Why I'm vegan

Why I'm vegan

If you asked 100 vegans why they follow a plant-based diet, you'd get many answers. Here's mine.

I grew up in a meat-eating household. I flirted with vegetarianism when I was in college and a short time after I graduated. It didn't stick. I didn't have a good reason to avoid meat. It was mostly a texture issue and eventually I got over it.

A few years ago, there seemed to be an increase in food-borne illnesses. Everything from E. coli in beef and spinach to salmonella in chicken to listeria in cantaloupe. I started taking food safety seriously and examined what I ate and what I fed to my children.

First we went organic in as many food groups as we could, but especially in the dirty dozen fruits and vegetables and milk, cheese and meat. Because organic food costs more, we started eating more vegetarian and vegan meals. It was a slow transition.

Then I saw "Food, Inc." and I read "Eating Animals" by Jonathan Safran Foer (Funny story: I picked up "Eating Animals" from the library's new releases shelf and didn't know anything about it. I recognized the author's name from "Everything is Illuminated." I didn't know "Eating Animals" was nonfiction until about the third chapter.)

That movie and that book changed my eating habits. Meat was the first to go. Then milk, then eggs, then butter. Cheese was last. Because cheese is addictive. We also dropped packaged food and anything with ingredients I don't cook with in my own kitchen.

Some vegans say it is morally wrong to eat animals. They are intelligent and feel pain. They don't want to die. They don't want to be eaten.

But they are also animals. And animals are food. They eat each other, for goodness sake. And there is a biblical argument for eating meat. Adam is given dominion over the animals in the Garden of Eden in chapter one of Genesis. After Noah and his family disembark from the ark, they are given everything for food. "Everything that moves, everything that is alive, is yours for food. Earlier I gave you the green plants, but now I give you everything for food." (Genesis 9:3) After Jesus arose from the grave, he finds his followers and asks for something to eat. "While the followers watched, Jesus took the fish and ate it."  (Luke 24:43)

The Bible is also clear that following a vegan diet is OK, too. When Daniel and other young Israelite men were taken by Nebuchadnezzar, they asked not to have to eat the kings food and drink. They were determined to keep from eating unclean food and asked to only eat vegetables and water. The king's chief officer was concerned they would fall ill but agreed to a 10-day test. "After 10 days, they looked healthier and better fed than all the young men who at the king's food." (Daniel 1:15)

There are many examples in the Bible of the Lord telling us to take care with our bodies and treat yourself with respect, not to give in to wanton lusts and depravity and do not be gluttonous and vain. "Don't drink too much wine or eat too much food. Those who drink and eat too much become poor.They sleep too much and end up wearing rags." (Proverbs 23: 20-21)

So it seems the Bible takes both sides of the argument. And it's not a contradiction. Because WHAT you eat is less important than WHY you eat it. "The answer is, if you eat or drink or if you do anything, do it all for the glory of God. (1 Corinthians 10:31)

Following a diet can be its own testimony, an outward showing of inner devotion. John the Baptist was a Nazirite, a follower of a strict order who did not cut their hair and avoided grapes and all grape products. Jesus says "John came and did not eat or drink like other people. So people say 'He has a demon.' (Matthew 11:18) Although he wasn't a vegan, there are mentions that John eats locust and honey (Matthew 3:4 and Mark 1:6). But it shows he used what he ate as a symbol of his devotion to God.

The decision to eat animals is for each individual to decide.

What swayed my decision was learning how animals raised and slaughtered in this country. Foer writes about it in his book and undercover videos come out all the time of abuses at factory farms and slaughter houses.

The way animals live crammed together covered in filth, genetically modified to grow gargantuan sizes in minimum time, stuffed with corn and antibiotics, and slaughtered at break-neck speed all speaks to humans' insatiable greed.

And it's not biblical. Go back to that first chapter in Genesis. God does not say man has dominion over the animals to rule, exploit, ruin and destroy. Man's role is to rule, not subjugate; to watch over, not own. We are caretakers here. God does not want us ruining the animals and earth He created. "The earth belongs to the Lord and everything in it - the world and all its people." (Psalm 22:1) Humans have disrespected God's creation when we've changed the physical structure of some animals, such as chickens. They can't even walk on their own. That's not the way God made them. That's not the way they should live.

But the food industry knows Americans want meat, more and more of meat every year. And we want it cheap. There's no way for supply to keep up with demand. And what's gone overboard in this never ending hunger for animals: the safety of the animals suffering in those conditions, the workers and farmers, the public who eats the meat and the damage factory farming does to the environment.

Consumer Reports did an investigation of chicken and found 97 percent of what you find at the store is covered in bacteria.

That's not something I want to eat. It's not something I want to feed my kids. It's not worth the risk.

Will taking my dollars out of the equation make a difference? No. But if enough of use changed our habits, then maybe. One can only hope.