Yesterday, I went to a family birthday party/dinner.
I'll jump right in. There was a hot and cold buffet for dinner with one kind of soup as a starter. Vegetable soup... with meatballs.
The buffet contained various types of bread, garlic butter, three types of 'salad', french fries, a rice dish, three types of meat dishes and a couple of tiny cups with salad/meat/fruit.
If you did not want to consume animal products, your choices were: tiny fruit cups and french fries, if they were fried in plant-based oil. If you wanted to be on the safe side, your choice was tiny fruit cups.
Only two options, out of an entire buffet, did not include animal products.
There were no vegetables, other than some garnish around the salads and some tiny specks of green and red in the salads. Apparently, we consider meat to be the main part of a hot buffet. Apparently, we'd rather eat our way to heart disease and cancer by abusing and mass murdering a few kinds of living animals, instead of eating the wide, tasty and healthy variety of fruits and vegetables available to us.
What the hell is wrong with humanity?
We'd rather have a bleeding, dead animal on our plates, than eat healthy, vibrant foods.
I'm no saint here, at all. I reluctantly had some potato salad (milk products used) and tried my luck on some bread (possibly milk products or eggs used), next to filling up on vegetable garnish, tiny fruit cups and french fries. All while promising myself that next time, I will tell everyone about my diet preferences.
It was not a fun evening for me, as a person well on her way to plant-based (I don't read all ingredient lists yet, so vegans will still hate me). As I sat there, relucantly having a few bites of potato salad, filling up on french fries, I watched everyone around me mindlessly filling their plates with meat and eating all of these dead animal bodies.
Granted, a cousin told me I was doing better than everyone in that room, including himself, but he said this while eating his dead animals. Another person said we only need a tiny bit of meat each week for health purposes and said he never buys meat and only eats it when others serve it. All while eating his dead animals.
Best was an uncle saying something along the lines of "What's the purpose of living if you can't eat meat every day?". What a sad and cruel person you must be to say something like that. No respect, whatsover. That guy is (brain) dead to me.
The worst thing is: No one questions it! No one questions a buffet filled with all sorts of animal products and hardly any vegetable to be found. We've normalized eating animal products created out of sexual abuse, baby stealing, torture, horrible living circumstances and complete panic and murder at the end.
- Sexual abuse
- Baby stealing
- Torture
- Horrible living circumstances
- Complete panic and murder at the end
Read that again. And again. And again. Continue reading that until it sinks in just how morally wrong this is!
Credits: Farm Transparency Project
We are talking about living animals. Mamals. You know, the same type of animals humans are. Innocent animals who can feel love and joy, but instead, are forced to live a life of fear and pain from the moment they are born. When they are just babies, wanting to be safely with their mothers, but being torn away from her as soon as possible. And why? So we can have a minute of taste sensation? Eating their bodies, their babies, milk meant for their babies. We are stealing everything from them. We reduce them to nothing. These poor, living, innocent creatures!
I can't talk for every single group of people living on this earth, but I know rich, western society. I know we have no excuse. None. No excuse for abusing, torturing and murdering these animals. Their blood is on your hands. Their horrible lifes are your fault. Not one single farmer would 'create' more of these animals, living under such bad circumstances, if there wasn't a market for this. So you are to blame for this. You, and every other sick human still eating and using animal products.
There is no excuse, no valid reason!
Credits: Farm Transparency Project
If, like that uncle, meat is your joy in life, you need to reconsider your life. You are a sad and cruel person with a very empty life.
If you still kid yourself by saying animal products are needed for a healthy life, you need to educate yourself. If you really want a healthy life, you should eat plant-based.
If you're still pretending to be a baby cow, you need to get your head checked. Baby cows are the only creatures who need cow milk. Just like human babies are the only ones who need human milk. Just like dog babies are the only ones who need dog milk. Should I continue?
If you dare to say you love animals, you should either stop lying, or stop using their products. Just tell people you only love pets, or go vegan.
If you're still an ignorant man, thinking you're cool and tough for eating meat, I'll help you out of that dream right now: You're a piece of shit. You don't hunt for your food, you don't go through any hardships whatsover. You are a big, fat coward. You go to the store, pick up a pre-packaged, pre-murdered animal, and pay for someone else to commit atrocities in your name. You could just as easily be buying tampons. I think standing up for the voiceless is much more admirable, don't you?
If you want to pretend that plants have the same kind of feelings as these poor, innocent, abused animals, you need to educate yourself. If you don't want to change your opinion on this, you should still eat plant-based, because less plants are 'hurt', compared to how many plants had to die to feed that piece of dead, abused animal on your plate.
If you still think eating plant-based is expensive, you need to get smarter. Beans are a much cheaper source of protein. Mushrooms and nuts aren't that expensive either, compared to a piece of dead animal. Plant-based can be expensive, but so can meat. A junkfood vegan can throw a lot of money away, but a healthy, whole foods vegan doesn't have to break the bank to get themselves fed.
If you are still one of those people who blame vegans for deforestation because of soy, again, educate yourself. Most deforestation happens to grow crops (like soy) to feed animals. Care about saving the planet? Eat plant-based.
If you live in a typical western society, you are a horrible, heartless person if you continue to eat animal products and don't start your journey towards a plant-based life. Heck, you'll have to go full-blown vegan in the end. You know, those 'extremists', who don't want to hurt animals. Ooooh, what horrible people they are...
Credits: Farm Transparency Project
How?
I don't agree with vegans judging people who aren't able to stop using every single animal product all at once. I know that's a black and white vision which only harms their cause in the long run. The reality is, we've been programmed and molded to accept this kind of abuse for so long, we are such morons, we didn't even understand that it IS abuse and murder. I know you might need to do this in a couple of steps to make a long lasting change. But start doing it!
If I would have told hubby a few years ago that from that day forward, we would cut all animal products out of our lives, no discussion, he would have probably left me. Making that change was unthinkable to him. Now, I haven't bought meat in over a year and hubby even suggested him trying vegan cheese (What?!). He loves my vegan tosti and even liked the vegan bacon pieces I made last time we needed that kind of replacement. He wouldn't have believed this was possible a few years ago. If he can get this far, so can you!
Need a good suggestion for your barbecue and bacon lovers? Liquid smoke and smoked paprika spices.
The vegan market has grown considerably, even in those few years. You don't have to eat 'dry cartboard' as a meat replacer. There are plenty of great options available. All you have to do is find them. Don't give up because of one bad vegan burger. You'd still eat meat after having a bad dead animal burger, right? So give vegan options the same chance.
There are so many resources online to find good, vegan options in your stores. There are many, MANY recipes to be found for your own, delicious vegan meals. There are cultures around the world where daily meat eating isn't/wasn't a normal thing, so they have plenty of delicious, complete meals that require no meat whatsoever. Try some meatless Indian recipes for example! And if you're not feeling up to the task of learning new recipes, just replace the animal products with vegan options.
Credits: Animal Liberation.
My own journey
I didn't go plant-based overnight. I wanted to, but I had my husband to consider. I didn't want to do this alone, I wanted him along for the ride, hoping that in the end, he would eat healthier and abuse-free aswell. So, I started with replacing a few simple ingredients.
The meat used in pasta was replaced by vegan alternatives. With all of the sauce, veggies and pastaness going on, you didn't notice any kind of difference anyway. Speaking of sauce: The creamy kind usually requires some kind of milk-based product. So I replaced those with plant-based milks. It really doesn't matter much which kind, if it's just used as an ingredient.
Then, we started trying out plant-based burgers. We found some we hated, we found some we loved. Right now, we have plenty of options to eat 'meat', without the dead animals part. Plant-based burgers, but also fake fish burgers, chicken replacements and plant-based 'meat'balls. We love the ones that are nut-based. They don't even need sauce to taste great!
I replaced my morning yoghurt with a plant-based variety, which was quite a big search for me. I landed on the coconut ones, but most were really expensive. For those who have it in stores: I now use 'Alpro mild & creamy Coconut'. It's the best one price-quality wise. Although I do love Abbot Kinney products aswell, they are just way too expensive to be a fair replacement (but if money is no concern, I certainly recommend trying these).
I kept trying to replace my most beloved animal-based products with vegan options. One after the other, I found great, new products to buy and by now, all that's left in my cabinets is some canned fish I bought ages ago.
The one thing I still struggle with is how products you don't expect it from can still contain animal products. I get very stressed while shopping, so I rush through that experience as quickly as possible and don't read all of the ingredient lists. So by now, I'd say I'm about 95% plant-based, except for some products that seem to contain animal products for no real reason. That's where my food-based journey is now: Learning what processed products unexpectedly hold animal products. Other products, like clothes, is something I still need to learn more about, but there wasn't much shopping to be done these last few years.
Hubby by now has accepted that he won't eat any more meat in this house and the only compromise is that he still wants the 'idea of meat'. So basically meat replacers. He's still a meat eater outside of this house, but that comes down to a burger once every few weeks. I'd say that's better than that divorce idea at the start of this journey, because he'd still be eating meat daily now. I can't get him off of cheese completely, but we try various alternatives now and then, so who knows what will happen in the future.
Credits: Anonymous
Let's wrap this up
In an ideal and just world, everyone would go vegan right now and we would torture and abuse no more animals. In current society, all we can hope for is to open everyone's eyes and get everyone on their own path towards a more plant-based diet.
Sadly, the animal abuse industry is still being supported financially and legally, giving them an unfair advantage. Please help stand up for the innocent, voiceless animals and start voting with your wallet. Buy plant-based and get your morals right.
Don't normalize something that shouldn't be normal. Question things. Make people think. Just look at how much just a small percentage of vegans have already accomplished! They did the hard part: The beginning. Now, let's all bring this home.
Credits: Anonymous
Where are you on your plant-based journey?
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