Around a week and a half ago, I randomly made the decision to be mostly vegan. I don’t really know why – just that I woke up one day with the decision and really just wanted to see if I could do it. I’ve been a vegetarian most of my life at this point and living in the city that I do, cutting out dairy and most eggs wasn’t that difficult. That and having a cold for the past week and a half meant I wanted to actively avoid dairy products anyway…

To be honest, I’m really loving being mostly vegan. And I say mostly because I have a couple of exceptions to the vegan rule, mostly that I eat eggs from my family chickens and on occasion, salmon from really close vendors. I thought making the switch would be much more difficult for myself but it’s been fairly easy! I’ve been eating fruit salad like there’s no tomorrow and there’s almond milk for my lattes which has been the game changer really.

But I know that my own decision to be mostly vegan comes from a place where I am privileged enough to only have to worry about myself (no children or dependent relatives), I have the resources to not only buy but cook fresh veggies and fruit, and I also have more than a decade of being mostly vegetarian behind me. I made the decision to be mostly vegan for myself right here and right now, knowing all those things supported my decision. I think it’s incredibly important that vegans and vegetarians don’t shame others for what they eat because there are SO many reasons why someone would eat meat or dairy or choose not to. And each reason is perfectly valid and important.

I fundamentally support people making the best decisions about their lives that they can, especially in the face of an incredibly oppressive society. We live in a extremely racist, classist, cissexist, etc society and seeing the intersectionality of all that with food justice is incredibly important.

And honestly, I think it’s so rude when vegans/vegetarians say that the only way to truly be an animal rights activist and/or animal lover, you have to be vegan or vegetarian. Because you have no idea what is going on in someone’s life, why they eat what they do or make the decisions they do. But that’s me.