You’re Too Vegan!! You’re Not Vegan Enough!! AY!!!

Because you’re of the opinion that animals should not suffer, you decide that you don’t want to contribute to the suffering. There goes meat AND dairy from your diet! BYE BYE.

If you don’t know why dairy is so bad, click here.

Suddenly food is no longer a casual item. SUDDENLY EVERY BITE HAS PURPOSE. There is no longer ANY SUCH THING as having a casual burger during a ball game. Your burger came from a live animal that suffered like nothing you’ve ever seen before and therefore that burger no longer even looks like food in your eyes; it looks like the brutalized diseased decaying corpse that it actually is instead of the juicy tasty protein that used to make your mouth water. The power of the mind…

If you haven’t taken the time to educate yourself on where your food comes from, take a day, do some research on factory farming, watch some undercover videos. If it’s cool with you that animals suffer like that, then by all means, eat your burger and eat that sucker with INTENTION because with each bite you take you support something.

TEAM EDWARD or TEAM JACOB? Let’s review who you can support:

Team 1: insanely rich factory farmers who make BILLIONS of dollars annually by (a) exploiting animals in the most inhumane ways imaginable, (b) pumping your bodies with low quality, antibiotic filled and growth hormone pumped foods that are making us sick and fat, (c) ransacking our environment, (d) wiping out smaller more humane farmers who can’t compete with their insanely low prices or mass production, (e) exploiting the often uneducated and illegal immigrants who work for them, (f) paying off the government to protect their interests at everyone’s expense, and (g) filling their pockets with DOLLA BILLS Y’ALL while their cheap meat indirectly causes us to spend millions trying to fix all the health and environmental problems their masterly crafted system is creating; OR

Team 2: “crazy extremist animal rights people” – a/k/a people who care about animals, their health, the environment, and not being brainwashed by greedy corporations – a/k/a TOTAL NUT JOBS!

So do research, make a decision, and support what you’re going to support, but recognize that no matter what you decide, you are a very active participant in the food production system that is torturing animals, making us sick and fat, and destroying our environment on the most exponential scale imaginable. Feel free to admire its efficiency while you decide.

If you decide to be apathetic or live in ignorance, you are the most active participant there is. Factory farmers are counting on you. You are their biggest client. You are their silent cheerleaders. You are TEAM FACTORY FARM - put it on a tea-shirt and wear that sucker proudly.

Then remind me again, who’s extreme?

So yes, having these views can obviously cause some friction – apologies to all the people I’ve already pissed off in the above paragraphs. People are as emotional about the food they eat as they are about politics, religion, racial equality and gay rights. Right up there with opinions on discrimination are opinions on theright to eat or not eat a hot dog chased by a milk moustache.

Because of this, I’ve learned to not be quite so frank in personal discussions on the topic. I’ve been learning the steps to the vegan verbal tango to make sure I say things just right so as not to step on too many toes. But ironically, it’s so acceptable for people to quickly label vegans as “extremists” or “crazy animal people”, no worries about having two left feet in that dance. Why are vegans given such little verbal romance? We are coming from a compassionate place, how can that be so wrong?

So my challenge to you would be to reconsider viewing someone as an “extremist” just because they’re going against the norm. Cause the norm sucks, it’s filled with chemicals, cruelty and ignorance. Why be a part of the norm when the norm is doing no one any good? Substitute the word “extreme” with “compassionate” and maybe you’ll see things from a different perspective.

YOU’RE NOT VEGAN ENOUGH…

Ay, this can be the hardest pill to swallow. The ‘my veganism is bigger than yours’ attitude. I have to say, I am not a fan. We are all fighting the same fight. Trying to change this “norm” we’re talking about is a battle against a very rich and powerful beast, so we must fight together.

The point of the above rant was not to say that vegans are better than non-vegans or vice versa, it’s to show that we are all victims of the same corrupt corporate greed and deeply embedded cultural traditions that support that greed. No one is a bad person for the food choices they make. There is nothing harder than departing from the traditions we grew up with. There is nothing easier than ignoring the truth about where our food comes from and viewing the chicken on your plate as nothing more than a tasty nugget, instead of the sentient being it once was. We were taught to live this way from the day we were born. We are hidden from the realities of factory farms because factory farmers put blinders on us, they’re not stupid! But they sure hope we are.

Veganism is not an arena for competition, it’s an arena for shared knowledge and awareness. No one is better than anyone. We are all imperfect beings and all we can do is push ourselves to be the best we can be with the tools we are given.

So my second challenge to you would be to support and encourage people who are challenging themselves in any way, vegans and non-vegans alike. NEVER label anyone, never diminish people’s efforts. No one is too extreme, too selfish, too weak or too strong when they’re coming from a place of compassion. If someone is trying to be better, more aware, more sympathetic, that is amazing. Never discourage this as this is the best attitude anyone could ever have in any area of life. Apathy and ignorance are the only enemies in this battle. When you create battles within the same team, your team loses.

(photo courtesy of klsmith77)