My Husband's Transition to Vegetarianism

I always find the perspective of a new vegetarian very informative and insightful. My husband became a strict vegetarian almost two years ago. I asked him to share his perspective on his transition to vegetarianism.

"My transition from meat eater to vegetarian was gradual, and took several years. I convinced myself that eating vegetarian was not a moral choice….only a health choice. For several years, I categorized myself as a “flexitarian”, who ate vegetarian at home, but was perfectly happy to eat poultry or fish when eating out. It was only after I had spent several months eating only vegetarian, that I was finally able to see the issue more clearly. I hadn’t planned to go that long eating only vegetarian…it was more coincidental than by intent. It was then that I ordered a restaurant meal with chicken, and I had the oddest experience. As I ate the chicken, I felt a vague feeling of disgust. I had never experienced that before. I finished the meal, and have not tasted meat since. I later realized that it was only by stepping away from meat completely, even if only for a couple of months, that I was able to fully realize the immorality of consuming killed animals when perfectly acceptable plant based alternatives existed. It was as if a veil of fear or ignorance had lifted, and I was finally able to see what was really involved in eating meat. It was as if I had been blind my whole life, and suddenly was able to see clearly for the first time. I certainly don’t judge anyone else for choosing to consume animals. I completely understand how society….even our own families…trains and conditions us to not see the horror of killing an innocent creature that is part and parcel of the meat industry. There’s even a certain element of fear involved. I was actually afraid of eating a totally vegetarian diet. The thought of having to give up those delicious cuts of beef, pork, poultry and fish was actually scary to me. I even joked with my wife about never going “cold-turkey” (pun intended) to a vegetarian diet. What I have learned, is that sometimes you have to step back completely from an activity, and observe it from the outside looking in, before you can truly understand and appreciate all aspects of that activity. When you gain that independent perspective, you may be shocked at what you suddenly are able to see and understand clearly for the first time."

A Conspiracy of Silence

"For as long as men massacre animals, they will kill each other. Indeed, he who sows the seed of murder and pain cannot reap joy and love." Pythagoras, mathematician


"In their behavior toward creatures, all men are Nazis. Human beings see oppression vividly when they're the victims. Otherwise they victimize blindly and without a thought." Isaac Bashevis Singer, author, Nobel Prize 1978


The other day I viewed the video, “Savent-ils que c’est Noël?” (“Do They Know It’s Christmas?”) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6c6qCby5ujM emailed to me by L214, a French website, http://www.l214.com/ (Link for the video is also on this site.) Later, I was talking with my husband about the blind eye most of our human culture turns towards cruelty towards animals, when he spoke of the concept of “a conspiracy of silence.” This term has been used in several historical settings before, but I felt it was aptly applied to the human attitude towards the pain and suffering and death of slaughter animals. I asked him to define what he meant, in reference to this connotation, and he said the following:

“If people thought about the pain and torture and suffering that slaughter animals must endure, they would be compelled to change. The conspiracy exists in people not talking about it, refusing to talk about it if it is brought up. They know, but want to be kept in the dark because they are afraid.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson said, "You have just dined, and however scrupulously the slaughterhouse is concealed in the graceful distance of miles, there is complicity." He is right. As babies, we are not responsible for the pureed beef from the baby food jar that is placed on our tongues, but once we know, we are responsible. Once we understand what is being done to those animals, every time we buy a product of that torture and death, we are complicit in the crime, the evil, complicit in every death of an innocent animal. By buying the pristine meat package wrapped in cellophane, we are complicit. By wearing the tortured skin of an animal on our bodies, we are complicit. By turning the other way, either visually or psychologically we participate in the evil of every torture and every death. Because we “don’t want to know” or because we choose not to see does not take that complicity away.

I emailed a copy of the French video to friends, Joaquin and Efigenia, who live down the street, and their response was brilliant. Their response was, “Do WE know it’s Christmas?” I couldn’t have said it any better.

"Non-violence leads to the highest ethics, which is the goal of all evolution. Until we stop harming all other living beings, we are still savages." Thomas Edison
It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society. --- Jiddu Krishnamurti

New Year's Resolution

New Year’s 2008 approaches, and I find myself with only one resolution on my list. I will buy no product that causes or contributes to cruelty to animals. This means I will not only buy vegan food and clothing products, but also I will buy no products that have been tested on animals. In 2008, I will be responsible enough to make sure that a product, any product, I buy does not come from a company that is cruel to animals. (This is easy. All I have to do is go to www.peta.org for their lists of companies that do and do not test on animals.) On the the PETA website you will also find videos of what actually goes on before a cruelty product arrives in the store. Turning a blind eye to this does not mean the cruelty, abuse and suffering aren’t happening. If you turn a blind eye that means you condone all of it. “Attachment to being right creates suffering. When you have a choice to be right, or to be kind, choose kind and watch your suffering disappear.” (Dr. Wayne Dyer)
My hope and prayer is that everyone has (and keeps, ) the resolution on their list to end participation in cruelty towards animals. There are beautiful synthetic leather and fake fur products, nutritious vegan food products, quality beauty products, and environmentally safe cleaning products on the market that do not test on animals, that do no harm. “Our task must be to free ourselves... by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature and its beauty... Nothing will benefit human health and increase chances of survival for life on Earth as much as the evolution to a vegetarian diet.”--Albert Einstein
"All beings tremble before violence. All fear death. All love life. See yourself in others. Then whom can you hurt? What harm can you do?" -- Buddha
If you’re not sure what kind of resolution to make for 2008, www.PETA.org has some great suggestions for resolutions and lists of ways in which you can keep those resolutions. http://www.peta.org/feat_resolutions.asp
So, during 2008 (and beyond), I will walk a new path. I will not buy a product from companies that are cruel to animals.
“Wanderer, your footsteps are the road, and nothing more; wanderer, there is no road, the road is made by walking. By walking one makes the road, and upon glancing behind one sees the path that never will be trod again. Wanderer, there is no road-- Only wakes upon the sea.” Antonio Machado y Ruiz

A Very Happy Vegan (Pre-) Thanksgiving Day

Today, Thanksgiving Day, I won’t be cooking dinner. My husband is going to take me out to dinner at our favorite, local vegetarian restaurant (Secret Garden Restaurant, Ajijic, Jalisco, Mexico) where the meal will be lovingly prepared by our friends, the owners and employees of the restaurant. Yesterday, the day before Thanksgiving Day, I made a pre-Thanksgiving dinner for five. (Recipes Follow.) This meal took the same, and in some instances, less time to prepare than a meal with animal flesh or other animal products and it was as, or more, delicious. CNN presented a news feature today about a family whose members compete every year to get the biggest turkey for Thanksgiving. The winner was pictured sitting in the back of a truck with his arm around a 72-pound turkey, acting as if they were “best buds,” instead of executioner and prisoner. That turkey was, most certainly, slaughtered for today’s Thanksgiving meal. As school children, we make figures of turkeys out of brightly colored construction paper. As parents, we teach our children that Thanksgiving Day is a day of gratitude, of love and friendship, of communion and compassion. Exactly where is the point in our thinking, our logic, where this all breaks down and becomes insane? At what precise point, understanding that we have been steeped in suffering and death almost from birth, does the individual conspire in the cover up and downplay the suffering, the taking of a life, the needless slaughter? More importantly when are we going to be honest when we talk to our children about Thanksgiving turkey and tell them that the roasted flesh that sits at the head of most Thanksgiving tables, ready to be carved, was more than construction paper,-- it was a living, breathing being with a right to its own life? Most importantly, when we are remembered, generations from now, wouldn’t we prefer to be remembered as the compassionate ones who climbed out of the insanity and took a stand, each one of us, in our own way, to stop all the suffering rather than as the barbaric ones who ate the flesh of another being -- an innocent being that had been held prisoner, horribly and violently mistreated, and then finally died a miserably frightening and painful death, all at our hands? It doesn’t have to be a violent revolution. It can happen peacefully one person, one family at a time, by the choices we make when we purchase food. We can vote with our wallets, and with our hearts. All of Mom’s recipes, remembered lovingly, can be easily translated into vegan alternatives that are just as tasty and, most importantly, will contain life and love, instead of death. We must not be so afraid to stop eating suffering and death. In the words of Cardinal John Henry Newman, “Cruelty to animals is as if man did not love God. . . there is something so dreadful, so satanic, in tormenting those who have never harmed us, and who cannot defend themselves, who are utterly in our power.” Isn’t it time for us to not just say we are enlightened and compassionate, but rather to truly be so? Wouldn’t it be less hypocritical?
_____________________________________
Our Vegan (Pre)Thanksgiving Menu:
Carrot-Sweet Potato Soup (with Sour Creamy Cashew Sauce), Whole Wheat Kalamata Olive Bread, Mashed Potatoes with Mushroom Gravy, Vegan Roast with Mushroom Gravy, Steamed Zucchini and Red Bell Pepper julienne strips (with Sour Creamy Cashew Sauce), Dutch Apple Cake


Recipes Follow:

My favorite Carrot-Sweet Potato Soup
Make about 12 cups of vegetable stock, flavored/cooked with several slices (15-20) of peeled ginger (remove slices before using).
In a soup pot, heat: 3 TBSP olive oil
Add, sauté until juice is released: 2 small/medium onions, chopped
1 tsp. salt

Add, and cook until soft (if necessary, add a little vegetable stock):

4 cloves garlic
1 TBSP cumin seed, toasted and ground
2 tsp. coriander seed, toasted and ground
4 tsp, grated or finely minced fresh ginger root
1/8 tsp. cayenne pepper (less, if preferred)
(optional: 1/8 tsp. nutmeg)

Add, bring to boil, then simmer until carrots are very tender (20 – 30 minutes):

4 lbs. carrots (about 14 cups), peeled and thinly sliced
2 medium sweet potatoes, peeled and thinly sliced
2 tsp. salt
8 cups veg. soup stock
Using a processor, puree the mixture a few cups at a time, placing pureed mixture into a different pot.
Add: 1 cup orange juice
Some or all of the remaining stock to thin to desired consistency
Garnish with Sour Creamy Cashew Sauce, chopped cilantro, a few sunflower seeds.
Makes a big pot of soup. If serving 2 to 4 people – just cut recipe in half. Like many soups, this soup tastes even better reheated the next day. Or, make earlier in the day to let flavors merge.

Sour Creamy Cashew Sauce
Combine in processor or blender:
1 cup cashew butter (You can make this yourself by putting cashews in the processor until they turn into cashew butter. Be patient, it takes a few minutes in the processor for it to turn into butter. You will need more than 1 cup of whole cashews to make a cup of cashew butter.)
4 to 5 TBSP lemon juice
Salt
About 1 cup of water (add gradually)

If you make this sauce ahead and need to reheat it, only warm it. If it begins to clump – put it back in the processor to break up the clumps. (If necessary, add a little more hot water to create preferred consistency.)

Mashed Potatoes
12 potatoes ( I used Yukon Gold), peeled and sliced thinly (1/4-inch slices)
6 small or 4 large garlic cloves, minced finely
8 TBSP olive oil
1 cup plain soy or rice milk
Salt and pepper, to taste

Cook potatoes, covered in water until very tender. (Bring to boil, then simmer) (About 30 minutes)
Drain and return to pot. Add oil, garlic, salt and pepper to taste. Mash mixture. Add enough soy/rice milk to bring mixture to preferred consistency. Serve immediately.

Quick Mushroom Gravy
6 TBSP whole wheat pastry flour
4 TBSP soy sauce
2 TBSP olive oil
½ tsp garlic granules
1 cup sliced mushrooms (I use Crimini or Portobello mushrooms)
¼ tsp black pepper
Toast (and stir!) the flour in a saucepan until browned and fragrant. Remove from heat.
Combine soy sauce, oil, and garlic granules, add gradually to the flour while whisking (fork or whisk) until smooth.
Cook over medium heat , stirring constantly until mixture thickens and comes to boil. Add mushroom slices, and cook for 2 minutes, stirring constantly until mushrooms are heated through. Season to taste. Serve at once.


Vegetarian Roast -- Several are available, ready to heat, at the health food store, or, for ideas on this, go to http://www.peta.org/ look for “Celebrate a Vegetarian Thanksgiving,” and then “Faux Turkeys” section, also for thousands of recipes, do an internet search for “Seitan Roast,” Tofu Roast,” “Vegetarian Thanksgiving Roast,” or “Vegetarian Thanksgiving Alternatives.” Or do a search for Vegan blogsites. http://www.bryannaclarkgrogan.com/ has a recipe for a vegan roast in her Thanksgiving recipes.
Kalamata Olive Whole Wheat Bread – made in my bread machine, with ¾ cup Kalamata olives added
Dutch Apple Cake – made with Egg Replacer, which is available in health food stores and some enlightened grocers.

Animals

"We will see that, like us, animals are expressions of infinite, universal love-intelligence; that, like us, they yearn for satisfaction of their drives and desires, and avoid pain and suffering; that, like us, they are profoundly mysterious. If we've learned anything at all about animals, it is that in no way can we make them fit into the categories of our limited understanding. When we look at animals in nature it is possible to see competition, struggle, and violence, as many scientists are trained to do, and yet it is also possible to see cooperation and mutual aid, as Kropotkin and other scientists have discovered. Further, it is possible to see celebration, joy, humor, love, caring, and the wondrous interplay and expression of an absolutely infinite complexity of life forms. There is deep truth in the old saying that we see things not as they are but as we are." Will Tuttle, PhD, The World Peace Diet