This is the third in a four-part series called "Veggie Tales." In their own words people write about their decision to become veg*an.The journey for me from meat eater to vegetarian has been a long, winding one.
I think the concept of becoming vegetarian first entered my mind while I was still in high school and I became genuinely disgusted eating meat off a bone. KFC, for example: I'd be eating the chicken and I'd see what looked like hairs sticking up out of the skin. And then the gristle, the cartilage ... all of it. I suddenly could not eat KFC anymore, and that is when I first began to question what we eat and why.
But I just cut chicken out of my diet for a time ... on the bone. I learned of the wonderful world of boneless chicken and shoved the idea of what I was eating to the back of my mind again.
Yet I always knew in the back of my mind what I was eating was wrong. There was a period soon after high school ... and it wasn't a defining moment ... when I was determined to become vegetarian, but I had no idea what that would mean for me, what I'd eat (as I really don't like a lot of just plain vegetables or really know how to prepare some of them!) I was over at my sister's, and she was serving hamburgers off the grill. I was eating one, but I had to point out we were eating dead cow, as she was calling it hamburger, and I was just pointing out the reality of what we were eating. She got mad at me because suddenly her daughter didn't want to eat!
I did try going vegetarian during this period. But the grocery store in the small rural town I lived in at the time in Minnesota really didn't have vegetarian/vegan friendly options. And, as I said, I really had no idea what dishes with vegetables I might be interested in making, and I soon gave it up, which really disappointed some of my friends at the time who thought I supported the cause.
Yet, for some reason, I gave up eating pork. Oh, I'd still eat ham and bacon, but pork chops and such ... I gave them up because I heard horror stories of how sick people got off of eating pork. And I never ate a pork chop again.
I went off to college, where I sustained myself on a shoestring budget and didn't think about vegetarianism for years, eating eggs just about every day because that was mainly all I could afford to eat. In fact, in college, I wrote some papers AGAINST supporting animal rights. I read those papers today and see great, ncredible ignorance on my part.
After I got out of college, I decided red meat was something I wanted to avoid, so I cut beef out of my diet. I bought ground turkey, and I'd still eat chicken. So even though I flirted with the idea of becoming vegetarian, I was progressing slowly, ever so slowly, toward my goal by giving up certain meats along the way.
I got to the point I was eating vegetarian meals just to see how I'd like them. During my transition period in trying to become more healthy, I saw the growth hormones and the drugs they pump animals full of to be terribly bad for us, and I was determined to find a place that sold meats from animals that were not treated with the growth hormones, and took a bigger interest in organic foods. I discovered Whole Foods and discovered a whole wide range of things I could eat that did not contain meat at all. I'd buy enough to allow me to eat meat free for a week at a time just to see how I'd like it ... and I found I didn't miss it at all.
It wasn't until I read an article in Rolling Stone about factory pig farming that I decided that was it: I was going to be vegetarian. Reading of the atrocities in those farms made me realize I didn't want any part of it ... cutting out certain meats wasn't enough; I had to cut them ALL out. When I read this article, I had already gone through my personal Whole Foods meat-free meal challenges, so the transition to just stop buying meat at this point was much easier.
I do have to admit I haven't been able to 100% go vegan. My refrigerator and kitchen have vegan products in them, 100%, but I admit I struggle with the idea of giving up dairy because I do think that people are meant to consume dairy products in moderation (and when I say in moderation, I mean rarely, as in how they consume it in foreign cultures, not smothering things in cheese like most Americans do), and I
am not convinced that we should avoid products produced by bugs. I cannot, and probably never will, ascribe the same value to an insect as an animal. I realize that alienates me from a lot of vegans, but I just don't have that level of conviction. Maybe one day I will, but right now I don't. (Just to add that I don't eat honey, and I can't think of other foods I eat with bug by-products in them, but my choice not to eat honey is simply because I never really had a taste for it ... ever ... and I cut it out entirely because it's no big deal, not from a certain
conviction.)
But on dairy ... I don't have ANY dairy products in my home. And I wish restaurants would offer more dairy alternatives, but if I eat out and there is no alternative, I will resign to eating dairy in those rare times. I don't eat out too often.
Ultimately, what prompted my decisions was a belief that God makes us all, and that God never REALLY commanded us to eat meat the way we do. The commandments to eat meat all surrounded ANNUAL sacrifices, NOT commandments to eat meat every day, three times a day. And the animal sacrifices were done away with when Jesus died on the cross, so I'd say God is very concerned about animal rights and didn't like the animal sacrifices. It was just something that had to be done until He could sacrifice Himself as Jesus. So mainly my decisions leading up to me swearing off meat all together was for dietary purposes, and after the Rolling Stone article, moral beliefs took over for the rest of the decision.
It also helped that I have a dog ... a golden retriever ... and the idea of eating him would be unthinkable to me, and I realized that no other animal was less important than him, so why should I eat them?
Jeff S.
Kansas City, Missouri
(Photo of dog courtesy of GRREAT, Inc. This dog is not the author's.)
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5 comments:
I think it is great when people have a belief in something and they feel strong enough to stand up and let people know how they feel. But I feel it is wrong to try and make people convert to whatever that belief is because someone feels differently. Food is food. I eat meat and enjoy it. To me nothing is better then a big juicy steak cooked on the grill. That my dinner ate grass in the field and any other plants, like corn or oats, shows how though I eat meat, the steak I ate, coming from a steer that was raised for the purpose of feeding me, that the steer ate plants.
I don’t care if you go through life not wanting to eat meat…that is your choice. It is my choice to eat meat and take the chance that my colon will turn cancerous some day because there is fifteen pounds of undigested beef sitting in there rotting away. Just remember that we all have the right to choose what we do and that placing burdens on someone because of the choices they make can and will be construed as self-righteous crap in the eyes of many.
Anyway, be carful using religious interpretation as a reason for people to “convert” to veganism. You said it your self that sacrifice was done before Jesus died on the cross for our sins…OUR SINS. Mark 7:14-15 and 17-19 says” 14 Again Jesus called the crowd to him and said, “Listen to me, everyone, and understand this. 15 Nothing outside a man can make him ‘unclean’ by going into him. Rather, it is what comes out of a man that makes him ‘unclean.’”… 17 After he had left the crowd and entered the house, his disciples asked him about this parable. 18 “Are you so dull?” he asked. “Don’t you see that nothing that enters a man from the outside can make him ‘unclean’? 19 For it doesn’t go into his heart but into his stomach, and then out of his body.”
Now I know it was a choice you made to stop eating meat and that is fine, but to compare eating your dog with a steak or any other animal that was specifically raised to feed people is asinine in my opinion. I have a dog and two cats and would go crazy if someone did something to them.
Thanks for your comment.
I don't believe that, because an animal was raised to become "meat," it's ok to kill it. Africans were once raised to work for whites. I don't believe that's right. Simply because a group can control another, that doesn't give them the right to do so.
I don't know what you were trying to say regarding a steer and plants. But, of course, you're free to eat what you want. My hope is that you'll view all animals as precious, just as you view your pets as precious. They can all feel pain -- and they can all feel love, if given the chance.
Do plants not die...do they not react to people and thrive with interaction with people?
OH...one more thing and I'm done...the slaves were taken from there home against their will in Africa...they were not raised to be slaves. If anaimals had a will, they would be people.
My daughter is a vegitarian so realize this was more about Jeff S. using his arguments to justify the result. I felt everything was great until the last couple of paragraphs.
That's great that your daughter is a vegetarian!
Regarding plants, they don't have a central nervous system, so it's unlikely they feel pain. However, if you truly care about plants feeling pain, consider this: It takes more plants to "die" to feed the animals that we kill for meat than to feed people directly.
Yes, Africans were taken from Africa to become white people's slaves. However, those Africans were bred for centuries -- and their offspring raised -- to continue being slaves.
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