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| Image credit: Photo by aurelio.asiain on Flickr Licensed under Creative Commons |
A Facebook friend challenged me to go vegan for Earth Day, and I decided that, since I'm already vegetarian (I eat eggs and dairy but no meat or fish), it wouldn't be much of a stretch for me to stay away from all animal products for the day. It will be good for the Earth, and besides my doctor told me just yesterday that a lower fat, lower cholesterol diet couldn't hurt.
So I got up on this fine Earth Day, threw some clothes on and got my kids off to school. As I was walking back inside, thinking with satisfaction about the nice vegan breakfast I had planned for myself, I looked down and realized that I had been thinking of going vegan strictly as making a dietary change and had forgotten that veganism encompasses all use of animal products, including those in clothing. Here I was going vegan wearing very non-vegan leather shoes. Hm. And my other pair of shoes? Also leather. That's the entirety of my shoe collection: all leather. I'm just not a big shoe person. But that's ok, because my jacket, purse and clothes are all still plant based, right? Oh. Turns out I'm wearing wool. Which is also not vegan. On the other hand, the polyester I'm wearing is vegan, but still not a sustainable, Earth friendly fabric.
Ok, this is going to be harder than I thought. So, forget the clothes. I will not go vegan on the clothes. I'll just stick to eating vegan.
So, I pop my wheat bread in the toaster and prepare to top it with my usual Nutella, only... Noooo! Nutella is not vegan. It contains milk. I have to go all day without Nutella?! Seriously? Fine, fine. Peanut butter is vegan and so is jelly. And while that begs for a cool glass of milk, I can go with a very vegan glass of ice water for today. Whew! So, I had a nice vegan breakfast of PB&J on wheat toast. Only as I rethought things on the energy of a full stomach, I realized the bread has yeast and honey, which if you are going to be hardcore about it, are also not vegan. Damn. I have now failed breakfast and getting dressed.
Ok, fine. Progress, not perfection. I will not go hardcore vegan. I will just do food, but I will only cut out eggs and dairy, not yeast and honey. Ha! By those standards, I am now passing with flying colors and the rest of today should be no problem. As long as I can stay out of the Nutella.
Thank goodness Coke is vegan or I'd never make it through the rest of the day! Oh, and if it's not, please, don't tell me. I don't love the Earth that much.
No disrespect meant to your friend, but it's not entirely clear that going Vegan benefits the planet. it's more a philosophical position on the relationship between people and animals, and that people ought never to exploit them in any way. Problem with that is, that all living thing exploit other living things to keep living themselves; we have no other way to do it.
ReplyDeleteso don't be too hard on yourself!
Actually, being vegan does benefit the planet. By limiting or abstaining from meat consumption, less of our limited resources are consumed. Why? Let's take cows as an example. Cows are large animals that take up a large amount of space. They require land on which to walk, grass on which to graze, and plenty of water to drink. They also eat grain and other crops as food. If cows were removed from our diet, all of the land they use, all of the water they drink, and all of the crops they consume would be available for human consumption. As the population increases, the need for land increases, the need for water increases, and the need for food increases. By putting meat on the menu, less land, less water, and less food is available. Check out the Biosphere project where all food is vegetarian. Because of limited resources, meat was left off of the menu. This was a group of scientists who had come to the conclusion that because of limited resources, vegetarianism was the most environmentally and economically friendly food-source. And it went beyond that, having the plants for food also converted the carbon dioxide to oxygen to give the Biosphere breathable air.
ReplyDeleteJust another view point on why not having and eating livestock will help the planet.
This post made me smile. I have a friend who is vegan for health reasons. Doing so gave her back her health. I have thought of becoming vegetarian ever since watching Food, Inc. but have never gone further than thinking about it. :)
ReplyDeleteHaha... Coke is most definitely vegan. And also kosher. And packed with vitamins and minerals! :)
ReplyDeleteActually Coke is most probably NOT vegan, since the sugar they use in it was most likely processed with bone char.
ReplyDeleteBut beyond that, I am truly stumped by this post. I am left wondering why on earth you even bothered with this half-assed attempt. Was it just for the entertainment value?
Kerry, according to the PB&J Campaign (http://www.pbjcampaign.org) a single lunch of PB&J instead of an animal based lunch saves 2.5 pounds of carbon gas emissions, 133 gallons of water and 24 square feet of land over an animal based meal. So think about what the three meatless, dairyless, eggless meals (plus snack) I ate on Friday must have done.
ReplyDeleteThen, realizing that veganism extended to clothing got me to research wool production rethink some of my clothing choices. So, that means even my half-assed attempt made an impact and made me (and those around me) significantly more aware of what animal products we all unwittingly use and consume every day and what goes into making those.
And as the big vegan cherry on top, it was entertaining and I had fun. Can't beat that.
I'm not vegan, but this made me smile--and smiles are vegan, aren't they? (Uh, even with a light smear of lipstick?)
ReplyDeleteP.S. I only have two pair of shoes too--one pair of sneakers and one pair of those horribly priced, oh so soft boots that I shouldn't really mention since they are decidely not vegan.
Shoot... mpj... my morning eyes spelled holier than "though" bleh. don't publish comment please and thanks. It wont let me delete and redo it. Maybe you don't want me to be all up in your commenters anyways :) but that was rude (but good for the blog!)
ReplyDeleteI need Nutella Anonymous! lol, its my favorite.
ReplyDeleteI could never be vegan, let alone vegetarian. A big juicy steak, a bake potato filled with butter, sour cream, bacon bits, and cheese. Now that's Heaven, and not vegan :)