dcseain | On Vegans

Reply to this post saying “pick me” or something similar. I'll pick one of your interests, and then you must tell me a a lot about it. Then I (and the other readers here) will learn a bit more about you and your interests.

muzikmaker21 picked Vegans from my interest list:

Vegans

(not veganism, but vegans)

I met my first vegetarian when i started high school. I knew they existed, especially among adherents of Hinduism, but i'd net met one. The first vegans i became aware of were my cousin Katherine and her hubby, Ottmar. I remember going to the Rini-Rego Stop-N-Shop with my grandfather in 1986, and showing him that cooking vegan was not hard, it just meant he had to read ingredient lists more carefully.

I met

nadyalec my first year of high school, which started late that same summer. She and her sister, L, were vegetarians when i met them. L became a vegan not too long after i'd gotten to know them. But anyway, L was the first vegan i really knew, and i hung with a largely veggie crowd. L did it for mostly animal rights reasons. For that matter, aside from

agentxs, who is vegan for health reasons, all the vegans i have known are vegans for animal rights reasons, and that plays a significant role for

agentxs, too, form my understanding, though it was not his initial impetus for the dietary lifestyle.

Part of my interest in vegans, is that i'm too lazy to be one; what's life without yogurt, and butter, and cheese, and heavy cream. I eat those despite my lactose intolerance. The effort of maintaining veganism is just not worth it to me, though i eat, and cook, vegan often.

I have no animal rights component in my vegetarianism, ovo-lacto variety, or at best no more than your average Hindu. Most vegans i've met have a strong animal-rights bent. My family is fairly crunchy on both sides, so i understand the concept of animal rights, and having spent many a school break on a small, family-run, dairy farm, i saw, and learned, first-hand, how to properly treat animals. I learned first-hand, how to kill a chicken and a fish with minimal cruelty, and according to kashruth.

I've experienced funny looks from strangers as my sister and i scold her young children when they go to chase animals who are minding their own business; one must respect the natural world, of which we are a part. Just because they let their children terrorize the pigeons and squirrels does not mean we need to teach our children to be such disrespectful hellions. *steps down from soapbox*

So, in summary, my interest in vegans is fundamentally all about why they've chosen to be vegan, as i am too lazy to do so myself, in part because it makes dining out rather a pain in the ass.