Veganism and what it can mean for you!

[Desperado Deluxe]

So I have been going through threads on here that have touched the topic of Veganism and I have seen mostly negative and pessimistic views on traveling while Vegan. I want to clarify something.
It is NOT hard to travel and be Vegan. If you want it then you can make it work.
My wife and I have been Vegan two years and on the road for one.
The key is to eat mostly whole and raw foods. This is much healthier and bulk foods are cheaper. Get acquainted with different grains (Rice, Couscous, Quinoa, etc.), Beans, different vegetables, and definitely a lot of fruit!
Veganism is a moral philosophy and to be absolutely honest if you go back to being non vegan after being vegan than you were never truly vegan. Veganism is a lifestyle. This is not meant to offend anybody. I am an animal rights activist so I see no excuse for murdering/exploiting animals for taste. I am totally down to talk to anybody about this in private if veganism is something your interested in but unsure of how to do it on the road.
Veganism is the single most impactful thing a person can do to help create a cleaner and healthier world.

-Spirit
Anarchy/Revolution/Unity/Freedom

Bro you've only been vegan for two years!?! I'm not currently vegan but I had been a veg from the time I was 15 til I was 21. Vegan for at least three of those years! For you to say I wasn't truly vegan is a joke. Being vegan is a great lifestyle choice for sure with great benefits to your health and sure your saving a few critters but who actually gives a fuck about animal rights when peoples human rights are being violated all over the world all the time. I'm pretty sure there's bigger fish to fry.

 

[Spirit Freeman]

Bro you've only been vegan for two years!?! I'm not currently vegan but I had been a veg from the time I was 15 til I was 21. Vegan for at least three of those years! For you to say I wasn't truly vegan is a joke. Being vegan is a great lifestyle choice for sure with great benefits to your health and sure your saving a few critters but who actually gives a fuck about animal rights when peoples human rights are being violated all over the world all the time. I'm pretty sure there's bigger fish to fry.

Yes I agree there are "bigger fish to fry" and I fight for those reasons. Animal rights Activism has taken a backseat in my priorities but I still encourage it when the timing is right. Yes I understand completely that bigger issues need to be solved first and foremost.

 

[QueerCoyote]

also saying veganism with save the world is just wrong. vegan capitalism is still shit. if this is how the usa worked, i would still be hoping the system got smashed for obvious reasons. going freegan+vegan when you can is coooool.

thiiiiiiiiiiiiiis

vegan capitalism is still shit. I was vegetarian for over 11 years, most of the time eating vegan. I work at a vegan cafe. Vegan capitalism is still exploitative.

Last week I stopped being a vegetarian because I had the realization that if I'm trying to choose the most ethical choice, veganism isn't it in my opinion.

Most vegans aren't travelers, and most vegans are buying commercial produce shipped from overseas grown in deforested rainforests, or farmed from underpaid workers. If it takes pesticides you're also looking at exposing farm workers to a barrage of carcinogenic chemicals, and if there are no pesticides someone had to spend laborious hours handpicking weeds, resulting in poor knee and back health if done for too long.

If I killed a deer in the deep of winter and ate that deer for the next month, there's a lot less environmental degradation and animal suffering taking place than a vegan diet imported from another country.

You can't say veganism will solve the world's issues when it's not accessible financially or time-wise for poor people who aren't travelers and when the food is the product of outsourcing agriculture and habitat destruction. When the people tending the food are getting the short end of the stick.

 

[Spirit Freeman]

thiiiiiiiiiiiiiis

vegan capitalism is still shit. I was vegetarian for over 11 years, most of the time eating vegan. I work at a vegan cafe. Vegan capitalism is still exploitative.

Last week I stopped being a vegetarian because I had the realization that if I'm trying to choose the most ethical choice, veganism isn't it in my opinion.

Most vegans aren't travelers, and most vegans are buying commercial produce shipped from overseas grown in deforested rainforests, or farmed from underpaid workers. If it takes pesticides you're also looking at exposing farm workers to a barrage of carcinogenic chemicals, and if there are no pesticides someone had to spend laborious hours handpicking weeds, resulting in poor knee and back health if done for too long.

If I killed a deer in the deep of winter and ate that deer for the next month, there's a lot less environmental degradation and animal suffering taking place than a vegan diet imported from another country.

You can't say veganism will solve the world's issues when it's not accessible financially or time-wise for poor people who aren't travelers and when the food is the product of outsourcing agriculture and habitat destruction. When the people tending the food are getting the short end of the stick.

I agree with you once hundred percent. I may have gotten ahead of myself on the way I worded certain things. Yes capitalism is shit. No matter what products are being sold. I am not advocating for "voting with your dollar" type politics. Fuck the system, fuck the Federal Reserve, burn it to the ground, and stop killing innocent beings. I travel and am absolutely against working for any corporation or paying any taxes. I still eat only plant based foods. We can do anything and we choose what we are able to do. If you believe you can't be poor and vegan then that will become your reality. I am broke as shit and I have an abundance of food. I use EBT so obviously it is easier, but I have gone weeks without EBT and still easily managed it through DD and spanging. Spirituality is key in this. To have Faith in your own Divinity and ability to Create your own Reality is necessary.

 

[Satanic Botanic]

The two main arguments I see criticizing veganism is that it's expensive/not accessible to the poor and it's still vulnerable to the evils of capitalism. Which are fair arguments.

You go to a vegan cafe compared to a non-vegan cafe and 9/10 times the vegan cafe is gonna be more expensive. However, I actually stopped eating meat initially to save money, and so that eating healthy on the road was easier. If you think cooking your own vegan food is more expensive than a meat meal, I think you are just misinformed and/or a bad shopper. Not to any fault of your own. I think what the vegan movement needs more than preaching is education. People don't realize how cheap, healthy, and easy being vegan can be. It is a dramatic lifestyle shift, sure, but completely attainable by most, assuming a normal meat diet is already attainable for you ofc. You don't have to stop eating meat cold turkey either. I think that's actually a terrible way to do it. If you have any kind of interest in veganism, just dip your toes in the water. Go to a vegan cafe first and try some dank ass food so you know what's possible. After that, try cooking some simple vegan meals. Hell, just eating some oatmeal/granola with fruit is a great start and example for how cheap, easy, and delicious this shit can be. If you like it, try implementing it into your daily diet day by day while still eating meat. Then maybe switch to vegetarianism for a while once you're comfortable before going vegan. Ease it into your life.

And, yes, agriculture labor is exploitative. But if you're buying unethical, exploitative meat, you really can't use that as an argument against veganism. Buy local and ethical. Local and ethical meat is pretty expensive, but fruits n veggies really aren't all that expensive local. Often, you'll find that it's cheaper to buy the local and ethical shit. Next time you're on highway 1 or some place with lots of agriculture, stop by those lil farms, or look for signs selling shit. I know you can get local and ethical avocados on highway 1 for like 25 cents. Buy an avocado in whole foods or some shit and you're gonna pay like $2. Not to mention how much better for the environment veganism is. If we're gonna agree that both veganism and meat boy life are exploitative capitalist swine systems, then that argument goes out the window and you then gotta compare the other aspects. Veganism wins most of those other arguments.

Is veganism the perfect solution? Fuck no. Is it a better lifestyle/diet choice than meat life for fighting capitalism and saving the earth? Yes.

 

[JohnMorningstar]

I have teeth designed to only shred meat and my eyes are located in the front of my skull....
Humans are predators.
We only evolved to this point from a high fat diet, humans biologically need fat for proper cognitive functions.

I'm going to happily eat my fried chicken now.

 

[Deleted member 2626]

@JohnMorningstar florence huh? Thats where I am right this moment.

 

[JohnMorningstar]

@JohnMorningstar florence huh? Thats where I am right this moment.

No shit eh? What brings you to this part of America?

 

[sd40chef]

nature is cruel in many ways. i sometimes wonder could inuit tribes or many people living in arctic or colder climates survive on veganism? they cant. i think what you eat largely depends on what kind of climate you are living in. living in canada in the winter when its frozen consistently for months and eating vegan means mostly food that has traveled hundreds or thousands of miles, and polluted a bunch to get to your local supermarket. i definitely am against animal farming in general, hunting/fishing/trapping is the way to do it. i feel like a hypocrite in many ways to be honest as i am not hunting my meat for the rare exception of fishing and eat generally vegan, aside from some dumpster scores or when visiting family/friends. just my two cents, thats all.

 

[Deleted member 20683]

okay i am not going to read this whole thread, and i want to remind people that no one vegan speaks for all vegans. that being said,
i've been vegan or freegan for most of my life since i was a teenager and i find it an incredibly positive choice. i don't like to shove my beliefs in anyone's face on any subject - mostly because it is super counterproductive - but i have very strongly held reasons for it and they aren't necessarily the ones that people seem to stereotypically assume.

i think it is telling how defensive and angry people get about food. like, ok: food is personal and cultural; we don't all get to eat what we want all the time; and it's often scary to think about changing your diet...but on that note, most people don't realize how much control our food has over us, and in fact how much this has to do with the world we live in - from the environment and animal lives being brutally destroyed to produce food, to the social oppression created by the same capitalist system, to the mental and physical health problems caused by eating unbalanced and contaminated diets. food isn't just fuel, it's literally what we're made of and it becomes what our thoughts and feelings are made of too...weird but true. likewise, on some level when you know you're eating a big plateful of death and destruction, that knowledge becomes part of your physical and emotional body too, even if you try to ignore it, it takes the form of denial and suppression.

ultimately for me it comes down to trying to be healthy and not take a bigger 'bite' out of the world than i need to, in terms of resource consumption and suffering that my life entails based on living in a consumerist society. it's the same reason i ran away to travel and squat, not just because of some moral perspective on it but because i felt it was better for me personally to disentangle from these sort of systems. as far as health i strongly encourage everyone to read about ayurveda; it is definitely not a vegan philosophy, but is a very ancient school of thought about diet and health that has a lot of insight into how food affects us, and it does not recommend anyone to eat a diet high in animal products.