Six years ago my daughter and I became vegans. Even with all the food sensitivities she had at that time because of the chronic illnesses she was suffering from she had thrived on the diet and, as animal lovers, we were both relieved to not eat any animals or animal products anymore and wished that we had done it ages ago. With Thanksgiving sneaking up on us, I remembered that I had written a post about the holiday in 2013 when I had started a blog for the parents of the students I taught reading to. (Unfortunately, the blog didn’t last long because I realized that most of the parents, like their children, didn’t like reading either!) The original post, from November 28, 2013 can be found at juliesborrowedbooks@wordpress.com.)
I have always loved all the colors of the fall vegetables and wish the Thanksgiving celebration would return to its roots—as a celebration of harvest – and that the main attraction on the table would be the vegetables rather than a dead animal. I should mention that I’m not thinking of vegetables doused in sauces or covered with marshmallows either! Nowadays there are so many vegetables available that have colors appealing to the eye as well as enticing to the palate?
P.S: If you have children in your life a wonderful, thought-provoking picture book to accompany this meal could be: That’s Why We Don’t Eat Animals: A Book about Vegans, Vegetarians, and All Living Things, by Ruby Roth
P.P.S: Years ago, the Meat Association’s advertisers were very smart when they advised their clients to sell their products with names unrelated to the actual butchered animals. Most shoppers can disconnect from the animal that provided the meat they are buying in those plastic wrapped packages stocked in supermarkets and, therefore, factory farms could develop and be largely ignored by the public. I once read that one of the ways a society is judged is by how it treats its animals. Well, we’re definitely going to get a negative score.
Because this blog is for adults, I can recommend a photo-essay book that shows us where our meat is coming from (if you’re not able to buy your meat from a local farm that treats its animals humanely): CAFO: The Tragedy of Industrial Animal Factories, by Daniel Imhoff. And if you want to learn even more, the companion book, The CAFO Reader: The Tragedy of Industrial Animal Factories, edited by Daniel Imhoff has essays from thirty of the world’s leading experts and offers a plan for a more humane food system. Millions (or is it billions now?) of animals don’t have to have horrific, extremely painful lives on factory farms, (Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations), to be killed for our meat.
I hope this gives you food for thought if you’re not already a vegan or vegetarian…
Julie Jacobsen Deck 