On Veganuary:
When I told my friends I wanted to go Vegan back in 2018, they all laughed at me and didn't take me seriously. I was inspired when I took a global food systems course where we covered industrial meat and agriculture. I learned about the amount of slaughter non-human animals go through and the rates at which undocumented farmworkers were developing mental health-related illnesses on top of physical injuries from using dangerous machinery at high speeds. I advocate for reductionism in my work because thatâs how I began adopting a plant-based diet, but an important part is learning about the ethics of Veganism through the lens of racism and speciesism being intertwined with the oppression we see today towards humans and non-human animals. I would say I don't like using the phrase "Go Vegan" because it's such a nuanced topic and the word veganism is thrown out left and right as if it's a diet when in reality, it's not only about diet. It's more of a stance towards anti-oppression of non-human animals and humans. I think this is why Veganism is so easy to be critiqued. In the binary statement, âgo veganâ, thereâs not any context provided on the legacy of a global food system created through a worldwide capitalist system by imperialist countries. This is why I tell people to go plant-based first before going Vegan because plant-based allows you to understand the environmental and wellness side slowly. Itâs an uphill battle once youâre ready to learn about ethics, liberation, and theory. You are learning how to talk about animal liberation, which requires delving into speciesism, which I hadn't known much growing up. There will be many people out there trying to gaslight you or shame you for not being Vegan, but I always tell people to take their time to learn and understand. I don't want people jumping quickly into the term Vegan without recognizing how much harm there is in the dominant animal rights movement. The way we write, use words, or speak against oppression must be done through the community-centered lens, not pedestals. -queerbrownvegan
