Why Everyone is Vegan
Have you ever eaten an apple or an orange? Well, guess what then? You’re a part time vegan just like everyone else.
Most of us know by now that veganism isn’t just about saving cute animals (a friend of mine from cooking school suggested we have a cute animal theme for a dinner we were hosting). Veganism is a also good for the environment and good for our hearts. So why aren’t we all full-time vegans?
Some of the reason is habit and some of it is tradition and some of it is taste, but the reason we need to eliminate, is politics.
The picture most meat eaters have is one of an angry vegan on a soapbox expounding moral views of eating. This image repels omnivores from eating vegan meals. And after all, isn't the objective of vegans to convert more people to veganism?
An omnivore myself, I remember making a vegetarian friend and inquiring where we could eat. To my great relief, she said fries and shakes are ok, to which I replied, you're my type of vegetarian!
For example, consider the Beyond Meat burger, ever popular on fast-food menus. I've heard vegans point out that it is five times less environmentally friendly than traditional legume and grain vegan burgers, yet fail to discuss how much more environmentally friendly it is than beef burgers–the comparison intended by the manufacturer. No vegan or vegetarian they had "ever met" would opt for one of these burgers implying somehow that vegans must remain on the fringe to keep their edge. What we need is to inspire more vegan cooking and eating, not more ways for vegans to remain on the fringe.
I've heard vegans conflate different historical periods into one to create a mythology of beef consumption in America that aligns it with white male capitalism. I ask myself, do we really want to politicise and polarise eating–not cooking, but eating–to this extent? Are vegans thus non-capitalists--communists or socialists? I feel that sometimes vegans don't consider the implications of what they say.
Personally, I do not eat to subvert. I might, on occasion, cook as an act of subversion but even then rarely as cooking is a transitory act and subject to constant change. (Consider, for example, the fact that there is no plagiarism in cooking.) Eating is even more transitory. But more importantly should we not approach what we eat with a childlike wonder about why it tastes so good as opposed to a stale rice-cake stiffness about why we should eat it? I do not mean to imply that vegan meals cannot be delicious, but rather that some vegans embody the stereotype of the vegan conspicuous meat eaters are weary of. What we really need now is an image of veganism that reflects the fact that cooking and eating are acts of sharing and acts of pleasure.
Eating vegan food is an act of kindness not only to the earth and your own body, but also to your fellow human. So vegans, invite meat-eaters over for dinner, and meat-eaters vegans. And when you discuss the differences in what you eat, keep it tasty and keep it funny. We are not like oranges and apples, because when we eat them we are all vegans.
