Louis Michael: Veganism

When I was seventeen I turned vegetarian. This was a big deal at the time because I come from a Greek-Cypriot family that loves meat, and my whole life I’d enjoyed the elaborate meat dishes my mum would cook for us every night.

I turned vegetarian because I was just becoming fully cognisant of the reality of eating meat. I was quite literally eating another living being. I decided that I couldn’t practice the holistic loving lifestyle I wanted while still contributing to the unnecessary cycle of breeding and slaughtering of innocent animals.

But at that point that was as far as it went. I didn’t imagine that I would go vegan for another few years at least. And then as I turned vegetarian my brother turned vegan.

While I was switching chicken fillet for Quorn he was swapping milk for oat milk. When I went from ham and cheese to just cheese he was cutting out cheese altogether.

Eventually, hearing him talk about his vegan recipes and substitutes, and following a few vegan websites I realised the transition from vege to vegan was just a little hop, rather than the big leap from omnivore to herbivore.

That little hop took me into a whole new world. As soon as I entered into the vegan community I realised that to say veganism is a diet is to say war and peace is a magazine. Veganism transcends just the food you eat, it’s a state of mind and a way of life that makes you completely re-evaluate your view of the world, and your place within the structure of the earth.

Since going vegan I no longer see myself as a superior being. I am an earthling, just as much a child of this planet as any other being we share it with. We are as much a part of the earth’s evolution system as the plants. Our direct life force extends from nature, and veganism promotes a return to a natural way of life that is integrated with nature rather than disconnected from it.

We are children of nature, and when we return to it we will be returning to our fully united form.