Vegan Fest Thought From a Non-Vegan

It didn’t get a lot of hype, but Grant Parks’s Butler Field was home this past weekend to the two day event known as Vegandale.  A huge crowd descended on said site for a celebration of all things Vegan— including speakers, information booths, great music …and of course,  food selections from a wide variety of vegan restaurants and companies.

As a long time non-vegan…and one hovering close to crossing over,  here are some of my vegan related thoughts:

I have always been the standard meat-eating American food consumer. No problem. Not much thought to it, really. Until lately.

Due to a couple decades earleir mid-life battle with high cholesterol, I’ve mostly stayed away from red meat, with the occasional steak or hamburger still being consumed with equal parts deranged enjoyment and spineless guilt.

And don’t even get me started with the barbecued pulled pork sandwich—one of my great weaknesses, and one with which I have had a long-standing one-way romance. I cannot tell you how depressed I was when my doctor told me that pork really isn’t the “other white meat” when it comes to affecting cholesterol level. (Damn!)

But recently, I had some discussions with people who are vegans. Yes, vegans are people, too. And although I have not yet entered the secret and sordid world of the Veganese, I have at least ordered their tourism brochure and am starting to read through it, shall we say.

Basically, as I understand it (I am sure vegan vets will tell me I don’t), vegans stay away from any products that come from animals—primarily because of the mistreatment of animals in the development and creation of the food.

The mistreatment doesn’t just include killing them. No, I am finding out it is far worse than that, such as caging them in areas so tight they can barely move, feeding them so much they almost explode, chopping off certain body parts before actually killing the whole animal, and a variety of other really depressing-to-find-out techniques.

This is one of these…the-less-you-know-the-better scenarios.

But we should know. And we do know—that is f we take just a little bit of time to find out. And the problem is, once you start hearing about this mistreatment, or worse yet, if you have seen pictures (the visuals stay with you), it can definitely have an effect.

Bottom line is, if you really think about what those precious animals have to go through (note the use of the word precious to increase reader guilt factor), it can, indeed, give you pause about what you are about to eat.

Fair warning. I am not there yet. I haven’t yet crossed that tofu induced barrier, but vegans out there?  Have faith. I am starting to see the light. I am starting to "lean to the V", shall we say. I may soon cross over and hopefully will be accepted with open arms—if not closed lips. Yes, you may have a new team member in the not-too-distant future

My only concern, though, is that the steady diet of roughage, tofu, pine nuts, and cabbage— while delicious, may cause a little bit of traffic backup in the digestive system when eaten exclusively

We shall see... and on behalf of any and all readers here, any details thereof will most definitely NOT be forthcoming.