Vegan Reset by Kim-Julie Hansen

Author:Kim-Julie Hansen
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Cooking
ISBN: 9781328453549
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Published: 2018-09-03T16:00:00+00:00

ETHICS

Because we have the physical ability to digest meat, many think that we are omnivores, but the answer isn’t quite so simple. Yes, we are capable of eating practically anything in order to survive, but we have no biological need for animal products. In fact, the overconsumption of processed meats and other animal products has actually been linked to numerous illnesses, including cardiovascular diseases.

Veganism isn’t about debunking everything we’ve ever been taught, but rather about critically examining the information that we use to justify our consumption of other sentient beings. There is a reason slaughterhouses don’t have glass walls. I think that, deep down, we already know that there is something horrific about killing animals. On top of that, commercial animal agriculture is both cruel and unsustainable.

The day I came across the book Eating Animals by Jonathan Safran Foer, which was the first book that introduced me to the reality of factory farms, I read the first page and instantly knew I was not going to like what I read. So instead of continuing, I closed the book and decided that I wasn’t ready for it. It took me a few months before I finally had the courage to keep reading. We have no biological need for animal products and, therefore, if given the choice between compassion and unnecessary suffering, our choice should be an obvious one. I want to emphasize that my goal is not to depict meat eaters as evil people. People eat meat because they’ve been taught that it is necessary and normal. I ate meat for most of my life and I don’t think that I was a bad person. This is not about attacking anyone or feeling superior. For me, it’s about making kinder, more compassionate decisions.

This can be a very sensitive topic, because how do you condemn an action without condemning those who are, often unknowingly, responsible for it? You do so by focusing on the victims—the animals—first and foremost and by meeting people where they are, encouraging every step toward a kinder lifestyle with patience and compassion. So, if you are still eating meat, I’m not here to judge you, but rather to show you all the wonderful things veganism has to offer.

Is Vegetarianism Not Enough?

To someone hearing about veganism for the first time, cutting out all animal products may seem extreme. Would it not be enough to just be vegetarian? Before knowing anything about veganism, I had a vague idea of the meat industry and what animals had to endure before being killed for food. I knew that there were cases of cruelty against animals in some slaughterhouses and I had seen snippets of footage that undercover activists had secretly recorded. I was convinced, however, that the circumstances I had seen in those undercover videos were the exception, not the norm. I thought that most animals were treated “nicely” and that killing them was an unfortunate but necessary step.

As I started finding out more about the meat industry and then the dairy

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