I am going to New York soon. I am beside myself with excitement. I plan to shop, eat, shop, see the sights and shop. In fact I don’t plan on packing very much because the list of things I “need” to buy is endless and the time I have allocated to shopping is huge.
Top of my shopping list is a new handbag. Maybe two. But it’s one of the reasons that I have had to allocate such a huge amount of time to shopping because I am quite particular about the bag I want.
It needs to be relatively trendy, it must be able to fit my make-up (quite a bit), my phone, lego (why do I always have piece of lego in my bag?) and assorted odds and ends – you know the stuff that somehow makes it into your bag without you ever putting it there? It can’t be too big but it can’t be wallet sized. But importantly it can’t be made of animal – leather, snakeskin, pony skin (I have been seeing that a lot), crocodile or any other creature that once breathed or had eyes.
You see I am a vegetarian purely for ethical reasons– it is my desire not to eat anything that once had eyes and a brain. It’s not been hard because I believe in what I am doing so strongly and also, there are so many alternatives out there. There is a whole world of tofu, vegetables, soy and nuts but I haven’t seen a range of soybean bags. Yet.
My determination not to wear animals is relatively new and sometimes I worry that I am becoming fanatical. In fact I have spent a lot of time becoming quite concerned about all the animal products that I do use. I recently got feather hair extensions and I almost didn’t. Not because I didn’t want to but because I asked so many questions of the manufacturer of the extensions that they almost asked me to leave. I needed to know the feathers were humanely collected, that they were fallen feathers and not plucked, that the roosters the feathers come from had not been held in cruel captivity, that they didn’t die so that I could have pretty hair. I even asked for the name of the breeder and Googled it. Oh yes I did.
It got me to thinking about wool and how sheep are raised and how they are sheared and it also got me thinking about silk and silkworms (and the fact that when I was a little girl and we collected silkworms we threw the mulberry leaf-filled shoe-boxes they lived in away when they laid eggs. )
My vegetarian line that once ended at not ending meat is slowly extending to not wearing wool, feathers or silk…and I am not even going to burden you with my thoughts on sweat shops.
So as I munch on leaves through New York and balk at the fact that I am sitting on leather seats on the flight over there I will also be looking very closely at the labels of everything I buy. My husband is delighted, he’s quite sure I wont be buying much.
Do you think about where your clothes come from? Do you eat fish but not meat? Beef but not veal? Wear leather but not fur? Where is your vegetarian line or do you not have one at all?
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If you told me one year ago Id become vegan I would have laughed all the way down the road to McDonalds.
But thankfully, I woke up, grew up and stopped finding it funny.
My story is long. But suffice to say, its been an amazing journey into a once-thought (wrongly) impossible lifestyle. Veganism is not a diet, a fad, a fashion. Its a deeply philosophical lifestyle choice that i made to ensure i stopped being a hypocrite and started living by my morals.
In this world we show such little respect for life as it is, but what animals endure, each day, is worse than the most horrific of all atrocities dealt to mankind ever. We kill them for the most selfish, cruelest of reasons. Babies stolen from mothers so we can take their milk, chicks with their beaks cut off, pigs contained in metal crates so small they cant turn, chickens in cages in the dark for their whole muserable life, male chicks gassed or ground up live by giant mincers. No its not just America. Its here. Its standard practice. Its widespread. In the words of Ellen Degeneres, once you know you just cant participate anymore. Im not a hippie, a radical, a Peta magnate. Im an educator, a professional. I have a degree but I have a heart and a mind of my own. Ive researched, read, viewed and gone out there to see it myself. Its real. Its happening. Its wrong. And thats just the tip of the ice berg for farm animals,et alone medical/cosmetic research, pets, wild animals, circuses and the state of our sea crisis.
I cant make everyone vegan. I just hope they dont close it out of their hearts or minds. I used to think like many above, but Im awake now and ill never go back. We've crossed the ethical line as a species and theres no turning back. Nutrition-wise theres no excuse. WHO recommends that a vegan diet is totally healthy at all stages of life and advocates it. Livestocks Long Shadow by the United Nations calls for a worldwide shift to veganism for the future of our planet. T.colin Campbell, a world leading bioanalysist and incredible nutrition expert demands a vegan lifestyle for our health. DaVinci, Franklin, Darwin, Ford, Twain, Bernard-Shaw, Tolstoy, VanGogh, Einstein, Socrates, Plato, Pythagorus and so many more led the way to a plant based lifestyle. We are herbivorous. The biology is in. No arguments. Thw world isnt flat and humans are not omnivores, dogs are-we are nothing like dogs biologically. But dont take my word for it. If you really disagree then get your facts straight and do some research. Google the physicians committee for responsible medicine, planeat, the t.colin campbell foundation and watcg Gary Yourofsky's the greatest speech youll ever hear on youtube. Read Eating Animals by Foer, The Ethics of What We Eat by Singer, Skinny Bitch, The China Study (a must read for every human on the planet) and then do yourself two big favours: endure Earthlings-the whole thing and then go to a dairy farm and watch as a calf is taken for veal from its mother whose milk is taken as the baby gets slaughtered. Watch her reaction face to face and see it for yourself as she wails, kicks and panics. Then look into you own childs eyes and make the connection. Speciesism is not acceptable. Every religion questions meat. I questioned it and gave it away because if i ever need to ask for forgiveness I dont want to have to confront the 1,000 animals of whose bodies were found in just one hamburger. I never want to have to look into the baby blue eyes of a 6 week old broiler chicken whose life was taken for that stupid nugget, abd I dont want to face that mother whose calf was slaughtered as its milk was put into a carton. Im better than that. And if i can do it, anyone can.