Why I am vegan.By Manashantii
Rosamund Raha of the vegan society says " 70% of crops fed to animals in the factory farms of Europe are grown in the developing world. If these crops were redirected to feed people, there would be no famine......If everyone in the world ate a western meat based diet we would need at least another two planets the size of Earth to feed the animals".
Nothing will benefit human health and increase chances for survival of life on Earth as much as the evolution to a vegetarian diet. Albert Einstein
"Non-violence leads to the highest ethics, which is the goal of all evolution. Until we stop harming all other living beings, we are still savages."Thomas Edison, inventor.
As long as man continues to be the ruthless destroyer of lower living beings he will never know health or peace.For as long as men massacre animals they will kill each other. Pythagoras, mathematician.
I am vegan because I am practicing an old habit and basically cannot live any other way.I am a feminist and an ex-Buddhist and I hate the taste of meat so naturally I am a Vegan.It makes sense to be vegan it is better for the animals,the environment and your health. It is convenient for me to know that it is healthier and morally sound.The weblinks on this page are informative on becoming
vegetarian or vegan please take time to visit the websites they are educational.I became vegan when I was a little girl in Accra, Ghana.I never liked meat and when it was put on my plate the best I did was suck the flavour of the sauce out of it.I don't know why, but I just didn't chew it .I didn't know what meat was,what it came from, but I just didn't like it.Then aged about two and three I used to shake my head to mean no when it was offered to me and I always left it behind on my plate.The nannies and house keepers we had used to say that I would grow out of it when I grow up and I actually really looked forward to that day, but sadly it never happened.They stopped putting meat on my plate when I was about five years old.I was an only child and I used to like going into the chicken coup and enjoyed talking to the chickens.
I had a favourite chicken that I used to sit and talk to.
In Africa,you can buy ready killed meat from a butcher, but also they buy animals alive and kill them and then cook it.My mother couldnot kill animals and eat them, so she regularly bought butchered meat or got a housekeeper to kill the animal.
So oneday she bought a chicken which she couldn't and didn't kill, and then at a later date she bought a cockerel and thought that it would be good to get eggs out of them.I thought this was a good idea at age five.My mum was very fond of the chickens and so was I.They were in my opinion definately pets.
One day when I was five my mum went out doing business (she was a business woman working in fashion) and the housekeeper said I was going to eat meat that day he had this view that I was a spoilt brat and he was going to teach me a lesson, well he did teach me a lesson.
My pet chicken was killed in front of me,the one that was my favourite.I was held in an armlock and was forced to watch.I will never forget the chicken's blood spluttering over my face and legs.Then I was made to watch them boiling the chicken in hot water for a short while, and then plucking the feathers,then boiling it again.I remember it vividly and that wasn't all.They made a pepper soup with my pet chicken the house keeper then served up the Chicken soup with Fufu (pounded Yam shaped into a ball ) and I was physically forced to eat it.When I refused to eat it I was beaten up.
I remember crying and crying and my pet dog sat next to me.So I fed it to my pet dog called Leo.I fed my dog called Leo the chicken meat whilst the housekeeper wasn't looking.
I was very traumatised to discover what meat was.I said I would never eat chicken meat again, and I meant it.The house keeper continued to believe that I would grow out of it .But I never did.
My mother didnot have those chickens as food and she didn't ask the housekeeper to slaughter a chicken.Alot of the time maybe a dozen times I have wished I could eat meat but I can't.I have also resented vegetarians and vegans who have become vegetarian in adulthood and are really strong about it, and voicing their opinions to meat-eaters about it.I have to forgive them for being human, and I have to accept that they need to have time to become vegetarians or vegans,maybe unlike me they never questioned what meat was or liked the taste of meat, it is not their fault, perhaps they were brought up on meat and never witnessed their pet being killed and made into a meal and then being forced fed their pet.I have to consider that we all grow differently and it takes time to change.
To tell the truth, I wish I grew out of vegetarianism,but I never did.I put dating on hold, thinking that maybe I would be able to date a meat eater and settle down with one,but I never dated any meat-eater seriously,neither did I kiss them.It would be like eating meat =yuck. I don't know how to cook meat.I am proud of this fact, and yet I seem to think maybe I should be a meat-eater. I am 35 in August 2006 and I am deciding to get used to being vegan after 35 years of expecting myself to change.
When I was ten years old and living in London, England, we had a Ghanaian landlord called Frank and he was a vegan.When my mum told him that I refused to eat meat, he advised my mum to buy me mushrooms and vegan meat substitutes ,but my mum never did. I didn't eat meat alternatives such as Soya chunks until I was eighteen years old.
Today I use meat substitutes when I am cooking for my meat-eater friends.My maternal grandmother named Ellen Efua Boahemaa was always worried that I wouldn't get enough protein and iron.It wasn't until I met Frank the landlord that I and my mother where assured that protein deficiency is a rarity especially if you eat pulses.Vegan sources of iron is raw green leafy vegetables in salads and dark vegan chocolate.
I think it is morally wrong to eat animals and it is very unhealthy,there is mad cow disease, Creutzfeldt Jakob Disease (C.J.D.), Salmonella, SARS Bird flu virus Carcinogens in red meat and much more to worry about. I have never gotten over my pet chicken being killed and my realisation that meat requires murder. I thought I was strange because meat-eaters made me feel strange as I grew up.I really tried to be a meat-eater and I tried to give up what I thought was a phobia of butchered animals and meat-eating,but I never was able to. As I grew up, mad cow and other illnesses became mentioned on the news and I thought that maybe it was sensible to stay veggie. I have been mostly vegan in my life but have had very short vegetarian phases. Meat eating is cruel and unnecessary, so is eating dairy products. Animals eat up the vegetation that humans could use to grow food for themselves.Western food culture exploits poorer nations.
Organic Vegan cosmetics and household detergents are also better for your health and the environment .
When giving to a famine charity send money to H.I.P.P.O (Help International Plant Protein Organisation) and Vegfam is better for the people and environment.There is enough food to feed the world three times over but meat eating and western greed causes starvation for poorer countries.Female animals suffer terribly during their lifetime because of our meat eating and dairy products taste.A vegetarian diet is wholesome in nutrition and healthier for a nutritionally deficient person.
Female cows for example are forced into breeding by artificial insemination and made to produce more milk so that we drink it.The female cow's udders become very sore from being milked constantly, never having a break because she is constantly made pregnant.Veganism is a feminist issue as well as an animal rights issue.Einstein was right with his above quote.I don't want to force people to change but if anyone is interested in vegetarian or veganism then I hope to inspire them.
Want to go veggie? Here is a starting guideline for vegetarianism.
World vegetarian day is October 1st.
World vegan day is November 1st.
http://orinoco-coco.co.uk
http://vegfamcharity.org.uk
Try veg dot com http://tryveg.comwww.vegsoc.org/info/goingveg.html =going vegetarian
www.vnv.org.au/GoingVegan.htm = going vegan
www.viva.org.uk/goingvegan/index.html
www.viva.org.uk/goingveggie/index.html
www.vegsoc.org/health/vital1.html
www.vegsoc.org/health/vital4.html#vits =VITAMINS
www.vegsoc.org/health/vital4.html#mins =MINERALS
www.animalaid.org.uk/h/n/CAMPAIGNS/vegetarianism/ALL/646/
www.veggievision.co.uk
www.veganradio.com
www.veganvillage.co.uk
The Vegan News
www.notmilk.com
www.eco-centric.co.uk
www.arcnews.org.uk
www.realfood.org.uk
www.veganbuddies.org.uk
www.vegetariansabroad.com
www.crueltyfreeshop.com
www.vivausa.org
www.viva.org.uk
www.veganstore.co.uk
www.animalaid.org.uk
www.octoberbooks.org/veg
www.isitvegan.info
www.isitveggie.com
www.ivu.org
www.vegsoc.org
http://www.veggie123.com
http://veganviews.org.uk
http://www.freerangers.co.uk
http://www.veganflower.blogspot.com
Email me your views at
webmaster@manashantii.com
Dream Dinner guests
Alice Walker -Vegan Feminist Authour
Ex-Dutch M.P. Ayaan Hirsi Ali
Nawal El Saadawi-Feminist Authour & Psychiatrist
Albert Einstein,-Physicist Vegetarian
Amel Larrieux-Vegan Singer songwriter
Jhelisa (Jhelisa Anderson) Singer songwriter
Bobby Mcferrin Musician songwriter
Omar (Omar Lye-Fook /Hammer)Musician,singer songwriter.
Maxwell -Musician singer
Seal (Henry Seal Samuel) Musician singer songwriter
Inda Arie Singer songwriter- Vegetarian
Minnie Ripperton-Singer
Nina Simone Singer
Bjork Singer songwriter
Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson-Ex-Psychoanalyst and Authour
Charles Darwin-Evolutionary Biologist
Carl Gustav Jung -Psychiatrist
Buddha (Siddharta Gautama)-Vegetarian
Richard Dawkins -Evolutionary Biologist and Popular science writer
Roger Penrose- Physicist
Dame Jane Goodall- Primatologist, Ethologist and Anthropologist
Sir David Attenborough
Sir Richard Attenborough
David Bellamy
Chandrashekar Subrahmanyam-(Nobel prize winner 1983 - astrophysicist)
Dr.Ruth Sex therapist-Vegetarian
Toni Morrison- Feminist Authour
Maya Angelou- Authour
Bell Hooks-Feminist Authour
Sapphire- Authour
Deborah Ellis- Children's Authour
Pat Palmer -Children's authour and educational psychologist
Noam Chomsky- Linguist
Whoopi Goldberg -Actress
www.amellarrieux.com
www.nawalelsaadawi.net
www.myspace.com/jhelisaanderson
http://jhelisa.com
www.indiaarie.com
www.bobbymcferrin.com
www.omarmusic.net
www.dhaferyoussef.com
http://tuckandpatti.com
