Veganniversary

This month marks the fifth year of my meat-free diet, and the third that I’ve been strictly vegan. For me, veganism is one (important) facet of my commitment to a world which is free of exploitation. I don’t hide the fact that I’m staunchly anti-capitalist—and, thanks to social theorists like Karl Polanyi, Immanuel Wallerstein, and Etienne Balibar, I view capitalism as the root cause of things like racism, sexism, and speciesism.

How did I get here? Well, I’m not really sure. My undergrad supervisor asked me that one day and I had no easy answer. I grew up in a conservative little town in upstate NY where half the school population is missing on the first day of snowmobiling, hunting, and fishing seasons. My parents aren’t quite conservative, but seem to view over-consumption as an American right.

I wasn’t overly aware of political issues when I was growing up. I was concerned about gender inequalities and global warming during high school. I was an animal-lover, and sensitive to others’ troubles. In year 12 government class, we all took an online quiz that matched our values with the political party closest to us. From a class of 30 students, there were 25 republicans, 4 democrats, and one green—me.

In uni, I went through a post-modern feminist phase for a while, but was never really sold on that ideology. In my second semester of uni I became vegetarian and refused to eat or use any product that an animal had to die for (meat, gelatin, leather, cheese with rennet, etc). I was a half-hearted greenie for a while, but thought band-aid solutions were a waste of time.

To make up for excessive wordiness, how about some cat pictures?

Pop goes the Nacho!

I spent a semester in Australia without my po-mo then-supervisor’s influence and shook that attachment. When I returned to the US, I took theory-heavy classes with some great professors which revolutionised the way I thought about the system we live in. I went vegan and anarchist. I read Marx and thought his critique of capitalism was spot-on. I did an honours project on Rastafarians, the ultimate anti-systemic group. I moved back to Australia and now I’m studying Aboriginal activism.

Opposing the forces of racial, sexist, and speciesist exploitation can be a tiring pursuit. Oppression is all around, and it gets depressing to see it everywhere you turn. That’s why veganism is so appealing to me, because it is an incredibly simple way to remove one form of exploitation from my immediate life. And, hopefully we vegans—through our blogs and our good health and our tasty treats—encourage others to buy into the animal industries a little bit less.

That said, I don’t think that simply eating tasty vegan food is enough, and I’ve been feeling a bit stir-crazy lately, so expect some more political posts in the future.