Of course there are always a few exceptions to the rule. But part of the reason we’ll remain vegans is that we don’t believe any animal needs to die for us to live. There are so many humans on the earth that in order to feed the efficiently many atrocities have to take place. My brother is quite happy with his choice to buy organic, grass-fed beef at a local farm, but even he conceded this is not a sustainable option for the entire planet.

Glad to hear that you are treating your animals with respect. If we consumed dairy, you are exactly the type of place we would hope to be able to purchase our cheese and eggs from.

Your barbeque’d “pizza” sounds delicious, but as ex-NYers, that’s not pizza…

Pizza is very difficult for us. Jane and I are both native NYer’s. Plain cheese pizza was a staple for us all our lives until we moved away (so, well into adulthood). When we go back to NY to visit, pizza is just something we subconsciously associate with being there. You go get a slice for lunch, order in a pie with your friend’s and watch TV. Friday nights are pizza nights. You’re walking up 2nd ave and get a slice of Ray’s from their take out window and continue walking along…

And as native NYer’s we’re actually snobby about what qualifies as pizza. Domino’s is not pizza! Home-made bread/sauce/cheese concoctions may taste good, but they’re not what our brain thinks of when we think pizza.

So, that is one of our hardest hurdles to overcome. As Gary mentioned above, vegan cheese is becoming more palatable. And he holds out hope that vegan pizza will be within our reach soon. We’re hopeful that he’s right and that someday (much sooner than later), there will be a vegan pizza even the NY contingent will embrace.

Funny that you mention pizza, we made barbequed pizzas last night. Mine was no cheese, of course, because I don’t care for the substitutes, but a really spicy sauce plus tons of red bell pepper and artichoke hearts made it so, so good. Really, greasy congealing cheese would have totally ruined it.

I have a feeling that long before the end of your lives, you’ll be ordering great-tasting vegan pizza on a regular basis, and that will not only replace animal cheese pizza, but pretty much guarantee against “falling off the wagon.”

Already, there are some great advances being made in vegan cheese – Cheezley and Teese come to mind. The vegan parmesans are very good, too. As more people reduce and eventually eliminate their dairy consumption, these products will get better and become more
widely available (and probably less expensive) – which will make it easier for the next wave of people to give up dairy, and so forth. Specifically, I wouldn’t be surprised to see thousands of restaurants, one by one, adding vegan cheese pizzas to their menus over the next several years.

There’s a very nice cooperative and communal feel to all this. Each person who goes vegan, or even half vegan, makes it easy for others to do the same – and chips away at the institutionalized exploitation of animals.