What Does it Mean to Do "Enough"?

Hey Everyone,

P_M here again, this time with a specific user in mind, so if someone with the s/n "anastasia" is reading this then thank you for your review of my last post and this is for you.

The question I'm answering today is a bit specific. I personally cannot tell you, the individual reader I've never met, what it means for you to do "enough" for the the sake of the billions of non-humans that face death and exploitation everyday on this planet. I can't tell you what to do or how to do it, because lets face it, if I did I'd be a stuck up power mad authoritarian jerk or just a person with way too high an opinion of herself and an overestimation of her influence. That said ,what I can do is give you some questions to ask yourself next time you feel hopeless or powerless.

Next time you watch an Animal Rights video and get that feeling like you aren't doing enough, ask yourself these questions, and remember... "enough" is standard based on love. Think about it. If someone you love almost if not more than yourself gets sick, enough becomes no less than everything you can possibly do to comfort and assist them, right? But if one those distant relatives whose names you'd forget if they weren't on your Christmas card list gets sick, enough might be a prayer and cheap get-well card. If you want to get technical about it "enough" also has a bit to do with the severity of the situation, our moral responsibilities to other beings and other factors but, as I happen to be a bit sentimental right now, I'll say that love has a bit to do with how a person looks at those other factors. (you may feel free to agree or roll your eyes at me, but since you're still reading this I can only assume that on some level you care what I think)

Any way, These are the questions that you should ask yourself to help you assess whether or not your doing enough for the cause of Animal Rights.

1. Am I vegan? - step one to taking down animal oppression is always a bit obvious (STOP SUPPORTING IT). this is the one I'd insist on. No, vegetarian isn't gonna cover it. No, don't even step to me with "cage free" "humanely raised" "read fairy-tales to and cuddled before killed" products. Going vegan is the "prayer and cheap get-well card" equivalent from my example, using the example of a sick person, anything less ranges from ignoring them to slapping them.

2. What good am I doing already by just answering yes to the first question?
3. Knowing the answer to the previous question, do i feel the need to do more? - remember this one

(If you answered yes to the last question keep on reading, if it was no, congrats your doing enough for you)

4. What do I feel comfortable doing ( leafleting, feed-ins, screenings of AR films ect.)?
5. Am I doing it and doing it effectively to inform the public of what they are supporting (factory farming, animal agriculture, legalized murder/torture) and what they can do to help stop it ( go vegan)?
6.Am I making time to do non-activism related activities that I love and other things ( like eating and sleeping as i should and not abusing the animal that I can help the most (yourself)?
7. What good am I doing by answering "yes" to question 5?
8. repeat question 3 and note in ( ) that follows it
9. If you answered yes to question 5 and still feel that you must do more, (which, if you did what i asked in #8, and are still reading is the case) Is there anything else I can actually do? - get creative.
10. Can I do it without answering "no" to question 6?

If at any point in time you answer "no" to question 6, stop!!! You're doing too much. you're probably a wonderful person to feel such a need to help, but if you burn out...well...how much can you really help anyone?

Don't let anyone (yourself included) make you feel like a bad person or a lazy activist because your definition of enough involves less activism than someone-else's. And you're not obsessed or radical if "enough" for you means doing more than others either. Like I said, It's a standard measured in love, and any amount of love, or effort, is important and has meaning far greater than what we can see in the moment.

I hope this helps,
yours ( because doing this is part of my "enough"),
Plant_Murderer

PS. anastasia, don't give up the art if you love it. It'll keep you sane. Thanks again (for the idea for this post)

Isn't Being Vegan Difficult?

Any current difficulties with being vegan -- such as having to decline cake at birthday parties, answering "Where do you get your protein" questions once a week, or knowing too much when you drive by cows grazing -- are society-imposed, not intrinsic.

It's profoundly more difficult to make excuses for inflicting avoidable violence on innocent beings, or to deny it, or to try and not think about the consequences of your actions, or to fend off your conscience. That wears on you, one way or another.

The difficulties in being vegan that one must endure for the time being are miniscule compared to the compassion generated, the suffering spared, the justice restored, and the peace of mind gained.

---

(Inspired by the previous post.)

Here's what's really hard

Here's what's excruciatingly difficult - impossible, actually: Participating in violence against animals when it is so easily avoidable. I know how badly the animal wants to live, and the meaning he or she gets from life, and I know animals' capacity for pain and suffering, and I know right from wrong, and the Golden Rule. I know I have a profundity of vegan options. I could cook something different for every meal just from browsing the Internet, and have a hugely satisfying and diverse vegan diet - and I'm not kidding and I'm not exaggerating.

I would have difficulty living with myself if I knew I was contributing to the misery and death of animals simply for pleasure, or out of habit, or because I felt like it, or out of moral laziness.

I desire peace of mind - as we all do - and I can think of no more surefire way to achieve that than by doing good, by doing right, by being as kind as compassionate and respectful of life as I can, by being non-violent, by obeying the golden rule.

Knowingly engaging in violence against innocent animals - that's hard. No matter how good you are at rationalizing or denial, deep down you know you're doing something unmerciful, unkind, unjust, and wrong. That catches up to you one way or another.

Being vegan is easy. It's beyond easy - it's simply the right thing to do. It's deeply satisfying to bring your diet in line with your morals.

Isn't being vegan really inconvenient?

At first, not having so many options when it comes to being a consumer might seem a bit daunting, but once you know your stuff and get a little organised, it's really quite incredibly easy!

There might not be quite so many ready meals out there, but once you learn to cook (can I use this oppurtunity to plug my other, food blog for easy recipes for beginners here? ;) ) you can make large batches of food and freeze or refridgerate some and then heat these up later for those times you are busy, tired and can't be bothered cooking- voila!- ready meals!( plus home cooking is generally a whole lot healthier than ready meals too). You can also take these into work for packed lunches if your work has a microwave, and sometimes even have your omni colleagues wondering what the nice smell is.

As far as eating out goes, you soon get to learn what local places carry vegan options (and do a happy dance when you find them!) and if you're going out for an event with omnis, many places will make a vegan meal up for you so long as you call in advance and explain what a vegan is to them. Even if you're stuck, you can carry snacks in your bag to nibble on (ie nuts, seeds, Nakd or Lara bars etc) until you get home and heat up that yummy thai curry you put away in your freezer earlier.

As far as toiletries and cleaning materials go, I usually bulk buy everything I need from the co-op (a UK chain of supermarkets who are BUAV approved and clearly mark their products as vegan, not to be confused with US co-ops!) or online stores like veganstore.co.uk (who also carry obscure grocery items like nutritional yeast, powdered soya milk etc). By bulk buying every few months I keep travelling or postage costs and time to a minimum.

As you can see, a little bit of organisation makes a vegan lifestyle quite easy and convenient.

But it's so hard!

This is actually what I hear from a lot of people; they'd go vegan but it's so hard! And I, myself, went around for a while telling people, "I am the only vegan you will ever meet who says that veganism is easy." (Sigh. This was before I met any other vegans, though.) These days, I just say, "Nah man, veganism is ridiculously easy. Just ask any vegan!"

And it's true! The hard part is in the first two or three days, when you still have your omnivorous habits, and it gets to dinnertime and suddenly you're looking at the stove wishing you could have mac'n'pus or a slab of a cow's/pig's/chicken's/fish's body. That, as far as the materials goes, is really the only thing that's hard about veganism: it's the But what am I supposed to eat?! mentality.

I understand that. The emotional comfort of eating animal products is what really drives us to do it - and addiction is included in that - 'cause really, let's face it: plain meat and cheese tastes like dirt. (I'm talking no salt either, you know, the way true carnivores and omnivores like it.) The thing is, we associate animal products with family situations; for me, everything was easy - but once I got this twinge the time I went to Germany for wurst. It was completely bewildering - but I realised it wasn't because I was a bad vegan: it was because I was feeling lonely and isolated, and because my dad and Oma (German for "grandmother") had me grow up with that, I associated that with love, family, being included. (This was easily cured by remembering that there was someone killed to make the wurst, not a something.) And if any of you reading don't have some of the same feelings (love, family, friends, togetherness, comfort) about one animal product or another - barring those of you who were raised vegan - I'll eat my hat.

The thing is though, that was momentary, and other than that I have had not a thought, twinge, or pang of wistfulness towards animal products. I mean, come on - I have more than enough yummy vegan foods to snack on, even without plant milks, nice creams, fake meats, etc. (all of which I rarely if ever eat anymore). And more than that, I have an ethical backbone - I can't, I won't, I refuse to eat any animal product simply because that would be a. hurting animals and b. reinforcing, even if only to myself, that animals do not deserve to have their right to their bodies respected (which they do!).

And you want to know the truly hard part? It's dealing with all the people who know nothing about veganism and who don't want to know. They're the ones that really piss me off - they're the ones telling me, through both word and action, that they simply can't be bothered. And when you're part of the oppressing group, I think it's your duty to learn about your privilege, and then - this is key - to actively fight against it. You are obligated. It wasn't their fault they got born into the right body - and you're the one with the power: they can't force you to not engage in your privilege, the privilege which hurts them economically, emotionally, mentally, sexually, physically, whatever - so you have to make the conscious choice to not do that.

So what you're really saying when you say, "But it's so hard!" is a few things:

1. You want to remain safe in your idea that veganism is impossible so you can continue your physical/psychological addictions with animal products,
2. You want to believe that you are doing as much as you possibly can so you don't have to incriminate yourself for not doing more, and
3. You don't want to really, truly care about animals so much that you'll be forced by your own conscience to make "sacrifices" for them.

But the thing is, the first ("it's impossible") isn't true, the second is inevitable (you must, at one point, realise that you're doing something, yes, wrong), and the third ("sacrifices") is empowering and not at all deprivation.

So why not take the jump? I mean it. Why not? Simply saying "we're all at a different point on the path" doesn't work if you know about what goes on and you choose to ignore that so you can continue your physical/psychological addictions to animal products - frankly, though you must keep in mind that I am a very, erm, bold person, I'd say that doing something you know is wrong does indeed make you a bad person. And I mean, you want to be a good person, right? At least, I hope so (if not, I can safely assume that you're in your teens).

Here's another thing to think about: while I don't advocate selflessness by any means, I do think that there comes a point where we integrate thinking about the needs and wants of others into our hourly, daily, weekly, etc. plans - and that is when we become an adult. We become adults when we abandon egocentrism - the focus on the self to the exclusion or near-exclusion of all others - and instead retreat into a happy mixture of taking care of ourselves and considering (and, yes, changing our plans to respect) the preferences of others. "Others" includes animals, since they definitely have preferences - at the bare minimum, the wish to avoid pain, suffering and death, and usually the want for, if not friendship, then companionship.

So it comes down to: are you ready to be an adult? Because veganism is the result of looking at our relationship with animals and realising that we need to respect their wishes, even if it causes minor inconveniences to us.

I'm not fully an adult yet, but hell, I'm on my way.

So what, do you just like, eat salads?

Almost every vegan I know has gotten this question, and then thoroughly and practically answered it by ordering sesame veggies with the Thai basil vegetables, or the tempura vegetables with the sauteed mushrooms, or the garlic-fried green beans, or the pasta puttanesca, or the...

Well, you get the point.

While some vegans love salads, others absolutely hate them. I'm somewhere in-between: I like salads, but I'm very picky about them. They have to be just so. No sweet stuff except for balsamic vinegar. They must have green leafy vegetables and some sort of allium ground vegetable. They cannot have too much oiliness. And, of course, vegan.

Verdict: Easier to serve me a plate of fruit, nuts, and sea vegetables. For other vegans, it'll be pasta, bruschetta, cole slaw, grilled portabellas, or whatever else that's vegan.

So go easy on yourself and skip the salad - make them something else. A vegetable pot pie will usually work - you can find lots of easy recipes for them on the Internet (which you obviously have if you're reading this). If all else fails, go to the vegan themselves and ask them, what do you like? I guarantee that there will be something that's easy to cook, cheap, and readily available. By ignoring the vast amounts of information at your fingertips, you're practically guaranteeing that the vegan in your life will be difficult to cook for!

How do I live cheaply on a vegan diet?

Drop the processed products - fake meats, packaged plant milks, and especially the vegan caviar. You don't need it. No, really, you don't. No, not even for protein.

Cut it down to the bare basics - grains, vegetables, fruits, legumes.

Organic barley is $.69/lb.
Organic hard red wheatberries are $.59/lb.
Organic speltberries are $1.39/lb.
Organic oats are $.50/lb.
The really expensive organic potatoes are $.91/lb.
Organic kale is $1.39/bunch ($2/bunch at some places).
Fruit ranges from $.39/lb. (organic minneolas whoohoo!) to $4/lb. (Avoid!)
Growing 20 bunches of your own leafy greens in a square foot gardening box, $1.50 and a whole lotta time.
Weekly/daily B-12 tablet or spray: $.12-$.50/tablet or spray.

Compare that to (prices from Harris Teeter):

Bologna: $4.99/lb.
Honey-Baked Ham (or, as we vegans affectionately call it, "pig butt"): $4.49/lb.
Sockeye Salmon: $9.99/lb.
Ballpark Franks: $3/pack
Smoked Bacon: $3.99/lb.
Whole Chicken Body: $1.99/lb.

And oh man, if you want to get organic flesh so you can eat someone's carcass and feel good about it, well fuck...

So, say you're eating in a week:

4 lbs. of potatoes ($3.64)
1 lb. of oats ($.50)
3 lbs. of barley ($2.27) (keep in mind that this is about 2,000 calories).
2 bunches of kale ($4)
6 lbs. non-organic and organic fruit ($7-$9)
Daily B-12 tablets ($3.50)

And, drumroll please.. $24.49.

Yep, that's right. You're still under $30/week; add a few more bunches of kale and you'll still be under $30/week. Now, I don't know about you, but the rest of my family spends about $800/month on food alone, because their diet's made up of mainly non-vegan products, which are more expensive. There's the feeding costs, the space costs, the lighting costs, the water costs, the construction costs, the worker costs, the equipment costs - beak cutters and such, the transportation costs (to the slaughterhouse and away), the economic cost to the citizens for having the government subsidise it, the health care costs, the environmental costs, etc. etc. Meanwhile, we vegans are over here munching on our cheap dinner that was comprised of: watering costs, space costs, harvesting costs, transportation costs (actually, harvesting costs could fall under this), worker costs, offset by lowering health care costs, (usually) lower environmental costs, etc. etc.

So, what you're really saying is...

How do I not cook and still live cheaply as a vegan?

Answer: you can't. But wait!

I didn't much like cooking either, when I started as a carnist. I hated it so much that I refused to learn! Then, of course, I became vegan, and because I didn't have many prepackaged foods available, I began to cook - and I liked it. Says my girlfriend:

With veganism, I actually enjoyed learning how to cook. It was far more simpler to handle plant-based foods than it would ever be to handle animal flesh. It is less time consuming, and more frugal to cook (or uncook, for raw vegans) plant-based foods. Animal flesh is expensive, hazardous to handle, time-consuming to handle and cook it properly and NOT only that, but to cook it in a way that would render it appetizing (people commonly load up on salt, spices, marinades, sauces, breading, frying, etc to mask the actual "taste" of death.

So go on and save your pocketbook.. and the animals, too.

(P.S. Potatoes do well in the microwave, for quick meals.)

You're so brave!

It's inevitable that this one comes up at some point during the discussion. In fact, I'd say it's one of the most common misperceptions about being or going vegan: that it requires this great amount of will power, or that you're doing something difficult or self-sacrificing. I would like to address this issue, because I find it to be problematic.

1. First and foremost, it's not hard to do. With the amount of food available to me, for the asking, I'd hardly call what I'm doing difficult. In fact, seemingly by magic, food turns up at the grocery store all ready for me to buy. I rarely have to worry about spoiled food (unless I left it in the fridge too long), nor do I have to walk a few kilometres to access my food. It's right there at the nearest store, and Steve has a car that can get us to that store and back. We're not living in my grandfather's time, where there was no refrigeration, and food had to be purchased daily—at the market which is five kilometres away—or the family would starve. Not only did he have a family of seven to feed (himself, wife, five children), he also had to go to his work and cook the food himself as well. I don't live in a developing nation, where such things as regular access to food is a big deal. This is hardly a difficult lifestyle here, folks. Let's keep things in perspective, hmm?
   
2. Secondly, it's not hard to cook the food either. Again, I point to the fact that I live in a country where I have a gadget to do pretty close to anything I want done. I have a food processor to chop, slice and mince my vegetables, leaves, herbs, and beans to exactly the size I want. I have a bread maker to make fresh loaves of bread whenever I want them. The yeast that I use is premeasured into little packages that are perfect for one loaf of bread. I've got both a single burner gas stove, and a four burner electric stove. My oven works very efficiently. My blender can do a number on some oil, acid, and herbs for salad dressings. I have a crock pot, where I can dump dried beans, and come out with cooked at the end of a work day. I never have to babysit the programmable little dream. Again, not that hard, people. I remember my mother spending all that time with her knife, her cutting board, and pots and pans just to get a meal on the table.
   
3. Furthermore, since when is living according to your principles considered hard? When I was a Hindu, nobody thought me "brave" or "heroic" for avoiding cow's flesh; it was simply assumed that since it's my morals, it's normal for me to follow it. Similarly, my Jewish, Muslim, and Christian friends don't get equal praise for following their respective religions; for them, it's merely their way of life. If you can accept a Muslim person's avoiding pig's flesh, why is it so hard to understand that I'm doing the same when I avoid the products of all animals? Sure, Muslims don't need pig's flesh to live, but neither do I need the products of torture to live a fulfilling life. Is there some part of this I'm missing here?
4. Willpower. If you know me, you know very well that I lack it utterly and completely. It's not a question of willpower. It's a question of knowing what I know, and being unable to un-know.
   

What I'm trying to get at with all of this is that I'm not this saint for following what I know to be right. I'm not a martyr, I'm not making huge sacrifices, and what I'm doing is certainly not difficult. I appreciate the sentiment, because it shows that people to recognise that I'm doing something important by holding true to my values. That being said, it's certainly not hard!

But don’t you miss dairy?

“One day I was visiting my parents and all of a sudden I started to crave manicotti!” So were the words of a long-time friend, a person that inspired me to go vegan, but who ultimately (after 5-plus years, no less) went the way of so many ex-vegans that seem to surface the moment I mention that I’m vegan.

The answer I give people who ask if I miss or crave cow’s milk, cheese, ice cream (insert creamy cheesy product) is a resounding “No.” I don’t crave dairy products, because like most of the brown people in this world I am lactose intolerant. While signs of lactose intolerance can be spotted in premature babies and young children - regardless of race or ethnicity - the inability to properly digest lactase enzymes are prevalent in Native American, black, Asian, and Hispanic populations.

When I learned that I was lactose intolerant in my early 20s it forced me to seek out alternatives for calcium, which was not hard, much to the relief of my worried mother, since so many foods are fortified. When I started moving to a plant-based diet I was surprised to learn how much calcium leafy green vegetables pack in a serving. And all that time I thought the way to strong and healthy bones was through the mammary secretions of herbivorous animals. (Side-rant: If we called milk for what it is, would people still clamor for a slice of that hideous American single?)

When people talk of craving milk products, they are not too far off; casomorphins (think casein + morphine) in cow’s milk is a protein compound that draws baby calves to their mother. Humans who consume large amounts of cheese can actually experience cravings for the stuff, similar to a coffee drinkers’ need for their morning cup.

Just like hardcore coffee drinkers can cut back and ultimately stop drinking coffee, so too can those hardcore cheese eaters. I personally stopped consuming dairy products all at once, but for those products that you think you cannot live without, chances are there are vegan alternatives. If you’re craving something salty along the lines of parmesan, toast some walnuts or use a soy sauce, two products that contain high levels of naturally-occurring glutamate (of MSG fame.) There are plenty of options for non-dairy ice creams, and I’ve found that extra firm silken tofu achieves a texture very similar to cheese cake. Beware of some soy cheeses that contain whey and casein. Or better yet, give your taste buds time to adjust and appreciate the multitude of foods beyond dairy.

But, it's so hard?

Or, alternatively titled, "Isn't it hard to go vegan?" 

This question, I think, is right up there in the frequently asked column. Like every single day frequent. It comes in all shapes and sizes: 'I don't have the will-power', 'I could ... except for the cheese', 'vegetarian maybe, but definitely not vegan' etc. However, unlike some questions (think along the lines of Plants Have Feelings), this one is genuinely valid. To some, and I guess all at some point, it's a looming transformation. Gotcha; understood. 

It can probably be attributed to two things: 1) an honest (or not so honest) skepticism about what it is exactly that vegans eat, or 2) the traditional disconnect between the consumption of food and our behaviour towards other animals. 

As almost everyone who even considers veganism in passing wonders this, the first reason makes some sense. Veganism is strongly associated with a dietry category, and therefore, a viable solution to the 'If not meat or dairy, what else?' idea must be accounted for. We are nothing without a practical solution to this ... erh ... crisis. Culinary King (or Queen ;) ), Dino, already has this covered so I won't rehash it. 

On the second point, I think ethics come into play. Yep, I said it - that dreaded word: ethics. On the outset, veganism comes off as a pretty radical change. And, I'm not going to lie to you, in many ways it is. For most vegans that I know, this change is more of a change in outlook rather than anything else of significance. Put simply, it opens new doors and avenues previously unexplored instead of closing them. 

More to the point (and less of my rambling), I don't think this perceived superhuman will-power even comes into the equation. Once your truly sold on the idea of compassion for all animals and stopping horrific exploitation, there is no need to somehow measure your courage, and wonder if you can muster the strength to climb that ledge. You just do it. You match behaviour to ethics, and you feel all the more joyous for it. This is not to say that it must be an overnight, cold-tofu approach, but you create stepping-stones in that direction if that is what will work best for you. 

For me personally, veganism can be likened to a reward - I have sacrificed nothing and gained absolutely everything. Yes, I know - it sounds cliche. However, it also happens to be completely true. 

So, in a belated answer to the original question, no it's not too hard.