We are officially now a vegan family. Why? When we learnt about the environmental, ethical and health benefits it was not so much why as why not. In fact, it was why didn’t we do this sooner?
How shocking it is to learn that 51% of the worlds greenhouse emissions are caused by livestock farming and its byproducts? When you compare that to the emissions of all transport combined – which is 13% – isn’t it clear what we need to focus our efforts on to help save our precious world?1.
Once you know, is there any going back?
Being a self-confessed cheeseaholic, there was a little moment of panic. How on earth was I going to manage without cheese? It featured in nearly every one of our meals every day.
Creamy cappuccinos, fried eggs on toast, double doses of cheese on everything. It’s what we consume en masse, it’s what’s marketed to us, it is what’s normalised.
But what we don’t think about – often through little fault of our own – is the incredible suffering and mutilation of animals that takes place just so we can enjoy these taste and texture experiences.
We discovered that it is well-documented on farms, for example, that the cow-calf (aka mother-child) connection is strong, and that when a calf is taken away from it’s mother just hours after giving birth, the heartfelt moos go on for days after they are separated. For days.
A video posted by SAFE (New Zealand’s leading animal advocacy organisation), shows calves ‘taken from their mothers so humans can have their milk’. Sadder still, they say, is that ‘in NZ up to two million calves are sent to slaughter at 4 days old, as wastage’2.
https://www.facebook.com/SAFEnewzealand/videos/10159746674105434/
It’s all pretty confusing and incredibly distressing. How did we get here? Who are we to think we have the right to seperate mother from child? Who are we – as a nation of so-called animal lovers – to think that it is okay to support forced separation of animals? When did it become okay for babies to be taken away from their mothers and killed as an inconvenience? And let’s not get started on other things, such as chickens having their beaks trimmed before getting crammed into cages.
Why had we only now stumbled upon this information? It was confronting and distressing.
It’s easy to see, in some respects, that with food so highly packaged we’re increasingly disconnected from the origins of our food and make little connection between a living, breathing animal and the package on a supermarket shelf.
Once we learned the hard truths and actually stopped to think about it, we were no longer okay with it. We made the choice to transition from vegetarian to vegan, to become a vegan family.
Vegetarian to vegan
Mealtimes in our household used to include lots of cheese, from cheese sandwiches at lunch to rich, gooey cheese sauces for dinner. As vegetarians, cheese was a staple; as vegans, it was no longer on the menu.
The same went for butter, yoghurt and milk, the things we’d always assumed were healthy, tasty and nurturing.
The first month of veganism was a time for creativity in the kitchen. It’s easy to understand why people say turning vegan is difficult, because initially it all seems a bit overwhelming.
But, once we realised that a lot of what we already ate was accidentally vegan and that so many delicious vegan dishes are actually very easy to make, we felt reassured.
Plus, there was no going back.
We’d seen the movies, read further research and were totally convinced that this was the path to walk.
The hardest part of being a vegan family
It’s been over four months now. Although we don’t consume any food or drinks containing animal products, we’re still transitioning in terms of clothing, personal belongings and toiletries.
Some vegans might say ‘throw everything out’ that has anything to do with animals, but we don’t want to add to waste either.
The plan is to use stuff up and buy replacements that are vegan friendly, vegan family-friendly, animal-friendly, life-friendly.
A common question is ‘how do you get your protein’, and we’ve discovered just how protein-rich a plant-based diet actually is. Despite eating plant-based (and for the most-part organic), we have had to ensure that we’re getting enough Vitamin B12.
We’ve also been gentle on our son’s choices: when he wanted to try milk at his granny’s house, that wasn’t a question. He needs to explore his own understanding of it too.
The hardest parts of turning vegan wasn’t the change in diet or lifestyle; it was waking up to the immense cruelty that goes on every day around us, which in turn affects our planet and our health.
A huge majority of us consume and take advantage of animals for no good reason apart from tradition, convenience and taste. Why – if we can live healthily without animal products – are we causing unnecessary harm, pain and death to innocent animals, and in turn destroying our world?
And with growing evidence that it’s actually healthier to eat a plant-based diet, what is stopping you?
OVER TO YOU
If you want to watch two movies that started our journey to becoming a vegan family, set time aside to watch Cowspiracy and What The Health. Cowspiracy looks at the environmental cost of a growing population of meat eaters and the surprising reasons behind why you haven’t heard about the health risks and ethical concerns. What The Health examines how the very people who are supposed to be helping and informing us in terms of health are in fact failing to share information critical to our wellbeing.
For a quick, punchy snapshot of why the dairy industry isn’t what we think it is, see the Dairy is Scary video on YouTube. There are also many, many other longer films that are often recommended that pull back the curtain and give you a glimpse into some harsh realities including Earthlings (we couldn’t watch it all) and Forks Over Knives. Or, for a somewhat gentler (if that’s even possible) critique of the meat industry, there’s also the Netflix movie Okja, starring Tilda Swinton, Paul Dano, Steven Yeun, Lily Collins and Jake Gyllenhaal.
References & Further Reading
- Cowspiracy Website http://www.cowspiracy.com/facts/
- SAFE https://www.facebook.com/SAFEnewzealand/videos/10159746674105434/
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