Last weekend, I made an important decision: I decided not to label myself as a vegan anymore.
(This is where you just stop reading because you read the word vegan -and I wouldn't even blame you.)
I have been a vegetarian on and off for about 10 years. The first time I came across a vegetarian person, it was my former Canadian pen pal who introduced me to the concept. I was 14 years old, and I found it really cool, mostly because it was different, and because I was 14 years old, I wanted to be different while being the same. You know what I mean, #teenagehoodstruggles
More seriously, what resonated with me was the choice not to eat dead animals, even though I was not against killing animals in itself, while being against mass-produced meat. At this age, even though I was already in love with nature, I had absolutely no idea of the consequences of a meat-based diet on the planet. To be fair, nobody was really speaking about it back in 2007.
At 18 years old, I got anaemia, which is basically when you lack iron in your blood, which leads to the fact that not enough oxygen is carried through to your brain and to your tissues, and you feel constantly tired and weak (I'm not a doctor but just giving an overall idea). Mine was mild, but still touched me enough for me to feel absolutely drained, all the time, no matter how many hours I slept. Because of that, and because of everybody's advice that iron was mainly found in meat (which, I am now aware, is not true) I went back to eating white meat, mainly chicken, and fish.
At 21 years old, I moved to Edinburgh, and fell wholeheartedly into healthy eating. Following with attention bloggers like DeliciouslyElla and all the like, I ordered an expensive food processor for Christmas (that in all honesty, I still use almost daily) and started to cook extensively, and rediscover food in a different way. Not that I have ever been used to bad foods: growing up in a standard French family, my mum was cooking rather balanced meals and we were forbidden to drink sodas and eat too much sugar and HAD to eat our greens most of the time. But I was also fed highly processed ham and meat almost every day, for convenience.
Anyway. 21 years old, flying way from home for the first time, being a non-responsible adult with an expensive food processor, I started eating really well, balanced meals and feeling really good about it from both physical and mental perspectives.
At this point, I truly became vegan 95% of the time and eradicated all dairy, fish and meat from my diet, quite happily so.
The trend of healthy eating was of course dictating me to eat certain foods such as avocados, humus, sweet potatoes, coconut oil and quinoa (although I've never been a fan of the latter), which I obediently did. This lasted for about a year. I then moved to Amsterdam, and became more and more aware, knowledgeable and cared about the environment and all the bad things that were happening to it, exclusively because of us. I was buying less avocados and no more quinoa. I was fortunate enough to be able to access a weekly market right outside my flat, which allowed me to buy local and seasonal food easily. Nevertheless, I was still huge on bananas (weirdly enough a staple in a vegan diet) and other stuff coming from the other side of the planet, such as sweet potatoes.
Then, I moved back to Scotland, to study my Masters in Sustainable Development in St Andrews.
And that, my friend, was the revelation.
I realised that all the foods I was buying were coming from the other half of the world and therefore deprived of any sense and logic the reason why I turned to veganism in the first place (for the planet) In fact, considering that they were coming from the other side of the world, they probably emitted as many emissions that me eating meat coming from the farmer next door.
My whole world then shifted. First, I was mad to have been convinced for years to make the right choice for the environment, and realise that being a vegan eating tropical fruits was as absurd as an Esquimo eating bananas every day, and also quite obvious. Second, I became more sensitive (and therefore more sensible) to how food was grown: whether animals or plants, the way food is grown affect millions of people around the world. It shapes their world, affect their health and determine whether they will make enough money to live and feed themselves. Our food choices are much more important than what you think.
To give you some factual examples:
- Avocados are mainly associated to drugs cartels and drains California off its water.
- Quinoa, originally a food from Bolivia, has deprived Bolivians from eating any because the worldwide demand made the prices increase exponentially.
- Almonds: 82% of the world almonds come from California, which season is ideal for its growth and has been linked with the worst drought the state has known in recent history.
I could keep going like this for tropical fruits, chia seeds, processed vegan alternatives... You get the gist.
Being a conscious eater and therefore a respectful citizen of others and the planet does not mean you have to follow a certain label. It means, however, that you do have to pay attention to what you eat and where it came from.
So, where do we go from here?
Well, it's up to each of us. I am not praising for a vegan planet, as I don't think that will ever exist. Furthermore, meat and dairy are part of a cultural heritage in numerous places in the world (I'm French, I know what I am talking about, believe me), and some communities in the world rely heavily on meat for survival, such as in South America.
Even though meat consumption has to reduce dramatically in the Western diet, it does not mean it shall be eradicated. Nevertheless, it should become meaningful again. This means that the problem lies in the fact that people completely dissociate the animals from the final product they eat, for example with a majority of us unable to kill the animals they eat. This is quite revealing. Furthermore, it is true that an overconsumption of meat and dairy has been linked to health issues: The World Health Organisation (WHO) stipulated that processed and red meat could be linked to the cause of certain types of cancer. Dairy has also been linked to cause several heart diseases such as cardiovascular diseases and hormone-related health problems. And fish is absolutely packed with heavy metals, arsenic and other weird stuff. I mean, there would a lot more to say about this but it's not the goal of this post.
My point is that being a conscious eater and therefore a respectful citizen (of others and the planet) does not mean you have to follow a certain label. It means, however, that you do have to pay attention to what you eat and where it came from. Being aware that avocados sold for instance at Tesco or Sainsbury's entail the fact that families were driven out of their home should at least question how many you consume, if you decide to consume them at all. Same with meat, fish, or quinoa. Same with everything. And that implies doing a tiny bit of research, like you did by reading this post, and more.
Being aware of this issue is also empowering. It means that you know where the food that you put in your body comes from, how it was produced, how far it traveled, how it was grown. And considering that you probably have a very intimate relationship with food, as it ends up nourishing your body and fuelling you, quite literally, it might be worth looking into it.
All of this babble was to say that, yes, I don't label myself as a vegan anymore, but as plant-based. I feel much better and lighter about it. And when I go to the market, I occasionally enjoy buying cheese from the small farmer who sells it. I do not eat fish or meat because it does not resonate with me and I am still opposed to eating dead animals. Nevertheless, I also don't judge people who do (otherwise I would have to refuse to speak to my whole family) and live my values for myself, which suits me quite well.
You got the point of this babble. Do what you like, eat what you want, but always look at the bigger picture and keep yourself informed.
Don't forget: knowledge is power. So go and be knowledgeable.