To celebrate World Vegan Month (marked by World Vegan Day on November 1st), I thought I might reflect on the day I went vegan in this blog post. It all started... Saturday, 25th of March, 2017 On this day, I took part in the World Wildlife Fund's (WWF) 'Earth Hour' - a pledge to turn off your household lights for one hour as a message on climate change and to reduce your impact on the planet. After the hour was up, I received a follow-up email of thanks/congratulations from the WWF team. When I scrolled to the bottom, there was a link to their carbon footprint calculator, and out of curiosity, I took the quiz. To my complete shock, I discovered that the worst contributor in my life to environmental destruction was not the sporty car I drove to work every day (as the mainstream media had me believe), but rather what was on my plate each day. Meat, dairy and eggs. I looked at the 'things you can do' page for some suggestions on how to improve my score and there it was, 'vegan'. My dad's brother had been vegan most of his life and he was the first vegan I think I ever encountered, so I was familiar with the lifestyle. I had also been vegetarian on and off throughout adolescence because I never liked meat, it grossed me out! I did however eat a lot of dairy - cheese was what my meals were generally built around. Like most children, I was caught in that terrible paradox of claiming to love animals, yet eating them or their milk and eggs. I knew animals were killed for 'food' but I had always believed the humane-washing propaganda in the media. What I discovered on Earth Hour night, ironically, made a light switch on in my mind, and suddenly, I could see the reality. My husband and I stayed up for the rest of the night into the early morning researching, watching documentaries like Earthlings, Blackfish, Cowspiracy, and Forks Over Knives, as well as Animal Activist YouTubers such as Earthling Ed's street interviews and Gary Yourofsky lectures, and learning more about veganism in general. Literally overnight, we changed. We tossed out every item of food in our kitchen that contained anything non-vegan right away and went on our first ever vegan food shop together which was so exciting (but perhaps a post for another time). My decision to go vegan meant I had to face my own uncomfortable hypocrisies and biases. I had to come to terms with the fact I'd been lied to my entire life and that was heartbreaking. What is more heartbreaking though, is what animals go through. Animals suffer immensely on ALL farms, they are abused, assaulted, rejected, kidnapped, kicked, beaten, battered, humiliated, tortured, restricted, and held captive by an oppressive system who hides behind 'humane', 'happy animal' messaging mind control with catchy slogans and cute mascot distractions. The reality of animal agriculture and factory farming is that it's a horrific business consisting of not one 'bad apple' farm, but an entire rotting tree of anthropocentric ideologies and animal objectification. I thought I was an eco-warrior, but I was an environment destroyer. I thought I loved animals, but I was paying someone to murder them on my behalf. I never thought I'd go vegan, but when that light switched on, there was no more time spent being in the dark.
5 years, 7 months, 12 days, and counting. Happy World Vegan Month! LMK
