To Our Readers:

Jane and I have spent a significant portion of the last two weeks putting together a petition to Oprah Winfrey. On April 4th, Oprah did a show in memory of her companion dog, Sophie, who passed away on March 10th. The show was inspired by a billboard she saw on her way in to work, asking her to investigate puppy mills. During this show, Oprah exposed some of the horrors inherent in the nature of this business. However, she made, what we consider to be, a blunder when she defended the breeders by saying that they thought of these dogs as livestock. The implication here, which was hopefully unintended, is that livestock can be abysmally treated by their owners.

Oprah Winfrey is one of the most influential people in this country, if not the world. Her reach is far. If enough of us get together and sign a petition, perhaps we can get her to present to her audience the inhumane nature of the treatment of livestock.

We need your help. We're asking you to please sign our petition, and to pass this along to everyone you know. We can work together to change the world!

Thank you -- Lane & Jane Wright

A few weeks ago I wrote about drawing a line in the sand, and how we define what we're willing to eat. It's easy for us to say that we'll eschew animal products as food. The choice between eating a sentient creature that has almost assuredly been brutalized, or eating a vegetable-based diet is now a non-issue; we do not need to consume animal products to live. We have reached a point where we cannot not knowingly participate in the torture of animals. As Gary at AnimalWritings.com stated:

I am also compelled to weigh my inessential desires against others’ most profound interests, such as fear of suffering and the will to live. In nearly all commercial animal agriculture operations in the Western world, we violate those interests to satisfy human greed or habits. I cannot, in good conscience, trample others’ free will in the most violent ways because I like the taste of their flesh or secretions.

We wholeheartedly agree. But what about medical issues?

I read today that pig cell transplants can help people with insulin-dependent diabetes. I haven't done much reading on the topic (and don't plan to). The research appears to be in the early stages of human testing. However, one man had the procedure done ten years ago and is still seeing positive effects, although how much is not clear.

The cells being used in this procedure are pancreatic cells from new-born pigs. They are treated with some kind of algae which makes them "invisible" to the individual's immune system. This is an especially remarkable procedure because the patients do not need to take immuno-suppressant drugs. The cells do wear out over time, so it looks like "booster" injections might be warranted. And then there are the trans-species issues to be concerned about (porcine endogenous retroviruses, in this case)...

So, if in the future, one of us develops a medical condition that could be dramatically improved, or even cured by a transplant from a donor animal, how would we proceed? Does it matter if the animal is killed or if the cells are harvested and the animal kept alive? Over time, I can imagine "factory-harvested" animal cells/organs/secretions with the animals being treated as a product, and therefore handled in the most economically efficient (less humane) manner. I don't want to participate in that, but I assume I'm already benefiting from medical testing on animals... I take aspirin when I have a headache. I've been prescribed vicodin when I had my knees "scoped." I take Nyquil when I have a cold and cannot sleep. Some, if not all, of these medicines have surely been tested on animals. Does that make me a hypocritical vegan?

I know that if Jane's life were on the line, I wouldn't hesitate. I'd be slightly more conflicted if it were my health that was at stake, but overall, I think health trumps compassion.

As many of you already know, Jane and I became vegan because of her family medical history (cancer, heart disease, diabetes....). We don't consider ourselves animal rights activists, although we believe that cruelty to animals (and humans) should have no place on this earth. Our focus in this blog is about food, and why it makes sense to eat vegan. Occasionally, something comes to our attention, like Earthlings, which needs to be shared. But for the most part, our focus is the vegan diet.

When we set out on our vegan journey we struggled a bit. The new eating regimen required more effort than the old, eating out posed all sorts of challenges, and we weren't sure how we would define veganism for ourselves. But we were up for that challenge. Our health was more important. We also both thought that if, over time, our bloodwork didn't support the great health benefits touted by the book that inspired us: Dr. Neal Barnard's Program for Reversing Diabetes (which promises more health benefits than improved diabetes, i.e. a reduction in LDL cholesterol and triglycerides), then we might look for a family farm where we could buy locally-made dairy products, because milk and cheese were the things we missed most.

Today, we stumbled across a blog post at All's Well That Ends Vegan:

Even "dairy cows" from organic and small farms end up at these slaughterhouses

No one seems to be talking about this much either. What an opportunity to tell the public that no matter what "treatment" the animals receive on the "farm", they all end up on the same trucks, for the same torturous journey on the road, to the same slaughterhouses, to the same horrific end. People who call themselves vegetarians, but eat dairy products, especially seem to be missing this point. Ugh.

And just in case you didn't already know, the trip to the slaughterhouse for those "happy cows" (and any other animal off to the slaughterhouse) is inhumane. Often, the animals are driven for hundreds of miles. They are exposed to the elements, crammed together, and not given any food or water on this trip [because who wants to deal with additional waste product?]. They're scared, uncomfortable, hungry and thirsty, and have no room to move around. To put that in perspective: we complain about flying!

So, for us, that was the end of the image of they idyllic family farm. I'm pretty sure that I can safely say Jane and I will be vegan for the rest of our lives. We might still step off the path and consume the occasional slice of real pizza (accompanied by a side order of guilt), because the rest of our lives will hopefully be a long time, and we LOVED pizza. But after having had our eyes opened to the atrocities we perpetuate as a species, we can never go back, we're vegans!

I was thinking today, how fortunate we are that we live in a time and a place where we can actually say "I choose not to eat that," whatever the "that" may be.

Regardless of whether someone thinks I am crazy for eschewing animal products, or someone else thinks I'm not vegan enough, I have the option of eating what I want.  I'm not desperate, I'm not starving, I'm not oppressed.  I can choose.  You can choose too.

I choose not to eat animal products.

I wish I'd seen this information on vegan activism when I was attacked for being a "damned, stupid half-vegan" (see our post Compassion Will Cure More Sins Than Condemnation).

Vegan Outreach has a particular segment on activism entitled, Busting the Vegan Police, in which they say:

It is imperative for us to realize that if our veganism is a statement for animal liberation, veganism cannot be an exclusive, ego-boosting club. Rather, we must become the mainstream. Fostering the impression that "it’s so hard to be vegan–animal products are in everything," and emphasizing animal products where the connection to animal suffering is tenuous, works against this by allowing most to ignore us and causing others to give up the whole process out of frustration.

The way veganism is presented to a potential vegan is of major importance. The attractive idea behind being a "vegan" is reducing one’s contribution to animal exploitation. Buying meat, eggs, and/or dairy creates animal suffering–animals will be raised and slaughtered specifically for these products. But if the by-products are not sold, they will be thrown out or given away. As more people stop eating animals, the by-products will naturally fade, so there is no real reason to force other people to worry about them in order to call themselves "vegan."

We want a vegan world, not a vegan club.

Amen.

Obviously, this veganer-than-thou attitude is something that really bothers me. I agree with Vegan Outreach. If the objective of veganism is to reduce the suffering and exploitation of animals, then to criticize and condemn people who drink Guinness, for example, because it's refined with Isinglass (see this post) isn't going to accomplish that goal. Instead of demanding that people who don't concern themselves with the animal by-products in their food label themselves as "strict vegetarians" perhaps we should allow the term vegan to encompass a broader perspective. As Vegan Outreach points out when fewer animals are consumed, fewer by-products are created. In turn, this will result in the cost of animal by-products rising so that cheaper alternatives will be sought out. The basic principles of supply and demand.

The definition of Vegan in Wikipedia states:

Veganism is a philosophy and lifestyle that seeks to exclude the use of animals for food, clothing, or any other purpose. Vegans do not use or consume animal products of any kind.

And as Convenient Vegan says in her post:

...the words “seeks to exclude.” This because it is impossible to assure that everything you eat, everything you wear, every part of how you live is completely free of cruelty to animals. The tires on your car – or your bike – were probably created with the assistance of animal by-products. The organic food you eat might well involve the deaths of many little insects. The materials used to build your home may include some products that involved the use of animal products in their production.

In order to bring veganism, and therefore animal rights, into the mainstream it might behoove us all to rethink where we draw our lines.