The V Word

What do Pythagoras, Isaac Newton and Leonardo Da Vinci have in common? There may be many things which come to mind, but I doubt that one of them is that they were all vegetarian. In fact, Da Vinci was a vegan.

I'm currently at home in Glasgow for two weeks over the Easter holidays and have had a lot of time to think, and my thinking has been going a lot in one direction. I have been a vegetarian for almost 20 years, most of my life, and this choice was, in a way, made for me by my parents. However I have never once even considered, not even for a minute, becoming a meat eater and consuming dead poultry, cows, fish, pigs or sheep. The idea of flesh passing my lips disgusts me, plus the more research I have done into animal welfare and factory farming, the more I have been convinced that meat production involves exploitation, abuse and cruelty, and that you cannot be an animal lover and still eat meat if you are truly aware of the conditions of the creatures slaughtered- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VIjanhKqVC4. I am often asked why I am a vegetarian, and rarely put it in such blunt terms. I hate confrontation, and have a fear of alienating my friends if I express my views in a way that attacks part of their lifestyle. I also believe in personal choice, and part of me feels that if I truly explain my viewpoint, I may be seen as trying to 'convert'. But then again, if someone asks me the question, am I not entitled to give an honest answer?

Moving to France was a large challenge for my vegetarian lifestyle. There are simply far less vegetarians there, and in my experience fewer people who seem interested animal welfare- after all, this is the country where disgustingly force-fed ducks is a speciality- although I must admit that I have never been chastised for my opinion in France. Nobody I've met in Avignon has said anything against my being a vegetarian, unlike some people in Britain, and all my friends have really tried hard to accommodate me when I go to dinner parties, to the extent that I start to apologise for my beliefs- I feel guilty that my beliefs inconvenience people. In my last few days in France before coming back for Easter I was actually starting to feel quite depressed that nobody really understood my vegetarian mindset, and I felt real need of the company of other 'people like me'. This is the first time I've felt this way, and was compounded by the fact that my research had led me to make a new and highly controversial decision- to become vegan.

This has been a long time coming- maybe three or four months that I've been considering it- but recent discovery into how unhealthy dairy is, how it contributes to the veal industry and how dairy cows are just as, and perhaps even more, abused than cows bred for meat purposes, really turned my stomach. I have been drinking soya milk instead of milk and eating soya butter for around two years now, since my dad started doing it, and so I figured the transition on a personal level wouldn't be that difficult. I'd miss cheese, but there were alternatives available, and as far as cakes are concerned, I am spending my two weeks at home honing my baking skills and am planning to try as many vegan cake and biscuit recipes as I can- I have already made vegan trifle several times for family occasions as I have a vegan aunt. As for eggs, the fact that chickens are slaughtered when their peak egg production is over and they produce less eggs- looong before their natural lifespan- and the fact that male baby chicks are murdered at birth, often minced alive- made me think what is the point in not eating chicken but continuing to contribute to chicken deaths?

Anyway this was a highly personal decision that I made for my health and my conscience. In fact, I have found it surprisingly easy to shun dairy and egg produce- I even had a dominos pizza the other day with vegan cheese, and it was yummy. The very idea of milk puts me off now- why do we drink something designed for a baby calf? It's really weird if you think about it. Plus I always remember two years ago being at a cheese factory as part of one of my legal placements (the factory was our client) and having a chat about cheese with a man who had used to be a dairy farmer. He didn't know I was a vegetarian, and he said "you know these vegetarians are so hypocritical. They don't eat meat, but from what I've seen the most painful thing ever done to a cow is seperating it from it's baby. They cry for days." I told him I was a vegetarian and he just shrugged, like 'well more fool you.' Getting this kind of info from someone who wasn't a vegan or even a vegetarian, and had no motive for putting me off milk, was more powerful than anything else could be. Yet for some reason it took two years before I changed.

My biggest challenge as a vegan will be other people's opinions, plus the whole 'inconveniencing people' factor is going to increase by about 200% and I'm not sure what I'll do about that. But I'm sure in my mind. The main thing I need is support- thankfully my Mum and C are trying really hard, C wasn't too happy at first, which is understandable, but then he took me to the supermarket and bought me a bunch of soya yoghurts and soya cheese, which made me really happy. Being vegan is something I'm not sure I'll go back on, but I may have to compromise somewhat in France where there is so little available, I have yet to find a margarine without buttermilk.

Well I have to go now as I've got to sort out applying for the diploma next year, but I'm thankful to have my blog where I can post my thoughts and opinions, and clear my head.