regular one is absolutely devastating to the environment and causes deforestation and directly linked to murdering many animals, especially ourang-outangs. I am against this regular form and never buy it. I try to avoid even the ecologically sound version when I can, but there are 3 or 4 products that use ‘’green’’ palm in small amounts and since I have no alternatives, I buy those. Otherwise, I avoid, also because it’s really not the best oil for human health. I would love if the various industries stopped using this as their basic ingredients just because it’s cheap to make, and look for alternatives. 

-- Do you feel judged by other vegans sometimes? How do you deal with it?  When some vegans don’t understand why I don’t join the animal rights movements by actually going out to protests and various actions, I have to explain that I’m far too sensitive, that I’d get literally sick and that on-top of it, I have severe social phobias that also prevents me from participating. 

-- Do you enjoy being a vegan? > as a life commitment to life, with a compassionate choice, yes I do. I am whole, holistic, and in accord to my own philosophy.