For the Rhodes Organisation for Animal Rights (ROAR) animal rights week, I became a vegan for the week. When I told a vegan friend of mine what I was doing, she asked sarcastically, “Oh, so is that like becoming Christian for a week?”
Point taken.
Yes, my decision to become vegan for a week seems kind of crazy and very hypocritical. Why would one become vegan for a week for animal rights reasons and then carry on munching them the next? But, before I explain why I did it and what it was like, I’d better explain what being a vegan means.
Veganism is not only related to what one eats, but is a lifestyle philosophy and choice, and is promoted by the vast majority of animal rights organisations (except ROAR from what I can gather). Veganism is different to being a vegetarian, which only excludes meat, in that it means not eating or using any animal or animal by-products. Meat being the obvious exclusion, but cheese, milk, eggs, honey, many alcoholic beverages, leather/fur clothing and any products made by companies which test some of their products on animals. Little did I realise just how much being a vegan would exclude me from eating and using.
My reasons for doing this were so that I could support animal right week without feeling hypocritical about biting into my ham and cheese sandwich at the same time. But more than that, veganism has been something I’ve come across over the past few years through a friend of mine. I’ve always been curious about what veganism is like and I promised myself that I would use the week to make myself more aware of the products that I use and consume and then impart my new-found knowledge and experiences on my readers.
Day one, Monday, 9 May, went surprisingly well, until the end of the day when a function was held for everyone who was involved in the production of SciCue. I walked into a room with platter upon platter of yummy looking finger foods – samoosas, chicken drumsticks, crumbed chicken strips, cheese puffs, caramel cups, chocolate cake, you name it. The only platter I could eat from was the teeny weeny measly veggie platter (which consisted of baby sweet corn, cherry tomatoes and cucumber). Oh, and I had some crackers.
Throughout the week I quickly realised that vegans are an oppressed minority and that very few restaurants and functions cater for them. On Thursday morning, I left with the other fourth year writers to go to the Franschhoek Literary Festival. There weren’t many food options along the way. We went to a nice restaurant for lunch in Knysna and the only item on the entire menu that I could eat was a Greek salad, minus the feta.
For breakfast the next morning, I had brought my own pack of original instant oats and an avo. Lunch had to be done on the go and any vegetarian wraps or sandwiches that I might have wanted had either cheese on them or a cheesy type sauce. I landed up buying slap chips and a salad from the Pick ‘n Pay. This time, I let my friends pick the yummy looking feta out.
Eating vegan food at home was never a problem. I have already almost completely cut meat out of my diet for environmental reasons. Not eating cheese, one of my all time favourites was more difficult. But I soon discovered that one can make delicious, nutritious vegan-friendly meals fairly easily and cheaply. Websites like Vegan SA and PETA have recipe ideas for those days when inspiration is running low.
I broke my veganism on the Friday evening with a hearty, mincey bobotie and plenty of alcohol, in a Franschhoek restaurant. So I guess that if veganism was a religion, then I’d be a sinner.
My greatest breakthrough however, came the week after animal rights week. My research during animal rights week consisted mainly of internet searches. This week I have had time to watch films made by animal rights organisations. Meet your meat consists of 12 minutes of horrific footage: Cows in abattoirs, hanging upside down from one leg, thrashing around with their necks slit open - bleeding, but still alive. Pigs - petrified and packed in on a truck, trampling each other to death. Chickens whose legs have collapsed or broken because they’ve grown so big so quickly, due to all the hormones they are fed, that their legs cannot support their body weight.
As if that wasn’t enough, I watched Earthlings. Divided into five categories of animals used for food, entertainment, science, animal companionship and clothing, Earthlings is an hour-and-a-half worth of heart-breaking, disgusting, shocking and nauseating images of animal cruelty and suffering. I can safely say that I haven’t cried so much in a very, very long time and it has finally pushed me the final step into becoming a proper vegetarian. As Beryl Scott, the national chairperson of “Beauty Without Cruelty” said in an interview with Vegan SA, “I feel that, for some people, the journey towards veganism is a gradual process, but it should ALWAYS be the end goal for everyone who wishes to adopt a cruelty-free lifestyle and especially those who call themselves ‘animal lovers’. Being vegetarian means you are only half way towards being the best person you can be!”
Being a vegan for a week was definitely one of the most eye-opening experiences I’ve ever had, and although I know that being vegetarian is not enough, I am hoping to one day be strong enough to adopt a lifestyle which is completely cruelty free to animals.
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| Here I am, the day after my vegan week, and very relieved to be drinking a hot chocolate! Photo: Albert Falanga |
Published in Grocott's Mail on 27 May 2011
Some Vegan meal ideas:
Breakfast: Oats, Oats so easy, toast with jam, avo, fruit, museli with soy milk
Lunch: Sandwiches (Use margarine, sweet chilli sauce, cucumbers, tomato, pepperdews), salads, pastas.
Supper: Pasta, vegetable curries, vegetable pie, vegetable soups, stuffed butternut, stir-fry
Snacks: Fruit, nuts, raisins, popcorn,
Treats: Jelly tots, chips (check flavouring), dark chocolate, chocolate soya milk
Protein/ meat replacements: Soya mince, protham, lentils, chickpeas, beans
Websites to visit:
http://www.vegansa.com/ (This website has great vegan recipes, using products which are easily available in South Africa and are animal friendly).
http://www.barnivore.com/ (To find out which alcoholic beverages are vegan friendly and which are not)
http://www.peta.org/ (People for the ethical treatment of animals. The website is packed with information about animal abuse and animal rights. It also contains plenty of information about how to lead a cruelty free life – from food choices, to which companies do and don’t test on animals, clothing choices and the keeping pets debate).
http://www.beautywithoutcruelty.com/ and http://www.bwcsa.co.za/ (More about cosmetics, which products have not been tested on animals and where to buy them).
http://animalrightsafrica.org/ (Find out more about animal rights and cruelty free living).
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