Hi Gary,
Of course my mom has pamphlets to hand out (kidding). I’m curious to read what you have to say about the psychological reasons behind “I don’t care.”

Hi Autumn,
Wow, sounds like shopping in the grocery store is not at all fun for you! Yes, soy and corn are in everything. Gary has a few great suggestions if you’d like to transition some of your children’s meals away from meat. My sympathies. You must have a terrible time eating out.

Hi Gary,
As always, thank you for your in depth response to Autumn. I would add Chinese food and Mexican food to the list. Mexican cuisine can be heavy on corn however, so Autumn, you’d have to really quiz the waiters.

In all likelihood, the animals are not treated well.

Turkeys bred for meat are so top-heavy that they cannot fly or mate on their own; they typically suffer from chronic joint problems.

Chickens grown for meat suffer the same fate. They are human-engineered to grow huge breasts with lots of “white meat” and their skeletal systems and hearts and other internal organs cannot keep up. Even under ideal conditions, such as the farmed animal sanctuary at which I volunteer, these animals – rescued from farms – suffer from their unnaturally large shapes, becoming lame or dying very young.

Cows are dehorned and castrated without painkillers.

Animals destined to be slaughtered are typically starved for one to four days, since their last meals would not have enough enough time to be converted into profitable meat.

Chickens and turkeys are not covered by the Humane Slaughter Act. They may legally be fully conscious as they bleed to death and are dunked into scalding hot water to loosen their feathers. From numerous conversations with slaughterhouse workers, inspectors, and investigators, these atrocities happen regularly in slaughterhouses.

Chickens and turkeys on farms are denied their mothers. In nature, hens dote on their chicks, protect them with their wings, let them crawl on their backs…they are very good mothers.

With other animals on farms, we separate mother and child long before they would separate on their own. We pull piglets away from their mothers when only weeks old. The normal weaning period is months. Calves in nature may stay with herds for many years. But none of the animals on farms last that long. On dairy farms, we steal calves from their mothers when only two days old.

At most farms, including small family farms, not much is spent on vet care for sick animals; it would cut too much into profits; they are just sent to slaughter.

Nearly all farmed animals are killed very young. Some chickens are still peeping on the slaughterhouse line.

The sobering and inescapable fact is that when animals are commodities in a business, worth more dead than alive, and generally worth more obese than lean, we should not expect them to be treated nicely as we would treat our companion animals.

Farmed animals are obese due to a number of factors, primarily centuries of intensive breeding to make them that way. At the animal sanctuary, the birds are fed optimum diets and graze freely. But they remain huge because of their genes.

Here are some possible non-soy options:

- In Google or a search engine type in “recipe vegan -soy -tofu” with the hyphens to block out most soy results.

- Check out cookbooks such as “Alternative Vegan” which has no soy or “Veganomicon” which has a lot of non-soy dishes.

- Check out ethnic cuisines like Indian that are vegetable-oriented but generally free of soy.

- Some veggie meat products, such as Amy’s sausages, seitan, and Field Roast products, and a lot of the veggie chicken at vegan-friendly restaurants have no soy.

The “I don’t care” response does intrigue me, however, and I think that often it belies deeper psychological dynamics. I’m working on a blog post or two that delves into that.

I have a few older aunts like that (my mother is like that also) and even though it’s been years since I made the switch (1992) some of my aunts still have the same attitudes. Two of them are finally coming around to making changes in their lifestyles.

I think the ongoing health issues they are having is a factor. They are tired of taking medication and have asked me whether there are alternatives. I write about alternative healing, health, and nutrition. I guess you could say I’ve become the “go to” person in my family.

Hi Gary,
Thanks for the link.
As for people not caring… in this instance, it was my mom having the conversation (I know of this woman, but have never met her), and she certainly wasn’t going down that avenue. I’m not sure if I would press on if I were the one having the conversation. Ideally I’d like to see everyone give up animal products, but people have the right to make their own decisions. And in this day and age, although it’s ethically reprehensible to me, eating animal products is not a crime. So if someone were to tell me they don’t care, I might continue the conversation, but I wouldn’t push it. My feeling is that I do better by living the lifestyle than proselytizing. People don’t want to hear what you have to say unless they’re interested in the topic. To get them interested you have to live a life not of deprivation, but choices and options.

Hi Opal,
I never thought of it from that perspective, but yes, it could be looked at as a warning that you can’t convince them. I would imagine that this person, being in her late 60s, means that she is firmly entrenched in her way of eating, it’s served her well so far and she has definite likes. I do find it very interesting that my mom is crusading for our cause, being that she continues to eat meat.

I’ve encountered that in my lifetime some of the ones that have said it are now vegan or have reduced their consumption of animal products drastically.

I haven’t read Thanking the Monkey yet however I’ll be ordering it.