Hey guys, I don't know if any of you guys remember me, I used to post on here a while back. I randomly decided to check out the forum just now and noticed this thread lol. I am Vegan and an Activist as well. I love how open-minded everyone on here seems to be and after reading through the thread, I would just like to share some insights I have learned from my 2 years of veganism. Whether you think I am spreading vegan propaganda, I am wrong, I am annoying, that's fine, take from this what you will but I just know I wish I knew all this a lot earlier than just 2 years ago, so hopefully this can be useful for some of you guys. The following are simply my views (as well as most vegans), so please do not take them as me being militant or authoritative.
1) A lot of people seem to be talking about hunting being an ethical way of eating meat. The way I see it is yes, animals hunt each other, and our ancestors did as well. But their situation was completely different. They did so out of necessity. For them, it is literally kill or be killed. We have the privilege to avoid such extreme lifestyles. We simply need to walk to the grocery store and can purchase food to survive. Therefore, hunting an animal when we simply do not need to is greed. Although it is technically "better" that an animal got to live a 'natural' life before being quickly killed by a bullet, the fact still comes down to, animals are sentient (obviously) and have a desire to live, share experienced with family/friends, enjoy playing/food, and seek to maximize pleasure and minimize pain in their one and only life. It is not ethical to take an animals life simply because we want to eat them when we have plenty of other options.
This blind spot in our ethics is heavily influenced by our flawed culture. Im sure everyone here would have a completely different view if I said I want to kill dogs quick and pain-free to eat them, when I can simply eat something else? So what makes a dog different than a wild animal? Dogs just have the luck of being chosen by people to be "pets", yet across an imaginary border into Korea or China, their are plenty of dog farms for dog meat.
It is the same old trick of culture labeling different sentient beings based off of arbitrary labels. They do this with humans, based off of various labels regarding race/sex/sexuality/etc... and also with animals. The only thing that matters is, not our personal preference, but the fact that they are all sentient and have a desire to live and that basic fundamental right should be respected when we have other alternatives.
Hunting for overpopulation is also a faulty reason simply because this is implying that we are trying to maintain natural order on this planet. The circle of life per se. It is important to realize that, nature doesn't really get anything wrong. It is humans who have created all the problems. Animal agriculture is the #1 cause of global warming, ocean dead zones, water pollution, species extinction, habitat destruction, rainforest destruction, among many other environmental factors (not to mention nature never intended for humans to artificially breed 57 billion land animals every year to be enslaved in buildings and suffer and take up all the land). Any part of nature that is not in "balance" has its problem rooted in humans. Therefore hunting to control overpopulation, is treating the symptom and not the root cause. If anyone should pay for the crime, why should it be those who did nothing wrong? Humans are overpopulating the planet as well, why not kill off a big number of humans (I am joking, I am not suggesting we do such a thing). The point is, hunting to control overpopulation is like big Pharma and medication. Treat the symptom while new symptoms arise, just ignore the root cause.
2) Going vegetarian is a huge positive step towards an ethical lifestyle but just incase some are not familiar, I would like to share why only vegan is the ethical choice. It doesn't matter if the eggs or dairy we buy come from "free-range" or "cage free" or "humane" (although I encourage you all to see what these really mean (you will be shocked at what counts as "free-range or cage free")), cruelty is always rampant.
In the dairy industry, the farmer jacks off a bull to collect their sperm and either using his hand or a metal rod, forcibly impregnates the female cow in the "rape rack" (this is the a name the dairy industry uses, not one vegans made). The cow gives birth and as all animals, mother and new-born babies have a special bond. However, the baby calf is taken away from the mother immediately in most cases (if they're lucky 3 days tops). This is because the baby is going to steal "our" milk. If the baby is female she will be taken away to be used in the same dairy practices. If the baby is male they are tied in a tiny cage to prevent muscular development so they can be killed in 4-6 months for veal meat (since they are useless for milk production). If calf supply is full, the baby boys die right after birth. The mother gets raped again as soon as possible, and this cycle continues until around age 4-6 (they usually live from 20-25 years) until milk production slows down and is considered "unprofitable" and then gets sent to the meat industry to be slaughtered.
The same exact thing happens in the egg industry. Baby male chicks are either drowned or thrown into a macerator at the day of birth because they will be of no use for egg production. Mother hens/chickens are treated the same way as cows. When egg production slows, they are sent to the meat industry for slaughter.
"Humane" is also an oxymoron and a lie. It goes back to my points about hunting. Humane means to show compassion. There is no way in my opinion, to artificially breed into existence a peaceful sentient being and have their death day marked (way before their natural life cycle) as soon as they are born. Just cause one has had a good life, doesn't mean it's okay for them to die. That actually means, they had many things to continue living for. The enjoyment of life/ family/ and friends just like us. Just imagine if I got a litter of puppies and treated them well and at age 4, kill them for food. The connection we have with dogs is not one of "dogs are different from other animals" it is simply one of familiarity and cultural influence. Again, should our biased personal preferences dictate the basic fundamental right of a sentient being to be free to live their life? Is this decision based off of a biased personal preference not a commonality in all injustices in the history of this planet?
3) 1 person making a change
Humanity has made many progressions in history and it always started with a tiny minority standing up against the conventional norms that they questioned. If everyone thought "I am only 1 person" then society would look a lot different than it does now. Here is an interesting statistic. Vegans in the U.S. made up 1% of the population in 2014. As of today, they make up 6%. As with any social revolution in the past, the side of Truth always wins. It always starts off small, but no one is immune to seeing Truth with their own eyes.
4) Whey or any other animal product nutrition.
Today more and more olympic and professional athletes are going vegan because the science shows that it not only has all the nutrients required, but is even more beneficial. I encourage everyone to check the science on human physiology. We are nearly identical to all the other herbivores in the animal kingdom such as gorillas.
Protein requirements has also been extremely exaggerated as vast majority of studies that show high protein requirements have been exposed as funded by meat and dairy industries. There are many professional bodybuilders who are seeing that their gains are the exact same with less protein as well as plant protein.
B12 is only naturally found in soil. The natural way to get B12 would be like people of the past who grew crops and pulled them out of the ground and ate them. We do not do that anymore with our mass production. The only reason why meat has B12 in it is because in meat farms, the animals food is supplemented with B12. So getting a cheap B12 supplement (like 15 bucks lasts a year or something), is the same as getting it from meat. Both were "supplemented". If you drink plant milk, they are almost all fortified with B12 to make it much easier. Iron is easily found in legumes and as athletes, this also provides tons of protein so it's efficient. Even omega 3's are not originally from fish oil, but fish eat algae. There are vegan algae supplements or you can do things like eat flaxseed.
And yes, meat consumption has a high correlation with ED lol.
As with anything in life, it's difficult at first, but with practice, quickly becomes easy. Over time, you learn how to cook, grocery shop, order food at non-vegan restaurants, etc... It's all about going at your own comfortable pace (not going vegan all in overnight) and as you get more comfortable and learn more, you take steps towards complete veganism.
I don't want anyone to believe anything I said. This topic is very important as it is serious for the well-being of peaceful animals, the well-being of the planet, and to improve human health and have these chronic diseases no longer being the norm (heart disease is the #1 killer in the world for men and women). Therefore, I only say all these things to encourage everyone to research more into all of this.
Documentaries I recommend which have all been received REALLY WELL by vegans and non-vegans.
What The Health - Itunes/Netflix > shows all the health aspects and exposes the meat industry and pharma industry and their corruptions
CoWspiracy - Netflix > Environmental impact of animal agriculture
Earthlings - This is free on
www.nationearth.com > This documentary can be hard to watch for some, but the way I see it, whether we change our lifestyles or not, the VERY LEAST we need to do is at least educate ourselves on what EXACTLY goes into the products we purchase on a daily basis. Keeping a blind eye to the consequences of our actions is not right. This documentary shows the procedures of food, entertainment (zoos/circuses), animal testing, clothing (fur/leather > there is vegan fur and vegan leather, just like vegan meat, vegan chicken, etc...)
I will just end this on one final note. Veganism is something I know 99% of the population agrees with. Because it simply means: If we can live happy and healthy lives without causing any intentional suffering onto animals, then why not? And in todays day and age, with more and more vegan products such as vegan chicken/meat/dairy/ even Vegan fish/eggs coming out, they are tasting more and more realistic, it has never been easier to be vegan. All it takes is an intention, and going at a steady pace towards that lifestyle everyone already agrees with.
