Today, for my second post here on Steemit, I wanted to talk to you more about my vegan journey. If you have any questions feel free to ask !
Vegans, we hear about them every day, on the internet, on TV, on the radio. We watch horrible videos of slaughterhouses, we see weird gatherings in the street, even worse, we have a friend who has just announced that he will become a vegetarian. But what is happening and why can not everyone take care of their plate and stop taking care of others ?
If we go back a few years ago, I was one of those people who had never thought about what they eat. My eating habits were not healthy at all, but as long as I did not gain weight, that was all that mattered to me. In my environment, some people did not eat meat, I thought it was because they did not like it. I ate a little, at the restaurant or at my parents' house on Sundays, I said I was a part-time vegetarian, I found it cool and no one asked me more questions.
And then, the more food scandals broke out, like mad cow or bird flu, the less I ate meat, I began to pay attention to the provenance of my steak, my only requirement is that it has to be French.
One day, I went beyond his nationality, I began to understand that "this steak" was a piece of body, a being that had been alive at a time, and it disgusted me.
I learned about vegetarians, their health, their daily lives. After understanding that I was absolutely not vegetarian because I still ate fish, I focused on this meat that I did not want to eat, without thinking of the rest. After a few weeks, I told my family that I no longer ate meat. The reactions did not wait : "oh no, you too !! But you still eat fish huh? ".
Yes, yes my life had not changed so much, in fact, I could go to the restaurant like everyone else and nobody asked me any questions. It was probably for taste. I did not like that, that's all.
Apparently for me it was more than a tasting pleasure story, because seeing a whole fish, coming out of the barbecue, started to disgust me. To remove the flesh from the ridge, to see blood vessels, his eyes blown out by the heat ... it did not give me any more desire at all. Same thing for crab or shrimp. I even avoided some family lunches so I did not have to deal with what I was beginning to see as a corpse.
Then, I heard about veganism, this way of life seemed so extreme, stop eating eggs, cheese and even honey. It was really bullshit ... for me, if the cows were not milked, they were hurting, and I could not see what could be done to them so bad to chickens and bees. Anyway, it was impossible for me to stop the cheese (remember, I'm french). And life is already so hard, stop eating what we love ?? For what purpose ??
Three years ago, I became a vegan. Because I stopped focusing on myself. I understood that what I ate was directly involved in the suffering and death of an animal. It was pretty simple, I liked animals, and I didn't want them to die for meat, eggs, or even for my damn cheese.
I spent hundreds of hours on Facebook, Twitter, reading articles about animals, suffering, abuse, the environment. Watching videos of slaughterhouses, fur farms, speeches, militant actions, etc. But above all, I got used to all the negative reactions that my way of life led to. All those "carnivores", those "trolls" who do not understand, who are too fond of their habits, who do not care about animals because they are supposedly less intelligent than they are.
These vegans who seem to hold the absolute truth, in what way are they concerned by what everyone puts on their plate ?!
Just because animals are not things, but sentient beings, who live for themselves, who are born, have lived a life of pain, and died to end up in your stomach. But also, because unless you think like the president of the United States, global warming is real, and livestock industry is the first cause.
So, it is not because we are vegan that we have innate wisdom, but it's still not so stupid to want to give peace to animals, and at the same time to not finish grilled like (vegan) sausages. So for those of you, who feel guilty about eating a dead animal, stop and change, so maybe the world will not blow up tomorrow. For others, continue to make fun of it, but you will not be able to say that you did not know.