Dear Vegans and Vegetarians,
Firstly, I’d just like to establish that you are my goals. You guys care so much about the environment and the lives of animals that you’re willing to sacrifice the pleasures of the taste buds. To be honest, putting it like that makes it completely understandable as to why you don’t eat or use animal products. I have also tried to change my eating habits to be more in line with your morals, however I’ve never been consistent enough to call my self a true ‘vegan’ or ‘vegetarian’.
In fact, my label has changed frequently for the past couple of years. It seems as though as soon as someone sees you buying oat milk, or ordering from the veggie menu, the dreaded question, ‘are you vegan/vegetarian?’ pops up. I say dreaded, because I fit into neither. I hardly eat animal products, but I won’t refuse a pizza given to me by my friend, or the lamb shank my grandma made because she still doesn’t get what ‘vegan’ is. To be honest, I’ve had a lot of slip ups after drunk nights out, where I do often go for the chicken kebab. This has led me to create labels such as the pretentious ‘ethical eater’ or the long-winded ‘dairy intolerant pescatarian’. However, out of the general population – I’m doing well.
I’m not the only one who dwindles between the different states of meat eater and all other variations. Many of my friends are starting to make the transitions into eating less animal products, however as soon as they are asked and thus put a label on themselves, they are policed. Not really by meat eaters, but mainly by the proper veggies and vegans. I’ve found the stress of having to sometimes hide my food shops, or justify my reasoning for buying something containing animal products because I know that the labels usually assigned to me are not fitting in that moment.
Recently, my just turned vegetarian friend said he cheated on a drunk night out, and he was then told off for this by a vegan. I’ve seen this happen a lot, whereby vegans and vegetarians will express their anger for those who don’t comply with what these labels entail 100% of the time. Whether someone complies 95% of the time, or 80%, of even 70% of the time, the full vegans and veggies should stop expressing anger at this. The main problem is that there are people eating meat for almost every meal. The main problem is that people are going through liters of milk every week. The main problem is that a majority in the UK and the West don’t actually care about the effects eating meat has. The UN reported that halving meat consumption would result in a 25-40% decrease in nitrogen emissions from agricultural farms in Europe. So, we shouldn’t be critiquing and wasting energy on trying to ‘re-educate’ those who are already educated in why eating meat or animal products is a bad thing. Our efforts should primarily be with educating those who do eat meat about the negative affects it has on the environment, how brutal the slaughterhouses and farms can be, along with show the lie that we ‘need’ our nutrients from these animal products.
Love from,
A Flexitarian