I am Not Vegan
For those who do not know the difference:
Vegetarians do not eat anything with a face on it.
Vegans do not eat anything produced by or with a face on it, or if they have or ever had a mother.
I have never been strictly vegetarian or vegan. To me the most important thing is the intention of why you are doing something. When it comes to being veggo, the intention can be for personal wellness, for people or for the planet. I choose to eat responsibly for the planet; I stopped eating industrial animals because I learned the devastating cost it has on the environment and those individuals in the industry.
When I chose not to eat industrialised meat (egg and cheese), I am choosing to protect the animals that are fed things they should not be eating, to protect the environment that is destroyed for land and destroyed by improper disposal of their poop, to protect the livelihood and treatment of people in this toxic industry. The bonus is it can be healthier for me personally when I eat plant-based whole foods.
When I chose not to eat seafood, I am choosing to protect the wild animals; we wouldn’t eat a panda, why should we eat fish. I am choosing to protect and secure our future oxygen supply, “scientists estimate that up to 80% of oxygen comes from the oceanic plankton”. I am choosing to protect people because industrial fishing is one of the industries that survive solely on modern-day slave labour.
“Seafood is simply a socially acceptable form of bush meat. We condemn Africans for hunting monkeys and mammalian and bird species from the jungle yet the developed world thinks nothing of hauling in magnificent wild creatures like swordfish, tuna, halibut, shark, and salmon for our meals. The fact is that the global slaughter of marine wildlife is simply the largest massacre of wildlife on the planet.”
But I am not vegan. Even when I first went vegetarian, when I was in Australia, I would still eat the fish and cuttlefish that my friend and I caught spearfishing off our local beach. There was a couple of times I did try to eat kangaroo meat and roadkill cafe meats, but it was just a bit too much for me.
Vegetarians and vegans have a tendency to get high and mighty about what they believe is a “superior diet”. And this is so offputting and antagonising to carnivores and omnivores. In my opinion and with my intention, I believe that turning people against becoming a part-time plant-eater, is not good for the overall goal. It is more important to be inclusive, to educate when asked, about the impacts on our bodies, the environment, and the people that grow our food. If you know me, I will eat that parmesan added to my veggie pasta, I will pick around the meat on a pizza, I will eat cake and ice cream. And if you know me, you’ll hear me summarise everything in this paragraph as “just don’t be an ash-hole about it".
“Don’t be an ash-hole about it.”
There are benefits to eating responsible meats. If you listen to Dave Asprey’s podcast, he will explain to you that when animals are raised properly, it is actually very good for the environment. There are places where cattle has been used to reverse desertification. When done properly, on regenerative, close looped farms, where diversity of flora and fauna is a priority, all your fruit, vegetables, and animals will help each other grow bigger, better, and more nutrient rich.
To my memory, in the last few years I have eaten chicken, tiny frogs, unicornfish, snapper, and octopus. I travel a lot. And to me, when you travel you need to eat what the locals eat. It is part of the travel experience. For me, I can’t use “I am just tasting” as a reason however, for respect and for culture, I will eat whatever is put in front of me. When it comes down to being invited into someone’s home to eat and they have prepared food because you are their guest, it is disrespectful not to eat their food. In this day and age, most people, even in the farthest corners of the planet, they will know how to accommodate to the vegetarian and vegan diet but for those instances few and far between, the respectful action must be taken.
The Time I Ate Octopus
This was a couple years ago (2018) when I was on the island of Lembata, in Indonesia. I was there exploring some future destinations for work. One evening, when we were sitting around our little hotel, literally, one of the oldest people I have ever met, gave us an octopus. He didn’t want money for it. This fisherman was just lucky that day and caught more than what he needed to feed his family. Refrigerators are not a thing out there, so if he couldn’t sell it, it would have to be given away or gone to waste. By the time he came around, it was already pitch black outside so he wandered over to where we were, lights burning bright in the village, to give us the octopus. We did end up buying it off of him. Lembata is just another one of those places left in times’ past, one of my favourite places that I have been to and a must-visit if you make it out to Indonesia.
The Time I Ate Frogs
Again, this was a couple years ago (2019) when I was in a village in Northern Laos, in Luang Prabang Province. If you have been to Luang Prabang Heritage Town, go north three hours by car, and then continue upriver for about 15 minutes. In Laos, they eat with their hands. If you didn’t know, food always tastes better when eating with your hands. So in Laos, you’re given sticky rice and you pinch a bit, dip it into the shared dishes for flavour and for substance and you eat it. Repeat until satisfied. In this village, they go out hunting frogs at night with a flashlight near the stream. Apparently, it is quite easy to catch them. And the night before we arrived, they caught quite a lot of frogs. So for lunch, with our unexpected arrival, they served up sticky rice, stir-fried frogs in soy sauce, and some local greens. The frogs were small, they were more bone than meat. I ate two or three, bones and all, as to not offend the homeowner. Not the best thing to eat, but when in Laos…
It is hard to define what and when I will and won’t eat, but if it comes down to it, the environmental impact is the most important, then respect for the household and culture. To me, there are certain things that are just not okay to eat. As a Chinese, if and when I were to attend an event where sharksfin soup was served, I would never eat that. As a marine biologist, I would never anything that is bottom-trawled or any species that isn’t vegetarian.
To finish this, if I had any advice about choosing a whole-food plant-based dietary lifestyle, I would say: Just don’t be an ash-hole.
