Perhaps the saddest thing that will confront you when you first stop eating animals or supporting their exploitation is the realization of the hell that humans put animals through. Congratulations on recognizing this and committing to a lifestyle that demonstrates you are taking a stand.
However, another sad thing that you will likely encounter is the many people who will want to tell you that you are doing it all wrong. They know the only true and right way of thinking, and you need to convert to their beliefs or you are not really vegan. They know it all, and you just haven’t realized this yet!
Our advice? Trust your own judgement, consider the questions you meet, do your own research, and make up your own mind.
One of the first dilemmas you will meet is understanding the difference between vegans and vegetarians. Rest assured, everyone will have an opinion.
Vegetarian is quite an old word. It was in common usage in the mid 1800’s when the British Vegetarian Society was formed in 1847, although there are references to suggest the early members of the society may have invented the word. Prior to this, the common language of the day was simply to say that a person, “did not eat meat,” or, “did not wear animal skins or wool.”
The concept of not eating meat has been around for thousands of years, with historians dating it back to the ancient Greeks as well as various religious groups including Hinduism and Buddhism. In these times the descriptions commonly meant to refrain from eating animals, including eggs and in most cases milk from lactating mothers. There are also records of people in ancient history who refrained from eating meat, but still ate products like wild honey, eggs, or the milk from a lactating cow (particularly in India where the cow is considered sacred and allowed to freely wander).
A key point to keep in mind is that while many leading intellectuals and philosophers of ancient times did not eat meat and rejected lifestyles that exploited animals, there were no words in common use such as vegan and vegetarian. As their histories were incorporated into modern language (in the time since 1800 AD), the word vegetarian was increasingly used to describe their lifestyle. The word “vegan” did not exist back then.
During the seventies, you could ask for vegetarian food on international airline flights and you would be asked if you wanted an “ovo-lacto vegetarian meal” or an “Asian vegetarian meal.” “Ovo” meant the meal could include eggs, and “lacto” meant the meal could include milk and dairy products.
In 1947, the word “vegan” was coined to describe a vegetarian that did not eat eggs or milk products. Since then, many other dietary descriptive words have been tabled, often because it is fashionable to belong to groups with different eating patterns.
While all of these words are reasonably new, the one we are interested in here is vegan. Many people use the word to mean different things, but they all agree that vegans do not eat meat, dairy products, eggs, fish, or any other sea creatures. Beyond that the definition gets a little shaky.
An interesting question to consider is “why are you vegan?”
There seem to be three major reasons people choose this lifestyle:
1. Mounting evidence supports the argument that a vegan diet improves your health and decreases the probability of contracting many common – sometimes fatal – diseases. Hence, many people become vegan because of the health benefits.
2. The meat and dairy industries are causing massive damage to the planet. They are a primary cause of greenhouse gas emissions (and thereby global warming), deforestation and water pollution. A lot of people become vegan because they are environmentalists and want to protect the planet for future generations.
3. The meat, dairy and poultry industries are based on animal abuse. Animals are enslaved, tortured and abused to provide meat, milk, eggs, leather and fur for consumers who have no ethical restraints on how their pleasures are met. Many people become vegan because they believe animals have the right to live their lives without being exploited for what humans can take from them.
Whatever your reason for becoming vegan, we would like to congratulate you for making the commitment, and offer you whatever support we can to help you remain committed to the vegan lifestyle.
Here at Vegan Base Camp, we are vegan for all three reasons listed above. Some vegans you meet may be vegan for just one or two of these reasons. Whatever your reasons for being vegan, we support you in your choice, and we are also confident that the more you think about the vegan lifestyle, the more you will become convinced of the validity of all of the reasons we have listed.
“When vegetarians grow up, they become vegans …”
