I suppose I shall begin my story with the fact that five years ago I made the decision to stop consuming animals.
I happened to be in Western Europe at the time, Holland to be exact. I had done some online research earlier that year, still living in Canada, and had become a vegetarian. While I grew up eating lots of salads, fruits and vegetables and had the occasional notion that I could likely eat vegetarian if I were to “box myself in” to that label (this I arrogantly said to my animal-loving sister when she went veggie as a teenager), I had never before felt like there was any reason to give up meat or dairy, because I had always been told that they were very healthy and important as part of a “balanced” diet. I suppose I also prided myself on the fact that I wasn’t hard to please when it came to food. The truth of meat being the body of an animal seldom bothered me because I had accepted the culturally perpetuated notion that it was necessary, and I felt secure in identifying myself as the “norm”. Soymilk made me angry, health foods were pretentious, and milk was something I’d had every day since I was little so I couldn’t understand why some people chose to avoid it in favour of such weird things.
I happened to be in Western Europe at the time, Holland to be exact. I had done some online research earlier that year, still living in Canada, and had become a vegetarian. While I grew up eating lots of salads, fruits and vegetables and had the occasional notion that I could likely eat vegetarian if I were to “box myself in” to that label (this I arrogantly said to my animal-loving sister when she went veggie as a teenager), I had never before felt like there was any reason to give up meat or dairy, because I had always been told that they were very healthy and important as part of a “balanced” diet. I suppose I also prided myself on the fact that I wasn’t hard to please when it came to food. The truth of meat being the body of an animal seldom bothered me because I had accepted the culturally perpetuated notion that it was necessary, and I felt secure in identifying myself as the “norm”. Soymilk made me angry, health foods were pretentious, and milk was something I’d had every day since I was little so I couldn’t understand why some people chose to avoid it in favour of such weird things.
In 2005 I was 18, done with high school, and had never left Canada. I saved up and traveled to Guyana with Youth Challenge International. During the time I spent there with about 10 other people hailing from Canada, Australia and Guyana, my views of food and cooking took a complete overhaul. I had always been into baking, but the two month stay in a one-room school dorm building with no electricity, a propane stove, a very simple food reserve, a scant grocery budget, and a revolving system that shared cooking duties equally among everyone (and almost no recipes!) quickly made me realize I knew next to nothing about cooking. Fortunately, it was done in pairs, and by the time our community development project was over, I had learned to make meals using ingredients like rice, pasta, garlic, onions, beans, lentils and local vegetables. The diet was, mostly due to caution around using any dairy or meat products in a foreign, tropical climate, almost completely vegetarian. There was also a vegan in my group. She was the first vegan I had ever met, and though we didn’t talk very much about why she had decided to be one (or maybe I just didn't listen very much), I couldn’t help but observe her eating habits in comparison with everyone else’s. Other than setting aside her portion before adding milk powder to the porridge, for example, or withholding the egg from a peanut stir-fry, there was very little that she couldn’t eat that the rest of us could. I had always rejected veganism because I thought it was extreme, yet I could see that this person definitely didn’t go hungry, and seemed to thrive with an enthusiasm for food that I couldn’t have imagined possible.
I guess this unique experience stayed with me because when I got back to Canada and began waking up to very uncomfortable stomach pains at night a few days after I had resumed eating dairy and meat, it didn’t take me long to figure out what the problem was. My digestive system had gotten so used to plant-based foods that it was rejecting the sudden attack of animal protein I had inflicted upon it.
Shortly after I returned I moved in with my cousin and aunt for a few months to work and save money for my next adventure; majestic Europe. I had been limiting my dairy intake since I’d returned, and my cousin had always been interested in animal rights but had never actually walked the walk. We decided to take the last step and find out the truth for ourselves. At this point, with the knowledge and sense of well-being I’d gained from my overseas experience, I was beginning to feel deep down that the healthiest thing I could do for my body was to stop eating meat and dairy once and for all…but I just needed a final push of some kind.
We began reading online literature on how the meat and dairy industries operate. I can’t believe how gullible I was! I don’t think I really even knew that they were big industries, perhaps due to the dreamy stories I grew up hearing about sunny happy farms with green pastures where animals roamed free. I proceeded to spend an entire afternoon watching undercover video footage of how chickens, pigs, cows, turkeys and other animals are raised on giant factory “farms” in captivity without daylight, separated from their parents/babies, fed hormones and antibiotics to stimulate unnaturally fast growth, are physically abused, and finally carted off to the slaughterhouse, many dying along the way, where they are brutally and carelessly murdered and butchered.
I don’t feel the need to share in great detail what happens to the “farmed” animals we eat; the information is out there in excess. I will list some links and books at the end of this entry, and I strongly encourage you to check them out if you are thinking of learning more about where “food” comes from. (See notes*)
With this information I had finally come upon in my search for the best way to eat, the tears that streamed down my face as I watched lives being taken away from terrified, unwilling individuals who were helpless and unhealthy to begin with were the only answer I needed. Not only did I no longer wish to consume the bodies of these beings in the interest of being healthier, I simply could not tolerate the idea of ever supporting such a purely evil industry again. The more I read, the more excited I became to know that there was an alternative world out there where I could be actively DOING something to fight back against this awful ignorance we are plagued with. A world where I could create positivity within myself by making my own choices each day and being an example of the changes I wanted to see in the world, just as my Australian friend had been an example to me in Guyana. It made me ecstatic to know that I could be completely healthy eating plant-based foods, and I spent every spare hour looking up exciting new recipes and going shopping to try new and different ingredients. It was all I could think about! Perhaps many people despise reading labels, but it became a great hobby of mine. I wanted to make sure I was only eating food I felt good about. For the first time in my life I felt passionate about what I ate, and thus began my great love of cooking.
I remained an excited almost-vegan for a few months, breaking my news early on to some slightly concerned parents, whom I emailed web articles on the different animal industries (they ended up giving up meat a few months later and are now passionate vegans!). I obligingly ate dairy when eating with my family when I returned for a few weeks before departing for Europe, and when I arrived in Europe with my non-vegetarian friend at her non-vegetarian relatives’ house where we would live for three months, I continued to eat dairy throughout the stay as the language and culture barrier would have made it very difficult for a new (and poor) vegan to find much to eat. By the end of our stay with those lovely and kind-hearted people, though, I was ready to assert my free will, despite the fact that Europe is full of meat and dairy farms, and veganism is far from normal (almost unheard of in rural areas!). I backpacked through Europe as an official vegan, doing my own grocery shopping and completely taking care of myself for the first time in my life, and since then I haven’t looked back.
Shortly after returning from Europe in late 2006, I met the man who would become my husband. He was working as an intern at a free-school where my parents worked, and I had learned of this dude during my weekly phone calls with my mother from overseas. When I got home and met him in person, let’s just say I wasn’t impressed by the blatant matchmaking spell my dear mother was trying to cast upon the two of us. It’s not that I couldn’t see how cool he was, it’s just that I was a world traveler and was getting used to making my own decisions. So despite the fact that he was a vegetarian, I rejected his dinner invitation. Besides, I had an elaborate fantasy built of a perfect guy who would be almost impossible to find, so it couldn’t be this easy. We became co-workers, but a year passed before I realized I was being stupid. This guy challenged me on all my neurotic reservations, told me absolutely everything on his mind, hatched creative plots with me, and truly showed he cared about my well being. I enjoyed spending time with him immensely. On a full moon in June of 2010, we were married in a beautiful field on a mountain by the sacred, happy energy of friends and family. Shortly after that we decided that with the messy state the world seems to be headed for right now, farming good, healthy food was in our future, and we spent the summer of 2011 learning about veggie gardening, perhaps the hard way. Around the time we had realized our harvest was going to be scant this season and we’d better find employment for the fall and winter to save for next year’s endeavour, we found out our next bit of news, which you’ve probably guessed from the blog title. If it’s necessary to add, we are ecstatic to be working on yet another creative experience together, and that is raising our very own vegan baby.
For me, veganism is the simplest and most powerful path I can take toward asserting myself against the dark powers that have such a strong hold on the minds of humans in the western world, causing us to have such disrespect for the other life forms who share the Earth with us that we claim them as our own. And to a degree, that disrespect is innocently acquired! Having been subject to this propaganda in the past, I understand the other side and know, more than anything else, that the lifestyle I now choose is a lifetime decision. And faced with the fact that I am going to be someone’s mother, it means even more to me that I lead as an example of what I have found to be the truth.
Bring on the vegan cravings and recipes!
Notes* Great resources on the food industry and why veganism is healthy:
Books:
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