Now, the big question: why am I vegan? It's not because I'm lactose-intolerant or because I was raised that way or because I don't like cheese. Cheese is delicious and most of my family eats meat. I'm vegan for a couple of reasons:
1. I know that virtually no human society developed without eating some form of animal protein, but we have a tendency to over-estimate the amount of meat that our hunting and gathering ancestors actually brought home to eat. Hunting was not their main source of calories. It was a political and social-status-assuring venture undertaken by the men in the community that served to bind the tribe together. Any animals that were killed were shared by everyone in the village and some was given to neighboring villages as well. Their main source of protein was ALWAYS roots, nuts, berries, and vegetables.
2. The way we raise animals today is DISGUSTING! Most people choose not to read about factory farms or look at pictures of them and they like to imagine that the meat that they by in the supermarket, even the organic, "free-range", expensive, Whole Foods meat comes from happy cows and chickens running around on pastured hills before being caught by the farmer's wife, killed humanely, and brought to the supermarket on a covered wagon. But we all know that that is not what goes down. I refuse to support the huge corporations that run those factory farms and the meat and dairy products from those places are nasty, anabolized, antibiotized, pus-filled, and generally unfit for human consumption, much less for our fragile environment.
The catch? I'm vegan because I know enough about its positive effects on the environment to know that it makes a difference. So... I eat the products of chickens and cows and goats that I know for SURE are not being exploited. It's really not that hard to find. There's a guy in Berkeley who has a farm in his back yard and my dad went there to milk his goat and brought back THIS cheese.
THIS, ladies and gentlemen, is the ORIGINAL chevre. And you can taste the difference. The goats that made this ate what goats are supposed to eat, and their milk is very, very different. It doesn't even taste like goat! We brought it to an East Bay Fermenter's Club meeting and everyone was raving about it. I can't wait until we're making our own. Take a look at the other things that we ate:
In the back right, home-made kombucha.
vegan walnut noodles with steamed veggies
(sadly) non-vegan peach tart that looked DELICIOUS!!
kimchee and pickles (both home-made)
And a lot of other stuff besides. The East Bay Fermenter's Club was started by my father and a few other people. They meet periodically when one of them needs more sauerkraut and they make things that they eat at the next meeting. I'm not as obsessed as they are but I LOVE sauerkraut. If you want to learn about making Kim Chee in your closet and making the best damn pickles you've ever tasted in one week, they're the people to talk to.
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