How long have you been vegan? Isn't it difficult?
Since October 1983. I was lucky because I was already used to doing all my own cooking. Shopping can be difficult at first because you have to be careful checking ingredients, but you soon get used to it. Once you are in the habit, shopping and cooking take no longer than they do for omnivores.
Why don't you eat milk or eggs?
True, no animal has to die to give us these things, but there is great cruelty involved. I'll go into more detail here. Cruelty is an almost inevitable part of any business involving animals.
What do you eat?!
Fruit, vegetables, grains like rice and cous-cous, pasta, cereals and breads, soya products like tofu or sosmix, pulses such as chick-peas, nuts, greens, and occasionally weird stuff like seitan. All healthy stuff, but I'm not a health-food freak. In fact one of the annoying things about a lot of the makers of vegan food is they don't make enough “junk food” - everything's always organic and healthy! Give me my comfort food - sweets, crisps, plain chocolate, root beer and yummy vegan soya ice-cream. I drink fruit juice, tea, fizzy drinks just like you, but use soya milk instead of cow's milk on cereal and in tea.
Isn't it unhealthy?
On the contrary, a proper, balanced vegan diet is the healthiest diet there is! How often do we hear the experts saying, “Eat less meat, eat less dairy”? Do they ever say, “Eat less fruit or vegetables”?!We can get everything we need from plants and their derivatives. Check out nutritional aspects on the websites below if you want to go into details.
Who persuaded you to become vegan?
What pushed me to change was reading this little book with the eye-catching cover written by a chap called Larry Law. In it Law combines his own writing with newspaper clippings, pictures and quotes. Some of the writing is in the style of the Situationists (ie a bit of a mouthful), but most of it is quite accessible.Although it doesn't advocate veganism as such, this book went a long way to squashing a lot of the spurious arguments I was still clinging on to at the time to justify eating “normal” food.
You can click on the book to read it, but bear in mind it pulls no punches and is more a politically-based essay than a recipe book. For a “gentler” introduction to Veganism, try one of the links below.
Do you think animals are more important than humans?
Not at all. Like everyone else I have my own “animal heiarchy”. Let's suppose I'm out driving and a bug hits my windscreen. I'd rather it hadn't happened, but I don't feel any remorse. Jeez, there are several insect species like wasps, mosquitos and midgies that I would gladly wipe out at a stroke if I could press a button and do so.
If I run over a rabbit I feel little sorrow, though I might shout something like, “Stupid bugger!” at it. Once I had the misfortune to run over a badger. This was a pretty horrible experience. Heaven forbid that I should ever run over a person.
When it is safe to do so, I sometimes drive with dipped headlights at night. Roadside animals are much less likely to run out, and you hit fewer moths. When a pair of eyes are reflected in my beams I'm quite good at sounding my horn to deter whatever it is from running onto the road, and have saved a few foxes and badgers by being vigilant. I'm sure most people wouldn't see any of this as unreasonable, and being a vegan really just boils down to extending this compassion to the animals which we eat. As far as nutrition, protein and vitamins are concerned, we can get everything we need from plants and minerals!
Look at our teeth and our hunting ancestors. Aren't we meant to eat meat?
Firstly, I thought the reason we don't eat our meat raw is that the bacteria in it would poison us. So are we meant to have fire?Secondly we are descended from apes which eat fruit, berries, shoots and leaves. Lastly, when it comes to choice of food our teeth are less important than our digestive system. Ours is closer (I have read) to that of a rabbit than that of a lion.
Don't you miss the taste of meat?
I was never much into beef, but I used to love the taste of bacon, fish, black pudding and so on. Some people say they like these things so much they couldn't possibly give up meat. I prefer to think my moral convictions come before taste. In any case there are good vegan substitutes available for many meaty things if you really crave the taste and texture. Here in Scotland there is even an excellent vegan haggis available!
Hasn't it been shown that plants feel pain too?
Really?! Well all the more reason then to get our protein directly from plants, rather than first feed them to farm animals which are just a hopelessly inefficient way of converting plant protein into meat. Goodness knows how many pounds of plant protein it takes to make a pound of beef, and you then have an animal to kill. I'm not suggesting we all start eating grass, but good plant protein is first-class, and is best eaten first-hand.
But if we all went vegan, wouldn't all the poor farm animals become extinct?
Did the horse become extinct when the motor car was invented? Actually because of breeding most farm animals are so far removed from their natural species state that personally I wouldn't mind if they became extinct. As the question suggests, they do indeed owe their miserable existence to us!
Do you keep pets?
Many vegans do, but personally I am completely against keeping animals. Never mind these poor King Penguins you see on Nature programmes - huddled together tightly, standing with their backs to the freezing Antarctic blizzard. The domestic pet is surely the most pitiable animal ever!Once upon a time someone decided it would be a good idea to offer an animal food, shelter and safety in exchange for their contact and company. Symbiosis does occur in Nature, but with domestic pets it has become a very one-sided bargain. We restrict our pets' space and contact with others of their species. We tamper with their genitals and deprive them of their sex-life. They often have to lead the most boring existences, and we expect them to be ready to comfort or entertain us at any time. Pedigree breeds often suffer genetic diseases as a direct result of the way their species has been engineered. The most popular pet, the intelligent dog, has perhaps fifteen years of life. It is awful to watch a pet grow old and die so quickly. How sad also to think a dog might notice it is ageing at a much faster rate than its owner.
Ask yourself why people do keep pets and you will see a variety of unsatisfactory answers which tell us a lot about how sad our society is. For company. For entertainment. For security (large dogs). For their beauty (fish). Because it says something about my personality (snakes).
What about rescuing strays?
In the short term this is a loving act which saves a life. In the long term it just perpetuates the problem. Only the worst kind of people abandon pets, but put yourself in their place for a moment. You want to get rid of your dog, but that little speck of compassion in you says it is wrong. No problem - just take it to the pound and eventually someone will give it a home!An interesting question for stray owners is, “How would you feel if there were no strays anywhere?” Would you feel totally delighted, or would you feel a tinge of sadness at the loss in your life and eventually go out and buy from a pet store?