After our return from Mexico in 2006, we were permanently back to eating animals.  At some point, I emerged from vegetarianism with an odd belief that if vegans didn’t support ’humane farms,’ then they’d go out of business and all farms would be factory farms which meant more animal suffering. I wrote about it in this blog post.

I regularly promoted two ‘humane farms’ to friends who cared about animals.  At some point veganism had entered my awareness and I had a hostile mindset towards vegans.  Like if the vegans who cared about animals so much didn’t eat from these farms, then the ‘humane farms’ would cease to exist and then all animals would live a horrendous life and that would be on the vegans, not on me.  At least I was giving them a good life while they were alive, purchasing them from a place who cared about them and their wellbeing.  It’s interesting the lies I needed to tell myself to justify eating animals. It’s also interesting that I could possibly think someONE could be intentionally bred and brought into this world only to be killed and used for their flesh. Nothing about that sounds like a good life to me.

If you can even imagine, one ranch I purchased from asked customers to purchase a hay bale to donate to the cattle on their farm to help feed them.  Being the good person I am, I would regularly purchase a hay bale or two.

My disconnect here was unbelievable.  I was purchasing a hay bale to feed an animal that would end up dead and on my plate.  I blamed vegans for causing animal harm for not purchasing ‘humane’ meat.  I thought small, ethical farms were the solution and the way of the future.  I had no idea of the health impacts of eating red meat which the World Health Organization has classified as a Group 1 carcinogenic to humans.  For perspective, tobacco smoking and asbestos are BOTH classified as Group 1 carcinogens.

When I eventually became vegan, a colleague who I had personally referred to these ‘humane farms’ asked me why I went vegan, and she genuinely listened to everything I had to say.  It was one of my favourite conversations I’ve had since becoming vegan.  She listened to me (or was stuck with me ha) on our drive from Calgary to Canmore, which was about an hour.  She didn’t become vegan, but she listened to seek to understand, she didn’t judge, and I don’t believe she felt judged because I was talking from my personal perspective.

I was so excited that someone FINALLY asked me WHY I made the switch.  I had made such an EPIC lifestyle and mindset change, that I was genuinely surprised that no one had asked me about it.  I commend my colleague’s bravery for allowing me to speak to my story and for listening to me talk about what happens to the animals and to her great questions.  It was a respectful conversation.  One of her questions to me was how I changed my mindset from purchasing from ‘humane farms’ to not consuming animals at all since I was the one who referred her to the ‘humane farms.’  She genuinely wanted to understand my change in mindset and I appreciate her questions, openness and curiosity.

To her question of how I made the switch from purchasing from ‘humane farms’ to going vegan, it’s a simple answer, but a complicated journey.  Quite simply, I do not believe that animals should be used by humans.  Their exploitation is so masterfully woven into the fabric of our society, many of us accept what we have learnt as fact and never question it.

I grew up in the 80’s and the ‘milk does a body good’ campaign era.  We have been marketed to (and lied to) since as long as I can remember.  Images of happy cows on milk cartons persist to this day, but this is marketing used to make us (the consumer) feel better about purchasing fluids that came from another species.  The animal agriculture industry wants us to purchase their product because they want to make a profit.  That’s it. Somehow, animal agriculture has created a world of drones that blindly support them.  I was one of those drones, but no more.

We are told we need to drink the milk of another species – milk meant to fatten up a baby calf to become 2000 lbs.  We are told we must do this for healthy bones and to get calcium but I’ve learnt that calcium doesn’t come from cows.  Calcium comes from plants and the cow is the middle man.  I can get all the calcium I need from eating plants!  This seems like a simple concept, but this is one example of something I learnt when I started to question everything I had been taught.  I’ve also learnt that consumption of dairy is actually linked to causing osteoporosis, not preventing it and so much more.

This is why I have my blog, to explain a how someone like me can change their mindset and go vegan.  If you’ve read some of my past blog posts, you’ll know that my starting point was I would rather die than give up animal foods I was addicted to and loved the taste of.  I actually didn’t think life was worth living if I couldn’t eat ALL the tasty things I grew up eating and yet, here I am. I’m not sitting over here missing consuming animal products, but I’m sitting over hear fucking heartbroken that I ever consumed them to begin with, that I believed marketing lies of industry and took what I was taught at face value without doing my own research, without questioning anything. I’m sitting over here DEVASTATED thinking about what we do to animals every second of every single day and wishing so hard I could help people wake up and change.  We could stop all of this nonsense and madness right now if we all woke up.  Individual change is POWERFUL.  The industry does what they do because WE support it, if we stopped supporting it, they would make something else.  This is why I’m getting involved with activism.  I have to do something.  If I’m one of the lucky ones to be awake, then it’s my duty (and privilege) to speak up and help the animals.

Once I learnt that we do not need to consume animals to live a healthy life, I was able to start learning about the many, endless ways we exploit animals. This continuous learning, questioning, and exploring is how I got here.  How I woke up.

Fundamentally, I do not believe I have dominion over anybody, including animals.  It’s not up to me to decide if someone lives or dies.  I wasn’t eating animals out of necessity, but purely out of taste pleasure and habit.  I do not need to consume animals, wear them, purchase products that test on them or support places that USE animals to entertain us.  I have taken the time to learn about the many ways we exploit animals for our own benefit (food, research, testing, clothing, entertainment) and decided I no longer wanted to be complicit in this fucked up and broken system. 

Peace, love & plants,

Michelle 🙂

p.s. Have you watched What the Health?  This was the first documentary I watched that pushed me to learn more about industry and about the negative impacts to my own health from consuming animals.  It’s available for free on Netflix.