One Day One Life

My daughter who is currently studying animal science, came home from college today having just watched yet another graphic video of the everyday cruelty and slaughter inflicted upon farm animals, and is now determined to become a vegan.

Her experiences over the last 5 years within her animal science classes have already converted her to a vegetarian lifestyle, but having witnessed the cruelty milk cows and chickens are subjected to she now intends to give up all dairy products.

I personally am not against eating meat, in fact (other than veal, which I have never eaten) I really enjoy it, but then I was brought up on a farm (40 + years ago) where humane farming conditions were in practice, where cows, sheep, pigs and chickens roamed freely in the green pastures, and were humanly slaughtered following a peaceful life grazing the hillsides. Unfortunately this is no longer the case today.

The public demand for meat has grown to such astronomical proportions, its created cramped, caged, inhumane, cruel conditions for the animals that are over bred to fill our supermarket shelves, and along with that goes cruel inefficient and careless slaughtering practices.

Listening to my daughter today talking about becoming a vegan, I have so much respect for her, but as we all know, one person giving up meat and dairy is not going to change the world, in fact it won't make any difference at all, other than being able to sleep at night with a clear conscience.

So, I got to thinking about whether it would be possible to create a site where people who believe as we do that animals deserve a cruelty free life, would perhaps be prepared to do something as a larger group and could maybe actually make a difference.

I'm not suggesting we give up eating meat, just that we eat it less frequently. When I was a child, we only ate meat on a weekend, but today people expect meat with every meal. The demand is huge, if the demand for meat was less, there would be less call for these massive caged facilities, maybe farms could possibly revert over time back to how they used to be, with animals allowed to graze in pasture's, and farmers producing more fruit and vegetables instead.

I know I'm probably pissing in the wind here with this, and everyone reading this will think I'm high on something, but I truly believe that if enough of us really cared, we could actually make a difference.

I come from a farming background, and I enjoy eating meat, but having learnt what I have about the terrible conditions these poor creatures endure, I am prepared to give up eating meat as a sign of my determination to do something.

One suggestion is for a "Vegetarian Day", where just for one day no one eats meat, obviously it will be a very small proportion of the population who would be prepared do this, but if enough of us did, it would be a start.

I would like anyone who cares to add their thoughts, information, and or vegan/vegetarian recipes to this site, or just forward this onto anyone you know who may be interested in doing something.

Thank you for your time reading this, I pray we will all be able to make a difference, even a small one is a start.