How I became a vegan more or less

When I was about 10 years old, my mother and some of her friends slaughtered 100 chickens in our back yard. There were vats of blood. There were chickens literally running around with their heads cut off.

Chicken never tasted the same to me after that.

I grew up eating a lot of "alternative" foods in the first place. We did not eat staple American "meat and potatoes" fare in my family. My parents and grandparents had lived in Asia and Latin America. Rice was a regular on our menu. My palate had an early introduction to the flavors of the world. After multiple visits to foreign parts myself, I developed a long-delayed appreciation for both soup and hot tea. In college in Hawaii, my favorite lunch on campus was cold tofu salad.

I'm telling you these details because these are the kinds of things that make it easier to go vegan.

I sound so un-American already. How can you be an American and not eat beef?

It's weird that we have this concept that Americans eat a certain way when in general Americans are very experimental in their eating habits. But the backlash against veganism, well, we do know where it is coming from. The beef industry, the milk industry, the cheese industry - the COW industry - and its devotees who feel threatened, financially, and apparently, personally.

Because it's a threat if you have to think about maybe some of the things you love to eat are bad for you or that cultivating them, processing them, and you eating them is helping kill the planet.

Or that the cow you are eating felt scared when it died.

It's a threat when you are losing business because consumers are trying to be health conscious and ethical. And your business is neither. And you might have to think about running a different business in order to be a better person and in order for us to have a better planet. People don't like to make sacrifices for long-term benefits. They want the feel good now. They want the money now. They want the hamburger now. The excuse, "people will lose jobs if the beef industry becomes less important" is a lame-ass excuse. I'm sorry for everyone that won't have a job. I've lost many a job myself.

EVOLVE.

And do we even need to talk about methane and greenhouse gases? Oh yeah. Global warming is a myth. Sorry about that. My bad.

Then there are the mean-spirited jokes that plants have feelings too. So what are you going to eat now, vegans? I guess nothing! You got me! Wait, are you saying it's bad to eat things that have feelings? Oh no! Cuz I think that turns this back around to you eating that terrified cow!

Maybe plants have feelings. But it must be less painful for a piece of celery to die than for a lamb so you can have that lamb chop or a baby calf so you can have that veal. I am only guessing.

About five years ago, I watched a movie that made the crossover complete. I had already deduced that milk didn't feel good. My husband I had been lactose-free, milk-wise, for some time. I had already figured out that eating beef felt HEAVY and that fast food made me tired and FAT.

In this movie, pigs were squeezed into cages at least one size too small for them. Workers with lifeless eyes handled slabs of beef while blood streamed around them. Panicked chickens were beheaded en masse by automated machetes. Of course, I have learned many more stories since then. Of the cows that try desperately to escape slaughter, running into nearby towns. Once in awhile, one of them is "saved" and "adopted" by the town. How sweet. Meanwhile, farms and factories that claim to follow FDA regulations refuse to allow visitors and that sticker that says "organic" or "free range" is often a lie. And don't even get me started on gluten. Oh, do you have celiac disease? No, I don't. Our food is processed and full of dangerous chemicals. When I eat fake white bread crap I feel bad. That's why I don't eat bread. Basically, I couldn't trust food anymore. That was a big part of it. And I knew that animals suffer when they die. And that there was no way to guarantee to me that they don't.

More. I felt better. Completely better. I lost weight. I gained energy. For all those haters, my blood levels are fine. My cholesterol is fine. My bones are fine. I get plenty of protein. I get plenty of calcium. Ya'll, all these companies know that people have gone off meat and need nutrients. These alternative products, the almond milk and whatnot, are packed with what we need. Being vegan doesn't make you weak. Weight lifters are vegan. Many entire cultures or societies have been at least vegetarian and/or vegan. So why all the hate? Why all the disbelief? Why all the naysayers?

I can hear the denials. What hate? Vegans are the ones who are annoying, people will say. They're so preachy, people will say. It's hard to be quiet when you want to save the world, yes. And yes, there are some wack job vegans. There are some wack job any type of person. Yet when you have been convinced, through doing it yourself, that your dietary choices WORK, it's hard to not be obvious about it. You don't even have to say anything because you look and feel better and everybody that knows you knows that. And they know that they aren't doing what you do. The grief that comes from the other side is palpable and constant. The nasty posts in Facebook groups that have nothing to do with food. Or the reverse, the constant postings about BACON. Ya know? I don't say anything. I laugh too. I don't say, you know bacon is bad for you. I don't respond with a photo of a pig in a cage.

I cause discomfort by saying NOTHING. People hear that I am vegan and all of the sudden they are beside themselves with what to do if I come over - or the opposite, they could give a shit and I should fend for myself (ie. starve). I never try to make a fuss. I always say I will make do. And I do. Being vegan is almost a form of self-ostracization. Sitting on the sidelines while everyone else eats that Thanksgiving turkey. There's no denying how important food is to anyone's culture, to having fun, and to celebrating. It's so important. That's why it's important to think harder about it. Being vegan is so threatening to people who don't want to change or even think about changing. Automatically, it's as if people think I think I am "better than them" because I am vegan.

I'm just a person whose life and life decisions brought her to a certain point, and found it good, and you can be that person too. You can join me anytime. I'll be sitting over here by myself trying really hard not to make a face while you eat that salmon and the orcas are dying.