Plant based for life, here's why.
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“May all that have life be delivered from suffering.” -Gautama Buddha
NO, this blog isn't to try and sway you to be Vegan, so don't be a jerk about it. It's the truths of what we do as humans. So, since you're one of those...Just read.
Since I was a little girl...
coming from a long line of animal lovers, I have always been one with animals. Never feeling superior to any walk of life, nor will I ever. The representation of their purpose for mother earth was always respected, and just wanting to be loved as much as I loved them, was a given. For example, Summer nights as a kid were spent collecting frogs in a shoe box with holes, to then release them after giving them "food they liked."
To answer your question, NO, frogs from the swamps in Farmingdale, Long Island don't like strawberries. My mother instilled in me at a young age there should be symbiosis in the lives of animals you bring into your home. She even limited the types of pets I could have, as the horrendous proof came forth of how they would get to the pet store. "They deserved to be with their families, and in the environment they were meant to thrive in, they don't belong in cages," she would say. Along with those words of wisdom, came a few other lessons that were taught to me. . .
1. Your animals eat before you
2. You love them as family members and not property
3. You are a voice against their abusers
I live by those 3 rules still to this day, and Heather/I are already passing them down to our daughter. Yes, we fully intend to raise her as a Vegan. Her formula has always been soy milk and when I was nursing she had breast milk. We won't be bringing her to zoos, sea world, circus's with live animals. None of it, I won't, I refuse to raise my daughter to think that we can use living things as objects.
Why wasn't I raised Vegan?...
I was never a huge meat eater. my mother raised me surrounded by organic fruits, vegetables, and chicken occasionally. Also, I was lactose intolerant, so I've never drank cows milk. But, surprisingly being vegan was never an option that I was offered. Which, to be honest makes zero sense to me. How can you love something yet allow someone else to hurt it?
Once heather and I moved in together- dinner time wasn't just about being healthy anymore. It was more about WHAT we were putting in our bodies/what was put into their bodies before they hit the plate. That's where we both began to question everything, and research exactly how our food got to the plate. BOOM! Welcome to the social media world of Vegans. Amen. We LOVE animals, but we eat them? So many nursery rhymes surround farm animals ... and children love them... and then we condition them to eat them. It's sick really. Such a gross, twisted concept when you really break it down. I wish I was raised vegan, still to this day. I cringe with how many Wendys #7 spicy chicken sandwiches with cheese and mayo i've eaten.
It's really the question of... why is "out of sight out of mind " a diet we're okay with following? Humans are the most selfish animal of all, and the only mammal that hunts for sport. [ yes yes aside from the killer whale ]
In 2020 we know SO much about what happens in the factories, dairy farms, etc... so when will their lives matter?
If you're not a calf, the milk isn't for you...
I love my daughter more than anything in the entire world. I carried her for 9 months and gave birth to her via c-section. There was a period for about 15 minutes right after she was born where they showed her to me and then had to clean her, weigh, measure her, etc. It was the most anxious I've ever been in my life. "Where is she?" I kept saying to heather, "I want to see her, why is she crying so much, put her on my chest" - Granted i had to be sewn back up and i could barely move from all the pain killers but needless to say I knew exactly what I was supposed to be doing and I wanted my daughter. Also, I was a breastfeeding mama to a baby who took a while to latch. Because of her inconsistent latch schedule, it made me have to start pumping all hours of the night, the lactation teas, the cookies; The whole nine, I was all in, and every time my breast milk would go bad, it was like pouring " liquid gold" down the drain. Now, that feeling of brief discomfort could never amount to what a mother cow goes through. As i said earlier, I hold myself equal with every creature mother earth has brought to us.
Cows carry their babies on average 283 days, they go into labor from 6-13 hours. Sound similar? I think so. By nature they are extremely social, loving, and playful. They mourn, they cry, and have social "clicks" . So the pain that she must feel after - carrying her baby , giving birth, and then never seeing her baby, is an unbearable thought. I don't know one worse thing than a baby being taken from its mother. Terrified, looking for her and being thrown on a truck never to see her, kiss her, snuggle her. Never nursing... which is what a cows breast milk is for, HER BABY. Depending on the sex of the calf determines its fate or slaughter or for a life stuck on pumping machines.
Remember Janine/Ofwaren's birth scene from [ i think ] the first season of Handmaids Tale. Janine gives birth, and immediately after her baby is taken and given to the Officer's wife. I bet that scene made you say, "Wow that's really fucked up, could you imagine that happened?"- Well, ladies and gents. IT DOES. Every single day you ask for your Grande, Caramel Ribbon Crunch Frappuccino with whole milk and whipped cream, it does. Where do you think that came from? There are very small amounts of small farms left that actually allow the mother to stay with her calf. That's the truth about dairy.
Why allow that kind of abuse when there are literally 8 other alternative:
Hemp, Oat, Rice, Almond, Soy, Coconut, Flax, Cashew milk alternatives.
The hypocrisy of humans is what i really just can't get down with.
"I could never be Vegan"
"I just love meat so much, and besides humans are carnivores, LOOK AT MY CANINES"
"Baby cows don't die from us drinking Milk"
"Where do you get your protein from?"
"It just doesn't taste the same"
"Yeah, Veganism is SO intense, like way too complicated"
"But, the cows are grass fed and it makes your bones strong"
"At least they're slaughtered humanely"
Lord. I could scream.
I stay Vegan for the fight against animal cruelty, for the love I have for my body and the respect I have for mother earth.
Educate yourselves, Take the pledge to go Vegan, and for food recipes.
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