Omnivore > Pescatarian > Vegan
Posted: Tue Apr 25, 2023 2:28 pm
Hello everyone!
I'm new to the vegan journey and am feeling more motivated than ever to fully transition to a vegan diet. It started for me in 2020 when my partner and I decided to stop eating beef for environmental reasons. Then, the more we observed cows and talked about animal experience, refusing beef became less of a climate decision and more of an ethical one—clearly, these animals are just as sentient and individual as my beloved cat, and I wouldn't eat HER, so why eat them?
From there I transitioned into not eating mammals, but was fine with poultry, fish, and dairy if I believed they came from a reputable source (or, you know, if I was just at a restaurant). I figured this would be a happy enough place for me, and it's definitely not a difficult diet to follow. That changed again after reading Jonathan Safran Foer's book "Eating Animals" a few weeks ago, and after I did my own research into the dairy industry. Learning that almost all poultry species are genetic mutants incapable of living without suffering really rocked me. Even if it were possible for farmers to let chickens live their lives and express their innate chicken-ness, these poor creatures can't walk, can't mate, can't fly, can't even exist without constant pain. And when I realized the dairy industry basically IS the meat industry but worse, and that it was true that dairy cattle must be perpetually impregnated, I again couldn't imagine a form of dairy that allowed the cows to live without suffering. I thought this was all "PETA propaganda" until I finally found reputable journalistic and scientific sources. I'm ashamed at having been so afraid of looking at my complicity until now.
I'll admit that fish suffering is harder to connect to. My partner fly and spear fishes and we eat what he catches. But he kills them quickly, and it's only a very small few—but that's not at all how industrial fishing works. Bycatch and trawling are enough reasons to stop eating certain fish caught in a certain way, but even the "best" fish caught with the "best" practices are still left to die slow deaths by the thousands, and our demand for fish flesh is collapsing entire marine ecologies.
So here I am now, doing my best to phase out eggs, dairy and fish. I'm finding it very difficult to phase out incidental dairy (like in baked goods or my favorite junk food) and sushi. I'm also frustrated that vegan options in most restaurants are so poor in protein; sometimes they don't have a significant source of protein included at all! Eating out has become a real challenge. I also feel less certain about mollusks and small fish like anchovies...
In the non-food realm, I'm struggling with wool, silk, leather, and honey. I have a really hard time getting behind vinyl and plastic vegan leathers, and wool is a critical material for me as an outdoorsperson. My shampoo/conditioner also has keratin in it, and that is going to be quite hard to let go of! And is harvesting honey harming bees? Shouldn't we be trying to sustain bee populations? I haven't gotten to those modules yet and I'm looking forward to learning more.
Anyway, not sure how active this forum is but thanks to anyone reading this. This is all pretty new to me and I'll appreciate any support I can get!
I'm new to the vegan journey and am feeling more motivated than ever to fully transition to a vegan diet. It started for me in 2020 when my partner and I decided to stop eating beef for environmental reasons. Then, the more we observed cows and talked about animal experience, refusing beef became less of a climate decision and more of an ethical one—clearly, these animals are just as sentient and individual as my beloved cat, and I wouldn't eat HER, so why eat them?
From there I transitioned into not eating mammals, but was fine with poultry, fish, and dairy if I believed they came from a reputable source (or, you know, if I was just at a restaurant). I figured this would be a happy enough place for me, and it's definitely not a difficult diet to follow. That changed again after reading Jonathan Safran Foer's book "Eating Animals" a few weeks ago, and after I did my own research into the dairy industry. Learning that almost all poultry species are genetic mutants incapable of living without suffering really rocked me. Even if it were possible for farmers to let chickens live their lives and express their innate chicken-ness, these poor creatures can't walk, can't mate, can't fly, can't even exist without constant pain. And when I realized the dairy industry basically IS the meat industry but worse, and that it was true that dairy cattle must be perpetually impregnated, I again couldn't imagine a form of dairy that allowed the cows to live without suffering. I thought this was all "PETA propaganda" until I finally found reputable journalistic and scientific sources. I'm ashamed at having been so afraid of looking at my complicity until now.
I'll admit that fish suffering is harder to connect to. My partner fly and spear fishes and we eat what he catches. But he kills them quickly, and it's only a very small few—but that's not at all how industrial fishing works. Bycatch and trawling are enough reasons to stop eating certain fish caught in a certain way, but even the "best" fish caught with the "best" practices are still left to die slow deaths by the thousands, and our demand for fish flesh is collapsing entire marine ecologies.
So here I am now, doing my best to phase out eggs, dairy and fish. I'm finding it very difficult to phase out incidental dairy (like in baked goods or my favorite junk food) and sushi. I'm also frustrated that vegan options in most restaurants are so poor in protein; sometimes they don't have a significant source of protein included at all! Eating out has become a real challenge. I also feel less certain about mollusks and small fish like anchovies...
In the non-food realm, I'm struggling with wool, silk, leather, and honey. I have a really hard time getting behind vinyl and plastic vegan leathers, and wool is a critical material for me as an outdoorsperson. My shampoo/conditioner also has keratin in it, and that is going to be quite hard to let go of! And is harvesting honey harming bees? Shouldn't we be trying to sustain bee populations? I haven't gotten to those modules yet and I'm looking forward to learning more.
Anyway, not sure how active this forum is but thanks to anyone reading this. This is all pretty new to me and I'll appreciate any support I can get!