It’s a given that veganism is on the rise world-wide – which is of course great news. However, there can be times when you find yourself feeling rather alone when being challenged by family, friends or colleagues at work as to “What’s wrong with eggs?” or “How do you live without cheese?”
Likewise, as a vegan, you will likely know about the dangers of hypothetical ship voyages going sour and you ending up stranded on a desert island. That’s because as a vegan, there is a good chance that at some point, a non-vegan has challenged your cruelty-free ethics with the challenge of unexpected desert island living. Or maybe referenced “cavemen ancestors” or that Tiddles eats meat, so why don’t you?
There’s nothing like that magical moment when you find out that your colleague in accounts, is not only qualified in accountancy, but when they find out about your veganism, they are an impromptu nutritionist specializing in protein too.
Sadly, some non-vegans are on a mission to call out vegans whenever they can. Their strategy seems to be if they can find one chink in your vegan armour, then all of veganism has been completely invalidated and you really should now be making bacon sandwiches in the morning.
Just like learning to ride a bike. The first time you fell off, the answer wasn’t to throw the bike away and decide that cycling is forever flawed. No doubt you got back up in the saddle more determined than ever before.
Vegans can certainly slip at times (dairy milk has a horrible habit of cropping up in any number of grocery items). However, that in no way invalidates one of the key values of veganism – to reduce as much as possible the exploitation and killing of animals.
So, despite those occasional slips and chinks in the armour, it really is the best suit to be wearing. Despite the eye-brow raising observations of Norma in accounts.
