The Vegan Journey of Activist Pratiksha | VBI #019

Pratiksha is an architecture student, a freelance graphic designer, an artist and an animal rights activist. She loves painting and making plastic free crafts. She also likes reusing old clothes and making dresses. All together, she is completely into the field of art and sustainability.

What made you go vegan?

I belong to a Jain family and since childhood my mom taught me that we should respect other's lives be it a human, an ant or a mosquito. I always knew that it's wrong to eat animals and use animal derived products. I always used to tell my friends who ate non-veg that it's wrong. But I never knew that I myself was supporting something which causes pain and suffering to animals. I always loved dairy products and used to think that there is nothing wrong with them.

In June 2019, I was on a 15 day plant based diet. I didn't know anything about veganism. I came across this diet through the Satvic movement about a healthy lifestyle. In that, they advised us to not drink milk and to avoid dairy products. But on 1st July 2019, in the morning I came across one post on Insta which said, "If you consume dairy, you support the beef industry. Watch Deadly Dairy and Cowspiracy on YouTube." At that moment, I watched Deadly Dairy and after knowing the truth, I decided to go vegan and went vegan that day itself.

Also, after watching Cowspiracy, I learnt how my choices were harming the environment. I was a climate activist on social media and was trying to follow a zero waste lifestyle at that time. Then, I started attending Fridays for Future events and started social media activism for animals. In the process, I met Ravi Keerthi with whom I started street activism for the animals. 

Was it easier to turn vegan being in a Jain family?

It was easier, but less because I am from a Jain family and more for the reason that my parents were quite supportive. When I explained to them about the cruelty towards cows and the whole process, they were very convinced. My mom also turned vegan after that. My dad was not supportive in the starting because he was worried that if I don't take milk, I might fall sick. Gradually he understood everything. Even though he hasn't turned vegan, he has stopped drinking milk for some time. My mom and my younger brother are vegan. 

How did your activism start? How has your experience been?

I am from Lucknow, I study architecture in Vijayawada. I started my activism in Vijayawada when I met Ravi Keerthi. There was a language barrier in Vijayawada because I don't know Telugu at all. I used to go with Ravi anna for outreach. I used to hold a laptop and he used to speak. We were around 3-4 people. Sometimes, I used to do chalktivism there because I was good at writing and drawing. Around October, I started focusing more on social media activism due to the language barrier while doing street activism. I made a video regarding it. After that, I collaborated with Ravi Keerthi for one of his videos for Mission Vegan Andhra. That video was about Jainism and Ahimsa.

In December, I'd gone to Pune for around 3 months for my internship. I joined an animal activism group there also and used to attend it every weekend. It was quite a good experience there especially for the fact that I could use Hindi there. In the beginning, I was a bit scared to talk to people. For the first 2 weekends, I went for activism but I didn't speak to people out of nervousness. I used to do leaf-letting and laptop holding. There I met two activists, Deepak and Swati. They motivated me to speak to people and not be scared.

I organised the Satyagraha 2 event of the Vegan India Movement in Pune. Sakshi and I also organised Women's Day Outreach. That was in collaboration with Animal Equality. I learnt a lot in these few months at Pune regarding street activism.

How are you incorporating your artistic skills in activism?

 Recently we have started an Instagram page, United for The Unheard (UFTU India). Sakshi, Raj and I are the co-founders of UFTU. I handle graphic designing for that page. Other than that, I used to do some illustrations earlier. Currently, I am working with embroidery more. However, I always try to make my products eco friendly and sustainable. I never use plastic in my packaging.

From childhood, I had a dream that I would open a handicraft business. After turning vegan, I also came to know about sustainability. Hence. I decided to incorporate that too in my products. I do almost everything from scratch and try to purchase less.

What are your plans ahead for UFTU?

For now, we're sticking to social media activism. We have two pages, UFTU India and UFTU Hindi. Our plan is to cover as many regional languages as possible. UFTU Marathi will be coming soon. After that, we'll be coming with UFTU Kannada. The main aim is to reach to all the regions of India through these regional languages. Once the COVID situation gets better, we're planning offline activism as well.

What message would you like to share for fellow vegans?

I think every vegan should try to do activism as and when possible. I am not saying that if you're vegan and not doing activism, you're doing anything wrong. However, the number of animals being killed is very huge and there are a limited number of vegans who're raising their voice for animals. So, it's very important that people get actively involved in any way possible. If not a post, it can be shared in the story as well.

Another thing I would like to point out within our vegan community is that many times, activists fight with each other and I am totally against it. It's possible that two people might have different ideas with the same goal. It's okay to follow your own idea and do activism. But it's not fine to publicly mock other fellow activists on social media. It is not good on an individual level as well as for the movement. I've come across a few instances where some activists pin point other activists on social media.

Anything else you would like to share?

After getting involved in animal rights activism, I've come to know about a lot of new things like anti-natalism, LGBTQ rights, raw plant based diet, etc. Also, before turning vegan, I was an introvert and because of that I have a fear of talking in front of new people. So, in the beginning I faced problems while doing activism. I used to avoid talking and just stood with my laptop. But slowly with the help and motivation of Pune activists I learnt how to reach out to people on streets during activism. That has been very helpful for a person like me.

Final message to non-vegans...

If you know the truth then please don't ignore it, change your actions and align them with your ethics. If you don't know the truth, research it online, reach out to us, we will help you out to become a vegan and an activist.

 

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The Vegan Journey of Shraddha Hegde and Sana Shaikh | VBI #017

Shraddha Hegde (SH) is a final year engineering undergrad and SanaShaikh (SS) is in her third year of engineering at College of Engineering, Pune. Both the best friends turned vegan the same day around 1.5 years back and have been spiritedly doing activism and spreading the word about animal rights and sustainable lifestyle.

While Shraddha loves to read good books and watch good series, Sana is extremely passionate about cooking and nutrition.

What made both of you go vegan together?

A group of activists came to our college from Vegan Outreach. They showed a video and also gave us a leaflet. We couldn't watch the whole video as we had class. But I read the leaflet after college and also watched a video called 'Why Vegan' by Arvind Animal Activist. We were so hurt after watching that video. There were tears in our eyes. That moment we decided to go vegan. Few months before this incident, we were trying to go vegetarian as we knew how non vegetarian food affects health and also leads to animal cruelty. But this incident was the turning point. 

How was it going vegan in the mess and hostel environment? How did you people manage? 

SS: In the mess, it was easy because everything was vegetarian. We used to skip some of the items like paneer and butter products. To skip butter, we used to request the mess uncle to make arrangements for us wherever possible. When there was a whole paneer menu, that time it used to become a bit difficult for us. However, that was a very rare situation. On those days we managed with pickles. With friends, we hardly used to go out. Whenever we did go outside, we went together. When we went out with other friends, we bought vegan food. Our friends were quite understanding regarding this while choosing the place and while ordering.

What was the response of each of your families for the first time when you both went home from college?

SH: For the previous six months prior to turning vegan, I had stopped eating non veg food. So in December, when my mom forced me to eat non veg food, I just refused. She didn't say anything at that point of time. After turning vegan, when I went home in Feb, the first time I went home, they thought that it was just temporary. They tried to convince me that it's not good for my health. Also, because of my irregular food habits, I had lost quite a bit of weight too. It was not because I had turned vegan but because of my food habits. I am already skinny and because of this issue, my parents were trying to force me to start eating again. I just kept refusing to do it. In my initial days, I was very aggressive and had clashes with my parents. So, my parents used to feel weird consuming dairy or meat in front of me and I would almost fight during every meal. 

But then, I went back to Pune and after meeting other activists, I was less aggressive in my advocacy and I stopped expecting from close people. 

SS: For me, it was a bit easy because I had done such a diet change in my life earlier. That time, it was for weight loss. I had skipped all non veg and sweet food for 2.5 months in my ninth standard. I always had an inclination towards health. I used to tell them about health and the  animal aspects as well. I thought that the health aspect will make more impact on my family members because they are very health conscious and also being in a Muslim family, it is more effective. So, they were quite okay with my decision. But when I used to do activism on social media or hammer them to not eat non veg or dairy, then they used to get angry and speak out. Other than that, it was smooth apart from a few concerns regarding my nutrition.

Before turning vegan, whenever I used to go home, there were a lot of non veg dishes prepared because my mess is vegetarian. But this time, before going home I spoke to my mother and instructed her to not prepare anything non vegetarian because I was not going to eat it. So, this time she prepared veg pulav for me. Over the few months, I used to emotionally blackmail my mom whenever on video call about dairy. I know this isn't suggested and my method might be wrong, but my mom was okay with it. After around 7-8 months she also turned vegan. My nani is also trying to cut down on dairy products but because of her age, I never force her.

You both mentioned about cooking and zero waste. So, how did that interest develop? 

SS: Actually, after I went vegan, I started exploring zero waste living and minimalism. I think going vegan was a very important part of our lives. We were inspired by some Youtubers who were vegan and following minimalism. I was very fascinated by that idea. I realised that our lifestyle makes a big impact on Earth. I used to think that I need to be outside and I should plant more and more trees, and I have to do big things. But I realised that even by changing my lifestyle, I can make a huge difference, so this was very fascinating. Shraddha is actually more minimalistic compared to me. I'm trying to live a zero waste lifestyle. 

SH: I don't know when minimalism started in my life, it just happened. I didn't like buying a lot of things and I didn't like owning things. Because then, you have to always worry about their safety and maintenance, and spend money on them. That's why I didn't like having more things. So, I felt it would be better for me to have just a couple of clothes to wear, and that's enough. I don't like wearing many accessories. I think that's how I am. So, it just happened. I didn't know about the concept. There are people who think about looking good in photos, I don't have such interests.

After some time, I realised that it's so important to be an activist and to use our energy on more impactful things. It's not great to spend excessive time judging each other if someone eats some food item containing milk products accidentally. I am not saying that we should eat such products, but we should not spend too much energy on it. For example, sometimes when we have a full paneer menu in the mess, we used to remove paneer from the rice and then eat the rice. Now, if a small piece of paneer accidentally goes into our mouth, I think it's okay. In short, it's much more important to talk to more and more people and spread awareness. 

How has been your activism experience?

Officially, we are not in any particular organisation full time. We're doing activism individually with a few groups.  We started volunteering with AFTA (All For The Animals), an independent activist group in Pune. We also joined Pune Animal Save group. Currently, AFTA is the most active group in Pune.

Recently during this lockdown, we started an activist group in our native town, Ichalkaranji, because we didn't have any Animal Rights activist group here. People are very enthusiastic about it. We are going to organise our first outreach soon.

SH: Before we joined any activism group,we were doing activism on our own through social media platforms and sending personal messages to everyone in our contact. It didn't turn out very well. People used to make fun of us and they thought we were very extreme. People used to give us arguments like plants also feel pain, this is the food cycle and other such excuses. They always wanted to win the argument. We had a lot of problems with such people and because of that, we lost many friends. They stopped talking to us. I think we were aggressive and our approach could have been better. This was the initial stage of our activism.

After that, we joined a few Pune Activists and got to know that there are a lot of vegans in Pune. Through them, we got to know about a lot of cafes and restaurants. That was a good phase when we made a lot of new friends. We also learnt how to do activism and how to put our points forward in a better manner. We also learnt not to argue with some people who are not ready to listen.

According to me, reaching out to the right people is more important. The end line should always be ‘Get active’ and not 'Go vegan'. When we say get active for animals, going vegan will always follow. Our task should be to educate the people about animal cruelty and how it's happening. Going vegan should come from within and should be their opinion. We should not enforce our opinions on anyone. Awareness is the most important thing right now.

SS: When we met the vegan community, I think it was a really great experience. We felt really alone before that. Some people tried mocking and bullying us in college. I can't describe it in words, but meeting them removed that void and we could continue being vegan comfortably. We understood the right approach. The positive thing is that some of our friends also became vegan. We have a college WhatsApp group for all the vegans. It is more for a support group rather than activism. However, one good thing we achieved when our mess was trying to introduce eggs in the menu. Some people raised the demand to include eggs and we opposed that decision. That time, two girls were really triggered and joined us to oppose the same. We distributed leaflets in our hostel, we talked to girls and explained why they shouldn't accept this decision. Many vegetarian people think that there is no problem with people eating eggs. We told them the process and explained how we are indirectly supporting this industry. Finally, we convinced them. Coronavirus also helped in a way, they were distracted and didn't introduce the eggs in the menu. The best part was we got two activists through this incident.

How is the Ichalkaranji group going?

It's been a month since we started online. We had a Zoom meeting once. We had a physical meeting last Sunday (21st June'20). We were surprised that so many people are aware about it in our town. One of the persons is already vegan, another is in the transition phase. Three more people who've joined completely agree with the philosophy of veganism.

SS: We used to think that Pune is a metro city and people are open minded. We are surprised that the students in Ichalkaranji are listening much more compared to the students in our college. This has happened very randomly when one of my friends asked me about such an idea. The elephant issue really accelerated this plan. Our goal is to train people in this Ichalkaranji chapter and they can carry on when we will be back to college. Even if one person turns out to be really active from this group, I think it would be great. We are creating content in Hindi and Marathi as well so that the reach is greater and more people can understand.

Simultaneously we have started the Kolhapur chapter too which is the district in which Ichalkaranji is situated. From one of the Ichalkaranji activists, I contacted an animal shelter in Kolhapur. She happened to be vegan. She is quite active but doesn't have any group in Kolhapur. We decided to start another group in Kolhapur and she is the perfect person to handle it. We have another Pune activist who is also looking at the Kolhapur chapter right now. 

SH: One thing that worked for us was the change in approach. When we were calling people to join us, we were focusing on animal cruelty and animal rights. It was all about animals. A lot of them joined because of that. When we had a Zoom meeting, we introduced to them about speciesism and shared a few videos about it and how we can stop it. This approach really helped to get people into the movement. When we start directly by veganism, people hesitate a lot.

You people discovered many food items in college life after turning vegan. How was that journey? 

Actually, most of the street food is already vegan, so there wasn't much of a problem while eating junk. In the restaurants, the issue is with ghee or butter. On request, that is easily avoidable. We've tried a lot of food items, be it vegan pizza, hot chocolate or ice cream in various vegan cafes. Some of them were a bit expensive because as students, we were not used to spending too much on food. However, we found them really good and completely similar to the ones that we have eaten before. We publicised it a lot and made some non vegan friends also try it out.

We used to think that the pav of Vada Pav is non vegan. We used to love Garden Vada Pav of Pune, and to our surprise, most of the Pav is vegan, including theirs! 

Our best memories are our hostel food experiments. We had an electric kettle in our room (which is actually not allowed in the hostel). We made vegan coconut kheer. We used coconut milk, jaggery, nuts and elaichi. It was a jugaad recipe. We also shared it with our roommates and they found it tasty as well. It was a really great experiment. We used to make Soya rice too. We invented many recipes in the hostel. We have made all of them in that electric kettle.

SH: Last year, when I went for my summer internship, I used to cook my own curries in the morning in a kettle for lunch. I used to get chapatis in the cafe there. We discovered how to make even Bhindi, palak, Khichdi ...everything in a kettle. It was not just Maggi anymore.

Any message you both would like to share?

SS: I want to tell one thing to all the students who can't go vegan because of the peer pressure or due to certain limitations. If you are trying to make a positive change in your life, if you think that will make an impact on the Earth, then don't think of the people around you. Even if someone is bullying you or a very close friend is making fun of you, I think it's okay to change the company instead of changing your own decision. Your company is very important, especially in hostel life. Some people think that they can't do this because their friend is not okay with it. If you believe in your decision, go ahead with it. Try finding like minded people if required.  If someone is making fun of you just because you are against animal cruelty, then it doesn't make sense. I think because of our company, it was very easy to be vegan or start activism.

I hope this helps students like us to take their decision and not get suppressed because of peer pressure. It's possible that people around you might not go vegan. Be yourself. Soon, people around you will join you, maybe a little later.

 

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The Vegan Journey of Aditi Bhat | VBI #016

Aditi Bhat is a final year engineering student at NITK, Surathkal aspiring to make an impact in the field of sustainable civil engineering systems. With a passion for working for the betterment of the environment, she tries her best to do whatever is in her capacity to achieve that. She takes interest in actively reading research on the climate and the environment. Singing and playing the guitar helps her stay calm and stress-free. 

What made you go vegan?

I watched a documentary called Cowspiracy that focuses on the impacts of animal agriculture on the environment. The statement 'You can't call yourself an environmentalist and eat meat' stuck with me. That was my first encounter with veganism and that documentary got me thinking.

How was your transition phase? 

I was someone who was addicted to dairy products. Before going vegan, I don't remember going a day without having curd for every meal and two to three glasses of milk. I was also a big fan of cheese. My transition phase was not a very well planned out exercise. It was more of an experiment on myself. While I was interning in the summer for three months, I was cooking on my own. And I did not follow the diet I was following at home which was rice, veggies, sambar and curd. I found it harder to eliminate curds from that meal plan in comparison to one-pot meals that I was cooking on my own. 

So, for three months, I tried to not include curds in my diet. I replaced milk with lemon tea,kashaya and Ragi malt(a mix-spiced drink, a tastier one in comparison to the one recommended for medical benefits). I also ensured that I was making tasty meals. To my surprise, I didn't miss any of the dairy products. 

When I returned to the hostel in college, I chose to continue that way, although I thought it would be next to impossible to eat mess food without curd. But I had no trouble. A major takeaway from my transition experience is how I became aware of the nutritional value of what I was eating. I learned so much more about my diet, I became aware of what I was consuming and in what proportions. I never did that when I was a vegetarian. Contrary to popular belief, the diet also improved my appetite and helped me improve my BMI. I'm not protein deficient now, in fact, I eat more protein than I used to thanks to all the people who suddenly became concerned about the nutritional value of my diet!

You are involved in researching climate change and the environment. Can you mention a few important things which matter most but are generally not told to us?

What is a known fact is that the whole fossil fuel industry is one of the biggest contributors to climate change but what no one tells us is about the environmental impact of animal agriculture. If you go through in detail, what parts of our diet affect the environment in quantitative figures, a diet that has beef has a higher carbon footprint than most other types of meat. However, recently, I came across an article suggesting that the effect of growing shrimps is much worse than the impact of beef but I'm yet to study it in greater detail.

Another surprising thing is if someone is a vegetarian and very heavy on dairy, environmentally speaking, that person might have a larger impact than someone who is a flexitarian. Vegetarians who think that they have a lower impact on the environment might be wrong. By saying this, I'm not promoting a flexitarian diet, I am just showing the comparison. 

From a dietary point of view, coffee and cocoa also have a large carbon footprint. Sometimes I feel like when we advocate giving up animal agriculture, we should do an informed study before saying that only non-vegetarian food has a huge impact on the environment. That is true, however, it's important to understand the bigger picture when it comes to your individual environmental impact before making conclusions. 

Another aspect is that a lot of people say that they will give up plastic, spoons etc to save fishes whereas fishing nets are the biggest problem when it comes to plastic pollution in the ocean.

The latest UN climate change report by IPCC focuses on how plant-based diets are a major opportunity to mitigate climate change and includes a policy recommendation to reduce the world's meat consumption.   It also mentions that, to limit the rise of temperature by 1.5° C, even if we completely shift to renewables it is essential to change the way we eat in order to be able to achieve that goal.  I think that is a very important thing to be mentioned.

Another thing which people don't believe is that animals are given supplements, especially in India. But factory farms are being introduced slowly in India and I was shocked to know when I came to know about this fact. I saw a video of the opening of a factory farm in one of the two states Gujarat or Maharashtra. It showed all the supplements which are given to the animals, which is scary.

People don't want to believe all these facts or they are unaware of it. Even antibiotic resistance is a scary thing. A huge amount of antibiotics that are manufactured are going to animals. According to WHO, in some countries, the total amount of antibiotics used in animals is 4 times larger than the amount used in humans.

How did you manage being vegan in hostel life?

As I said, being vegan in a hostel wasn’t a big task. Almost everything we get in the mess is either vegan or can be easily veganised, except curd and ice cream. I started consuming more dal and sprouts. I was able to get non-vegan versions of certain curries on request. Earlier, only one of the girls' block messes was vegetarian. However, this year, because of increasing demand, they made both the mess vegetarian. The new vegetarian mess has more meal options, so yeah, that also has helped. While going for outings, if I go with my friend circle or smaller groups, it’s totally fine. They know me and accordingly, we decide on a place.

A small issue arises when we are going out with a bigger group, say a club or some other circle. I also remember the time when I gave a speech during one of the college events called Spark Talk, conducted by one of the clubs. It was on climate change and at the end of my speech, I had made a subtle reference to veganism and eating meat. After the talk, we all (along with the organising group) went for dinner and I noticed some people chose to stick to veg. I realised they were conscious that day. Even though it was just for a day, I was happy about the fact that people do become aware when the facts are put forward. 

In all honesty, my only struggle has been dealing with other people after turning vegan. Based on my experience, I have understood that giving up certain food products does not feel like a sacrifice when you understand the major issues associated with it. If you strongly feel for the movement, for the animals and for the environment you will never want to go back to eating meat or dairy. In fact, I wish I made the change earlier. 

How has been your experience while spreading the word about it?

At one time, I used to post on Instagram very frequently. A lot of people would reply and argue. Many would say that is misinformation and they would explain their perception. I would just explain to them why it is right by sending them facts more than pointing out and telling them they are wrong. The latter tends to offend people a lot based on my observation. By sending them plain facts or asking them to read or watch something helped. 

 Surprisingly, some people seem to have transitioned from being hardcore meat eaters to vegans, some others are vegetarian and still in the phase of transitioning. Most importantly, they had an open mindset that allowed them to consciously analyze and question their lifestyle choices after  reading about it. This helped me realize that most people are open to learning and questioning the norm and societal conditioning, which is why it is important to share a new perspective and use social media for awareness.

You became more conscious of your diet after turning vegan. What things do you take care about?

When I say conscious, I don't mean that I calculate exact numbers. What I mean is if I compare to my previous self, I have become more conscious. Firstly, I had a very bad appetite before turning vegan. I did not follow the nutritional value of my diet and never gave it a thought because there was no discussion about whether my diet is deficient in any aspect. . I never used to think about protein either. After turning vegan, I started noticing my dietary habits more closely. I was consuming more protein consciously. I also use cronometer website to get a basic idea of whether my diet includes all the essential nutrients. I am fully aware of the bioavailability of animal sources versus plant sources which a lot of people point to when they want to criticize the vegan diet and I have gone through a good amount of research papers to understand it in detail. Fortunately, several plant-based foods have high proportions of certain minerals even though they have a lower bioavailability.  

Also, certain Instagram vegan food pages helped me become aware faster about various options out there. I realised that there are many plant sources of calcium which are better than dairy milk. For example, Sesame or Til milk has much around 10 times more calcium than the normal milk of the same quantity.

My dad is a doctor and although he is not specialised in nutrition, he has a basic knowledge about it. He did not recommend calcium supplements based on my diet. Including ragi, and veggies rich in calcium especially green leafy vegetables ensures a steady supply of calcium. It's also important to spend some time in the sun and get Vitamin D which facilitates the absorption of calcium. Also, any pulses or lentils we eat have protein and calcium.

Regarding B12, it's necessary for every vegan and nowadays even for many vegetarians and non-vegetarians too to take supplements. My aunt is a pathologist and she said that she comes across a lot of non-vegetarians too who are deficient in B12. Alcohol consumption has a strong tendency to increase deficiency.

How was the response of your family?

The good thing is that when I watched the documentary Cowspiracy, I watched it with my mother and my brother. Later, I explained to my dad as well. None of them opposed my decision to go vegan but they used to keep asking me certain concerns they had. My dad was a little concerned about Vitamin B12. Luckily, even he wasn't obsessing over protein because I think he knew that there was no need to worry too much about that. My mom is lactose intolerant, so becoming vegan helped her as well. That's why I didn't have much opposition. Even though they aren't vegan yet, their consumption is limited to little amounts of curd. No one in my family drinks milk every day.

You can say that if dairy consumption is so less in my family, is it necessary for them to give up completely?! But when we see the animal cruelty aspect, it changes everything. My mom recently watched a video of a cow giving birth and she began to question consumption of dairy even in small amounts because of the forced, repeated insemination and pain that they go through for human consumption. Those 2-3 spoons can be justified if the aim is to incorporate a diet that is environmentally friendly but it cannot be justified when we see the cruelty towards animals. Today for the first time, we made peanut curd and everyone in my family liked it. 

Anything else you would like to share... 

If we talk about the environmental aspect of veganism, statistically more people consuming less meat might have a greater impact than few people turning vegan because of the number of people who are inclined to going fully vegan, although more people turning fully vegan will be the ideal scenario...

And this might make a lot of people question whether we should promote veganism the way we do or not! However, based on my experience I have noticed that a post that depicts the facts and urges a complete transition to a vegan lifestyle has a greater impact than a post that has a cold approach to the transition into veganism. There are people out there with a very open mindset willing to understand a new perspective or idea and have the ability to question old beliefs and choose a path that is more ethical and logical which is why it is important to spread awareness and show the full picture. I believe that everyone should try their very best to transition to a completely vegan lifestyle.

What one message would you like to give to non-vegans?

Understand the numerous negative impacts of animal agriculture and try to give veganism your best shot. I switched for environmental reasons before understanding the cruelty aspect of it. But I believe what makes you stay and never go back to eating animal products is the cruelty aspect of it. When you truly understand all the issues associated with it, it isn't difficult. Being in denial is not the solution. When I read about it, I felt like a hypocrite and that made me change. A lot of times when we read things that don't align with our conscience we either reject it or change. I hope that all of us can change rather than dismissing the facts.

P.S: I love baked goodies and fun fact - the vegan baked goodies I make now taste a lot better than what I used to bake and they are cheaper. Oh, and of course there is nothing like the satisfaction of eating something cruelty-free! :P

 

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