What was your experience of going vegan?

We’re starting at the beginning – when people choose The Vegan Option.

Every year Vegan Campaigns in London supports over sixty people through potentially their first month as vegans. Many vegan groups – from Baltimore, USA to Victoria, Australia issue similar challenges. I talked to pledgers who took that challenge, asking them what the challenges had been.

Ananthi is a mother of two adorable daughters. Bryan and Cliff are a middle-aged gay couple. They took the challenge, and you’ll find out how they found a month of veganism in our first programme.

But there isn’t a boundary between (proto-) audience and contributors. Here’s a question for vegans (and ex-vegans). How was your first month as a vegan? What was most difficult when you went vegan? We’ll likely mention some of your answers in the programme.

About Diana (co-host 2011-12)

Before I thought seriously about animal interests I can honestly say that I was an offensive and inconsiderate omnivore. I ate bloody meat, made jokes about eating every animal I saw and loudly proclaimed about the deliciousness of the carcass I was eating in front of my vegetarian friends. My war-hero grandfather, to whom I was very close, was a dairy farmer in the fifties and his family were horse traders. Also, I was an incredibly picky eater and barely ate vegetables or fruit.

That’s part of why I feel like I have such a window into the psyche of those who are most dismissive of veganism and really understand where defensiveness both about the sentience of nonhuman animals and drastic changes in diet comes from. And yes, I’m aware my name roughly translates into “huntress meatman”.

Our Seven Values

Since I’m throwing the word “journalism” around, I ought to write down what that means here.

About Ian

I casually went vegetarian after reading Gandhi‘s autobiography. When I told my family, my mother and grandmother reminded me that milk and meat came from the same place, that mere vegetarianism was hypocritical, and implied I should drop it. Instead, I went vegan.