Becoming Vegan and Fridays (?)

After the great discussion we had today in class, I could not get the idea of becoming vegan out of my head. It is a life choice which a few of my friends have adopted and I really admire them for it. One of my best friends from high school is both a vegan and a wonderful cook - quite a delectable combination. I have been vegetarian for about 5 years now and it surprises me how I can not even imagine going back to eating meat. It has become the norm in my life and I plan on keeping it that way. The final frontier for me is to go vegan (sorry but the raw vegan movement is just too far-fetched for me to even dream about undertaking). I have slowly been trying to reduce the amount of animal products in my diet, as I believe going cold-turkey would not work as well in transitioning to a vegan diet as to my current vegetarian one. I've been drinking all soy milk lately, which I actually really love, and have been trying to avoid cheese as much as possible. It's pretty unbelievable how poorly the dining system at Temple provides for such diets. Vegans live on salad and sweet potatoes and rock-hard falafel (nothing like Maoz).

I am hoping to have a kitchen in my apartment next year, which would make the transition to becoming vegan a real possibility. I really do love food, so giving up some of my favorite dishes like al-gratin potatoes and ice cream would be challenging (although they really do have substitutes for everything nowadays - even corndogs!)

I wanted to say something about the Singer article that really hit me as I was reading it. I was annotating while reading and found myself underlining and circling at least half of the essay. His arguments were so well phrased and comprehensible and I was unable to think of a valid argument someone could pose against his reasoning. I had a bit of an 'aha' moment while reading just the small excerpt from his book. One thing I find very frustrating are the never-ending animal welfare/rights debates which pop up much too frequently between myself and carnivores or pet-store shoppers or Circus goers. I have so many personal beliefs which identify such practices as ethically wrong, but I always have a very difficult time articulating these arguments in a persuasive way which can actually impact the people I am talking to.

Instead, I typically find myself getting flustered and disheartened with their staunch positions and so I withdraw myself from the discussion. I wish that I would have stumbled upon the Animal Ethics reader many years ago. I am loving this book.

However, one thing I wanted to bring up was the issue I am having with the lack of adequate time for this class. I really love this class, I passionate about the subject matter, and I think I could learn a lot from everyone in the class, as many of us seem to have different views on animal rights and unique experiences which led us to adopt such beliefs. I wanted to propose an informal meeting during what would be our normal class time (12 to 12:50) on Fridays in order to have more time to discuss the material/whatever other animal welfare topics we find interesting. Even if it were simply an informal gathering (It could just be student run if Dr. Featherstone can not make it) in the lounge for the girls in the class who felt like coming. I know I would really enjoy it. It's just an idea I wanted to throw out there. I have this feeling in my other classes as well - there just never seems to be enough actual class time to adequately discuss and share ideas.