Of all the social-justice acts out there, I actually think veganism is one of the lowest- hanging fruit. It's just so easy that the only reason non-vegan culture can possibly persist is through a really high degree of not giving a shit. In a way, that's understandable; I don't have much of a connection to animals myself. A lot of my vegan friends love animals and want to be around them all the time; I don't. If a smelly dog never jumps on me again, it will be too soon. But the fact is, animals have senses and feelings. Interacting with any animal for longer than thirty seconds can conclusively show you that animals like and dislike things, and that they feel something that looks exactly like pain. Which brings me to...
2. If you care about consent, then veganism is transparently the right thing to do. There are environmental arguments and stuff, but I mean, seriously, let's call a spade a spade: when you eat meat, you're eating the murdered body of an animal who died for no reason other than your transient pleasure. As for animal products: many things that happen to animals on factory farms are abominable and obscene, as two minutes of Googling or this_ website or this video can show you.
Even if you decide to eat animal products that come only from well-treated animals, there's no way to be sure that those animals were actually well-treated unless you're raising them yourself. As this vegan FAO points out, there's an amazing amount of animal suffering that still occurs on "humane" farms. (Sa/on has written about it, too.) Some of those farms are doubtless fairly pleasant for the animals, but others.... Well, let's just say that calling some "humane" farms more merciful than factory farms is like saying that being burned alive is preferable to dying in a medieval torture device.
Personally, when I went vegan, a lot of the reason it felt easy was because I no longer had to spend tons of mental energy suppressing my empathy. I was amazed at how relieved I felt. Again, I'm not pretending to be perfect about it -- I eat non-vegan food sometimes in social situations, sometimes when it's about to be thrown away, and sometimes just when I'm drunk. If you need to make accommodations in order to feel comfortable being vegan, then I'm the last person who will criticize you. I'll just be glad you're taking steps towards being vegan.
It took me a long time to decide to go vegan, and I understand that it might take you a long time, too. I've listed a lot of resources in this post and I hope you'll consider looking at them. Questions are welcome in the comments, although I may not be able to answer them. I wish you luck. And if you're already vegan, then congratulations and high-5!
Now for recipes!
I promise that these recipes are beloved by non-vegans as well as vegans. In fact, even
when I wasn't vegan, they were some of my favorites. When I feed these dishes to non- vegans, they are frequently startled that the food isn't vegan. (Sometimes I save the Big Reveal for last. Heh, heh.)
(One of my other favorite gentle pro-vegan tactics is to walk into restaurants and ask if they have anything vegan on the menu. When the answer is no, I smile and thank them and leave.)
Organic and fair-trade ingredients are obviously encouraged. I'm not as good about
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