With stacks of “boycott animal cruelty” booklets, “guide to compassion” pamphlets and three of her five books on vegan lifestyle piled and ready for purchase, vegan guru Colleen Patrick-Goudreau talked turkey—or spilled the beans, rather—about benefits of a plant-based diet during a guest lecture at SRJC on March 7.
She tackled some common misconceptions and excuses people use when it comes to making juicy burgers and all things animal, a diet of the past. The projected discussion included ethics, health, sustainability and economics of a plant-based diet. While touching briefly upon all topics, she landed most specifically on animal welfare, wellness and her personal experience of compassion and nonviolence. She appreciates that she can live in such a way that doesn’t hurt anybody, and she urges others to do the same.
“My mission is to empower people to make informed food choices and to debunk myths about veganism and animal rights. Everything I do is to give people the tools and resources they need to live according to their own values of compassion and wellness,” Patrick-Goudreau said.
By taking veganism out of the box, she hopes people will see that “vegan food” isn’t veiled in mystery after all. The foods are familiar because they are already known, loved and cooked with, said Patrick-Goudreau, like fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, beans, mushrooms, grains, herbs and spices.
However, love from the masses isn’t the popular response when it comes to eating the aforementioned foods. Only 26 percent of American adults eat three servings of vegetables a day—not including french fries—according to findings from a comprehensive nationwide study conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and reported in The New York Times in Sept. 2010. The Times article described disappointing challenges of getting people to eat vegetables, many of which were echoed by Patrick-Goudreau during her lecture.
Resistance she encounters in people’s potential conversion to plant-based diets comes from dietary myths of veganism. Excuses range from issues with time required to chop vegetables, to resistance to giving up certain animal-based favorites, to the misconception that vegans aren’t able to get all the nutrients they need without meat. “The question is not ‘where do vegans get their protein?’ the question is ‘why have we all been taught and convinced to believe that we have to go through an animal to get the nutrients we need?'” she asks.
Patrick-Goudreau suggests “cutting out the middle cow” and going straight to the source by eating plants versus taking the illogical road of eating an animal that eats the plant that contains the nutrients we need.
Her case for nonviolence toward animals is compelling. Plain, simple and the topic of recent documentaries like “Food, Inc.,” most animals are abused and exploited in the industrialized process of obtaining meat or by-products like eggs and milk.
In the majority of cases, animals live trapped in squalor and claustrophobic conditions. They eat poorly, get sick and then are killed, sold, marinated and grilled by masses that maintain a meaty diet. Animals have the same capacity to suffer as humans, yet because they don’t speak, fight back or wage facebook uprisings most of us continue to eat them. Substitute humans for animals in the same scenario and headlines would scream murder and violent crime.
However, teasing out a single thread to unravel the entire string of yarn that comprises the commercial food industry is like picking only one part of your body to wash and leaving the rest dirty. Eating a plant-based diet is as much about reverence for sustainable farming methods as it is about nuzzling farm animals and causing no harm. If veggies not fortunate enough to grow on organic farms could talk they might be outraged by their own genetic engineering, pesticides, stripping the soil of its nutrients with the use of chemical fertilizers as well as its erosion into the nearest waterways.
One series of questions that came up, fluff aside, was this: is a plant-based diet one based on luxury and privilege or is it a diet that is sustainable across differing socioeconomic brackets? Can people in low-income groups choose a vegan diet? Buying well rounded, whole plant-based foods is expensive. This much is true. It doesn’t take an expert to go to the grocery store and do the math, especially if the foods are pesticide free.
Patrick-Goudreau asserted that adhering to a plant-based diet is absolutely possible in a low-income situation. She pointed out the improved accessibility of plant-based milks, as well as fruits and vegetables available for people on government subsidized food programs. But, she didn’t go into great details how veganism can be affordable other than to say prepared convenience foods are expensive and whole foods are not. Patrick-Goudreau’s most specific guidance was to plug her upcoming book, “30-Day Vegan Challenge,” referencing the chapter called “Eating Healthfully Affordably.”
After Patrick-Goudreau’s answer, an older gentleman said he appreciated the question of affordability because buying plant-based foods really adds up. “I know because I have a hard time supporting my veganism,” he said.