The Home Stretch

Well, here we are. Two weeks. Zero milk, eggs, meat, fish and gelatin. Even though this morning’s meal failed to live up to this brunchaholic’s high standards, I’ve got to admit that I might actually miss this experiment in living. I know how ridiculous that sounds. Thanksgiving’s creamy potatoes and pies will taste out of this world on Thursday. But I have relished this break from feeling guilty about the things I eat.  I don’t know if I would be able to keep myself to a strict, ethical diet once the constraints of this class project fall to the wayside, especially at home over winter break. Yet a part of me wants to keep this going in some capacity. Part of me needs to keep this going. Can I realistically ignore my own hypocrisy and eat animal products after the past couple of weeks have proven to me that eating vegan is completely possible? Can I accept or prevent my stomach from growling two or three times a day? It’s a matter of priorities I guess. Either way, I do not picture myself eating as many animal products in the near future as I once did. My home life in Minnesota would be difficult to bend to an all-out plant based diet. I mean, even after four years of vegetarianism my family continues to make meat for every family meal and ask me to eat side dishes or “make a veggie burger or something.” If my mom does announce a dish is vegetarian, my brothers do not want to eat it. If I were to be strictly vegan at home the added cost of buying extra tofu, nuts, vegetables, almond milk, egg substitutes, truckloads of hummus, vegan snacks and protein bars would likely frustrate my parents, who have five other children to accommodate (that’s right, five.) I may abstain from purchasing animal products on my own but eat vegetarian food if, say, I am eating dinner at a friend’s house or babysitting.

I am happily surprised to report that – to the best of my knowledge – I have not had any slip-ups. I have developed the habit of reading the ingredients list on everything. I think it annoys my friends a little. If someone casually offers the group a bite of their candy or something, I inevitably chirp, “hold on, is it vegan?” then snatch the bag and very slowly inspect the label. Everything food related takes a little more time. Trips to the C store or 7 eleven last forever. But for the most part, people have been very respectful. A number of them are even impressed by my ability to follow through on this. It all sounds a great deal more challenging than it actually is.

My collective action project focuses on animal agriculture, as well. Alli, Maeve, Teddy and I went to King Soopers last week and asked a butcher about where their meat comes from. He kindly talked to us for a long while but provided very little insight. We wanted to learn how the animals were housed, fed and slaughtered; he informed us that all of their meat comes from the United States, Canada or Mexico. He showed us an 800 number on a package of meat and said that we could get more information there. I found this really, really concerning. If the meat industry is ever to change for the better, consumers need to know where their products come from. Americans must make educated choices, however the companies peddling these products exhibit no transparency whatsoever. It frustrates me that current laws allow these meat giants to get away with shielding their practices from the public. If everyone knew what went on behind the curtain, the system would be different. We need more accountability and more education. Without those two factors we have little hope.

One week later...

Telling people about this project sparks all sorts of questions, but for the most part they all wonder the same thing: what do vegans eat? I personally stick with my meal plan whenever possible, excluding breakfast. Rastall usually has good vegan food, including veggie burgers, countless tofu dishes, quinoa, salad, fruit, tempeh, soups and more. The Market section always has something to eat, and I have gotten in the habit of bringing tupperware in my backpack and taking veggies from the salad bar back to my room to eat with hummus. But let’s be honest: the vegan options are definitely hit or miss. Last night’s meatless Monday was a huge disappointment. Most of the food was all starch, and the only major protein source served was cheese. Even the global station’s theme was different types of potatoes. Really, guys? I nibbled an unadorned Gardenburger patty and reluctantly picked at my plate of root vegetable pie. In times like these, my key to success has been an arsenal of vegan food in my dorm room. It consists of protein bars, oatmeal, Kashi cereal, soymilk, dark chocolate almond milk, peanuts, fruit, tea, carrots, vegan chik’n nuggets, Amy’s frozen burritos and wraps, hummus, veggies, ramen, bagels, peanut butter and the like. If I feel like I haven’t gotten enough protein on a given day or I’m just hungry, it’s nice to have a backup. I also take plenty of vitamins. At The Preserve, I get pizza with (surprisingly tasty) mock cheese or whatever vegan daily specials they have to offer. Benji’s is a little more difficult. Even as a vegetarian I avoided it because most of their dishes are very meat-centric and tend to become lackluster in its absence. Take away the cheese and there’s even less little to look forward too. Still, I can get a Gardenburger with fries, a burrito with rice, beans, salsa and guacamole (no meat, cheese or sour cream), or a tofu teriyaki bowl with vegetables. I don’t recommend the latter.

The past eight days have had their ups and downs, but I have started to gain some momentum. My initial dairy cravings have begun to ever so subtly dwindle. I know a lot of people who argue that vegans ultimately cannot get adequate protein or nutrients in their diet. Giving up meat, eggs and dairy should leave me feeling like the walking dead, right? Not so fast. I actually feel significantly less sluggish. No more food comas after big meals. No more thoughtlessly noshing on junk with friends. I haven’t noticed a shortage of energy when I work out, either. Taking animal products out of the equation has forced me to eat more fruits and vegetables than I ever have. Sure, I have to be a bit more deliberate about eating enough protein, but all of the other nutrients most of us take for granted come a lot more easily. I can’t help but wonder if all of those skeptical omnivores know what the absence of these is doing to their energy level. I have always taken multivitamins, but let’s be honest – protein and pills don’t cut it. Every day I have the most balanced plate at my dinner table, one overflowing with greens, grains, fruits, legumes and vegetables. In The Immorality of Eating Meat, Mylan Engel Jr. describes the more drastic health benefits of a vegan lifestyle: “the CDH [coronary heart disease] mortality rate for [vegan] males was 86 percent lower than that of the California general population,” on study suggests (Engel 875). Veganism also combats cancer, obesity, diabetes, arthritis, osteoporosis and more. I can surely get on board with that. My next objective is to do some actual cooking. One of my goals with this project was to feel more aware of and connected to the things I eat. I feel like much of this process revolves around aversion, and I want to start taking more positive action.

Second Post

This morning marks my fourth day of veganism. Since Colorado College serves up a ton of vegan options, I have found that it comes down to a mere selection between the different options in front of me. It’s not half bad. I grab salads instead of creamy pasta and order mock cheese on my pizzas at the preserve. And though the food all tastes delicious, my biggest help comes from the animal rights literature we have to read for class. Spending a few hours a day reading up on factory farms and animal suffering provides major incentive. We have read work by Peter Singer, Tom Regan and Mylan Engel Jr. on why vegetarianism is the only morally permissible way to go.

            A heavy hitter in the animal rights movement, utilitarian philosopher Peter Singer in Animal Liberation that because animals are sentient beings and possess the same capacity for suffering as we do, we must take their interests into account equally with our own. That means that the satisfaction I get from eating an ice cream cone cannot override the torture endured by the factory farmed cow it came from. Such a trade off has no moral justification, especially when there are cruelty free alternatives to virtually any food.

            Mylan Engel makes one of the most persuasive arguments for veganism. He makes no claims about animals’ inherent worth or anything of that matter. Those points are compelling but too easy for reluctant omnivores to dispute. Instead, he lists several things I already believe – like that a world with less unnecessary suffering is more desirable than a world with more unnecessary suffering – and connects them to modern day animal agriculture. Animals in factory farms obviously endure more pain and suffering than most of us can imagine. Most of this suffering is not inherently necessary in order to raise an animal, but large corporations have imposed practices like small cages and hurried slaughter in the name of efficiency. When you consider the food alternatives I mentioned above, there is no denying that this suffering is unnecessary. Eating any animal products therefore goes against my basic values as a human being. I completed an essay about Engel’s stance against eating meat for class yesterday. Assignments like these keep animal rights in my head all day. By the time I take a study break to get dinner, I have lost my appetite for animal products.

            This assignment still has its challenges. My stomach growls a lot. Out of habit I have been eating the same volume of vegan food as I did non-vegan food, and I think that because it has fewer calories I get hungry quickly. I also have not gone to the grocery store yet, forcing me to buy soymilk and other dorm room food at the C Store for a ridiculous fee.

            For our collective action project, Maeve, Teddy, Alli and I will be teaming up to learn more about where our meat comes from. We will be talking to local grocery store managers and members of the Bon Appetit team to learn the origins of the meat they sell and serve hopes of educating the community about their choices.

Ready, Set, Vegan

For my Lived Ethics project, I wanted to do something that would help me live in better accordance with my preexisting beliefs regarding animal rights, food, and the way humans treat other species. A few years ago I saw a video about factory farming which led me to give up eating meat altogether. I felt fundamentally uncomfortable supporting what I had discovered to be such a brutal industry. My attachment to chicken nuggets and bacon was soon overshadowed by my reluctance to support these companies. I felt that with every meal I was sending the likes of Tyson and Smithfield a message saying, “I have no problems with you are doing. Keep up the good work!” After all, as consumers we cast a vote every time we make a purchase. Furthermore, animal agriculture is one of the biggest contributors to today’s environmental problems. Besides being a colossal contributor of greenhouse gases, animal agriculture is incredibly wasteful: it requires nine units of plant food to produce one unit of meat! I obviously knew that one fourteen-year-old with a Boca burger was not going to dismantle the meat industry, but at least I could attempt to separate myself from this malice.

Nonetheless, I cannot deny that my efforts are only half complete. I have always known that dairy and eggs come from these same gruesome operations, yet I lacked the willpower to give up on factory farmed products altogether. I continued to consume these foods and avoid thinking about where they came from – regardless of the fact that through online research, I had seen chickens under no anesthesia have their beaks seared off with hot blades as well as cows, improperly stunned and still conscious, hanging upside-down from hooks and flailing while they had their throats slit. I see this project as the perfect opportunity to fully live up to my food values, if only for a few weeks. For the remainder of block 3, I will be going vegan.

Shifting to veganism essentially entails avoiding using animals as a means to my own ends. I will not consume any meat, fish, dairy or eggs. I will not buy leather clothing or products containing animal-derived ingredients. For the next few weeks, my daily life will not directly subject animals to harm... and I really like the sound of that. I feel that living someplace as accommodating to compassionate eaters as Colorado College leaves me with no excuse to keep eating dairy and eggs without hesitation. How can I justify supporting animal suffering when there are so many easy, healthy alternatives right in front of me? I also look forward to the health benefits of eliminating animal products from my diet. Eating vegan means less cholesterol, fewer saturated fats, more fiber and a lot more vegetables. I am excited for the discoveries and challenges that my brief foray into veganism will undoubtedly bring. I am eating my last Cheez-It as we speak… here goes nothing!