My vegan decision

The following is an essay I have submitted and had accepted and posted on a website about why and how people have become vegan. http://www.thevegandecision.com/.  It is a very interesting site, well worth a visit, full of useful essays and inspirational thoughts.  The following is the full version of the essay, as I had written far more than the prescribed number of words for my post, and could not seem to bring the word count down!:



'I am a life vegetarian, my parents became vegetarian during WWII. I have never eaten meat knowingly, and was always quite happy being vegetarian as a child, was never tempted to try meat, loved animals and made the connection between killing and meat. A lot of the food I grew up on was vegan, pulses, nuts, tinned delights such as Nuttolene (you can still get it in the UK, it is still lovely!). There was no distinction made in our household between a meal that was vegan and one with cheese/eggs, although, given a preference I would probably have chosen the macaroni cheese over the red lentil, lemony splodge! I loved cooking as I grew up and probably used more and more dairy and egg products as my cooking skills developed.

I have been running a vegetarian and vegan guest house in Cornwall, UK. for six years, and have become comfortable cooking vegan meals for many of our guests during this time. Yet vegans always made me feel a bit uncomfortable, there was the reminder that I was not really letting myself know the full horror my dairy and egg consumption was supporting. I recall saying things like ‘I know I should become vegan, but I’m not about to’ to guests, and closing any conversation that might be forthcoming quickly. Cognitive dissonance – the holding of two contradictory views at one time, and rationalising ones way out of the discomfort (‘I’m vegetarian, isn’t that good enough?’ ‘It would be difficult’, ‘less tasty’, blah, blah, blah) is a common experience for many who claim to love animals, yet continue to eat or use their products.

I am an avid user of Facebook, and was ‘friended’ by several animal rights activist vegans in 2009. They posted difficult to watch and upsetting videos. I got angry with these people and contacted one and then ‘hid’ his posts for a while. Then, I forced myself to watch one, just a simple video of a cow waiting to go into the abattoir to be killed, trying to turn around, entitled ‘I am scared’. It brings tears to my eyes just to type that out. I decided, instantly, to try being vegan, just for a week, September 2009. I then carried on, day by day once the week was up, ‘I can have the stilton tomorrow if I want to’ etc. I now rarely even think about it. I still cook some vegetarian meals for guests, and sometimes test them. But, the sense of being vegan grows, and I love it, and it is easy. So different to dieting, which I have always been hopeless at. Something to do with doing it for others, not for me, although I benefit too. I have rarely done anything in my life that I am so happy or comfortable with.

It is not without problems, of course. Socially, it means rejecting people’s hospitality at times. It means justifying oneself, although why I have to justify not eating dead things or their products, beats me. It means checking and asking and getting daft replies – ‘is the soup suitable for vegans?’ – ‘no, Madam, the only item on the menu suitable for vegans is the Cajun chicken salad’, or, in a different café – ‘are any of the cakes suitable for vegans?’ – ‘er, no, they all have chocolate in’. It involves a lot of letter writing to link people in with the Vegan Society and educate them, or thank places for good meals they have prepared for us.

We (my husband is now largely vegan) are many people’s sole representatives of what a ‘vegan’ is. Everything you do, how you behave, is judged (in my mind at least!) in relation to your stance on what you eat. I feel I must not get ill, or it will be seen to be because I have become vegan. I do not seem to be doing well on the becoming ‘pasty and thin’ front, I would like to be a lot thinner! I have however, found that the osteoarthritis I was diagnosed with last year in my hip and which made me limp with pain at times, has caused me virtually no problems since becoming vegan.

The dietary part of the process seems to be the easiest. I am still wearing some leather shoes, although will not buy any more and had made that decision before becoming vegan. I cannot afford to replace everything, and throwing things out (all my leather shoes are way beyond sending to charity shops!) seems worse than using them, although they give non vegans a triumphant – ‘aha, but you are wearing leather shoes’, moment. Although the dogs are mainly vegan, the cats still eat tins of meat. I know they can be vegan, given the right foods, but they are carnivores…

It is a process, and I still have a way to go, but a journey I am very happy to be taking. I feel so much more comfortable with myself, more honest, but far from perfect. Being vegetarian was not enough, I was supporting the veal industry, the idea of male calves and chickens as waste products, I was supporting the removal of newborn calves form their mothers, and the wastage of land to support dairy cattle which could be so much better used to grow food for humans. I want everyone to know what I know and make the same changes, but I know how proselytising is the most off-putting thing there is, how it would have put me off before, so I must ‘be the change you want to see’, not rant at people.

My favourite vegan things

I use very few ready made vegan products or meat substitutes as I feel no need of them. I do like and use Linda Mccartney sausages. I like cooking with herbs, especially rosemary in winter, coriander and basil, and love to add lemon to dishes. I also like to cook with alcohol, rum and wine and brandy in particular! I like to make my dishes delicious ahead of healthy.

‘Vegan Cupcakes take over the world’ - Isa Chandra Moskowitz & Terry Hope Romero

‘Vegan Feasts’ – Rose Elliot

Vanessa Lackford

www.michael-house.co.uk

age 52

Tintagel, Cornwall, UK

When I see a pig, I do not think of what a pig tastes like, I just see a lovely, intelligent pink animal, who may enjoy a good scratch between the ears. This is because I have never tasted pig, so do not know what it tastes like and do not associate it personallly with food. And, sadly, I do not see many pigs, they are mostly living their short and unnatural lives in sheds.