Transformation Process from Omnivore to Vegan: The Personal Touch

I thought that Part Two in this series would be the last part, but my sisters reminded me that I have left out a particularly important component: the personal touch. How far am I in this journey from being an Omnivore to becoming a Vegan? One of my friends described themselves as “flexitarian” saying that they prefer going vegan or vegetarian but at the moment it is still difficult. I think this accurately describe my feet-in-two-worlds situation – I tip my hat at anyone who wakes up one day and decide their done with meat and animal products (or any other addiction for that matter).

So, my personal experience is that it is not easy, but looking back I can see that there was progress. Back when I were still staying in my hometown, I became convinced that vegetarian would be the way to go and I regularly discussed it with some friends. I was made fun of, which is fine by me, but unfortunately that meant no support at all. I knew no vegetarians or vegans personally so I could not ask for advice (I acknowledge that I did not think of Google).

As I read more about famous vegetarians – the likes of Mahatma Gandhi and Leo Tolstoy – I realized that I had to work in that direction, but I found myself failing time and again. I did, however, succeeded in becoming more of an environmentalist by refusing to kill insects unless it was necessary. I remember writing a small piece about how easy it is to love cats and dogs, but to feel nothing when it came to spiders and crickets (or feeling fear for these little creatures in some cases). My mom once joked, saying to one of her friends, “this one is so green…”.

Surprisingly, getting married helped a lot. I am enormously proud to brag that I have a supportive and understanding wife even though she finds some of my ideas a little over the top. When I told her that it has been a goal of mine to become at least vegetarian, if not full vegan, she immediately started to encourage me; and sometimes even admonished me if my actions contradicts my words. Two things she greatly helped me with was introducing the meatless Mondays and encouraging me to push the October Vegetarian month as far as possible (by the way – January is called Veganuary by vegans). Although my reasons are mostly spiritual in nature, my wife focus’ more on the health reasons and thus we try to combine my meatless times with more healthy eating in general. All this even though my wife is not a vegetarian and are not planning on becoming one.

In the meantime, I have made a list of different meats that I want to give up totally as time go by. This came about when I realized that my efforts to give up meat and other animal products all at once did not pay off and that perhaps a more gradual approach would work better. My list focus on meat specifically and are by no means scientific. In fact, I am still a long way from understanding the codes on the back of packages which are supposed to tell you if animal products were used (did you know, for instance, that animal products are used in soap and many cosmetics or in those delicious Jelly Babies?). To give myself time to get used to not eating a particular meat that I crossed of the list, I give up another form of meat every six months (perhaps I should shorten this time frame, but for now this is it). Thus, so far, I have given up eating fat, lamb, biltong (including droëwors, salami and so on) and patties (which means I gave up burgers).

Another surprising source of encouragement is my colleagues. Like any other group of South Africans, we are always on the lookout for a reason to have a small party where we all bring something to eat together before we begin with the day’s work. I must mention here that I am allergic for dairy products (for those who do not know – this is also an animal product) and you should think that this fact makes it easier for me to give it up, but alas I crave cheese a lot (and did I mention pizza?). Now, my colleagues know of my struggles to give up meat and diary products and one of them is a wonderful cook (he really should have been a chef and we are always full of praise for the dish he surprises us with). Before any event we planned he and my other colleagues always come to me to make sure which meat it is I do not eat and when they cook or bake something requiring dairy products, they make sure to use goat cheese for which I am not allergic (but which I will also eventually have to give up as I go full vegan). After this they always make sure not to bring those items – it is a joy to work with such colleagues.

By now I have also read more on what exactly goes into the production of meat and I am horrified. I am now appalled when I hear seemingly normal people (most of us in other words) talking with some enthusiasm about how animals are slaughtered for their meat, when the same person would not talk so casually if the same thing were done to a human. One person acknowledges that if she sees a chicken walk over the lawn and the host inform her that this will be the food for dinner, she become vegetarian for that night. Somehow, unfortunately, this does not translate to the packages we buy in the supermarket and I acknowledge I am as guilty. My choices are thus still very much influenced by this fallacy in my mind; when I must choose between an apple and a Vienna sausage then I will most probably find myself with a pack of viennas on the couch in front of the television.

Nowadays there is a lot of alternative products on the market. For instance, if you do not want to eat meat there is the option to buy tofu or soya. There are also processed foods which are made to look and taste like the real counterpart. Thus, you get vegan cheese, vegan patties, vegan sausages and even vegan biltong. These products can help a prospective vegan to ease the journey a bit as they look and taste more or less like the real deal (for those who grew up vegan or vegetarian – I would suggest you stay away from it). With this last warning in mind there are two unfortunate facts about these products. Firstly, they are quite expensive and thus where giving up meat may help your finances, going over to meat-like products does not. Secondly, it is highly processed foods which means it is also highly unhealthy (a real vegan or vegetarian diet is generally good healthy food).

This is then my difficulties and honest struggles as well as my proud little progress in the journey to become a more conscious consumer of food. It really is all about being aware of what we do to animals, the planet, other humans and ourselves. At the same time, it is an acknowledgement that human nature is frail, and that small steps and little seed may accumulate to bigger things with time. Thus, I hope that what I wrote here will serve as a planted seed that will bear fruit with time or serve as encouragement to not give up. Even if this was just an interesting read (or you vehemently disagree with everything I said or the way I go about my journey), I still hope that it will serve as food for thought.

May the One God with many Names and many Manifestations bless you

Transformation Process from Omnivore to Vegan: Part 2

In the previous part I explained environmental, health and humane reasons for going vegan. I am on this journey to give up my addiction to meat and all other animal products because I truly believe that we do not need meat in our diet and that what we are doing to the animals we would not even wish on our worst enemies. What I did not explain in the previous part was the spiritual reasons for going vegan although I did mention that looking after the environment and having compassion on all living beings are already very spiritual things to do. Whatever the case may be, here follows more specific spiritual reasons.

Two of the comments I received on the previous part is relevant for this part. The first comment was that the person hears what I am saying but to give up meat would be too difficult. The other comment was a reference to the Bible which say that those who eat only vegetables are weak. So, the first comment reminded me that every person are on their own journey and that no matter how much we point out cruelty towards others or unhealthy practices towards ourselves, writing here is only the hopeful seed of positive influence. The second comment is a reminder that people read the Bible (and many other Holy Scriptures) out of the context within which it was written and will grab at single verses which they think support their arguments without taking the whole of the chapter in consideration. Let us then start with this chapter which is Romans 14.

There are two things to remember when reading Romans 14 and that is, first of all, that Christians in the ancient world were still a minority and that the meat in those times were offered to idols before it was being sold (today Christianity are the largest religion with more that 2billion people professing to be Christian) and, secondly, Romans 14 is not primarily about food but about faith. In other words, when Paul writes in verse two that the person who is weak only eat vegetables he means to say that there is only One God and thus if you are worried about the meat because of the false gods then you do not need to worry because there is no other gods, false or otherwise, besides God only; however, if your faith is weak (thus, if you still feel that there is false gods to be worried about) then eat only vegetables. He then says it does not matter because those who eat meat should not look down on those who does not and those who eats only vegetables should not judge those who eat meat (one of the things that I made clear in the previous part was that I understand all of us are on our own journeys, I do not judge, but that I want to put this out there as positive influence).

Paul then continues to explain the same principle about faith with regards to the days of the week: some say Sunday (or the Sabbath) is holy but God made all days and we should live holy on all days. That is the context of this chapter and in the end, it had nothing to do with veganism and meat eating to begin with. People who only eat vegetables, vegetarians or vegans, are not weak. In fact, I challenge any meat eater to go without meat for a month (I suggest October as that is World Vegetarian Month) and see if it is easy, I assure you that you will have new respect for the strength those who do not eat meat.

It is true that Jesus ate meat, but that cannot be used as an excuse anymore than the fact that the Dalai Lama eats meat. As the Dalai Lama has his specific reasons while still advocating that a vegetarian diet is better so Jesus was living in times when veganism was not the social issue it is today. The reasons for this are simple, right in the beginning God gave the plants to humans as food and they only started eating meat after Noah and the great flood, thus after sin entered the world according to the Christian worldview. Why then did Moses allow it in the law? This is the same kind of question the Pharisees asked Jesus and his answer were: “Due to the hardness of your hearts”. This hardness of our hearts is a problem even today, we do understand the reasons why it is wrong to kill animals when there is more than enough food to end famine, we understand that we are cruel, we try to justify it by playing with words; and all this because we insist on our desires, entertainment, power and financial gain.

I have realized this cruelty within myself and decided to face up to it. We are not only cruel to each other, but also to millions of other species (more than 680 species are extinct as a direct result of human activities and more than 1 million are under threat) and to the planet itself. This lead me to realize that we need a lot more compassion as it is explained by the Buddhists and love as it is written in the Christian Scriptures (I will write more about what exactly it means to love in a later post). Compassion is to understand that when we look pass everything that divide us, including race, age, religion, nationality, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, politics, species and anything else, there is the Spark of God within all of life. Our interconnectedness, the African philosophy of Ubuntu expanded to include far more than only humanity but to be universal, lead us to realize that if we act hurtful to anything – no matter how small it seems to us – we act hurtful to everything and that have repercussions for the future. It is only compassion which will make us care about a future where we ourselves might not be and yet live on.

Unless ye must, bruise not the serpent in the dust, how much less wound a man. And if ye can, no ant should ye alarm, much less a brother harm.

Abdu’l-Baha

Compassion, in the end, is to always be loving because we know we are not the only ones with problems. It is to always be loving towards everyone and everything, from the most innocent to those who we are sure do not deserve it. There are few things more innocent than an animal that does not understand why it is being hunted to be killed or herded to be slaughtered and yet experience that fear of what is happening. It is easy to look down on animals as creatures we can do with as we please, but ask yourself these two questions – If it is okay for us to kill for food (and buying your meat in packages in the local supermarket is indirectly condoning the killing), why do we experience it as cruel when a tiger or lion kills a human? If cannibalism is wrong because it is murder and, also, that there is enough other food; why then is it okay for us to eat the flesh of other beings?

I sincerely hope, indeed pray, that we will gradually start to live in greater awareness of our actions, that we will ask ourselves if what we are busy with every second of the day is compassionate. Further, that it will not stay with awareness but that we will take action and make better decisions within our own environments and within our own spheres of influence.

May the One God with many Names and many Manifestations, bless you

Transformation Process from Omnivore to Vegan: Part 1

I am on a journey to become vegan (or, at the very least, vegetarian). It is a journey that started a long time ago when I became convinced, for various reasons of which I will explain some here, that eating meat is against what I came to believe spiritually. Unfortunately I am still very much a meat eater but, slowly but surely, I am cutting it out of my diet like an addict who gives up the addiction one slow step at a time. This is exactly what meat-eating is – an addiction. I grew up in a family who believe that if there is no meat on the plate then the meal is incomplete. I grew up in a culture for which to braai is a national activity. So, I have been eating meat for the more than thirty years, most of the time unquestioning and, I admit even now, with delight.

Apart from the lack of support (and I do now have more support than before), it is this last part which make it most difficult to give up meat. It is easy to give up something which you do not like much to begin with. Giving up something you enjoy is more complicated even though you believe that there is something inherently and morally wrong with it. Thus, I do not judge anyone for any addiction they may have. As an Omnist I believe that your journey and the decisions you make on your chosen path is your own. And yet, I feel that this is an important enough part of my own journey that I want to share it and, hopefully, change some mindsets or, at least, trigger some thought.

Personally, I have environmental, health, humane and spiritual reasons why I am exercising my mind and my body to give up meat and the use of any other animal products. On the first two I am no expert, and I will only briefly refer to it. On the third no one need to be an expert – all you need is compassion. I have given a lot more thought on the spiritual reasons and will comment more elaborately on these.

Environmentally I do believe that we should be able to end famine if only we are willing to give up our desire to consume meat. If we do not care for the animals, at least we can, indeed must, care for the members of our own species. The argument is simple: there are enough grain to feed the whole of the world population. Unfortunately, a large portion of grain are used in order to feed the livestock which will become meat. The amount of grain used for this purpose are much more than the amount of meat that is produced at the end of the process. It is sad that we are depriving millions of people of food so that only some of us can enjoy our meat. Keeping meat prices is mind it is a fact that some of us might be forced to become vegetarian soon. This is also a deciding factor in my own family – having a meatless day or two in the week not only lessen our carbon-footprint but also go lighter on our pockets.

With health the first thing people always love to say is that we need protein. This is false because we are actually addicted to protein. Our bodies only need a small amount of protein all of which is present in vegetables and seeds. The amount of protein we take in by consuming meat is much more than we need. Further, although our bodies are able to consume meat and other animal products and we pride ourselves in being omnivore, there are studies that show that actually our teeth are not made to tear meat and our organs are struggling to break down the meat and animal milk enzymes.

As I said, I am not an expert in these areas and it is up to you, my dear reader, to do your own research. However, there is something that we all, who have a conscience, feel and that is humaneness. As I have read more and more into the reasons why I should become a vegan, one of the overpowering factors is our own cruelty. First, we have the ability to lie to ourselves thinking that meat is just that as if it grows on trees. We talk about beef instead of cow and of pork instead of pig but we rationally know what it is and do not hesitate to call lamb and fish for what it is, and yet somehow we can ignore these facts while we cut, burn and eat it.

Second, there is the fact that these animals first need to be killed, slaughtered (murdered?), before its meat (flesh) can be packaged and transported to where we can buy it. An interesting point of view on this is “humane slaughtering” which means that animals can now be killed without any, or at least with the minimum, pain. Even if the animal feels no pain it does not take away the fact that it is being killed. Apart from that, how low did we fall in order to come up with a nonsense term such as “humane slaughtering”? Think about it, the ‘war to end all wars’ lead to no peace at all other than many more wars.

Lastly, and this is the biggest lie we tell ourselves, how is it possible that it is okay to kill some animals and cruel to kill others? Especially in our Western so-called civilization certain animals such as dogs and cats and select few from the bird and fish species and rabbits, are not being killed for food. Here we suddenly know how cruel it is to kill these specific animals while at the same time we feel the absolute irrational need to kill other species. It will be much more honest, however not less cruel, to admit that some we love, some we eat and some we just plain hate. So, we came up with a word such as ‘pet’ (a beautiful word for slave, I suggest the word ‘companion’ for animal lovers), so that when a sheep are especially loved by a little girl and her family that particular sheep is called ‘pet’ and is not eaten together with the other sheep. As for those we hate, we prefer to kill spiders, rats, mice and snakes and give various reasons for doing so without thinking twice that there are groups of people who are more than willing to go to your house, catch these animals and take them to a place where they can safely continue life.

When a man kills a tiger, it is called hunting. When a tiger kills a man, it is called cruel.

It is not only the larger animals that suffers, but also insects. Before I elaborate on this, I need to say this, there is a few times when it is allowed to kill. Firstly, when being threatened, a matter of life and death. When a robber, murderer or rapist threatens you, you have the right to protect yourself; and that is also true of a dangerous animal or insect. Secondly, for survival – if you find yourself in a situation where there is absolutely nothing else to eat then it is again a matter of life and death (I am willing to bet that most of us, in the 21^st century, will never find ourselves in such a situation). Lastly, when you have no other choice. For instance, if there is an insect or other animal in your house which can easily be caught and released outside then it should be done that way, but others (such as flies and ants) are more difficult and then, while feeling sorry for the little creatures, it may be killed in the interest of cleanliness and hygiene.

Now to return to the fact that insects also suffer, we need to remember that no matter how small the creature, it is a living being. The focus so far has mostly been on meat, but what about an animal product such as honey? Here is what I recently learned about honeybees and their owners: We all know that bees collect pollen from flowers which they then take to the hives. What we perhaps do not know is that it is not the pollen itself that gets unloaded at the hive. The pollen is consumed by the bees and in their stomachs it is transformed into honey which is then vomited (yes you have read correctly) out. What is this vomit (otherwise known as honey) used for by the bees? It is the building blocks for the hive and the food that the bees feed to their larvae. In other words, we humans are thieves stealing so to speak out of the mouths of the babes (the same thing we do with cows’ milk by the way). But there are worse to come, in order to move the hives to where the beekeeper want it or when the honey is being collected, smoke is used to disorientate the bees. The reason this is bad (other than the fact that smoke is being blown into the faces of sentient beings – you try not to complain the next time you inhale smoke) is that, when bees are in their natural environment and there is a fire, the smoke is a signal that they should flee. So, what happen is that the bees eat as much honey as is possible in order to build a new hive somewhere safer. The question then is, why don’t the bees just leave the beekeeper the moment smoke is blown into the hive? The reason, and this is the cherry on the cruel cake, is the queen bee. The bees will only leave if the queen herself leave – problem is that the lovely beekeepers removed the wings of the queen.

These then are the some of the reasons why I am busy moving away from eating meat and using animal products. In part two of the Transformation Process from Omnivore to Vegan I will focus exclusively on spiritual and religious reasons. This does not mean that this post was not spiritual at all. As human beings I believe that we are not bodies containing spirits, but spirits living in bodies and thus we are spiritual beings. As spiritual beings I believe we have an immense obligation and responsibility towards the environment and the health of ourselves and all other sentient beings. Apart from that, if the focus is on spirit and not on body then it should also be on compassion and not on dominion. The cruelty we have towards nature, animals and each other show that our focus has far too long been on our bodies and our perceived right to dominate and do as we please. We have made our stomachs our gods.

May the One God with many Names and many Manifestations bless you