"Waking Up: Vegetarian to Vegan" (Alisa Rutherford-Fortunati)

[Korn]

Here's a short article (3 small pages) posted by Alisa Rutherford-Fortunati, yesterday, about her process of removing "some of the hypocrisy" from her life. One of the questions that got her started was "If I wasn’t willing to kill the animals I was eating, then why was I eating them?"


Waking Up: Vegetarian to Vegan (http://www.care2.com/greenliving/waking-up-vegetarian-to-vegan.html)

[Andy_T]

Korn, great article, thank you!!!



Over the last six years that I spent as a vegetarian, vegan felt like a small step away. Vegan was, from my perspective, the sister of vegetarianism; close, but with a tumultuous relationship. It wasn’t until five month ago, when I actually became vegan, that I really began to understand how distant these concepts are and why there has and continues to be tension between these two communities.


Best regards,
Andy

[KathyH360]

Very similar to what I have been through. Now slowly morphing into a vegan - it was overwhelming for me to do it all at once.

[Edu]

I never had the opportunity to ask a vegetarian why is he or she a vegetarian. What do they usually answer?
Is it because of the cruelty? - In this case, do they just don't know how milk and eggs are produced or they know but don't think that is so cruel?
Is it because of health? - In this case I could totally understand it. Not eating meat is better than eating it, and even we vegans (most of us) still eat things simply because they are tasty, even if we know they are not healthy. Mm, but maybe they think they need the milk because of the calcium or because we NEED animal protein or something...
Would it be because of the environment? - I could understand this, also. Assuming cattle raised exclusively to produce meat is responsible for half of the ecological problems caused by the animal exploring society, doing your part to solve half the problem is always better than doing nothing at all. And most of us also do not do 100% of what we could to protect the environment, anyway. (unless you refuse to use cars, avoid using plastic bags in the supermarkets, etc, etc.)

[Andy_T]

Very similar to what I have been through. Now slowly morphing into a vegan - it was overwhelming for me to do it all at once.

Kathy,

great to hear that!!!!

Are there any products that you fine expecially hard to quit?

Let us know, many of us have been through that, and might be able to offer help. Also, let me suggest to you the book "Eating animals" by Jonathan Safran Foer - not su much about the health aspects, but about the other aspects of consuming animal products.

Best regards,
Andy

[KathyH360]

Andy, I feel guilty throwing anything away as food is so expensive now, so I suppose I will eat up what I have now in the freezer - hormone and antibiotic free chicken from "Sprouts," although it really makes me sick in more ways than one now when I eat it. Feta cheese is another one - can you recommend something that will take the place of my bites of cheese on my salads? And organic soy products like kifir and yogurt. Again, I am looking for an alternative, maybe making my own organic brown rice milk and organic brown rice yogurt - is this vegan? Can you recommend a good book for those crossing over...? I would love to hear from anyone with ideas...

[Blueberries]

Andy, I feel guilty throwing anything away as food is so expensive now, so I suppose I will eat up what I have now in the freezer - hormone and antibiotic free chicken from "Sprouts," although it really makes me sick in more ways than one now when I eat it. Feta cheese is another one - can you recommend something that will take the place of my bites of cheese on my salads? And organic soy products like kifir and yogurt. Again, I am looking for an alternative, maybe making my own organic brown rice milk and organic brown rice yogurt - is this vegan? Can you recommend a good book for those crossing over...? I would love to hear from anyone with ideas...

Heya Kathy, you don't have to throw away the dead chicken, you could give it to an animal shelter or to someone you know with companion animals that eat meat. Or to your own furry friends if you live with some. As for feta, I've never had feta but I've seen recipes for vegan feta online. I think there may also be some commercially available in the states, I wouldn't be sure about which brands though. Also you could use chunks of flavoured tofu for your salads.