Why I am a Vegan

[Jade]

It's quite ridiculous actually, there is so much evidence and research. But ever since going vegan I get constantly mocked for being not "normal". Perhaps I'm just too weak, and shy, to convey anything why it is good for us and the planet. I know many reasons, I've watched and read. Yet I can't get any point across when someone asks me why, and tells me that eating meat is essential for the body. If I say that animals suffer, I'm being told that plants do too. If I say that it's bad for our body, I'm told that it doesn't matter because one should live their joy be it eating meat. I feel like I have the tools, yet I do nothing, and that bothers me so much.  :-/

What do you tell one who asks why are you vegan? Without pointing them to videos, movies, or articles. People prefer to avoid that.

This is definitely a struggle. People want you to either validate their susceptibility into humane-washing ("I eat free range eggs!") or they want to double down on their own internal validations for why making a change means nothing.

Like xise said, if someone genuinely thinks that plants feel pain too, and that is their "comeback", the only logical response is that we farm way more plants to feed to animals. But honestly, when someone brings up that point, from their point of view, they often don't care about the suffering of either plants or animals. They just wanna have a "gotcha" moment and use the vegan's compassion against them.

It's a really delicate rope to walk, and it's about being on your feet and reacting to each situation. Do you think the person would be more affected by environmental facts, health facts, or compassion? I'm a full blown ethical vegan now, but 6 years ago, I went vegan for my health and the health of my loved ones. I know people are reluctant but sometimes they will be inclined to watch something easy, like on Netflix, like Forks Over Knives, What the Health?, etc. These movies have made a lot of converts actually. People who are resistant to watching them are afraid of this!

The truth is, we are birthing creatures onto this planet just to make them suffer. Sure, there may be some few and far between magical "happy farms" where they don't live their lives in extreme torture. But even organic, free range, etc farms still sear the beaks off of newborn chicks, (and grind up all the males at birth if it is an egg operation), cut off pigs'/cows' tails, remove infants from grieving mothers, etc. All of these are common, standard practices. The marketing terms that are used to make the slaughter more palatable have nothing to do with how the animal is treated on a day to day basis. There are almost 2 billion cows on this planet, there are almost 20 billion chickens. We cry about the woes of human overpopulation but we are growing and feeding billions of poop machines because of societal eating habits and preferences. And most of these poop machines (almost all pigs and chickens) live in dark buildings and never see the light of day. When they do, it's on their way to slaughter, and they are babies.

Anyway, after my ranting, my point is, I'm going to try the "overpopulation" angle from now on. 2 billion cows, weight-wise, might as well be 20 billion humans. Can you imagine what this planet would be like if we added 20 billion more humans? Can you imagine what this planet might be like if we were able to eliminate 20 billion human-sized beings just by ceasing their intentional breeding just to be enslaved, milked, and slaughtered? Another angle people like to use is, "What happens if we stop breeding them? Then cows/chickens/pigs/etc go away!" and I'm okay with that. 100%. Most of these animals are freaks of nature and so far removed from what was originally created to live on this planet, that maybe it's just their time to go, after our artificial sustainment of them has literally destroyed the planet. We've already lost a lot more unique species by our lack of proper stewardship, to be fair. We'd still have the red jungle fowl, we'd still have wild boars, we'd still have wild oxen. These animals are basically the same species, without their inbred impediments, like laying so many eggs that they their bodies fall apart at 1/6th their natural lifespan, growing so fast that if they live to adulthood, they suffer immensely until they drop dead of a heart attack, and having mammaries that swell so large that they drag on the floor. Continuing to breed these deformed monstrosities just because we like having them around is almost a worse crime than breeding them to eat them.

People are compassionate. People hurt when animals suffer - there is real emotional empathy when we, say, watch a video of a mother duck reunited with her ducklings, or, a dog from a laboratory feeling the grass under their feet for the first time. We've just been subjected to propaganda our whole lives to make us totally ignore the suffering of billions of being on this planet. Trying to face that for the first time is extremely difficult. It usually has to happen in bits and pieces. Try to operate from a place of compassion for the person you are discussing this with. Find compassion for everyone who is a victim of this system of exploitation and torture. Starting from the heart is the most important thing, imo. Set an example of compassion, not an example of anger or rejection. I'm convinced that most people, on some level, want to stop being a party to the torture of billions of baby animals and the ultimate destruction of our planet. Talking about veganism continues to help normalize it and bring it to the mainstream, offering another choice to the Got Milk? generation.