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!