Questions I get asked: What if you were stranded on an island and you had to eat meat to survive?

So what if you were stranded on an island and you had to eat meat to survive?

Well, let me explain. There are limits, and then there is stupidity.

It is reasonable to boycott meat in a society where vegetable protein is largely available and can suit everybody’s needs. Killing animals is not justified when you can get your protein from perfectly peaceful sources.

It is not reasonable, however, to boycott meat when you are stranded on an island and your only chance of survival is by eating crab meat. If this ever happens to you, then, by all means, eat crab meat.

It is not reasonable either to refuse meat when you are on a peace mission in a Native American tribe in Bolivia and they offer you llama meat. Take it. It’s not worth a clan war to explain why you prefer to eat vegetables.

It is not reasonable to refuse meat when you’re a journalist sent to cover a story in Nigeria and a family offers to house you and feed you with meat, when there’s scarcely enough to go around. Don’t try explaining why you, rich person, would prefer not to eat meat. They won’t understand.

If I’m ever caught in one of these situations, I would probably eat meat.

But so far, I’ve never been in one of these situations. I live in the part of the world where food is aplenty. I can choose what I eat, and I choose not to kill for my food.

Yes, I know what you’re thinking: don’t you kill lettuce when you eat it?

Aha, got you covered. Check out my answer to this question. 

Questions I get asked: Don’t you kill lettuce when you eat it?

Answer: Yes, lettuce dies when we pluck it from the soil and stuff ourselves with it.

But what shocks you more? The death of a lettuce head or the death of a mother cow?

I won’t post the videos here – YouTube has plenty of them. Let’s get back to the point: killing lettuce.

I personally believe that lettuce is a living being, but much less evolved being than a cow. I prefer to kill lettuce than to kill cows based on that belief. I believe there is a huge difference between the two of them. Namely, cows are capable of walking, mooing, licking their babies, dancing-

Yes, dancing. Check out this video. It’s friendly, I promise.

But lettuce is a simpler organism, biologically speaking. So that is why I prefer to kill lettuces than cows. It’s my choice to kill who or what I want. In fact, in my mind, cow is a ‘who’ and lettuce is a ‘what’.

If you think there isn’t a difference between the two, I suggest you go to a petting zoo and meet some baby cows up front. 

Questions I get asked- Isn't being vegetarian more expensive?

Today I'm going to answer this one as briefly as possible.

If you adopt a vegetarian lifestyle, the answer is NO. You will basically substitute meat protein for beans/lentils protein. As beans/lentils are cheaper than meat, you will find out that being a vegetarian means a cheaper lifestyle. Just go ask the people in India.

If you adopt a vegan lifestyle, the answer is YES. You'll end up substituting the calcium found in milk and cheese with vegan products such as soy milk, almond milk, nuts, dried fruit. These are more expensive than animal products.

But the difference isn't that much - see how much fish and red meat cost these days.

And also, I find that buying almonds, dried figs and humus makes me happier than buying ham and cheese. Maybe that's just me. But they sure are good :)

Questions I get asked. Number 2: How did you become a vegetarian?

This is a little story of how one day, little Catherine, who was a voracious omnivore, turned into a pacific vegetarian.

The first sign was when I was five years old. I was watching Lamb Chops on television. By some horrible coincidence, my mom made lamb chops for dinner.

I cried my eyes out, but darn if those lamb chops tasted good.

The second sign was when I was twelve, again with my dear mom. She showed me an image on Internet that she thought was funny : a sad piggy holding a sign saying 'Will work for roast beef'. I adore pigs. I remember getting mad at my mom and crying a lot for the poor pig. But I was mostly frustrated that we had to eat meat, we had to kill them to eat - at least that's what I thought.

A year later, I was thirteen, I was in the process of moving countries, my parents were divorcing, and I thought it was the perfect time to be a rebellious teenager. I told my parents I wanted to be vegetarian. My dad told me 'If you don't eat meat, your boobs won't grow.' What sort of teenager wants to hear that? I continued eating meat.

Two years later, parents were divorced and I was settled in at Florianopolis. I'd met other vegetarians. I knew then that it was possible. So I delcared myself vegetarian and launched into an anti-meat campaign. My mom agreed with me and became a vegetarian, also. We suffered the first social awkwardness together.

But neither of us really knew how to take care of ourselves. Eating instant noodles and pizza does not a vegetarian make. My mom got anemia after five months and started eating meat again. I held on a month later, but without my mom's moral support, I lost the will to be vegetarian and started eating meat also. But I entertained the idea : One day, I'll be vegetarian again, and I'll know how to make it work.

That day came on my eighteenth birthday. My last meal was a celebration lunch, with octopus salad and seafood. It was the cut-up octopus that made me think: I can't eat him, I've seen him swimming in the sea before. This is wrong. And if this is wrong, eating cows has to be wrong, to. I shoved the octopus around my plate, got home, and told my mom that I was a vegetarian again.

The next days I spent on Youtube. First I made myself watch all those horror movies: pigs being slaughtered, stoned, tortured. Mother cows getting separated from their calves. Hens being plucked alive.  I had to make sure that this time, I would stay vegetarian. I made a promise to myself: If I ever want to eat meat again, I would watch those videos again and see if I could live with that.

The next part was research. I trawled through dozens of articles online. I visited blogs, recipe books, stories of teenagers like me. I went to the bookstore and spent hours there, reading books. I made calculations: How much protein do I need? Where can I get it? I made lists of protein-rich foods and iron-rich foods. I quickly learned that the main problem for vegetarians is getting IRON, not protein.

I planned out my meals, using my new knowledge. I had lunch 5 times a week at my university, so that was easy: I had rice, beans, salad, assorted cooked vegetables and a fruit for dessert, which is basically the perfect vegetarian meal. On weekends, I cooked. My mom and stepdad were the first to try out my experiments.

Three years later, I'm a vegan. I've never had anemia. I've actually gained weight, which is great, because all my life I've always been too skinny. My allergies have vanished and my skin is healthier. All in all, I feel great to be a vegetarian and I hope that this blog will show you, too, that is possible and it can be one of the most amazing changes in your life.

How vegan am I?

Me at Lemon Festival

This isn't a question I get often. Rather, I get a 'AHA! You ate my chocolate cake! You have abandoned your principles and caved to the mighty chocolate god!'

I then explain that I'm not 100% vegan. What does that mean, for me?

It means that I'm against eating eggs, milk, cheese, yogurt, and other dairy products because it's against my personal convictions. I know the suffering cows and chickens go through in farming industries, and I know that eggs and milk is a by-product. So, I boycott all animal-related products because of that.

I won't buy any of the products mentioned above. If I go to a self-serve restaurant, I won't serve myself something that I know contains one of these products. When I cook, I choose 100% vegan recipes and on my blog, I promote being vegan.

But I will eat dairy products on special circumstances, for example: My friend invited me over, and offered me a slice of chocolate cake. I'll accept it and eat it without asking if it's vegan or not.

Why?

Because being vegetarian in a world where 90% of people aren't, you're already an anomaly of society. People might not understand your decisions, but they will accept the fact that you don't eat meat. Now, you don't eat meat AND eggs AND milk? How am I supposed to offer you food?

So I keep it simple for my friends: I don't, won't, eat meat/chicken/fish/pork/other meats on ANY circumstances, because for me that's like signing an animal's death sentence. I'll accept your food that has eggs/milk in it, because I want to be polite, and I think you might be more receiving to me and open-minded of what I have to say if I make some concessions on my part.

I make similar concessions when I'm at a restaurant with my friends, and there's no vegan option. I also make concessions when I travel and when it's hard to find vegan snacks. I keep it easy for me: I'm allowed to be only 'vegetarian' while traveling.

So in between accepting the occasional non-vegan snack, going to a restaurant (very rare for me) or traveling, I'm vegan.

I hope I cleared up any doubts, and kudos to you that have succeeded in being 100% vegan :)

Questions I get asked. Number 1: Why be vegetarian?

Why be vegetarian?

I, like every vegetarian out there I’m sure, gets asked this question a lot. At first I’d get annoyed and explain my point of view rather poorly. But then I learned that people don’t want to attack you and your point of view (sometimes they do- but it’s still no reason to treat them badly). Sometimes people are curious. Maybe they’ve never met a vegetarian, or never heard of the idea. Sometimes they’re simply curious to know what makes you be a vegetarian and how you deal with it. They might ask you about your health, or if you’ve ever had anemia or not. And sometimes there are those people that want to be vegetarian, and all they need is a little push in the right direction.

My tip to other fellow vegetarians out there is this: Answer their questions with as much honesty and as much willingness as possible. Don’t let their negative opinions bring you down – expose your ideas clearly, and most importantly, don’t criticize their ideas!  Focus on the positive side of your ideas.

That brings me to the reason I’m a vegetarian personally. I’m an animal lover.  I love animals so much that I can’t stand the idea of eating them, even though unlike most vegetarians I know, I find meat very tasty. But I will easily sacrifice any of my tastes if it means saving animals.

People tell me: but hey, you don’t make a difference. The amount of meat produced per day won’t change if you’re a vegetarian or not.

I strongly disagree. I might not make a difference statistically all by myself, but I sure can make a difference in our society.  Humans are funny creatures- they tend to go with the majority. Ten years ago, vegetarians were aliens. Now we’re accepted because we’re stronger in numbers. For example, the vegetarian population in Brazil grew from 7% to 10% in just a couple of years. That definitely causes a reduction in the quantity of meat produced.

And I’ll also quote Mother Teresa here: “We know only too well that what we are doing is nothing more than a drop in the ocean. But if the drop were not there, the ocean would be missing something.”

Other reasons I’ve stopped eating animals: when I was 10, I stopped eating tuna because I found out dolphins were being killed in fishing nets because of tuna. And that dolphin-free tuna doesn’t really exist – every fishing industry ends up killing dolphins and sea turtles. And don’t get me started on sharks.

And then there are the other huge reasons that probably should count more: like the fact that we have enough food to feed the world population, and a good part of it is ending up in cow’s stomachs. And the fact that the Amazon is being destroyed to make place for soya plantations (to feed cows) and pastures.

But for me, the main reason for not eating animals is because I think they don’t deserve to die to satisfy our hunger if we can easily satisfy it otherwise.

What do you think?