This past week I have found myself better able to persevere with my project. It is still difficult for me to subscribe to a full vegetarian diet, and I’ve eaten meat more than once. However, mentally I now find myself more connected to the cause, and two factors have contributed to this: I’ve been reading more articles on the subject, and have been communicating about my experiences with others both through posts and conversations. The articles that focus on the conditions these animals are raised and kept in have dissuaded me on many occasions from consuming meat, and now that more people are aware of my project I can’t just give up on it.
With my friends and family I’ve tried talking specifically about these industrial farms, and how by going vegetarian one can boycott these businesses. Many of them questioned the diet’s apparent lack of protein, and I countered this argument by pointing out how only recently (during the Industrial Revolution) we began consuming meats in such high amounts. However, nearly all of them responded that they would continue with their traditional diets, while only a few expressed real concern for the issue. It became clear to me how habits that are objectively wrong can be become normalized by our culture.
On another occasion, I found a video that focused on the horrors of the chicken meat industry (linked below), and showed it to a couple of friends. They were noticeably shocked and disgusted, afterwards I told them that by eating the “traditional” diet they were sanctioning these practices. One of them decided to try being a vegetarian, while the other considered it. Their reactions toward the video reminded me of the power visuals have in this anti-meat campaign. In the future I’ll try to show more people these kinds of videos, because even though these videos tend to be graphic, they are effective in making the viewers question their diets.
Hi Mateo,
I watched the video that you shared and I also found the treatment of baby chicks and chickens to be disturbing. That was a great idea to share the link with friends and family. I would suggest continuing to share articles and links with friends and family. This will probably help them to see your point of view. Because I am also practicing vegetarianism for moral reasons, I am also going to start sharing links with friends and family. Similarly, I found it difficult to convince people to try eating vegetarian or at least eat less meat.
Kristen