Will I stay a Vegan?
This is a good question. And I've given it a lot of thought. Truly I have noticed a difference in my body, my sleeping habits, my energy levels, my mood, etc. But whether that's because I am cutting meat out of my diet or just because I'm being more responsible about my food intake is questionable. And none of those side effects is the reason I started this project. I began this project in an attempt to discover my personal limits in helping to fight against animal welfare.
I have discovered that it is certainly within my will power and ability to sacrifice some of my favorite eating habits to support a cause such as this. However, I have recently started to question the long term affects of being a Vegan or Vegetarian. If we are only trying to make a statement against animal cruelty than we are not focusing on the bigger picture. Lets say everyone decided to adopt a Vegan lifestyle. Fantastic. Great, all the animals are safe and happy. But humans will still be subsisting off of some sort of artificially produced supplement. To me, that's not natural. I'd be willing to sacrifice for a while by using a supplement or fortified food, but whether I want that to become a social norm is undoubtedly no. So how do we accomplish our goal while maintaining some sort of longer term solution?
Well, consumer demand guides economic trends. It's what we are trying to accomplish by encouraging Veganism. I think a better answer to becoming a Vegan is for the consumers to fight against factory farming and slaughtering and throw their support to the smaller farms who are still operating in a way that promotes animal welfare. I am not of the opinion that humans should abstain from consuming animal products. I simply believe that the consumer demand in this industry has driven the processing of our food to in-humane levels. I fully support hunting for the purpose of feeding your family. As an extension to that, I fully support farming for the purpose of feeding a community, as long as it is raised and slaughtered in as humane a way as possible. Let's not kid ourselves, nature is cruel. Animals being killed will never be kind, but it is still the way of life.
Now to be realistic, you'd have to keep in mind that if we wiped out all factory farms we would never be able to meet the current consumers demand of meat and dairy products. So I don't have some unrealistic dream of all factory farms being shut down tomorrow. I do however believe that the gradual promotion of old-school farming would give back the money and power to the hard working American farmer who will in turn grow in production and support. No matter how many farms were sprouted from this return to old-style farming, Americans would have to take a drastic step back in it's meat and dairy consumption. But quite frankly, we are a fat country, we could use an increase in regulated veggies and fruits in our diets.
Therefore, I have decided that my personal contribution to this operation will continue in the form of a mostly vegetarian diet. If I want to eat meat or dairy products I will support the local farms and dairies by purchasing their products over those of the factory farms. Otherwise I will continue to avoid both meat and dairy from restaurants, fast foods, and grocers. At least until they catch on and start supporting the free range farmers and regulated slaughtering houses that I would like to support.
Like any cause worth fighting for, I'm optimistic that my small voice will eventually trickle down the line to a river of supporters.
