Many people find this a difficult way to live, which is why veganism, despite its recent gains, has yet to take over the world.
Most of the good think-pieces these days are coming from overseas where plant-based diets are taking off a little stronger than it seems like they are here in the States.
This pieces gets at what I think has been a long-simmering debate, and is what’s made veganism so unpalatable to so many people for so long.
First of all, no one likes to be told what to do. Second, no one wants to question what they’ve been raised to believe.
For those that are willing to take the baby steps that are necessary to change in the face of massive cultural roadblocks and generations of entrenched habits, and if it starts with a meatless Monday, then I really do think credit should be given where credit is due. Yes, eating meat is wrong, but most if not nearly all of us have been eating meat for nearly all of our lives and we have rituals and milestones associated with feasts that have long involved animals. We’ve had it entrenched that a gooey, mushy, cheesy burger is a comfort food. That doesn’t just change over night, and not when you have to drive past fifteen of the “comfort” food emporia on your way to work or your way home.
I believe it’s taken this mass of Meatless Monday eaters to bring us the current wealth of alternative products to the market that begin to make it so that people who can’t spend an hour a day breaking down vegetables can start to enjoy a plant-based diet on a more consistent basis, and not just when they can find the time to make it work.
There has been a huge rise in those wanting to adopt plant-based diets for their health and that’s really why they are doing it and they don’t care about the animals, they care about their own health.
It’s almost like vegans want it to be hard and they want to be martyrs. You’re not good enough if you’re not going all the way.
But isn’t the goal of veganism to reduce and end suffering? And isn’t it better to have 100,000 people doing this for two meals a week than no people doing it none at all? I’d rather see people ease into this and make it permanent than start trying it with gusto and then give up when they find it unsustainable or they’ve been shamed for not doing it all the time so they give up because they’re not perfect.
Vegans don’t really want anyone to be vegan and they don’t really want to save the animals. If they did they wouldn’t try so hard to put people off to their lifestyle.
So come be plant-based. We’ll take you. We want you and the planet to be healthy.