Raising Vegan Kids: A Letter to My Future Grown Children
Dear Jayden and Adeline,I wanted to share with you why your daddy and I chose to raise you vegan. Your dad and I became vegan in 2007. Here is part of my journey: I learned about factory farming from my friend Meredith who handed me a PETA pamphlet when I was 15 and gave up red meat and all new meats on the spot. I know this is going to sound strange to you but the idea of meat and an animal being one and the same was a new concept to me at the time. I knew in theory, but we had ways of describing meat that did not seem the same as the cow I saw in the field.I did not make the connection that chicken or seafood were "meat" too and probably had to undergo horrors because I didn't categorize it as animal cruelty. As silly as this might sound to you, I didn't think of fish getting hurt.I could not understand the harm that could come from cheese and dairy because nothing is killed to get cheese and dairy so my ignorance led me to believe nothing was hurt.Slowly, over time, I learned more and "gave up" one thing at a time during this 15-year journey. At the time, I felt I was "giving up," but now I feel I have an abundance of food.We raised you vegan because
- You are the most compassionate people we know. As a family we chose not to partake in the horrendous conditions that the animals were put through, the torture, the hurt, the objectification, and their cruel death. We wanted to nourish you with life. We believed that even when you were young, and especially because you were young, you would understand love and kindness more than hate and cruelty. We wanted to honor that.
- We didn't want to buy into a corrupt system. The dairy and meat industry lied to us and told us they were the best sources of calcium. They spend a lot of money to make us all believe. For a long time I believed. I felt deceived and manipulated and I don't want to support an industry that treats its customers like they are stupid. Remember, come to your own conclusions; you don't have to believe everything you are told.
- People aren't talking about what is happening to the animals. They debeak baby chicks, it bleeds, it hurts and its cruel. They grind male chicks up alive. They castrate without anesthetic. Very rarely are chickens or cows allowed to roam. "Free Range" just means they are not in cages. They are still smashed into a small confined space with no room to move. Imagine if there were 100 people living in our small bedroom.
- I am a mother. I breast-fed you. I cared for you. I love you. Mama cows and other animals care for their own young too but in the meat and dairy industry they are not allowed to.
- The idea of feeding you chicken ovulation was wrong to me, just wrong. What would you call it? Oh its a fertilized egg? Even grosser, the egg is a fetus.
- We didn't want you to have to wear the skin of another being. To us, it has become disgusting.
Veganism is about thoughtful compassion. It is thinking about every choice we make and the big picture consequences; pain and suffering versus compassion and love.You two are the most thoughtful and caring people I know in the world. Why wouldn't I support that? You really get it, even more than any adult sometimes. You know love has no boundaries.Someone at the restaurant said to me once, "You are the food you eat." Jayden and Adeline, you are bright and vibrant like the living plants you eat rather than death and pain like the animals you love but don't eat. In essence, you are compassion because you food is compassion.Sometimes it is hard for me to talk about the reasons. We didn't choose this to be different. We didn't choose this to be strange. It is not our lifestyle, but our life.Sometimes, I blink and you are older. It scares me how fast it is going past but today I am savoring the moment and thanking you for catching the caterpillars and putting them outside. I thank you for asking people if the food they gave is vegan and gluten-free and I thank you for truly believing the people you LOVE would never not choose vegan. You now know people do choose to not become vegan but you are their educator.Thank you for being you.I love you beyond all comprehension and I hope today, (now that it is the future of course), that we are all living a compassionate lifestyle.XOXOXMommy