Going Vegan

  Of course I have to decide, my last week in Italy, to go back to being Vegan. Something I had experienced with once before, but eventually gave up on, and now here I am feeling the same old convictions to reduce my carbon footprint, simultaneously providing myself with a healthier diet and ultimately a healthier body. I never had felt more fit and healthy in my life then I did when I was a vegan. Looking back its hard to see why i ever stopped but i think the criticism from my peers and family wore me down. I was the only Vegan I knew and I think  being told i was crazy finally convinced me that I was. But after experiencing a completely opposite diet here in Italy, one based on pasta, cheese and chocolate, I can honestly say I was happier being healthy then i am being tastefully satisfied. This isn't to say that one cant be healthy without being a Vegan, but is to say that I cant be healthy without being a Vegan and this statement comes from a lot of research and self-evaluation. Without a moral compass guiding my choice in diet, I'm lost. My own vanity isn't enough to stop me from eating the things I find delicious. But knowing the cruelty that goes into butchering animals, not to mention the harmful drugs that are injected into them to keep them alive, drugs eventually consumed by us, the dangerous chemicals used to wash the meat once butchered, the amount of energy invested into factory farming, more energy than output contributing to 13% of the earth's global warming, all these things do stop me from eating animal products. I know that even vegetarianism is a touchy subject not to mention eliminating all animal products entirely but one fact is certain and that is farming is not what it used to be. Factory farming has taken over the world, in a valid effort to feed the world, yet has crossed some serious ethical issues that people need to be aware of and evaluate how they will or wont let these issues effect their everyday life. Well, I have researched these issues extensively and I can not disregard the ugly truth that I had uncovered. Sometimes ignorance is bliss, but bliss is short lived. To decide to become Vegan means a instant switch in my diet, its either now or never. And yet I'm faced with the same hypocritical issues that plagued my conscious from the first time around; How can I eat Vegan and advocate for the ethic of being Vegan and not live Vegan?, that is, not to wear wool or leather, to not use products tested on animals or made from animals and this list is extensive and goes all the way to the chemicals I use to develop photos. To completely follow the ethics of being Vegan, to reduce my carbon footprint entirely, would leave me living naked in the woods somewhere.  Recently I've come up to a conclusion that has satisfied my own conscious, and that is the simple fact that something is better than nothing, some change and some effort is better than no effort. Of course this means I wont be buying anymore leather products but getting too into the fine details would leave me with an impossible problem to face, not to mention car-less. So starting today September 12th, I am officially Vegan again, with crossed finger's, hoping the smell of Mac and Cheese will never again lead me into temptation.