#intersectional compassion

[nottobethatveganbut-blog]

16 Former Meat & Dairy Farmers Who Became Vegan Activists

We've updated our popular feature with 8 NEW profiles of former animal farmers who went vegan and are speaking out.

they were brainwashed to do violence and they came out of it so hard, this gives me so much hope?? fuckin beautiful

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they aren’t food just because we can eat them.

we can’t know the experience of other creatures, so how can we be sure that they didn’t suffer? can you be sure? or does it not matter to you either way?

because why would we do it if that were true?

that’s what you’re saying, if you think about it. we couldn’t possibly do this if they did suffer. we make sure that doesn’t happen. right??

had you searched for the proof, you would have found it, but we don’t go looking for it, do we? because part of us knows what we will find. the studies are numerous, the footage virtually endless. humans are capable of incredible cruelty, on a massive scale, it’s only natural to protect ourselves from it so that we can just go about our day in the little free time we have.

i don’t blame you for not looking before. i didn’t either, for a long time, because to eat meat is to break your mind into two opposing pieces.

most people think we should eliminate animal suffering. the subjectivity of cruelty aside, we spend so much more money (our little votes) on killing them, when it isn’t necessary. this is hypocrisy, and it hurts us. our actions do not match our values, so we hate ourselves, so we don’t try to be better, because what’s the point in trying if everything is just crap no matter what. why bother being uncomfortable, why bother questioning the things your were taught as a child or giving up a food that is ruining our planet (and our bodies) if it won’t make a difference

you’ve convinced yourself it won’t make a difference because it makes you vulnerable, to care that much about a creature (let alone every creature), knowing the suffering they must go through. it hurts. so we tell ourselves they can’t be suffering, even though that reassurance has been put there by the people who profit off of that mindset, those who have no incentive to be merciful and who encourage our willful ignorance despite the health, environmental, and moral danger it puts us in.

‘before becoming food’ you say, a word dance around the subject, because the truth is harder to throw around casually. not in civil discussion. not in polite company. not in front of the kids. not while i’m eating. not here, not there, i would not like them anywhere.

‘how the sausage gets made’ is a saying because the murder of animals has been weighing on our consciences since meat-eating began.

they aren’t food just because we can eat them.

the more advanced we become as a society, the more we learn and progress, the less excuse we have to systematically oppress the animals that we could instead nurture and coexist with.

[nottobethatveganbut-blog]

doctors, money, and veganism

i grew up sick and poor. from 12-18 i only went to school part time, and had doctors appointments about once a month. i met with many doctors. i went through many tests. i learned not to trust them when most of them assumed i was faking (until they found the underlying cause, then they assumed i was exaggerating the symptoms).

my experiences with them over the years may have given me a head start on not trusting everything that comes out of their mouths, especially because I had multiple bad reactions to prescribed medication. not everyone has this background, and so they take their doctor at their word. they gave me a pill and told me to go to school, they told me that girls just have stomach pain sometimes, they told me that i should stop whining and maybe lose some weight and see how I felt after that (it didn’t help, as I was just told to restrict carbs).

most of them are taught to treat symptoms with medication rather than assist with nutritional prevention, not to discuss nutrition with patients, to keep people coming back, to get as many tests charged to their insurance as possible. they are given incentives to keep their waiting rooms full and see you as little as possible. this is against the values physicians should have, but it is what capitalism teaches, protects, and encourages.

doctors are not taught nutrition, at least not much. General practitioner training is outdated. US medical schools are teaching less than recommended and in the best cases they are spending 25-30 hours of their entire education on nutrition. only 1/5 american medical schools require a nutrition course be taken at all.

this is not a coincidence.

the fact that so many people respond to veganism with some variation of ‘my doctor said i need meat’ is terrifyingly unprecedented.

it is an negligent suggestion at best, and dishonest at worst. these are the people who have intellectual authority, who are supposed to do their best to know what’s best for us, who we are supposed to trust with our lives. they have undermined and compromised by the industries that profit from our suffering.

i know someone who was told by their doctor that they should go off of their vegan diet because of zinc. you can be a vegan and still get zinc but now they’re convinced otherwise. i know someone who was raised vegan who was then told they need meat because of their blood type despite the fact it’s been debunked for years. i know someone who has been told they need tons of iron and can only get appropriate amounts from meat. this is objectively untrue and less expensive than meat (potatoes! bread! beans! legumes!).

are their doctors willfully ignorant, improperly educated, or in the pocket of those that would see us pay to be in pain and die too soon?

bit of all three? who’s to say.

don’t take my word for it, I’m not a doctor or even an expert, but don’t just take your doctor’s either. it is clear that there are too many doctors who are allowed to be ignorant/have fallen for meat/dairy propaganda. and why shouldn’t they. the success of meat/dairy campaign of misinformation (”our product is doubt” as they like to say) is next level.

if you think you need meat to survive because of an illness, think about why that is, where/who you learned it from. then please, look for a second opinion.  vegan doctors are out there and they are only growing as the research does.

i spent my saturday morning researching and writing just because i believe the world needs you in it. also because i believe that the people you were taught to trust are not always, or even often, looking out for you.

save the animals, save yourself.

[nottobethatveganbut-blog]

B6 and B12 info and sources

B6 info for anyone interested, a balanced diet is important but supplements aren’t the only way. symptoms are minimal (lethargy, cracked lips, sore mouth mainly) but we still want to be our best selves

as for B12, fortified cereals, plant-based milks, and nutritional yeast (vegan Parmesan!) are cheap, easily accessible, non-animal cruelty options. Adults and teens should be getting 2.4 mcg of B12, here’s a source to figure that out considering the source and serving.

except for salmon, fortified foods tend to have more B12 per serving.

if you do go with a supplement, please choose carefully - many of them rely on misleading marketing, to say the least. go with fortified foods if you can.

[nottobethatveganbut-blog]

The Standard American Diet is self harm.

Ethical Veganism is self care.

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we kill (much, much, much) more animals each year than the number of humans that have existed, ever

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This Man Shot 40,000 Elephants Before He Figured Out That Herds Of Cows Can Save The Planet

Ecologist Allan Savory blamed elephant herds for destroying African grasslands. It turns out, what all grasslands need to survive is more animals eating them.

so i wonder what would happen if we nurtured the billions of cows we’ve bred for torture/slaughter instead? would they help our planet heal from the abuse we’ve put it through? seems like a strong possibility. almost like...we aren’t to industrialize murder or something, as if...nature knows what it’s doing and has in fact been doing the thing long before we existed...

we kill them, they kill us.

we save them, they save us.

[nottobethatveganbut-blog]

Unfollowing you now. I can’t believe you would post about stealing seeds? In what universe is stealing okay? Disappointed. Thanks for giving us a bad name.

if you’re talking about the post i think you are, it had a wealth of other important information on it and i reblogged it for anyone that might need it. if you’re willing to unfollow me based on a split second judgement, rather than doing the kind thing by asking me about it, and then going out of your way to throw in rudeness in attempt to make me feel excluded without ever hearing my actual opinion on the matter, then I’m not a blog you should be following anyway.

even though as you don’t follow me anymore (this seems to indicate you were more interested in judgement than understanding?)i’ll answer your question. maybe someone else is interested in the answer, so here goes.

in what universe is stealing okay?

one in which the majority of people are stolen from by corporations and those that own them every day. one in which, through buying laws that make sure we have less access to justice, our rights our stolen from us.

one in which chain stores are stealing from us constantly in a hundred ways just to line their pockets, just to buy another yacht, just to open another franchise to expand their already extensive wealth, just to make sure a war doesn’t end so the military industrial complex that their wealth sustains itself on,

one in which food conglomerates fight to copyright seeds while also making sure we have less nutrients in our food so we have to supplement with other products that they also happen to sell, and then spend more on health care in the long term through affiliated companies and government branches.

so yes. acting like someone stealing food (especially seeds - they are literally trying their best to fend for themselves overall in this case) when they are too poor to afford it is some terrible crime in the context of the world we live in?

that is Javert level nonsense, and i’m not here for it.

stealing is wrong unless the circumstances make it necessary for survival, and then what is actually wrong is the society in which stealing is necessary.

if it takes stealing a few dollars from a dragon’s hoard to keep someone alive, in a world where we are stolen from by those with so much to spare, in a world where our votes our stolen from us through gerrymandering and lobbying and bribery. where our health is stolen from us by food deserts and fast food and false advertising. where our homes are stolen from us by people that are just sitting on them until property rates increase so they can sell to someone richer,

then yes. i support it to the extent that it is necessary, and hope we can create a world where it isn’t.

i am not advocating for stealing for the sake of stealing, only pointing out that someone may need to steal to survive in the world in it’s current state. i believe in life over law, and in in the spirit of the law not always the letter of it, especially because we live in a world that is specifically designed to oppress us.

stealing from a corporation, which by definition are amassing resources on a devastating scale, in an attempt to survive in a world that would rather we didn’t? for someone, it may be their only option, and therefore the least cruel thing to do for them and their family.

for me, the least cruel thing to do was to share the information under the assumption that a struggling someone out there could benefit from it.

which is pretty much my whole deal, as an ethical vegan, and therefore not at all against what i consider my blog to be about.