
There are two reasons why I am vegan: I hate and don’t support how animals are treated while they are farmed and the method by which they are slaughtered, and I am concerned about the environmental impact commercialised farming has on our environment.
In my days of sitting in city peak hour traffic, I often daydream of packing up and moving to the country. Getting a little farm. Some ducks in a pond. A couple of cows and sheep. Definitely a pony. It’s in these daydreams that I wonder if I would go back on my vegan ways and eat beef if I knew the cow grew up on a happy, loving farm.
That is exactly what Californian couple Matthew and Terces Engelhart did. Except they didn’t dream it. After chanting “meat is murder” for 40 years, they decided to eat the animals that they farmed with lots of love and cuddles.
They didn’t make this decision because they missed spaghetti bolognese or because they ran out of ways to make tofu tasty. In fact, they run two successful restaurant groups, Cafe Gratitude and Gracias Madre, which have swayed celebrities like Beyoncé, Gwyneth Paltrow and Sacha Baron Cohen over to “meat is murder”.

The Engelharts even convinced Beyonce to be vegan. Image via Getty.
The Engelhart's say that they've come to the realisation that animals are an important link in the chain of nature. Mr Engelhart took to his blog to explain his decision. He outlines that current agricultural practices are destroying the soil which leads to desertification and limited food resources, which leads to war.
He says we need to keep the world in balance and keep the world fertile to avoid running out of food. Here's an extract:
"Herding ruminants are our best tool to restore fertility to the earth, keep the earth covered, and reverse desertification and climate change. If I knew of a better or even another solution, I would choose it. We need cows to keep the earth alive, cows make an extreme sacrifice for humanity but that is their position in God’s plan as food for the predators. Cows maintain the grass, predators maintain the herd by culling the weak and sick. We can be part of that sacrament. Sacrifice is part of life. As in the passion of Christ, we all have to spill our blood for humanity to know the Father. The cow’s sacrifice was been ordained, ours we must choose."
"BUT YOU'RE BEING UNKIND TO ANIMALS!"
No, that's not me. That's the fans of the newly created Facebook page Boycott Cafe Gratitude and Gracias Madre. There is even a petition against the Engelharts on Animal Petitions, whose slogan is "Humans defending animals from other humans". What all of these vegans and animal lovers are beyond upset about is that the Engelharts have used profits from their vegan restaurants to fund their animal slaughtering farm - ironically called Be Love. Petitioners also have an issue with the name of the farm.
This all started because the Engelharts made a video of them eating one of their cows in the form of a beef burger. "True" vegans were horrified and have thrown rotten tomatoes and stinky banana peels at the Engelharts calling them murders etc etc.
Top Comments
Not all vegans are in-your-face lobbyists for animal rights or the environment! Some are vegan for religious reasons. Some are vegan because they are choosing a diet that mitigates their risk of heart attack or cancer. Some are vegan because they just don't like meat, eggs or dairy!!! People need to stop stereotyping. Yeah, make jokes for sure - all of us are weird and strange in the funniest and most ridiculous of ways. If we can celebrate gender diversity, cultural diversity, religious diversity... I like yellow, she likes pink...seriously, why is it so hard to embrace dietary diversity??!?! Why do people give SO MUCH OF A CRAP about what other people will and won't eat?!? Just accept it, we're adults, move on with your lives.
Sorry Avi, but you're actually not vegan. If you consume eggs (by choice) then you are supporting one of the most cruel of industries.
Oh, please.
Not *everyone* who eats eggs are getting them from the shop. Some people have perfectly happy and adored chooks to provide their eggs. I'd sooner eat those as a source of protein and calories than tofu that has been transported, packaged in plastic, and used significant amounts of water to produce.
I'd wager it's this sort of 'blinders-on' self-righteousness that the author is referring to. Yawn.
"oh please"
I'd wager it'd be naive to say the quiche the writer referred to is likely to have been made with eggs from companion animal chooks.
I have no idea regarding the origin of the eggs from which that particular quiche was made.
Because I'm not some sort of high-horse, berate-other-people-for-what-they're-eating-whether-or-not-I-have-a-clue type person.
Unlike someone who declares that everyone who eats eggs must surely be participating in the, agreed, extremely unethical practices that go hand in hand with a large proportion of commercial egg production.