I just deleted the blog post I had been writing for the last hour. Bam. Wiped the slate clean. I rarely do this, but as I was writing it became apparent to me I was lost in my own discussion. And it's because I have so much to say! So I'm going to break it down much more simple, and leave the facts and arguments for a later time.
I am eating vegan!
To clarify, especially for my Uncle Ron, who took me to a vegan restaurant in Berkeley and asked me what a "vegan" (he pronounced it "vagan") is, here goes: to eat vegan is to eat no animal or animal by products, including: beef, chicken, fish, turkey, eggs, dairy, gelatin.
Why in God's good name would I undertake such a crazzzzy undertaking, you ask?
Well, it turns out that for my current beliefs-about the environment, animal treatment, farmworker's rights, industrialization, small business being shut down--eating anything but vegan simply doesn't match up. What I'm saying is, at least for right now, I can't feel good about making food choices besides vegan.
I would like to say at this moment that I am purposely NOT writing to judge, persuade, or convince anyone. I am writing about myself, my thoughts, and my own experience. I think people can do whatever the heck they want. I would hope for them they have the privilege of feeling good about what they do, and I think you can have this eating any kind of diet you want. But for me, at this tender time in my life, I simply cannot eat non-vegan and feel good about it.
My reasons, which are numerous, are so scattered and new and all over the place that I'm not even going to try to go into all of them, or even most of them. I need time for them to settle, so I can talk about it in a clearer, perhaps even more objective way.
For now, I'll try to simplify it. Girl gives talk at my co-op. About factory farming. She brings vegan ice cream and homemade cookies, which incentivize me to attend. She gives 45 minute presentation about factory farming and veganism. I am so taken aback that I (and seven other people in my house) decide to eat vegan for one week. We call it the "vegan challenge." (To clarify, I am simply eating vegan now, with no one week limit to it.)
What, you may ask, would ever convince me to give up the Fish and California Burrito at Sarita's? I'm just going to offer one reason for now, and it is the first one that hit me.
Here is ever reliable Wikipedia's definition of "factory farming": "Factory farming is the practice of raising livestock in confinement at high stocking density, where a farm operates as a factory." Basically, a factory farm is one where, generally, animals are crammed into a space that is too small for them, given a modified diet, and subjected to external forces like 24 hour bright lighting to encourage maximum production.
What picture do you see on the package when you're at the grocery store and you're buying bacon, or eggs, or whatever we buy? I often see an idyllic farm with a small red barn, hay, horses, a happy farmer on a tractor. Apparently, I learned, it is simply not the case. A staggering fact: 99% of our animal and animal byproducts in the country are produced at Factory Farms. When I heard that, I was like, "Dayammmmm."
What's wrong with factory farms? Many things, but for now, I will offer the treatment of animals. I recognize that doesn't resonate with everyone, and so I think it is important to elucidate all the different arguments against factory farming. But i want to focus on what initially struck me.
Baby chicks. Baby chicks in a factory farm are typically given the space of an 8x11 piece of paper. They are crammed sometimes 30,000 chicks to a relatively small space. That sounds rough, but this is the part I can't stop thinking about: it is common practice to CUT OFF baby chick's beaks (often without anaesthetic). Why would anyone cut off a baby chick's beak? Well, because of the conditions of the factory farm (lack of space, 24 hour bright lighting to stimulate growth and production, etc.--baby chicks would literally peck each other to death if they had their beaks.
In different settings, be it out in the wild or even in a regular farm (the kind that was the majority until about the 1960's), chickens use their beaks to establish a pecking order, ensuring stability. But in a factory farm, a chicken's beak must be cut off.
Before we get to posing all-or-nothing hypotheticals (well, would you rather us have enough food to eat, or keep your chick's beak on), let's stop. Let's think about our values, what we truly hold dear to our hearts. And then let us, for a moment, consider what it means for us, as a society, to engage in a practice in which we cut off chicken's beaks. A chicken's beak is the first thing that sees this beautiful world. It helps it break out of its shell and breathe our air. And then it uses its beak to feed, as well as to defend itself. It is comparable to our human mouth.
I'm sorry, but I wouldn't want to be part of a society like that.
Well, what about cage free or free-range chickens? I thought the same until I heard this presentation. It turns out cage free or free-range means almost nothing. You could cram 30,000 chickens into a small barn with 8x11 piece of paper space per chicken, and if you have a 3x3 foot area outside, then your chicken is "free-range." But not even free to roam that 3x3 foot area, since the door to it is rarely open and there's not room to move anyways. As the author of a book I'm reading said, "I could keep my chickens under my sink and call them free-range."
And 99% of our chicken meat and eggs are produced this way.
Here is where I run into my dilemma. As I said earlier, I'm really not writing this to try to persuade you, to make you feel bad, to even do anything. I wanted to share my experience and what moved me. And I fear my rhetoric is already moralistic, judgmental. I fear that as soon as I write this I am labeled "a vegan" and cast into a category. Well, all I can do I suppose is state my intention to avoid that.
No, what I want is to continue engaging people in dialog (notice, not "debate") about the food we eat. I want to know, in as caring and non-judgmental a way as possible, why are you choosing to eat that?
Is it because it tastes good to you?
Is it health, because you believe meat and dairy and eggs is the best and perhaps only source of reliable protein?
Is it economics, that you can only afford a certain type and quality of meat and dairy and eggs?
Is it lack of awareness and knowledge of what food you are eating?
Is it apathy, that you just don't care?
Is it that you don't have the time to find out?
These to me all are valid reasons. You can have whatever reason you want, and I just want to engage with it, know about it. I want to know where people are coming from. Say I did become so passionate about eating vegan that I wanted to convince people to change their eating habits-what good would it do for me to condescend and belittle people for their food choices? We judge each other all the time. I think we need to listen to each other. In an honest and caring way.
Where do I go from here? Oh lordy, I have so much to say. I might just keep writing blogs about this. I could write about all the facts related to factory farming I'm finding out (some from a movie called Food Inc. that I highly recommend!). I could write about my experience of eating vegan, from a health/food perspective as well as a social perspective. I could write about my conversations with people. Really, there's a lot to say.
But this is a start. This is my proclamation to the world, at this moment in time, that I'm eating vegan. And I would like to talk about it. I would like us all to talk with one another. Because when we do that from a place of care, compassion, and genuine, non-judgmental curiosity, we learn from each other, and good things happen. Maybe that's the most important thing I've learned at college, and I sure as heck did not learn that in the classroom.
With love,
Ryan
*A woman named Carolyn just emailed me with a link to her blog, which has 100 useful links for people interested in vegetarian/vegan diets. Here's the link: http://surgicaltechnicianschools.org/?page_id=131
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