How Can You Tell if Someone is Vegan?

Don't worry, they'll tell you!

My sister is a vegan. My brother-in-law is vegan. My nieces are vegan. They are a whole damn vegan family. Their cats are not vegan though - they might be vegans, but they aren’t insane. And they aren't those vegans insisting we should all be vegan, they just accept the omnivores in their lives and move on.

I had no freaking idea what the crap a vegan was. To say I understood, or even thought it was a good idea would be a big fat lie. I thought it sounded like a totally weird thing to do, like a cult or something… after all, why would someone actively NOT eat a cheeseburger? To be honest, I still have a hang up with that, but I manage it much better these days.

I remember the first time I went out to lunch with my sister, and she ordered a vegan meal. It was around Thanksgiving one year, and I was up visiting with my father and stepmother. I was still in college, and I liked to think of myself as liberal and open minded. Yet, when my sister told me her and her boyfriend, now her husband, did not eating anything that came from an animal I was shocked. Just absolutely shocked, and I am pretty sure I tried to talk her out of it.. What a jerk! After all, this is my sister - the very first person I ever loved more than myself; I should have been supportive right away.

Her husband, my brother-in-law, has been a vegan for fourteen years! In his senior year of high school, he chose to take an Environmental Ethics course at a local community college as an elective. He told me through a text message, “The passionate teacher, who I’d go on to take two other courses from, put some emphasis on the impact of animal agriculture on our environment. Whether intentional or not, the suffering of animals also became apparent through this instruction.” With all evidence in hand, he quickly made the decision to live without animals as a part of his diet. He spent five months as a vegetarian, learned to love hummus, found courage to try tofu, and never looked back.

The main thing that bothers him is when people ask him if he “can” eat something, or when a question is phrased in a way that suggests his morals, the way he is in his heart, changes from day to day… like, if he is hungry enough, he is just going to overlook all the evidence he has found, and just eat the cheeseburger. I think, like so many things we encounter in life, their choice makes us uncomfortable. Being uncomfortable is not a state of being most people want to exist in, so we decide to become defensive. I cannot tell you how many times my sister has told me about people saying she can just eat the cheese, because no one will even know. I cannot express how heartbreaking it was to hear about the time my niece, with tears streaming down her face, asked my sister if they were still vegans because her veggie burger was cooked in bacon grease. My sweet, tender hearted niece knows other people chose to eat meat, but being a vegan is at the core of her soul. She loves it, and I think that is perfect.

According to the website, The Vegan Society, “The vast amount of grain feed required for meat production is a significant contributor to deforestation, habitat loss and species extinction. In Brazil alone, the equivalent of 5.6 million acres of land is used to grow soya beans for animals in Europe.” It doesn’t take a genius to know deforestation is kind of a bad thing, especially when this is the only planet we can live on right now. They go on further to say, “[...] considerably lower quantities of crops and water are required to sustain a vegan diet [...]” and you can't deny the truth of that. I also don’t even have time to talk about just how poor animals raised to be eaten live, even organic and “free-range” animals are not happy. Would you be happy if you were raised for slaughter?

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I am not here to convert you to a vegan diet - I am not a vegan! For some reason, there is a weird mystique about being vegan though. It’s like one of those things that no one is really interested in unless it affects them directly. Yet, we should all be very interested in what it is, and we should learn some things from them. No. I am not saying we should all forgo our cheeseburgers and bbq chicken. I am saying open your ears and listen; be brave and check out some vegan cookbooks - my favorite is Thug Kitchen, and their stuff is delicious.

I always have my sister’s back. When people make fun of her weight, I am there to defend her. When she needs someone to be mad at, I am there for her to rage at. When she needs to be reminded of funny things she said as a teenager, I am there to shout at her “It’s My Way Or The Right Way!”. We laugh until we cry, and we cry until we laugh. Forever, and ever she is mine and I am hers and that is that.

Even if she is a vegan.