Vegetarian contemplates changing diet

First, being vegan is easy. -http://www.peta.org/accidentallyVegan/ -http://www.peta2.com/STUFF/s-eat1.asp

Second, it’s healthy. Numerous studies have been done that show the more amount of meat and dairy a country consumes the more likely heart disease, cancer, and stroke is.

Third, organic doesn’t mean humane treatment. -http://www.goveg.com/organic_products.asp

The meat and dairy industries are destroying our planet. We are breeding animals so we can feed them our food instead of just eating it ourselves. This takes up tons of land. We feed animals 85% of our corn and 90% of our oats. Countries are exporting food to feed animals while there own people are starving to death.

A vegan diet is good for our health, good for animals, good for the environment, and the best diet for the global poor.

I, like Phil and likely most vegans, appreciate the spread about veganism — any step towards people understanding vegans is greatly appreciated. However, I take incredible issue with this article, especially as it is without counterpart. Liz does not represent the vegetarian and/or vegan world or mindset, and for that matter, no one does, nor should they implicitly purport to. It appears, however, that Liz doesn’t mind portraying them in any light she deems fit: “And let’s not forget the slew of real-deal animal lovers who would oust me as not being ‘vegan enough’ or even ‘a real vegan’ if I accidentally ate a cookie with butter in it.”
No one would ever fault you for accidentally eating anything. And for that matter, none of the vegans I know would even care enough about something so small to chastise someone for it. I am personally offended that this article implies that vegans are “radical” and “extreme,” and for that matter, apparently very rude people. The whole idea of veganism is understanding and putting yourself in the shoes (or hooves) of another.

I was really excited at the opportunity of a campus-wide spread about veganism/vegetarianism, as it is something I care about greatly, but this article (and certain aspects of the others) was really disappointing. The article portrays Liz as something of an insider in the non-meat-eating world, while she cuts down veganism in seemingly every paragraph. Like an “expert scientist” going on record bashing evolution, Liz has done very much the opposite of what I would have hoped for.

From the outset, she gives veganism a belittled aura when she says things like, “the vegan thing” and “we shouldn’t be arbitrarily forcing more lifestyle rules upon ourselves.” I don’t know any vegans who stopped using animal products “arbitrarily.” It is certainly a lifestyle change and one that took me a long time to come to, but it has been the best decision I’ve ever made. So for someone to publish an article in a city-wide newspaper denigrating veganism from a soapbox is, needless to say, quite upsetting.

I hope anyone who took the time to read her article will now go out and read three more articles or books that tell the truth about veganism: that it is about understanding and empathy, it is healthy (I mean, maybe Liz doesn’t think it is, but the American Dietetics Association seems to think so — http://www.eatright.org/cps/rde/xchg/ada/hs.xsl/advocacy_933_ENU_HTML.htm), and, if, unlike Liz, you do “think about what you eat” and actually make your own food occasionally instead of relying on Menna’s Joint to feed you, a vegan diet is delicious and entirely possible for every college student (though I do recommend reading up on vegan nutrition, as your diet would obviously be much different than the usual Food Pyramid).

Lastly, I would just like to note that I am in no way “ousting” Liz as not vegetarian enough; what other people eat and how they feel is their own decision (something I respect greatly). I am merely upset that (among other things) Liz would belittle the immensity of the animal suffering that goes on everyday, all over the world, and categorize it as wholly less important than eating a cookie that has butter in it. My girlfriend makes incredible cookies, and they’re made without any animal products, so please don’t disregard veganism because you “can’t have cookies.”

Vegan diets are often adopted with the same motivations behind Vegetarian ones. If someone is worried about health, for instance, and seeks to avoid the fat content, hormones, and potential future health effects of a meat-based diet, one can convert to a Vegan diet with the same intentions with respect to eggs and milk. In this article, Liz Kersjes states that she “turned away” from the “moral horizon” of becoming Vegan due to the difficulties of eating out, her inability to abstain from the “more important” taste of a buttery cookie and her edict that Veganism is an arbitrary lifestyle. It is clear that Liz doesn’t believe in making sacrifices of convenience and taste for the welfare of animals.

I must ask, then, Liz, what motivates you to maintain a Vegetarian diet? If your reason is a personal distaste of meat, then this article is a lot more fitting than it appears, but I still can’t acknowledge your misrepresentation of Veganism. If you’re motivated by health concerns, then you should give the Vegan diet a much closer look. If it is that you don’t support factory farming in the name of animal welfare, well, you are as hypocritical as they come. And finally, if you maintain your Vegetarian diet simply out of habit and “comfort”, it becomes ironically evident that, like most people in the world who heedlessly carry out customs for the sake of tradition and ease, you are the one with an arbitrary lifestyle.

all vegans should be rounded

heh i see what you did there…..equating meat eating with the murdering of human beings

what are you going to do now, superimpose an image of some factory farm with that of the holocaust???????????