Vegans of typoc unite!! we have nothing to lose but our groceries!!

[Thalassa]

The most striking thing about vegans is their complete lack of a sense of humour.

My young twin nephew and niece went to a lecture on veganism in Melbourne just the other day, and they couldn't stop themselves from giggling.

Saying I lack a sense of humor is pretty comical in and of itself, if you have observed me over the years. Even if it's not directed at me, I mean check out vegans like Ellen Degeneres - A FAMOUS COMEDIENNE, Jared Leto (very silly and playful guy who seems half his age), and YouTube vegans like Sexy Vegan and Vegan Zombie, who always incorporate humor into their respective cooking shows.

I would venture to say your neice and nephew are actually just ignorant and rude. I wonder how proud you would be if they laughed at feminists, civil rights activists, workers unions, Kosher Jews, or assorted vegan scientists and environmentalists.

I'm sure you didn't know Martin Luther King Jr's son is vegan, and Coretta Scott King was for the last decade of her life. How about Cesar Chavez? Thich Naht Hahn? Stephen Harnad? Brian Greene?

Hilarious Victor. It's always funny til it's you.

 

[Betty Blue]

1. Are you vegan?

No. I am vegetarian and a wannabe vegan, I eat free range eggs and try to eat only organic cheese etc-though i'm painfully aware that organic does not necessarily mean the animals are treated well, it just means they are fed organic food I would at least like to eat dairy which I could check that the animals were being treated well.

2. Why? Because I can't stand the animals are treated in dairy/industrial farms & animal enclosures in general

3. Name three of your favourite vegan eats.

Oh gawsh tons... I love almond cake, deep fried courgette flowers stuffed with hummus, mushroom risotto, mushroom stroganoff soya cream is awesome in those last two.

4. What is the most difficult part of being vegan?

I'm not, precisely because it is so difficult. I need to make more effort with it. When i get it together to go to a health food store and stock up I can be vegan for some time. The other difficulty is sharing meals with others, but I do want to get back on the case with it.


5. What is the most rewarding thing about being vegan?

I suppose feeling like you are actually living up to your ideals and taking away from the contribution of animal cruelty by humans in general.

I also would like to stop eating wheat. I do not eat most legumes because they do not agree with me. Tofu seems to be fine though. My diet in general could do with fine tuning.


As a small child in an inner city London state school, it was a lot harder being vegetarian. Luckily I was with a small bunch of kids who were also vegetarian. In the 80's we were thought of as really weird for being vegetarians at primary school and, much like a few imbecillic people on here, people used to think it was ok to be an asshole about it. Just another form of prejudice against a minority, nothing new in that. But yes, roll on the future where it is the norm.

 

[Norrsken]

So you would eat a retarded cow?

 

[ThaumaturgicTheorist]

I'm a bad person. I keep bouncing around between vegan/vegetarian diets, then totally giving up and going right back to eating whatever I want. Most of the actual meat I consume is processed crap I shouldn't be eating anyway, and it really is easy to give up until convenience urges otherwise. I think I maintained an almost-totally vegan diet for something like two weeks, then baked goods knocked me out. If I was wealthier, enough I could feed my sugar addiction while still eating vegan, I'd do it. But what sweets I could get were never enough, I craved it constantly. Like I said, I'm a bad person with no discipline or morals. I know that. I also know, like the OP mentioned, that there are more reasons to be vegan than not. It's actually really appealing to me, for some reason.

I can't bring myself to have much of an emotional reaction to animal products; it's too easy to forget where any of it comes from and even then, all I experience is mild disgust, if that. Intellectually I know it's the right thing to do, but can't make myself care enough to think about it every day. Actually, the activism and identity aspect of veganism is something that bugs me - I encountered one person on a forum who claimed that veganism itself is about publicity and activism. It's not just something you do in private, it's about promotion. And to me that's just...no. I don't care to be identified with it like that. It's just not that important to me, though being moral and on the right side of history is.

 

[Thalassa]

I'm a bad person. I keep bouncing around between vegan/vegetarian diets, then totally giving up and going right back to eating whatever I want. Most of the actual meat I consume is processed crap I shouldn't be eating anyway, and it really is easy to give up until convenience urges otherwise. I think I maintained an almost-totally vegan diet for something like two weeks, then baked goods knocked me out. If I was wealthier, enough I could feed my sugar addiction while still eating vegan, I'd do it. But what sweets I could get were never enough, I craved it constantly. Like I said, I'm a bad person with no discipline or morals. I know that. I also know, like the OP mentioned, that there are more reasons to be vegan than not. It's actually really appealing to me, for some reason.

I can't bring myself to have much of an emotional reaction to animal products; it's too easy to forget where any of it comes from and even then, all I experience is mild disgust, if that. Intellectually I know it's the right thing to do, but can't make myself care enough to think about it every day. Actually, the activism and identity aspect of veganism is something that bugs me - I encountered one person on a forum who claimed that veganism itself is about publicity and activism. It's not just something you do in private, it's about promotion. And to me that's just...no. I don't care to be identified with it like that. It's just not that important to me, though being moral and on the right side of history is.

Instead of calling yourself bad for eating a piece of cake (or cheese) ask yourself what you can do today (or tomorrow) to be on the right side of history. I mean severe alcoholics have a tough time, and they don't even technically need alcohol. So how can you expect food to change in 24 hours.

Just keep on truckin, keep keeping at it, like what can I do today. Or if today feels messed up, what can I do differently tomorrow to feel heroic, morally correct, or on the right side of history. It takes some people a while to transition to vegan, and that's okay.

It's also okay for people to be preachy. To a preachy vegan, they are the person rising up against oppression, slavery, sexism, environmental disaster. I'm glad some vegans are preachy. I'd owe my living to a husband if some feminists didn't throw stones.

Feminists were largely ignored until they began civil disobedience. Slavery ended in war. Civil Rights activists committed civil disobedience. Would black rights be where they are without the Black Panthers? Veganism especially when done for the environment or global starvation, is frantic and righteous. It's not about making every single person 100 percent vegan. It's about waking the world up to disgusting injustice and realistic danger. Animal rights are also valid. I was vegan before I realized it, but animal exploitation is completely inhumane, not Kosher, the conditions of livestock today defy both religious texts, and science.

 

[Mole]

Saying I lack a sense of humor is pretty comical in and of itself, if you have observed me over the years. Even if it's not directed at me, I mean check out vegans like Ellen Degeneres - A FAMOUS COMEDIENNE, Jared Leto (very silly and playful guy who seems half his age), and YouTube vegans like Sexy Vegan and Vegan Zombie, who always incorporate humor into their respective cooking shows.

I would venture to say your neice and nephew are actually just ignorant and rude. I wonder how proud you would be if they laughed at feminists, civil rights activists, workers unions, Kosher Jews, or assorted vegan scientists and environmentalists.

I'm sure you didn't know Martin Luther King Jr's son is vegan, and Coretta Scott King was for the last decade of her life. How about Cesar Chavez? Thich Naht Hahn? Stephen Harnad? Brian Greene?

Hilarious Victor. It's always funny til it's you.

I am interested in the psychology of vegans. I suspect veganism is a displacement activity. Finding it difficult or impossible to understand one own's psyche, vegans project their psyche out onto the world, in particular onto animals and those who laugh at vegans.

I intuit the psychological pain of vegans, and I understand their psychological defence is to propagate the ideology of veganism and demonise their opponents.

And the giggling of children you can hear is children laughing at the emperor with no clothes.

 

[Thalassa]

I am interested in the psychology of vegans. I suspect veganism is a displacement activity. Finding it difficult or impossible to understand one own's psyche, vegans project their psyche out onto the world, in particular onto animals and those who laugh at vegans.

I intuit the psychological pain of vegans, and I understand their psychological defence is to propagate the ideology of veganism and demonise their opponents.

And the giggling of children you can hear is children laughing at the emperor with no clothes.

You're showing a completely irrational bias towards your aristocratic English past, where the fat slobs at the top ate ten courses of meat for dinner 100 years ago. Your assessment of vegans has more to do with what you have been culturally brainwashed to believe than reality.

If anyone wears no clothes, it's the monsters running the meat industry.

Denied Breaks, U.S. Poultry Workers Wear Diapers on the Job - Bloomberg


Poultry workers forced to wear diapers and denied bathroom breaks. Just lovely. There's very little of more psychopathic proportions than the modern day slaughter house.

In fact before you respond with how this is just American people eating too much meat, it's actually a problem in other countries, including developing countries in South America, particularly with cattle farming and destruction of the rain forests...furthermore, most fish and seafood aren't sustainable, and eggs and cows milk just revert back to these huge agri-business animal and human cruelty environmental disasters.

Sure, some people can eat pasture raised backyard eggs, or drink goats milk, but there is pretty frankly no sustainable meat left in a world of 7 billion plus. And it doesn't help that yes American people are gluttons, who stuff their pizza crusts with pig flesh, but there are also people in the world wanting to mimic this, because it symbolizes wealth. I'm not a TV watcher, haven't been for over a decade, but when I do watch, it's pretty clear how people are culturally brainwashed to excess meat consumption, junk food and unsustainable mindless materialism.

Yes, we can thank your good friends back in aristocratic England for spreading this diseased mentality that meat gluttony equals wealth or nobility.

Perhaps you should consider the possibility that you are ignorant of that which you speak, and some people are better informed than yourself on this subject than yourself.



The Myth of Sustainable Meat - NY Times

 

[D'Ascoyne]

I haven't noticed anything particularly specific about the psychology of vegans. I've dated vegetarian/vegan men and many of my past and present friends are veg/vegans. They're really well-informed, and not just about things concerning animal rights; they're also usually feminist, involved in activism in some way, and extremely incredulous by nature, which makes sense. They're also generous and basically good people. Their approach to things is rather wholesale and perhaps that is what bugs people the most. What they're proposing is considered to be extreme, as it's all about upending everything; they're very anti the current system. It's intimidating to be around sometimes so I can see why some would move to acts of ridicule to stymie their effect.

The vegans I hobnob with impress me constantly with their minds, their spatulas, their whisks, their ingenuity, blah blah. I'm not vegan myself but I do find myself "wandering" around their homes quite a bit looking for food.

I'm like this: and then I'm like, "Is that pie?" and they're all, "Where did you come from?" but by then my cake hole is full of pie so I can't answer their question.

 

[Mole]

Perhaps you should consider the possibility that you are ignorant of that which you speak, and some people are better informed than yourself on this subject than yourself.

This is very hard to believe, Marmotini, but because I am fond of you I will believe you . I do now believe some are better informed than myself on the subject of veganism. So we now rely upon you to keep us informed about veganism, its moral dimension, its health dimension, and its social dimension, and how veganism can help save us from global warming.

We look forward to hearing from you.

 

[Betty Blue]

I'm now on day three of being completely vegan. Can't promise it will be a smooth ride because have also stopped (refined) sugar and wheat. My diet is pretty reduced, I just have to remember to stock up on all the goodies I can eat.

 

[prplchknz]

So you would eat a retarded cow?

I would also a smart cow, steak is delicious

 

[Thalassa]

This is very hard to believe, Marmotini, but because I am fond of you I will believe you . I do now believe some are better informed than myself on the subject of veganism. So we now rely upon you to keep us informed about veganism, its moral dimension, its health dimension, and its social dimension, and how veganism can help save us from global warming.

We look forward to hearing from you.

Great. Check out my Vegan Village in the blog section. I have been steering towards nutrition, recipes, and diets or groceries rather than the political issues, but rest assured I will get there. I think up front it's better to inform people how well nourished and satisfied they can be on a vegan diet, without necessarily spending above average amounts of money on vegan specialty foods, and how in some forms, the vegan diet can be more affordable than eating meats.

It's also important to show people the vegan foods they already eat, and how recipes can be veganized. This reduces the element of fear or thinking it's strange or difficult. ..even in restaurants there are good vegan options.

Then more information should be offered on the whys. A lot of people tune out the whys out of nothing but blind ignorance or fear of the diet itself - especially people who were overtly intentionally socialized to accept outdated nutrition about meat, in order to support the meat industry financially, when that sort of calorie density isn't an emergency unless you get stranded on a desert island, or upon the frozen Alaskan tundra.

Also...could be ancestral fear of a diet of gruel. There was a lot of stupid classism in the West in the 19th century, so the highest class ate enough meat to make them sick and fat, and the lowest class ate thin grain porridges, and didn't get many vegetables. Especially in the UK cultures, it seems like beans and legumes were weirdly missing from the diets of the poor, unlike the Mediterranean, Asia, and even France and the Americas, where people ate, soy, lentils or peas, or legumes of some kind.

Anyway, it's primarily cultural. That's a fact.

 

[Betty Blue]

You know another thing which strikes me as regards to the meat expense thing is that cheap meat is pretty damn bad for you. My brother eats it complaining of the expense of farmyard reared meat. But what is the point of feeling full with negative health benefits versus feeling full for the same amount of money with positive health benefits. The argument is truly weak. I watched a documentary where battery chickens were atop each others rotting carcases, for me it was painful to watch. But asides from my own issues with this; for those who care little for the animals and just want meat because they need the protein, I'm pretty sure when the meat is in such a bad condition (and in big factory farms it really is) that it has to be bleached to be saleable...American big farms spray their poultry with all sorts of other chemicals as well as bleach. Theres pretty close to zero goodness left... I imagine it's mostly just really really bad for you. I could not find a study on the actual quality... maybe someone else could.

 

[Riva]

I've seen quite a lot of people try becoming full time vegetarians and reverting back. This discourages me. Perhaps the trick should be to replace 1 meal per day and then increase it.

I would like to try it. But I doubt I would have the discipline to be a full time vegan. Perhaps replace some of my meals.

 

[Thalassa]

I've seen quite a lot of people try becoming full time vegetarians and reverting back. This discourages me. Perhaps the trick should be to replace 1 meal per day and then increase it.

I would like to try it. But I doubt I would have the discipline to be a full time vegan. Perhaps replace some of my meals.

One of the reasons people revert back is because they are poorly informed or something. If something is unfamiliar to a person it will be more difficult to change because it's easier to revert to habitual thinking and behavior.

I think there's also a serious problem in the United States in particular with an immature mindset of instant gratification. When I see a lot of American people talk about anything from politics to meat, their attitude seems fairly irrational and adolescent, based around a mentality most strongly resembling a teenager demanding a new car than a rational adult. It's cultural and intentionally cultivated by commercialism and consumerism. I've even read articles on how American people coddle their children with early food choices, while French children learn to eat vegetables along with everyone else at the table. I'm extremely thankful I came from a more old fashioned family...not in terms of meat, but by being given vegetables and having no irresponsible parent who overindulged me with McDonald's or frozen pizza if I wouldn't eat my peas.

But even outside of this American cultural immaturity, it's difficult for people in general to change their habits without being given strong information and replacements. There are vegan high schools now in Europe, and in the US in Oregon and California. I actually live near a vegan farm school...I think it also helps that restaurants are offering vegan options or vegetarian menus. Education is critical with nutrition and diet, just like any other subject.

Changing slowly can have the longest term impact for some people, so they can learn over time, meal by meal, day by day, week by week.


It's easiest for people also when they actually understand the real reasons for being vegan, some people literally go vegan overnight, but they're usually people who have been given the information and have a profound immediate shift in perception.

Also, I want to add that there is no "natural" tendency for children to prefer meat or junk food. I've observed data on vegan children and adults who were raised vegan, who loved cooked and raw vegetables from toddler years and the basic similarities they bear to children raised eating meat or junk food, is that small children have sensitive palets, and are therefore resistant to NEW foods. I'm going to do a whole post on this in my vegan village blog.

 

[Thalassa]

You know another thing which strikes me as regards to the meat expense thing is that cheap meat is pretty damn bad for you. My brother eats it complaining of the expense of farmyard reared meat. But what is the point of feeling full with negative health benefits versus feeling full for the same amount of money with positive health benefits. The argument is truly weak. I watched a documentary where battery chickens were atop each others rotting carcases, for me it was painful to watch. But asides from my own issues with this; for those who care little for the animals and just want meat because they need the protein, I'm pretty sure when the meat is in such a bad condition (and in big factory farms it really is) that it has to be bleached to be saleable...American big farms spray their poultry with all sorts of other chemicals as well as bleach. Theres pretty close to zero goodness left... I imagine it's mostly just really really bad for you. I could not find a study on the actual quality... maybe someone else could.

Yes there's all sorts of fillers and chemicals in meat, not even just cheap meat like hot dogs or spam, but there is arsenic in chicken to keep it looking pink. Meat from cattle starts to rot and turn green after just a couple of days, so has to be chemically treated to remain presentable to consumers. Also, pesticide intake increases the further up one eats in the food chain, so a meat eater is consuming more toxins from livestock than non- organic vegetables. The risk for food poisoning, bird and swine flu are also greater from eating meat, because of the conditions in which most modern livestock is raised.

As far as "sustainable farming"...it actually doesn't exist for cattle or pigs, at all, because of their requirements of land, water and the amount of pollution they cause. I've also seen the fertilizer argument from grass fed beef, but it doesn't hold any water unless you're basically a subsistence farmer...large scale grass fed cattle will still eat plants taken from over farmed land, carried by vehicles using fossil fuels to feed the chickens who fertilize the cows grazing pasture.


The Myth of Sustainable Meat - NYTimes.com

In the past people ate a lot less meat, unless they were aristocracy or royalty. There were a lot more people who were mostly vegetarian, and the population was like...1/7 of what it is now.

Seas are also over fished and full of trash, oil and mercury. Yum.

 

[erm]

I've told myself that the wealthier I become, the more time I can devote to being more ethical.

As such I've set myself financial and material targets that trigger when I become a vegan (I'm vegetarian at the moment).

I'm pretty sure I'm wrong about this somewhere, but I haven't thought about it in years so I'd have to unpack my thoughts again.

 

[Perspective]

1. Are you vegan?
Yes.
2. Why?
My number one reason would be climate change. Cowspiracy was a huge catalyst for me in realizing how much the meat industry contributes to greenhouse gas emissions & the deforestation of rainforests.
Second would be for ethical reasons. This was second for me because I only felt strongly about this once I became vegan and my cognitive dissonance faded away. The more I looked into how cattle, chickens, and pigs are actually treated, I became absolutely disgusted with the entire concept of eating meat.
3. Name three of your favourite vegan eats.
Avocado on toast with salt and pepper, zucchini cooked in any fashion, and sweet potatoes
4. What is the most difficult part of being vegan?
Going to the grocery store hah
5. What is the most rewarding thing about being vegan?
Not causing any additional harm to the planet or animals <3

 

[Mole]

Most religions have sacred rules about diet, Islam has sacred halal food, Judaism has sacred kosher food, Hinduism have a sacred lacto-vegetarian diet. Chinese interestingly regard food as an ancient Chinese medicine.

And the purpose of these religious diets is not rational but has a spiritual purpose, in terms of spiritual purity, and as a personal show of loyalty to the particular deity.

So it is only natural that the New Age movement has a sacred vegan diet.

 

[Hiraeth]

1y Are you vegan?
Yes
2. Why?
I was vegetarian first for 3.5 years for my health and for the welfare of animals, but became vegan due to becoming more knowledgeable on the cruelty of the dairy industry. After much research, I've come to the realization that veganism makes most sense in our modern era since we can get all of our nutrition from plants without the need to cause any harm to sentient beings, to the environment (animal agriculture is largely accountable to the destruction of our environment), and for our health as well (vegans on average have extremely low levels of cholesterol and have a much lesser chance of acquiring the top deadliest diseases killing us all.) My wish is to see a future where animals are not killed for the consumption of food and other by-products, as it it is not necessary in this day and age.
3. Name three of your favourite vegan eats.
So many! But I'll have to say falafel, vegan pizza, and pretty much any Indian dish.
4. What is the most difficult part of being vegan?
Honestly, I don't find much difficulty because I'm committed 100%, but I think many people have difficulty abstaining from everything they used to eat because of how ubiquitous meat and dairy is in our society. However, I think it is a lot easier to be vegan nowadays due to all the alternative vegan options readily available.
5. What is the most rewarding thing about being vegan?
Knowing that you aren't participating to the unethical cruelty to animals, doing good for the environment, and doing as much as I can for my health too.