Whether you have adopted this lifestyle, are thinking about it or in the transitional stages to change, I hope this book inspires you and helps guide you forward. There is nothing extreme in what we do. I was raised vegetarian, started eating small amounts of meat when I left home, went back to being vegetarian and then ultimately became vegan.
Scott went from being raised as a big meat eater to being vegetarian, to being vegan. At first he was so sceptical of the vegetarian dishes I used to put in front of him; he’d look over them thoroughly and then move it about on his plate with his fork like there was a hidden bomb under the capsicum! If you haven’t done that, you may know someone that has or still does or you may find yourself doing it one day. If you do then hopefully you will laugh as you remember the words written here.
We used to consider ourselves animal lovers and abhorred any cruelty towards them. But our eyes were blind to what was hidden. When we started to look into the ‘end of the line’ for food animals, our hearts and souls were ripped in two. How could we have been blind for so long? Why had animals begging for their lives fallen on deaf ears for so long? The answer is simple; because we are shielded from it from birth. Most people don’t want young children to see upsetting images or to hear horror tales that might give them nightmares, so the cover up begins and through no fault of the people around the child. They have been through the same cultural upbringing.
I was the same, but one day I picked up Jonathan Safran Foer’s book Eating Animals, and the penny dropped. So powerful were his words that I could take myself to the places he wrote about, and instinctually I knew that how we treated animals was so incredibly wrong and one of humanity’s greatest shames. Suddenly being vegetarian was no longer enough. I closed the book and emptied my fridge and pantry. By the time I was done, I could empathise, not only with all creatures, but with Old Mother Hubbard too! My cupboards were bare.
Scott walked in the door and asked how my day was. I replied, “Good. We are now vegan.” That was 2009.