Becoming An Insufferable Vegan
I have thought about explaining why I've gone vegan many times but have never quite found the right words to explain my reasons beyond vegan for the animals. Perhaps that is actually all that needs to be said, but I wanted to explore some of my own thoughts in more detail, share my journey and answer some of the questions I get asked most regularly.
I went vegan at the start of 2022, coinciding with Veganuary, after having been a vegetarian for over three years. I went vegetarian because I felt that eating animals was morally wrong and it's wrong to inflict harm on animals when I could just not eat them. As I started to learn more about the realities of the egg and dairy industry and the pain and suffering they cause, I realised that my ethical and moral stance was inconsistent and that I should give up those too. This was only as year or so after going vegetarian, yet I resisted for much the same reasons I had resisted going vegetarian in the first place:
- I travel a lot for work
- it's going to make socialising so much more difficult
- finding good vegan food is difficult
- what about the health implications?
My resistance to going vegan therefore was rooted in the inconvenience this would cause me alongside some perceived health implications.
The inconvenience felt like such a big thing at the time yet looking back on it now it feels silly. I've managed to find vegan food anywhere I've went - I spent quite a lot of 2022 travelling the world for work. Sure, in some of these countries it wasn't as easy as opening up a menu and picking whatever I wanted, but everywhere I went was at the very least accommodating.
The irony isn't lost on me that at the time my diet heavily consisted of pizza, chocolate and other highly processed foods. My brain at the time rationalised going vegan as somehow being even more unhealthy than my vegetarian diet. The misconception that a vegan diet is somehow bad for your health is still so pervasive in society today and is categorically wrong.
The Tipping Point
Eventually I reached a tipping point and knew I had to go vegan. I could no longer rationalise the horrors I was being exposed to. I knew I had to go vegan for the animals. Botched attempts at slaughtering animals who were fighting for their lives. Testing chemicals in animals eyes and on their skin in the name of scientific advancement. Forcibly impregnating animals so that we can drink the milk they have produced for their offspring, who will not long after birth be disposed of. The factory farms where chickens grow so fast their legs buckle and splay beneath their weight. The deep sea trawlers destroying everything in our oceans. I had seen too much.
“We have enslaved the rest of the animal creation, and have treated our distant cousins in fur and feathers so badly that beyond doubt, if they were able to formulate a religion, they would depict the Devil in human form.” ― William Ralph Inge
I have to give Rich Hardy a major hat tip here with his book 'Not As Nature Intended' and his associated Instagram account. The internal conflict each of his posts would cause me made the dissonance too great to bear. I knew I had to make the change, so I did at the start of 2022.
Since deciding to go vegan, I have found myself on a journey whereby my thoughts have expanded, evolved and matured. I am vegan for the animals, but also vegan for the planet and my health. Yet at the same time I have found myself to be less tolerant and less inclusive to those that are not vegan. I have in some senses become that vegan stereotype that always annoyed me when I was not vegan, yet I think it's impossible for any vegan to not become like that... at least somewhat.
Ethics of Consumption
The major point of friction between vegans and non vegans is quite obviously the divergence of ethical view points. I don't feel there's any reconciliation or middle ground between the two view points Non vegans feel they are entitled to kill and consume animals and animal products whereas vegans feel the opposite.
There is no middle ground in this stance You either believe animals deserve to not be consumed and enslaved or you don't. Naturally those who consume animals will always say "well, some animals do deserve it" or "we are entitled to eat them or what they produce, because we cared for them." To me these are arguments fall flat and reek of speciesism or just aren't very well thought through.
While a lot of people understand the basic premise of killing an animal being wrong (although they will continue to eat meat anyway), they do struggle with why it's wrong to consume eggs, dairy and honey. So below I just want to set out a high level overview as to why I believe it's wrong to consume them.
Eggs
"Chickens lay eggs naturally, it's not harming them if I eat eggs. Especially if they are my own chickens. Why shouldn't I consume them?"
Look if you're buying eggs in a supermarket, they're not free range. Yes the packaging might say they are, they're not. They're all factory farmed in the most disgusting and inhumane conditions. Everything about it is straight out of a horror movie.
The egg industry also macerates male chicks within hours after being born. These chicks are thrown onto a conveyor belt and then fall into a grinder which shreds them alive. This happens to 7 billion male chicks every year. Depressingly this is probably a better fate than that of the female chicks who will be forced into factory farms for their eggs and flesh...
Honey
"Bees make honey and it doesn't cause them any harm if we eat it. why is it wrong to eat honey?"
Honey is probably the one that baffles people the most. I put this down to people just not realising why bees create honey in the first place and I suspect that people see insects as lesser than other beings.
The reality is that bees produce honey as a food source for them to survive through the winter months. Without this food source they will die. It's their food, not yours. You aren't entitled to take and exploit what isn't yours.
Dairy
"Cows produce milk all the time and they enjoy being milked. They don't need it so we may as well consume it. Also it's really good for you!"
The story of dairy and how pervasive it is in society really blows my mind. I, like so many people, just believed for most of my life that cows produce milk all the time. I never stopped to think why cows produce milk in the first place. The marketing around dairy is so so effective into duping people into the happy cows myth, it's truly disturbing how effective it has been.
The reality is that cows, like most animals, produce milk for their offspring. Cows don't produce extra milk that they don't need, it's all intended for their calfs. The consumption of milk relies on us removing that calf from their mothers. The calf they have spent months and months growing and carrying in their womb that will now be discarded just so we can drink their milk. Cows grieve for days after their calves have been removed.
Harrowingly, cows are forcibly impregnated over and over so that people can drink their milk. I struggle to imagine how horrendous that existence must be. Forced into pregnancy, forced to give birth, forced to give up that calf just for the process to begin again until you die.
If you're curious about reading more on these topics I would recommend Ed Winter's This Is Vegan Propaganda. It's a great introduction to these and many other related topics.
We Are Not Lions
One of the more frustrating arguments I've heard is that since other animals eat meat or animal products, we should feel entitled to do that too.
"Why is it okay for a Lion to eat a Gazelle but not okay for me to eat a chicken?"
I understand where this argument comes from, but it is overly reductive. We are not lions. We are not tigers or sharks or any other carnivorous creature. We are humans, homo sapiens, opportunistic omnivorous beings. We have the ability to eat a wide range of things, we are the ultimate generalist and opportunist when it comes to our diet.
However just because we can consume such a wide variety of things doesn't mean we should. Unlike a lion or a tiger or a shark, we have a choice. A lion doesn't have the capability to think about the wellbeing of the gazelle or what it will mean for the gazelles family. Even if they could, they don't have a choice. Their bodies are designed to eat animals.
We have conquered the planet and no longer need to consume animals for our survival. Why should we inflict suffering on the world when we don't need to to survive? Especially on the scale that we seem to have be.
Being a Lighthouse
When foundational ethics and morality are so diametrically opposed it's hardly surprising that vegans can come across as militant, insufferable or self-righteous. I don't think most vegans set out to be that way but over time just find themselves in that type of role.
I'm certain I have come across that way to numerous people, sometimes deliberately sometimes by accident. As a vegan there is a fine line between sticking up for your morals and being obnoxious to those who disagree with you.
An approach I have tried to take is a concept I have borrowed from Rich Roll, who is a popular plant based podcaster, which is the concept of being a lighthouse. Rich explains it perfectly in the clip below:
“I’ve kind of settled into a mode that’s a little bit outside of your paradigm which is this idea of being a lighthouse. If I live my life well, and equip myself as an athlete, as someone who is excelling intellectually, mentally, emotionally, and just living well, it acts more like a magnet, or a tractor beam, that will bring the receptive audience to me who might be willing or interested to hear about it.” - Rich Roll
Let the people come to you and find you when they are ready. Lead by example and allow people to approach when they are curious or interested. I love this approach because it means when people approach with questions or are curious it means they're coming to the table with a genuine desire to learn and absorb.
On Tolerance and Personal Relationships
Having seen the horrors and suffering that I've seen, I find it difficult now to understand why people wouldn't go vegan. This in particular applies to people I am close to. In fact I find this part the most difficult part of being vegan.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not being abusive or discriminating against people for not being vegan, I simply have no interest in being in spaces where people are consuming dead animals. I don't want to see it, I don't want to hear it and I don't want to smell it. I don't want to hear how I'm missing out. I don't want to hear about or discuss 'regenerative farming' and I don't want you to sheepishly apologise to me for not being vegan.
I realise that often people mean it in good humour or don't mean to cause offence or sometimes just want a good old fashioned debate, but it is draining having to tolerate those discussions. I sometimes wonder whether people engage in those discussions as some form of coping mechanism to shift the guilt, as they know what they're doing is morally wrong. I know I used to do that when I was a meat eater.
I recently learnt of a fairly recently coined term called 'Vystopia', which is a play on the word dystopia. Vystopia is defined as "the existential crisis that results from knowing about ubiquitous animal exploitation and other people's trance-like collusion with it." It's certainly something I have experienced numerous times since going vegan.
When it comes to personal relationships and friendships, I think this can be especially challenging and somewhat isolating. There's a part of you that hates to see people you care so much for doing something you fundamentally find wrong. I've found myself having three consistent thoughts:
- They are ignorant to the pain and suffering they are partaking in.
- They are aware of the pain and suffering, but still choose to partake because they don't care
- They are aware of the pain and suffering, but still choose to consume animals and animal products for health reasons.
I find all three options quite difficult to stomach, but at least with option one there is an opportunity to highlight the evil they are unknowingly taking part in.
Options two and three I find both to be depressing. I think a lot of people fall into these camps who do care about animals, but selectively. They will love cats and dogs or maybe cheer on the cow that escaped from a slaughterhouse but otherwise aren't interested in introspection on this point.
People who feel they need to consume animals and animal products for health reasons I sympathise with to some degree. However I still find that it's used as a convenient excuse by many to sidestep the entire discussion. Almost like a bit of a get out of jail free card. The evidence is pretty clear that plant based diets are healthier for you than a diet with animals and animal products in. Now if someone went through the rigour of doing blood work and tried adopting a plant based diet and still had issues, I can understand that. But most people haven't done that, they've just bought into the media myths around veganism.
It's disappointing and frustrating that people just don't seem able to see things the way I do, but I know if I lead by example and show people that there is another way than mindlessly consuming animals, then we may find ourselves in a better world sooner than we realise. I can't force anyone to do anything, but I will be a lighthouse for people to seek out when they are ready.