Veg Culture

Let's discuss how I was raised. In some ways, I find that my childhood upbringing was unique: I was raised vegetarian. I have never sat down to a meal of meat, never eaten turkey on Thanksgiving, hot dogs on the 4th of July, a grilled burger on a summer day... And I am so thankful for that. Unlike most parents, my ethical mother gave me the choice when I was young "do you want to eat animals?" The question seemed silly, of course not! And to this day, I would never want to eat an animal.

So growing up, being vegetarian was a huge part of my familial culture. All of my meals were vegetarian and delicious. And because of this, being vegetarian is a huge part of how I identify myself.

In class and in life we discuss culture and how important meat can be in culture. We also learn of cultures all over the world that eat meat as a staple meal. These conversations can be very difficult for me because vegetarianism is my culture; it is not a question of culture versus ethics and what is more important. Why is vegetarianism overlooked as only ethics, when really it is just as much culture? Culture breeds ethics. Every time that I sit down for a meal, I don't analyze the ethics that go into or try and reproduce meat. Vegan meals are cultural and delicious.

I would like to see more conversations about culture levelled to this playing field. Just because I am vegan does not mean that I lack culture and am more focused on ethics. In contrast, the two are very tied together. Especially when I was growing up, vegetarian food was just normal. There is no question that I loved animals, but I didn't think about the ethics of my meal that often. It was, and is, my culture.