Hello there! I am new to the forum. I wasn't sure where to put this topic, so feel free to move it if it is in the wrong place. Please skip to the bottom if you don't want to read my life story.
First of all, I suppose I will tell you a little bit about myself. My name Is Sally, I'm 19 and live on the Sunshine Coast, QLD. I have loved animals and nature my entire life, but one school trip changed everything for me. I was about 5 or 6 and because I lived in such a little town my school didn't have many options for school trips, so we went to the local butchers. We were allowed into the back of the butchers where all the dead, skinned, cows were hanging, waiting to be cut up to be sold at the front of the store. That is when I made the connection. The butcher gave us all a sausage to eat afterwards and I watched with horror as all the other kids and teachers ate theirs without a care. I stuffed mine in my bag in disgust (much to my mothers horror when she discovered it a few days later). After that, growing up I had a strong dislike to meat and have been very sensitive about it. I became a vegetarian when I was 13. That was all fine, I met my current partner who was also a vegetarian and everything was ok. I suffer from anemia, and have to have a lot of iron to stay healthy.
Unfortunately we were lazy. We did not plan a proper diet. We just cut meat out of what we would have normally eaten. It was a stressful time in our lives and we lived off pasta and chips. Needless to say I became anemic. I suffered from the occasional lightheadedness and fainted every now and then (although I have been a fainter my whole life, I still am to this day). One day I passed out in the shower, hit my head and nearly drowned because I had blocked the drain. My partner found me and essentially saved my life.
From that time we have eaten meat, although I can't really say our diet is much better. I faint less, and am less lethargic, but that is about it. I find it hard to forgive myself for letting it get so bad and not planning my diet properly. I never blamed the vegetarianism, only our own laziness and lack of planning.
Anyway, a few months ago I saw something via the RSPCA about caged eggs, which led me to look into other farming welfare issues, which led me to read more and more and look deeper and deeper and now I am horrified. I have been doing a lot of 'from home' activism to help make some kind of change, I have been on the phone to Woolworths, emailed every fast food place I could, written letters to the government about animal welfare issues, spoken to my family about their choices... But the one big issue is staring me right in the face.
I am still eating meat.
I don't want to. I want to become a vegan. I am willing to put the planning, the time and energy into it. I am a lot older now and I from what I have seen there is no reason why I can't be perfectly healthy and be vegan, as long as I am not lazy. The problem? My boyfriend refuses. He wont even become a vegetarian. I wouldn't mind if I could be a vegan and let him still eat meat and dairy, but he is adamant that we both remain eating meat. (I know, I know, I am a grown woman who can make her own choices). It is not that he has the right to tell me what I can and can't eat, but it is the way it distresses him so much. He has heard all the stories about vegan parents feeding their children soy milk and apple juice and their children dying of malnutrition and it scares him he now likens veganism to child abuse.
Also, I really feel he doesn't understand what is happening to animals that are farmed and killed for our 'benefit'.
I know what you are thinking, but his feelings on the matter are very important to me. We are very, very close and his distress about such a huge lifestyle change distresses me. (It would be nice if he took quite as much concern with my distress about eating animals). He has agreed to only buy 'higher welfare' meats, but I really don't feel this is enough. If I didn't care about him I would just change my lifestyle and let him deal with it, but he stuggles with this stuff. He is ok with cutting down, but it seems as though veganism is totally out of the picture for him, whereas it is more or less a 'must have' for my future. At the moment, he is cooking all the meals and buying all the groceries due to our work schedules. He is also very skeptical of everything which makes it hard.
*SIGH*
Ok, I will outline my questions below.
-How can I encourage him (and others) to take more interest in a vegan lifestyle?
-How can I make him (and others) understand what animals go through to get to our plate?
-How can I be more active in my activism without annoying people? (a whole other problem)
I just thought I would share some of my problems on here and see if I can get some advise or inspiration to help me. Sorry for the long post. There is still so much more I could have written.
