A Meat Eater Interviewing a Six-Year Vegan
Veganism seems to be way more than just not eating animal products. From my perspective, It’s a way that embraces self-development, promotes human relationships and empathy and cares for a better world. Most vegans actively defend their cause and try to share their perspective on others.
But why? Why are vegans protecting their cause so emphatically? There are several reasons. One of them:
“There is no fundamental difference between man and animals in their ability to feel pleasure and pain, happiness, and misery.” -Charles Darwin
Curious about how a vegan thinks, I asked Emanuel if he could share his perspective and journey. I’ve got to know Emanuel when I was enrolled at the Erasmus programme in Poland, Warsaw, and soon we got along with each other. He is a very friendly, honest and cheerful 6 year vegan from Romania. Currently living in London, pursuing his dreams.
Take into consideration that this interview is a conversation between friends and contains, mostly, opinions.
RB: Hi, Emanuel. Thanks for accepting my invitation for this interview. Could you introduce yourself, and talk a bit about yourself?
E: Hei Rafa! Thanks for having me! Well, my name is Emanuel, I’m 25 years old and I’m originally from a small city Bacau from Romania. I’ve graduated in Industrial Engineering recently and now I will be moving to London by the end of the week to start a career there and to take my activism to the next level. I’m planning to work as a waiter in a vegan restaurant for a period of time and meanwhile, I’m planning to do activism and learn to programme. I used to love informatics since a young age and I want to pursue a career in this domain. Other than that I’m an animal lover and a vegan for almost 6 years. Veganism was like the start of my journey to self-discipline and self-development, although I didn’t know this at that time. It helped me clear my mind and become more, hmmm, how to say it….. ME.
RB: What was your motivation to start being a Vegan? What was the trigger?
Well, I thought like… Why not?! and just went vegan. I’m kidding. The trigger… Hmm. It’s a long story… It was a strange period in my life back then. I was living for the first time by myself, away from my family in Bucharest, I was in love with a girl, I had a tomcat named Igor, I used to smoke weed and I was wasting most of the nights playing Dota2. Everything was different back then. The night I made the connection and became vegan, I cried like hell. I knew something was wrong. Not just with me but with the world. When I say “the connection”, I’m referring to my subconscious mind revealing itself to the conscious. I know it sounds a bit SF but it’s exactly the way it is. It felt like all my life from the moment I was born to that point in time flashed behind my eyes. I was a scared chicken for a second and then I burst into tears. From that night I stopped eating animal products (literally became a vegan), I stopped smoking ( I was smoking cigars for 9 years) and I stopped marijuana and alcohol for good. Deep down I always knew that it’s better not to eat animals. I was always an animal lover and most of us are. After all who doesn’t love Tom and Jerry ? or Scooby Doo? Right ?!
RB: So you had an epiphany? How did that relate to your habits’ change?
Well… after that “epiphany” I just knew what’s the right thing to do. A subconscious mind is a mysterious place. It’s like all my “shields” dropped. My life till that moment was all lies. I tried to avoid reality by all means. Why else I would smoke, play video games all night long, do weed?! That moment when it “flashed”… I literally became present in the moment. Like I was blind and all of the sudden a miracle happened and I could see. It’s very hard to put it into words. It’s something that you feel. Something changed in my brain that night and along with that everything changed, including my habits.
RB: And that was the begging of your vegan adventure. How was the beginning?
It was so cool. I felt so much better. I could focus better, I had more energy but most important was my family who was very supportive of my decision… After a few days of becoming vegan, my mom came to Bucharest and she cooked vegan food for me. One week later I traveled to Greece to stay at my dad for a while and I remember my dad was so clueless about what to cook for me. He went to the “laiki” ( means “farmers market” in Greek) and he bought everything that was green, then he came home and made this HUGE bowl of salad for lunch. Damn, it was so good! I remember it took me about 1 hour to eat it, haha. Sometimes when I’m depressed or I have a bad mood I’ll just think at those huge bowls of salad and my mood instantly gets better.
RB: Do you eat any meat or fish, at all?
No, I try not to. But sometimes by mistake, I’ve surely eaten eggs or drank cows’ milk. I recently took a bite from a meal that I didn’t know it had eggs and I almost threw up. My taste buds have improved significantly since I became vegan. As for meat and fish, I don’t eat any, never ever. Fishes are animals and they can feel pain. When you go fishing and take a fish out of the water, he is clearly not dancing. He’s fighting for his life because he cannot breathe and he’s being hurt.
RB: What are, for you, the main benefits of being Vegan? What about the not so positive aspects?
There are so many benefits. I’ll just go for the ones I think that was the most important. The main one is that I had the opportunity to meet some really amazing people. Seriously. It’s incredible when you meet people who share the same views as you. In a world full of selfishness and pleasure-seeking zombies, I felt relieved when I met such people. The second most important is that I got a deeper understanding of human nature and of the human mind. I talked with hundreds of people about veganism and I always heard the same “excuses”: “Lions eat meat so we should eat meat.”, “Jesus ate fish”, “I need protein”, “Veganism seems kinda extreme”. Which one sounds more extreme? Forced rape, child kidnapping, machine-powered mammary thievery, antibiotic and growth hormone pumping, and extreme draining of resources versus taking a bit of an apple? And the one that I listed is just the milk industry. The poor pigs are being castrated right at birth and they live in a cage where they cannot move at all. Also, there is scientific evidence that pigs are more intelligent than a 3-year old baby.
For the negatives aspects I’d say that right after I became vegan I isolated myself from everyone including vegans and I became a little depressed. Also, the change was pretty though. But every change is hard. Our brains are wired to keep us in our comfort zone. Veganism is a whole new world. Our brain might not like it when we first start it. But as you go on and on you’ll see that there are no negatives. The things got brighter for me when I met other vegans on Facebook who I talked with for long hours and eventually became friends. Unfortunately, in my hometown, there aren’t many vegans since I come from a small city in a meat-eating country. Thank God I decided to come to London. There are so many vegans here and also every restaurant and every supermarket has vegan options. It’s really amazing! Another hard thing about being vegan is that it’s hard to find vegan fast-foods/restaurants if you come from a small town, and YES it will affect your current social life with your “old” friends, but I think at a certain point in our lives we should all take a moment and evaluate if those kind of friends are holding me back or pushing me forward to my dreams. Veganism is evolution, as in the Matrix. As a metaphor, the -bullets- that Neo is dodging are the -excuses- that our mind is using to ‘defend’ ourselves. The only part that we’re missing is that they might actually hold us back and we can just surrender. “Morpheus: The Matrix is everywhere. It is all around us. Even now, in this very room. You can see it when you look out your window or when you turn on your television. You can feel it when you go to work . . . when you go to church . . . when you pay your taxes. It is the world that has been pulled over your eyes to blind you from the truth. Neo: What truth? Morpheus: That you are a slave, Neo. Like everyone else you were born into bondage, into a prison that you cannot taste or see or touch. A prison for your mind.”
RB: I can understand if there is no bad side about veganism, the only reason why meat eaters are eating meat is selfishness. Doing some research I found out some disadvantages:
1) Vegan diets do not provide fat-soluble vitamins A and D, or vitamin K2
2) Vegan diets often rely heavily on soy, which has lots of phytoestrogens. What is your opinion concerning this?
Pleasure is one of the main reasons we eat meat. But along pleasure, there is habit, convenience, tradition and there may be other factors as well. I’m talking about the majority. After all, everyone is unique and every individual might have his own reasons. As for the disadvantages you’re pointing out… the internet is full of information. There are pros and cons on every subject. It’s a matter of what you want to believe. I’d suggest you look at both sides of the story. For example, The British Dietetic Association confirms well-planned vegan diets can support healthy living in people of all ages, while WHO (World Health Organization) classified processed meat as Group 1, carcinogenic to humans, just like cigarettes are. Don’t get me wrong. I don’t say that a vegan diet is perfect. Every diet has its pros and cons. It’s whatever you think it’s best for you. Personally, I know veganism is healthier but as an activist, if I see a person interested in veganism I try to slightly push him towards the ethical side. We feel better when we know we’re not contributing to the animal's holocaust.
RB: If I want to become a vegan, where and how should I start?
Anywhere. Just start. The first step is the most important one in every journey. Internet is full of resources and it has answers to almost any question you have. I’d recommend to anyone who is interested in veganism to watch the documentary “Earthlings” and “Cowspiracy”.
RB: What are your top 3 lessons from this journey?
- Veganism is about love and appreciating life to a point where you just stay and observe how beautiful it is when a mosquito is injecting his trumpet into your skin and starts to suck out your blood and you are like “Take some little insect, today is your lucky day, I’m going to feed you!”.
- 2. It’s OK to kill a mosquito.
- 3. I learned how to catch a spider with a piece of paper and a glass without breaking his legs.
RB: I’m a meat eater, although I’m reducing. Am I a bad person?
No, you’re not a bad person Rafa. You’re evil and you’re going to hell :))! Nah, I think every person is made out of love and every person is good no matter their actions. They just need to get in touch with their inner child and then it’s easy. When we were kids we wouldn’t harm any animals. We just wanted to pet and love them. As we grew. we become more numb and blind to their pain. The system has its way to condition us, to make us just “consumers” with no moral values. It’s a tough world! I feel no deja-vu and though I feel like everything is similar.
RB: Emanuel, any last message to your audience?
As for the audience a short message: Surrender to yourself!
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