[ae5]

i've been vegan for 7 years now, vegetarian for 3 years before that. the idea of eating meat or dairy is disgusting to me now, but still, as for the vegan lifestyle, never being able to eat anywhere, it ALWAYS being a pain in the ass to find food, never being able to just spontaneously go somewhere and know i'll be able to find food, always having to check ingredients on EVERYTHING, i'm sick of it and kind of wish meat and dairy wern't disgusting to me. i'd cash my chips in in a second and go back to being another one of the people who don't have to worry so incessantly what they can eat. not to be a cheeseball (no pun intended) but i wish i could take "the blue pill" or whatever and just be ignorant about it all.

part of it is also, it's easy for people to be all zealous about veganism when they're newly vegan and all these ideas seem new and exciting and make so much sense and you feel better for being vegan and all that, but after years and years of it, at least for me, i mean i still obviously agree with veganism and wish everybody was vegan, if nothing else so that my own life would be much easier, but i just started seeing it as all futile. vegans comprise less than %1 of the earths population. we realisticly are not making a dent in any of the problems associated with not being vegan. thems the facts, as much as it sucks. so in the meantime i incessantly check ingredients on things and am always the killjoy that "sorry, i can't eat that..." and become the catalyst for everyone to rant about why they hate vegans as soon as they find out i am one, and have to explain at EVERY SINGLE FAMILY FUNCTION what i eat and don't eat and why and all this crap. i'm tired of it.

i'm still not going to go back, i just wanted to rant.

 

[troub]

I think we all tire from the societical hardships and stresses of the narrow path, and yeah... explaining it all every time you eat gets real old, real fast. >.> I get discouraged frequently - but thats the problem with this narrow path, its narrow, lonely, and filled with unpaved parts.

I recommend watching Earthlings to recharge and renew your resolve.

Also here is an encouragement copied from another post - I think it works here too. Good luck and good graces be with you on this wonderfull however somber path.

================================================== =======

"You must be the change you wish to see in the world" -gandhi

Interview with an AR Abolitionist

It is estimated that by going vegan, one person saves the lives of 93 animal lives per year.

Never think that you don't effect change. Never think you can never do enough. The only thing that makes us different then previous world changers is self imposed limitations.

You alone save 93 animals a year from a life of torture, pain, and a literal living hell. Does it make a big splash in the ocean of suffering? Not really. But it matters to those 93.

You are a world changer. A life changer. By going vegan, you save the lives of animals, the suffering of young, help reduce pollution, help solve world hunger, and offer yourself a healthier existance.

I truly believe that this world will change one day. As more and more humans' hearts start to change, as societys mindset evolves, things will change. Whether this is in 10 years, or 1000, things will change. They must. This world is too dark for us to not desire change. Your longings for "utopian" ideals are healthy, they are normal for one with a compassionate heart.

Never stop dreaming. Never stop hoping. Never give up the desire, hope, and prayer that this dark evil world will see the light. That all life will be respected as life, not objects. That one day, our children's children's children will speak of an ancient evil known as the slaughterhouse, as they eat fastfood consisting of a bowl of fruit.

"All the darkness in the universe, cannot put out the light of a single candle."

Ignite a fire of compassion in the hearts of darkness. Be a flame. Be a world changer.

 

[estrella]

Do we really save 93 animals by not directly consuming meat? Fast-food and grocery companies throw away unsold meat everyday. I know that grocery stores do it all the time, because I used to be a stocker and seriously, they throw out a lot of unsold meat. Are we just contributing to the WASTE of meat? In my mind that is almost worse.

 

[ketivnilloc]

we save 93 animals from direct slaught. that doesn't even include the diary cows's suffering, or battery hens and all the killed male chicks. But we don't contribute to wasting meat. i'm pretty sure you never went to a store and ordered meat. It is there for you to buy or not buy. THe store is the one wasting.

 

[ynaffit]

I haven't felt strongly about my veganism for years, mostly because I just don't think about it, and it's probably better for my mental health that way.

 

[Quincy]

how is it almost worst to not contribute to eating meat that's there to eat?

if people seriously stop eating/buying meat and veg*nism spreads (I do believe it is slowly starting to spread at a faster rate), then it is helping.

even if it's not helping much, why would you want to eat something that you think was undeserving to be slaughtered for you to eat? (not to mention a bajillion other bad things that go along with it...)

 

[4EverGrounded]

Eating this way will be with me the rest of my life and that's that.

Anyone that can't handle it, it's their tough shytte, not mine.

 

[Vegmedic]

Quote:

Originally Posted by estrella

Do we really save 93 animals by not directly consuming meat? Fast-food and grocery companies throw away unsold meat everyday. I know that grocery stores do it all the time, because I used to be a stocker and seriously, they throw out a lot of unsold meat. Are we just contributing to the WASTE of meat? In my mind that is almost worse.

I don't know or care about the exact number, but vegetarians are not leading to the "waste" of meat.

On the one hand it is not like the chicken industry says "oh look another vegetarian. Farmer joe, you had better raise 20 fewer chickens this year."

On the other hand the idea of vegetarians leading to waste is a little ridiculous. If someone decided not to drive a car, would you consider that worse because now there is another car sitting at a dealership wasting away? No, because everyone knows that in the long run cars sitting on dealership lots puts a financial strain on car manufacturers so they will make fewer in the future. The more people who refuse to eat meat (or any other product they find objectionable) the fewer animals will be raised in horrible conditions, for the sole purpose of feeding us.

 

[positivemind]

Well said, very good and keep up the motivational speeches everyone...we all need them from time to time

 

[Sevenseas]

"In any event, what the people in general do will not affect me. I will continue to be a vegetarian even if the whole world started to eat meat."

-Isaac Bashevis Singer

In my opinion this is how we should all think. My own lifestyle at least does not hinge on whether others will ever adopt veganism in great numbers or not, and hopefully, not even on whether anyone besides me is veg*n. I think that if no one else was veg*n, that would just emphasize your uniqueness. If using animal products is wrong, then one shouldn't do it. Certainly a big part of my lifestyle is a desire to contribute to the AR movement, but it goes and should go deeper than that.

 

[Elena99]

1% may sound low, but it's a growing number. Plus, how can you be sure by statistics? I remember a thread around here before where people were asking about that, and many people said that they had never been asked on a survey if they were vegan. I sometimes will actually complete a survey in the hopes that one of the questions will be "are you a vegetarian/vegan etc?" so that I can be counted, but I've never encountered it.

 

[estrella]

I think though, that there is a growing population of vegans, and because of this there are more businesses that don't contribute to animal suffering. Think of cliff bars- vegan food for the masses: people don't even realize that they're eating food made specifically to be nonharmful to the environment. Also, even though there are few vegans relative to the entire population, those few influence the trends of the rest.

The waste comment I made was only something I was wondering about. I lived in a small city where the term "vegan" wasn't in most people's vocabulary. Even the word vegetarian was rarely heard by most. I think in my case, grocery stores would not buy less meat because of a few vegetarians. But in large cities, yes, I think they would acommodate for the larger group. But I'm not sure.