the mooing vegan

 My Thoughts on Zoos By: Megan As a kid, zoos were a fun place to go for the day. It was never a question in my mind that maybe this was not a good place. As I grew older, the blinders that society had put on me started to come off. I started to question the ethics of locking up animals as well as taking animals from their natural environment for money and attention. It became very clear to me that I did not support what zoos did and what a zoo means. I started to look at my animals and thinking about how terrible of a life I would have if I was locked in a small glass box with people staring at me in awe while I went through my day. Looking at the many incidents at zoos, it became apparent that 1) animals are not supposed to be locked up while humans look at them and 2) these animals are not supposed to be in close proximity to their predators like they are in zoos. It was not until I went to a zoo that I actually saw firsthand how terrible zoos are. I was walking around and everythin

 Questions I Get As A Vegan Part 3 By: Megan Question: What's your favorite vegan food? There are so many great vegan foods available these days. One of my favorites would have to be the Morningstar Farms corndog. It tastes extremely similar to what I remember corndogs to have tasted like. I also make a Buffalo Chicken Dip which is probably one of my favorite foods that I made. The recipe will be linked below. It is comfort food, and is a great option to take to parties or events where food will be served. Potatoes are probably my favorite food genre. They are very versatile and delicious. I have also never met a potato I didn't like, so you can't really go wrong. Recently, I have been loving the Just Egg scramble. I like to make egg biscuits with them. To me, they taste like eggs, but I also have not had an egg in 3 years so I do not think I am the one to get that comparison from. Even if they do not actually taste like eggs I would say the texture is definitely there and

 Questions I Get As A Vegan Part 2 By: Megan Question: Did you struggle with keeping to it? What methods did you use to keep yourself on track?     At first, I struggled with the idea of it. Just knowing that you will never be able to eat certain foods ever again is hard. Cheese was a huge struggle at first. The first couple of days my body craved cheese so much, but eventually, I got through it. I feel like the first week was just like a withdrawal of certain foods like cheeses and chicken. It was a lot of trial and error and figuring out what I like. The second week was better and was more about getting into a routine of things and learning new recipes. Week three was just putting everything together and it stuck. It is important to remember that it takes three weeks to break old habits and form new ones, so do not give up if you mess up because ultimately it is just a learning experience. Going back to the question, I think I definitely struggled with parts of it, but not all of it.

Questions I Get As A Vegan Part 1 By: Megan     Question: Would you be fine eating/using things made from animal products if the animal was being killed anyway? Like leather from a meat cow or fur from roadkill?      So I have a few thoughts about this question. The first thing I would like to point out is that leather does come from meat industry cows. There are not specific cows that just get used for their leather and not the rest of their body. Meaning if one supports the meat industry by purchasing their products, they also support the leather industry. To answer the question no I do not support getting leather from meat cows because it is still being unnecessarily killed and exploited. Going back to the actual question, I would not personally be okay eating or using animal products regardless of how they are obtained. I am unable to eat animals because of health issues, so even if they made lab meat that was genetically the same, but humane I would not eat it. However, it would b

Ethical Eggs? By: Megan       Free-range. Organic. Cage-free. Vegetarian- fed. All of these are labels put on eggs. What do they mean to vegans? Absolutely nothing. The industry puts these labels on the eggs to make the consumer feel better about what they are doing. Ultimately, the hens used in these industries still are pumped full of hormones to make them produce more eggs than they would naturally. Then, when their bodies are exhausted, they are sent to the slaughterhouse to end up on someone's plate. Personally, I believe that the egg industry is worse than the chicken industry.  Free-range Free-range simply means that the hens have access to the outdoors. It does not mean that they are always outside or always have access to go outside. There is no minimum amount of time that they have to have outside. This means that farmers can let the hens outside for an hour out of a 24 hour time period and be considered free-range. After that, they are tightly packed into their cages or

 My Vegan Thoughts On Pets By: Megan        There are many different ideas on pets and veganism. Is it ethical to have pets?   And if I do have pets should I make them vegan? These are questions I have thought about for a while. At first, I thought having a non-vegan animal would be irresponsible. When I had dogs and fed them regular dog food, I did not have to actually think about the meat since I did not see it. I always said I would never get a cat for that reason. A year later I rescued 4-week old kittens. I quickly fell in love with them, as I do with most animals. It changed my opinion on a lot of topics.  Ethics      I think we first need to answer the question: is it ethical to have pets? I think it is important to first discuss that ownership of anything can create toxic relationships. I do not own animals. I own inanimate objects, but not living beings. I simply take care of animals that are under my responsibility. Secondly, I think it is important to discuss how these anima

 Responding to Vegan Myths:Part 4 By: Megan Myth: veganism is expensive     Over the past few years, I have heard many people say "I could never go vegan because of how expensive it is," or "isn't vegan food expensive though?" Rest assured, vegan foods are some of the cheapest foods on the planet. In fact, most impoverished communities in other countries eat a vegetarian or plant-based diet because animal products are too expensive. Animal products are luxuries in most countries. Yet, in America, they are so cheap because of the system we have created. Beans, rice, lentils, potatoes, bananas, squash, and many other foods are the cheapest foods on the planet. Natural vegan foods are pretty cheap. It is the processed foods that can be more expensive. It is going to be more expensive to get frozen vegan convenience items such as vegan tv dinners just like it is typically more expensive to pay for a Lean Cuisine than making it yourself. It is also important to remem

 Being Vegan With No Vegan Friends By: Megan       Like most new adventures, veganism is difficult when doing it alone. One of the most difficult times of my life was being a new vegan. I live in a small town where hunting and fishing are what is considered normal. Many people have farms where they raise animals for slaughter. So saying I was vegan was very controversial for a lot of people around me. I only told my friends and tried to avoid telling others out of fear of starting an argument or worse. Eventually, I eased up on this my senior year of high school because I did not really care about reactions anymore and I was certain of my decision. However, I had never personally been friends with another vegan. And then the story changes. After being vegan for almost 3 years, I finally have a vegan friend. I met someone who is going to the same college as me and is vegan. I am sure there are many other vegans that I am going to meet. It is a weird feeling because it feels almost too