I was reading through some old blog entries, and I found the post “Open Mind”. In it, I spoke about making healthier food choices. It’s a good read, if I do say so myself, and I recommend it if you haven’t yet read it. It also got me thinking about developments in my own life since I wrote it.
Then, I wrote, “I can say at the outset that I have no intention of becoming a vegan, or even a vegetarian for that matter.” I’ve changed since then. Now, while I’m not a full-on vegan, animal products probably make up less than 10% of my diet. I’ve cut out dairy almost completely. The only animal product I still consume regularly is organic, free-range eggs and egg whites.
So, how did I get from having no intention to become a vegetarian to where I am now? It all started with an experience I had this past summer.
One evening, after night had fallen, I was in our backyard. It was a warm night, but not so warm that it was uncomfortable. A breeze was blowing, and rustling the leaves in the tall trees that border our property. I noticed the quiet of the scene, and sat down on the patio. I leaned back and looked skyward. As my eyes adjusted to the darkness, stars slowly appeared in the black sky. I felt the wind roll over me like waves on a beach, and closed my eyes. It’s hard to explain it, but I felt a sense of connection to the universe that I’d never experienced before. I felt small against the endless expanse of sky, but also like a valuable part of the system of existence. I realized that the wind I was feeling probably came from thousands of miles away, and that it had been felt by an unknown number of other people, maybe while they were in their backyards, looking at the night sky. I came away from that experience with a sense of happiness that I was part of something so beautiful, and a sense of responsibility to do my part to keep the system functioning.
From that point, I started thinking seriously about vegetarianism. I can’t say my diet changed dramatically overnight, but changes did start happening. The meals I ate became more and more plant-based. As a family, we tried new vegetables, like kale. Our garden kept a steady stream of zucchini and tomatoes flowing onto the table. We started swapping out ground meat in our pasta sauce for beans. Small changes, but changes nonetheless.
One of the things I’d always figured, when it came to raising animals for food, is that dairy and eggs were ok since the animals would be producing that anyway, and you didn’t have to kill them to get it. To educate myself, I went to the internet.
I landed at PETA’s website. PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) is a well-known, and somewhat infamous group. There’s no question they have a strong agenda they are pushing, and I’ve discovered that in pursuit of their cause they sometimes paint misleading pictures of situations. Still, I looked around the site and watched some of their videos. What I saw was absolutely disgusting. I knew from “Food Inc.” that livestock slaughter was gruesome, but what I didn’t know is that the director of that film actually played down the gruesomeness, or at least the explicit footage of it. As I remarked to someone after viewing the videos, there are some things you just can’t unsee.
What I was surprised to learn is just how mistreated egg-laying hens and dairy cows are. Hens are stuffed, 5 to 11 at a time, into small wire cages. If their egg production tails off, they are given electric shocks to speed it back up. They never see the outside, and because of their living conditions need to be medicated with antibiotics. They also have their beaks cut off (without anaesthetic) to prevent them from pecking at each other. Once the hens are no longer profitable, they are sent to slaughter. As they are emaciated and atrophied, their meat is deemed suitable only for things like chicken soup and chicken burgers.
Dairy cows don’t have it much better. Cows produce milk for the same reason all mammals do: to feed their young. Humans are the only species on earth that cultivate another species’ milk. In order to get a dairy cow to lactate (produce milk), they must be impregnated. This is done continually, meaning that dairy cows spend their lives either pregnant or having just recently given birth. After the lacation from the last birth tails off, they are impregnated again and the cycle resumes. Along the way, dairy cows often contract mastitis, a painful infection. They are also subject to lameness and other diseases. Like chickens, this means medication with antibiotics. Typically, a cow’s production (i.e. profitability) wanes after about three years. At that point, they are sent to slaughter.
The calves born to dairy cows face one of two paths: females become dairy cows themselves, while males are sold to the veal industry. They are kept chained in pens so small that they can barely lie down (and can’t turn around). Their muscles are purposely atrophied so that the meat will be more tender. They are slaughtered just a few months after birth. I didn’t realize this is where veal comes from (I mean, I knew what veal was, I just didn’t know its connection to the dairy industry). As they say in the PETA video “Meet Your Meat”, if you drink milk, you’re supporting the veal industry.
It had been suggested to me that PETA videos might be fabrications, along the lines of a Michael Moore “documentary”, but I don’t think they are. For one thing, the subject matter would be very hard to fake. For another, if they had fabricated these videos, accusations against them would be in the media. They aren’t. I imagine that only the worst of the worst clips make it into their videos, but that doesn’t take away from their impact.
All of this has led me to where I am today: my diet is 80 – 90% vegan. As I said earlier, the only animal products I still consume are organic, free-range eggs and egg whites. I see a distinction with those products because of the way the hens are treated. They are fed a healthy diet, spend their time inside and outside, and are generally treated far, far more humanely than their battery-cage counterparts. I also still use whey protein, but that is only because I have a container I’d already purchased some time ago. When it’s gone, I won’t be replacing it. I also still eat meat from time to time at dinner, as my family still does, though we’re all cutting that back. Additionally, my wife has a medical condition that makes consuming large amounts of soy a bad idea, so our protein choices are a touch more limited than they would be otherwise.
I’m happy (and even a bit surprised) to report that my new diet hasn’t impacted my workouts. I have at least as much energy as I did when I ate meat regularly. I have gained about three pounds, but I would chalk that up to a recent recovery week and a weekend trip to New York City. I have to say that eating this way has left me feeling energetic, lighter, and happy.
What should you take from this? I hope you’ll read these words and think some more about what you eat and where it comes from. I don’t expect anyone to become a vegan overnight. But I hope you’ll become more mindful of what you do at mealtime. All living things in the universe are connected in one way or another, and you don’t have to be a New Age hippie to believe that. Even the Bible says that God gave Man “dominion” over nature. That doesn’t mean we can do whatever we want with the planet and its inhabitants. It means we need to be responsible, and treat all living things with respect.
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