1. Speaking up for the little guy - I've always felt more of a connection and stronger sense of empathy for other beings than just "humans". Animals are part of our human exploitation without a choice where as we as humans have that choice.
2. Supporting alternatives to the norm - just because it has always been done a certain way doesn't mean it's necessarily right or the only way to do them. We can thrive on a plant based diet just as much as a meat based diet. By using my dollars to speak for me, I would like to support the alternatives that are out there to provide for myself.
3. To make a stand with Animal Welfare and stop the neglect, abuse and exploitation of the fellow beings we share this earth with
4. To help inspire others to seek alternatives and become more open-minded to the world we actually live in
Those are the general truths that are the foundation of my choice - my awakening hit me like a brick out of no where. In 2009 I picked up "Skinny Bitch" not knowing really what I was about to open my eyes to. When I first decided to read this book, I had the impression it was going to be some cheesy chick lit type "diet book" and nothing more. I remember sitting at my kitchen table eating a steak dinner as I perused the pages - and there it was. Rory Freedman , without hesitation, began to talk about the meat industry. It brought me to tears and that was the last time I ate a steak. From there I found one of the most inspiring and influential people in my journey that I would like to give credit to in my journey to the compassionate lifestyle - Colleen Patrick - Goudreau from Compassionate Cooks. Her podcast, Food for Thought, has been educational, emotional and most of all inspiring to me. Because of her effort and work I found encouragement and a sense of relief that I knew I had found something in me that has long been waiting to get out in the open. For the first time I knew what I was interested in, the love of animals and the connection I felt made sense and motivation to do something.
During this time of eye opening experience I also became interested and very well aware of my environmental imprint which I also wanted to do something about. I feel that being eco-friendly and vegetarianism/veganism go hand in hand so throughout my blogs I may discuss both topics intermittent as they both are important aspects of who I am and want I want to accomplish. My belief of being "green" and "eco-friendly" is not only the typical things you may think of such as recycling, but it also incorporates taking responsibility in the welfare of not only the earth, but everything living on it. For instance, because of my stance on animal welfarism I would not go out and purchase a brand new fur coat - thus, a decrease in the fur market, one less scenario of animal abuse (hunting, killing solely based on exploiting the fur of the particular animal) and less work to send over to a "sweat shop" in China to create this unnecessary piece of clothing that would only fulfill a selfish want.
It's been a rough start for me in my new path and many bumps in the road that have knocked me back a few steps or even a block or two. I have just finished or horrendous divorce in which my ex-husband took everything. I lost my job due to the abuse I endured and my last option of survival was to move back to my hometown of cattle country. Also being in a small town, the selection of stores and the items in the stores are not the greatest...many food items I ate prior to the move were convenient for me to purchase at my local grocery store. My health has also deteriorated (which is slowly but surely improving) for many reasons that I just don't have the energy or brain power to invest in basically learning a whole new way of cooking and eating as I used to. So now I'm basically back at square one but with a few more obstacles in the way than before. Before I did not have to worry about the cost or having the will power to get up and experiment and learn new things. Now, because of circumstances and the last year of hell - my brain and will power have been squashed to nothing and it's a slow process of building back up. What I have had to realize is that being vegan or vegetarian is not about being perfect and those who say it is are missing the bigger picture and the cause they are fighting for has been clouded by their own personal perception of themselves and how they want to be viewed. It's not about me - it's about the animals and how they feel and the situations they are put in. We live in a flawed world; no one will ever be perfect; reality of what an individual is able to give must always be put in perspective; "Don't do nothing, because you can't do everything" - CPG
Example: Before my "awakening" I was a huge fashionista. I have Bachelor's degree in Fashion Merchandising so needless to say I didn't put in a whole lot of thought about where my leather came from as long as it was Kate Spade or Marc Jacobs. Afterwards, I made the personal choice of not purchasing items that used animal by-products...but I'm not going to go out and purchase a whole new wardrobe because of past purchases. Not only is that not economically feasible for me, it is also wasteful and "un-green". It would create an uneccessary carbon footprint to the mall (because I didn't really need anything) and wasteful with a finite resource (one in which I have very little now - dollars).
Every little bit helps. If you were a meat eater who ate a burger 7 days a week and cut down to only 5 days a week for a year, that's a HUGE decrease in the market for meat. That makes an imprint in how many cows may go to slaughter that year just because you cut back your consumption of burgers. Now is that perfect? No. But it's better than nothing. Point being, people will always consume meat - it's not right or wrong to do so. My point is, because as consumers we can speak loudly with our dollars, why keep supporting factory farming and the industrialization of animals (or exploitation) that play a huge factor in the treatment of animals, continuation of exploiting pain, condoning putting the publics' health at risk and the decline on the environmental side all for the sake of the bottom line?
Until next time...
