Vegetarianism

We are vegan. We do not eat animals, nor do we use dairy products or eggs, and avoid leather. We have been vegan for over 10 years.

This might sound like a lot of work, but like anything else, once you get used to it, there's no problems. Lots of restaurants have vegan options; we especially love Ethiopian, Indian and Tibetan food. And supermarkets are increasingly adding health foods like soy milk and vegetarian burgers to their shelves.

There are three major reasons why we have adopted this lifestyle, and try to encourage others to do so.

Health - Animal products are responsible for many degenerative and fatal diseases, particularly arteriosclerosis (heart disease) and several types of cancer. Vegetarians typically live about 7 years longer than non-vegetarians with the same lifestyle.

Environment/Human hunger - The intensive farming of animals in the West is incredibly inefficient. An animal eats many times its weight in grain before it is slaughtered. The amount of water and energy used to produce meat is also a lot more than to produce an equivalent amount of grain or beans. Roughly 80% of grain in the US is fed to livestock. If we all ate less meat, this would allow us to do some combination of:
- feeding more people
- farming on less land, allowing more land for wildlife
- farming by less intensive methods, ensuring the long-term health of the land

Most people are not aware that the costs of producing meat are subsidized by the government to a large extent. That 99 cent hamburger at McDonald's is really costing a lot more than that, but the extra money is coming out of our taxes.

Animals - Most farmed animals live in terrible conditions. Any animal cruelty laws on the books are extremely weak and have huge loopholes (for example, chickens are not considered to be animals under the legal definition of the term, so many laws don’t apply to them.) To the companies that are producing eggs or dairy products, or meat, the animal is just a product, and how much profit they will make is their most important guideline. Even the few animals who are raised for food on an organic farm or range still die a violent death. By going vegan, we are voicing our protest against this cruelty, and reducing the amount of it.

We’ve found that being vegan, rather than a sacrifice, is a lot of fun. We go to events with the Boston Vegetarian Society and EarthSave-Boston, enjoying great food and fascinating conversation with lots of interesting people.

We also like to cook. Recipes coming soon!

Follow this link to learn about our vegan cats.

If you’re interested in learning more, you can go to some of the following websites:

Vegetarian Starter Kit A good primer on removing animal products from your diet, with recipes and nutrition guidelines as well as good information. Put out by the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine. (PCRM), a great organization.

Boston Vegetarian Society. (BVS) A wonderful organization in the Boston area with monthly talks, monthly restaurant outings, and other special events. They also have well-organized Links Page, which contains lots and lots of links to all sorts of vegetarian-oriented pages. If you’re curious about a particular issue, this is a great resource.

Michael Klaper, M.D. - A vegan doctor’s website packed full of good information, focused on health. Other vegan doctors have websites as well. You can find some through the BVS Links Page.

Farm Sanctuary. Farm Sanctuary is a wonderful organization in upstate New York that rescues and shelters farmed animals as well as educates. People can “adopt” (read: sponsor) a farm animal We sponsor a goat. Their website also has good information about the treatment of animals in modern agriculture.

The Sierra Club's Food Factsheet A good, brief primer on how we help the environment by eating less animal products. Notable because it’s on the website of the Sierra Club, a solid, mainstream environmental organization.

Some particularly good books:

The Perfectly Contented Meateater's Guide to Vegetarianism, by Mark Reinhardt - A great book with a light-hearted, humorous approach, and an easier read than the other two books.

Diet For a New America, by John Robbins - Probably the best single book. Extremely well researched and referenced. Looks at animal agriculture and animal product consumption from all different points of view: environment, world hunger, health, and animals.

Animal Liberation, by Peter Singer - A wonderful book focusing on Ethics. Peter Singer is a professor of philosophy, and a utilitatian (= one who believes that doing the greatest good for the greatest number should be our general guiding principal). If you like philosoply and/or logical argument, this is the book for you! Other works by Peter Singer are also highly recommended.

These books can all be found as Amazon.com If you prefer to order off a vegetarian site, the first two are available from the North American Vegetarian Society Bookstore.

You can also feel free to contact us with any questions.

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