*Final* Final Draft

Veganism is a practice that’s always intrigued me. I’ve experimented with different diets, going vegetarian or pescatarian for periods at a time, but I’ve haven’t so far been able to devote myself wholeheartedly. Veganism has a very different approach, a more radical approach. I’ve watched passionately-devoted vegans from afar for years it seems, but I wonder what they have figured out that I don’t. This movement toward living and eating more consciously and sustainably has been picking up speed in the past few years, and I’m intrigued by the ideology of the practice. Why is any of this necessary? Of course, I want to feel like I’m doing something positive for the world where I can-- especially when it seems like the state of the environment is becoming more devastating every day. In moving to Tallahassee this past year, I’ve come across the local Vegan community in a number of different ways. It seems like I’m surrounded by impassioned young people wherever I go, both in the real world and on the internet. I’ve decided to look into this community, asking “what makes someone go vegan?” and “what does this town have to offer its vegan community?” I want to learn more about how this community lives and thrives, what drives them in their practice, and how I can get in on this movement.

Veganism has a “long history”, mainly in the context of “traditional religious practice” and philosophy (Frey) dating back to the biblical old testament and Greek antiquity. This was something I didn’t necessarily find out when I was first introduced to the community, but the concept of Veganism has been around for quite a while. Truly, the American veganism movement began to gain attention in the late 1960’s, when the American Vegan Society was founded. The day of its’ founding, February 8, is a nationally celebrated day in the American vegan community. The ideologies surrounding the movement in the present day almost parallel the ideologies of the ancient practice. Frey says that “contemporary motivations for veganism” can be separated into two categories: “health-orientated” vegans and “ethical” vegans. In most cases, I’ve come into contact with the latter. Typically, the people I meet pursuing Veganism want to practice a “non-violent” and “anti-cruelty” lifestyle, out of compassion for the animals involved in American consumerism. For good reason, too. The controversies surrounding animal testing, animal agriculture, and the meat industry have flared up in the past decade, and people are angry with the conditions that animals have been forced to suffer through for so many years. Documentaries surrounding the food industry have exposed the cruelty that is so often practiced; I hear about “Food Inc.” all the time it seems, and I’ve heard a considerable number of stories about how someone’s experience watching that documentary made them go vegan, or at least vegetarian. Exposure to the truth of how food makes it to the table is horrifying and gross. I had a similar experience with the 2017 Netflix production, “Okja.” Though not a documentary, this fiction film reveals a lot of the horrible truths behind meat farming, and the cruel practices involved. To briefly summarize the film, the genetically-modified “super pig” named Okja is stolen away from the small family that raised it to become the sort-of posterchild and prized meat of a scheming corporation. Okja’s caretaker, a little girl named Mija, goes after her beloved pig and infiltrates the corrupt system in order to get her precious Okja back. Along the way, Mija sees a glimpse into the heartbreaking reality of the treatment of the creatures, shoved into cages with no room to move around. It follows the process as they are prepared to be slaughtered, their bodies processed and packaged away in little bits, and consumed by a population who is ignorant of the truth. After watching this film, I couldn’t eat meat for a month. I think that was the film’s purpose, really. It was shocking and heartbreaking enough to make me take a step back and look at what I took responsibility for when I ate meat, and how I supported the meat industry in that way. It made me feel shame and guilt at how ignorant I was of the situation and the conditions that animals are put through, and it made me want to change. Here I am, years later, still thinking I should start doing something differently—and I know I’m not the only one. I would call this an example of a common text in this community. It subtly (or not so subtly) pushes you to consider the whole situation, a situation that you can easily look the other way and choose not to interact with. The purpose was to kind of inform, but mostly confront the viewer with the situation at hand. Not only do we see this in these films, but the Vegan community loves to exploit similar gruesome content all over social media in order to guilt the viewer into feeling something, so that they may possibly do something about it. Not all Vegans are this confrontational, but this community is notorious for using this method of conversion.

I sought out a local Vegan to talk to about his experience in the Tallahassee vegan community. Trace Rudolph, a friend of mine, is an FSU graduate with long luscious locks that he wears in a bun, beaten up Birkenstocks, and a flourishing herb garden and compost heap. Trace takes a lot of pride in his identity as a Vegan, so I took some time to talk with him about what exactly made a veganism necessary for him, how he’s managed his lifestyle in Tallahassee, and what makes him feel inspired to continue. When I asked Trace what first influenced him to become Vegan, he told me that one day, while working at a summer camp in North Carolina, he had an epiphany. “… One of my friends at the time was Vegan, and I was drinking a banana custard shake from Sonic, it really wasn’t that good, but I was still drinking it,” he began. “[My friend] told me something pretty disgusting… that 15% of milk is blood, puss, or skin,” he made a face as he said this. “I later found out that this fact isn’t true,” he laughed, “but yeah, that was the first time I thought to myself, oh, I should go Vegan.” He told me that after this experience, that very summer, he jumped into the Vegan world wholeheartedly. “Tallahassee is kind of cool because there's so many college students here,” He says that he’s always liked the “hippy side” of things in town. “The whole art district and Gaines street-- there's like three Vegan restaurants that serve all Vegan menus. SolVeg, The Bark, and Sweet Pea Cafe. Those are pretty fun. And there's a bunch of, um, there's like five, uh, what's it called? Farmer's markets. So yeah, it’s really not hard to be Vegan here.” Trace has one of the most laidback and “free-spirited” facades of any person I’ve come across, and I wasn’t expecting his reasoning for sticking to the practice: “I suppose a lot of the reason why I’m Vegan is because I have a bit of an eating disorder… I tend to gorge on stuff and stress eat.” He told me that eating Vegan makes him feel like he’s doing better for himself and taking care of his body, not putting “nasty stuff” in his body where he doesn’t have to. “But I always idolized the free spirit type… so that’s something I wanted to be a part of. I really resonate with the ethical aspect of it too.” Trace gave me some wisdom in helping me realize that choosing to pursue veganism can be a very personal choice, with a variety of reasons for doing so. I shouldn’t define any person based on the stereotypes of the community they are a part of. Trace advised any aspiring vegan to just “listen to what your body needs” and be patient with yourself along the way.

Moving to Tallahassee has given me quite a few new experiences with Veganism. There are so many opportunities to go out and learn about the community here. Not only are there farmers markets every Saturday and a few local vegan cafes as Trace mentioned, but I’ve also heard of a number of festivals put on by the local community. A few weeks ago I was able to tag along with some fellow Tallahassee locals to one of these festivals. I got to make my first trip to the annual North Florida “VegFest”, and it was quite the experience. I don’t know what I expected, but I was overwhelmed by the amount of excited Florida and Georgia locals who came out to this event. Lines and lines of people greeted me as I walked into Tallahassee’s Tom Brown Park, all waiting to get their hands on a (compostable) plate of jackfruit vegan barbeque or to purchase a specialty brew of local kombucha. Small businesses and farms drove hours to get to the festival, selling their fresh organic produce, specialty vegan beauty products, and handmade jewelry at the busy venue. Rows of eco-friendly vendors surrounded the park on all sides. It was easy to tell the kind of people the event was aimed at, as I walked by blissful people laying out on mandala-printed picnic blankets with their dogs for company, and watched the older man playing the sitar smile pleasantly at the passersby. Very “hippyish” as my dad might call them. I saw a lot of people who were passionate about the lifestyle they were promoting, passionate for change, or at least people hopping on the bandwagon of this growing movement. On the event’s webpage I found that it was put on by “TalVeg”, the Tallahassee Vegetarian Community, a group which “seeks to promote the benefits of a healthy, sustainable and compassionate lifestyle.” The group expressed that they expected at least “3,000 attendees” for the fifth annual VegFest, and I would say that they probably doubled that.

I saw a lot more people of my parents’ generation than I expected when I attended. I’m used to the young millennial vegans that advertise themselves and their lifestyle relentlessly on their Instagram feeds or local baristas that stick up their nose when I ask for “regular” milk in my latte. Instead, I got an old man holding a pig on a leash handing out flyers to the “Hare Krishna Love Feast,” where there’s a “free sumptuous vegetarian feast” only two blocks from campus every Sunday at 4 PM, along with a Bhagavad Gita class where one could “discover the secrets” of “the soul” and “inner bliss” and the meaning of existence, essentially. He was a cheery man in secondhand clothes, and he seemed grateful that I took the flyer from him. I got more of a sense that his intention was to attract people who felt like they need a place to belong, people who need a community to be a part of. The people I encountered at VegFest seemed to really care, and to me, that’s what I feel a lot of the rising interest in vegan lifestyle is about (or at least what I think it should be about). People want to be a part of something bigger than themselves and want something to care about. It’s more about the community that you find yourself belonging to, and about that sense of having something more in life because of that purpose or sense of belonging. It’s getting easier and easier to feel helpless in the world we live in, but I think the movement towards “compassionate” living, as TalVeg put it, is an attempt to combat the hopelessness with something we are individually, and communally, able to control.

Tallahassee, overall, is a good place to be a Vegan. The community here is strong, and there are quite a few opportunities for those pursuing the lifestyle here. The slew of passionate young people in this town have brought the wave of veganism and compassionate-living forward; it can be seen in all over, from the local veggie businesses and events of Tallahassee to the masses of passionate vegan individuals. The larger Vegan community is becoming more and more vocal for the change they want to see happen in the world. What I’ve come to in conclusion is that veganism is truly a movement for change, here and everywhere. Whether that change be the downfall of animal cruelty and animal agriculture, environmental-sustainability, more personal, health-related reasons, as I came across in my research, or anything in between. The people I’ve met in my experience with Veganism have all been very determined to tell me why it is they choose it for themselves, to a point where their enthusiasm is exhausting. I admire their passion for what they do, and if anything I aspire to be one of those irritatingly-passionate Vegans one day.

Works Cited

Frey, Rebecca J. "Veganism." The Gale Encyclopedia of Nutrition and Food Labels, edited by Gale, 1st edition, 2017. Credo Reference, https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search.credoreference.com/content/entry/galegnafl/veganism/0?institutionId=2057.

"GARDEN PARTY." American Vegan Society. <https://americanvegan.org/>.

“North Florida VegFest.” North Florida VegFest, www.northfloridavegfest.com/.

Annotated Bibliography - Veganism and Sustainability

Frey, Rebecca J. "Veganism." The Gale Encyclopedia of Nutrition and Food Labels, edited by Gale, 1st edition, 2017. Credo Reference, https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search.credoreference.com/content/entry/galegnafl/veganism/0?institutionId=2057.

This is an informative article which gives an extensive history of veganism, ranging from references in the biblical Old Testament to the controversy of the growing present-day movement. It lists the key terms relevant to the philosophy and general knowledge held by the practitioners. It goes into the different branches of the practice, such as paleo and raw food veganism. It lists the statistics of worldwide populations in regard to how frequently it is practiced. It goes into covering some common misguidances within the community and gives a sense of the reality behind the practice, which can be hard to find on heavily-curated vegan media outlets. This source would be useful if a reader were looking for an extensive, factual history of Veganism. It doesn’t advocate for the practice or condone it, it is purely informational. It would suit a reader that simply wants to obtain some knowledge on the practice of Veganism, its early origins, statistics surrounding the community, and likewise—without any bias.

González-García, Sara, et al. “Review: Carbon Footprint and Nutritional Quality of Different Human Dietary Choices.” Science of the Total Environment, vol. 644, Dec. 2018, pp. 77–94. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2018.06.339.

This review looks into the various diets and food cultures of the world and how each relates to the carbon footprint it produces. It gives perspective on which diets offer the littlest negative environmental impact, and which create the biggest carbon footprint. Overall, the U.S. has one of the biggest carbon footprints in the world. Vegan and vegetarian diets are suggested to be a couple of the most sustainable diets, as they don’t carry the responsibility for the manufacturing, packaging, transportation, and waste associated with the meat industry. The article states that meat agriculture is one of the leading contributors of gas emissions and that individual dietary choices play a significant role in environmental sustainability. This source would be useful for a reader wanting to learn about worldwide food cultures and each culture’s impact on the environment through food consumption. If someone is looking to identify what the main contributors to climate change are in the food industry, this would be a good article to look into.

Hallström, E., et al. “Review: Environmental Impact of Dietary Change: A Systematic Review.” Journal of Cleaner Production, vol. 91, Mar. 2015, pp. 1–11. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1016/j.jclepro.2014.12.008.

This journal consists of 49 peer-reviewed articles detailing different scenarios of dietary changes in the U.S. and how the environment would be impacted in those different scenarios. Overall, the scenarios in which less meat was produced and consumed yielded a more positive environmental outcome, and states that “global food production” poses a “great threat” to the environment. This journal looks into the elements of the meat industry that cause the most damage to the environment and gives a new perspective on how society should look to approach this situation in the years to come. Not only may a meatless diet be helpful in changing the course of the inflicting damage, but it may be the most essential. This would be a useful source to look into if someone is really interested in seeing ultimately every possible outcome of climate change as result of food production, This would be a useful read for someone who wants to be informed of how their eating practices affect the environment, that they can better understand the link between global food production and climate change. This article would help broaden a reader’s perspective on a controversial issue, and maybe inspire them toward living and eating more sustainably.

Hancox, Dan. “The Unstoppable Rise of Veganism: How a Fringe Movement Went Mainstream; Health, Climate Change, Animal Welfare... What’s Driving More People and Brands to Embrace a Plant-Based Lifestyle? We Investigate, and, below, Four Vegans Explain Their Choice.” Observer, The (London, England), 1 Apr. 2018, p. 14. EBSCOhost, login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=edsnbk&AN=16B07C63AFDF2850&site=eds-live&scope=site.

This news article gets into the excitement of the rising veganism movement, particularly in the UK. The author writes of the very sudden emergence of veganism in the area he’s researching-- in just the past few years the population of vegans in the UK tripled in size. He details how the media is playing an integral role as the movement picks up speed, though this is to be expected as more than half of the vegan population in the UK is age 35 or below. The article details what’s truly driving this generation to change the way they consume and how this movement gives hope for the future. This is truly a journalism article, and it’s a fun read with many interesting ideas. It’s long but in depth and covers much of what is happening in the environmentally-concious community of the UK. This would suit a reader who’s maybe discouraged about the state of the environment and needs a piece of good news. It’s loaded with information so it might be hard to find anything really specific a reader is looking for. The writer is truly hopeful that the younger generations will turn climate change around, and he gives some interesting information and examples to back up his point—it might interest a reader who wants to know more about what people in other parts of the world are attempting to battle climate-change through different practices.

“North Florida VegFest.” North Florida VegFest, www.northfloridavegfest.com/.

The North Florida “Vegfest” event webpage gives all the specifics for its 5th annual event. Listed on the homepage are the date and time of the festival, the location of the venue, as well as a brief description of what attendees should expect of the time they should spend there. A tab each is given to detail the various presenters, musicians, sponsors, and vendors of the event. The Tallahassee event featured an eclectic collection of people, businesses, and dogs (as the event was advertised as “dog-friendly!”) The Tallahassee Vegetarian Community put on the event for local and out-of-state veggie-eaters alike. This website would be useful for a viewer who is looking to learn more about this year’s event, maybe if they missed it this time and they want to find out what kind of businesses showed up, or who the speakers and performers were. It would also be useful for someone who attended the event and wants to get more information on what they experienced! This website has everything anyone would ever want to know about the 5th annual North Florida VegFest, but doesn’t give much other information regarding past or future events.

Schanes, Karin, et al. “Low Carbon Lifestyles: A Framework to Structure Consumption Strategies and Options to Reduce Carbon Footprints.” Journal of Cleaner Production, vol. 139, Dec. 2016, pp. 1033–1043. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1016/j.jclepro.2016.08.154.

This article proposes a “framework” for living a sustainable lifestyle, combining the individual efforts of sustainability, in areas such as “food”, “housing”, “mobility”, into a larger and more integrated practice. It claims to be the first of its kind, with its purpose in “promoting climate change mitigation” and lowering emissions through all aspects of daily life in one well-thought-out guide. Its main focus is food consumption, where the majority of the country’s environmental crisis is arising. This scientific article would be useful for a reader who wants to live more consciously and waste less but needs a place to start. It’s truly a guide to living more sustainably, and it is a good choice for someone who wants to be informed as to how they can do less damage to their environment in everyday ways. It’s educational, giving the rundown on climate change, and suggesting what can be done to lessen our individual impact.

“Sweet Pea Cafe.” Sweet Pea Cafe, www.sweetpeacafetallahassee.com/.

Sweet Pea is one of Tallahassee’s only solely Vegan restaurants and is a very popular destination for locals. Their website lists their extensive menu, featuring black bean burgers, tempeh Ruebens, hot buffalo tofu, and “cheeze” quesadillas. Sweet pea is famous for its hand-cut sweet potato fries and vegan pasteries. The website lists the address of their location, their hours of operation, and their contact information. There’s also a gallery of their delicious and beautiful creations for customers to get an idea of what the café has to offer. Their business proudly buys produce from small local farms, and they list their partnerships under the “local produce” tab. This source would be useful for anyone who wants to learn about Sweet Pea’s menu, business practices, food sources, or just general information about the shop. A reader could learn most anything about Sweet Pea from their website. Even if there is a question left unanswered, their contact information (email, phone number) is available on the page as well. Sweet Pea’s website is a good representation of their business as a whole.

“The Bark.” The Bark - 221 Photos - 68 Reviews - Vegetarian/Vegan Restaurant - 507 All Saints St., Tallahassee, Florida 32301, www.facebook.com/TheBarkFL/.

The Facebook business page of Tallahassee’s “The Bark” features hundreds of photos of the local café’s delicious creations, unique employees with the “creative cuisine”, and colorful, handwritten menu specials of the day. This page is one of the central social media outlets for the local business, where old and new customers alike can read reviews and give feedback on the quality of the food, coziness of the atmosphere, and friendliness of the employees. One of Tallahassee’s hidden gems, this restaurant is tucked away but close to both FSU and FAMU campuses, in the more “artsy” part of town. This facebook page would be a useful source for anyone who wants to get to know The Bark as a business. It lists the general shop information and posts updates every so often regarding special events or likewise happening in the space. It’s not quite as organized as, say, Sweet Pea Café’s personal website, but it does the job.

"Vegetarianism." ProCon, edited by ProCon.org, 2018. Credo Reference, https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search.credoreference.com/content/entry/procon/vegetarianism/0?institutionId=2057.

This article states the popular controversy over whether being vegetarian is a healthy practice or not, explaining both positions on the argument. It gives the detailed history of how vegetarianism has been practiced over the centuries, especially in religion. This article focuses mainly on the American diet, giving the history of the laws and acts passed in the U.S. pertaining to the meat agriculture industry. It gives statistics on the amount of meat purchased in the U.S. over the last half century, paying attention to the years it fluctuates. The article gives a detailed chart of the pros and cons of vegetarianism, and it would be a useful source for a reader looking at whether or not Vegetarianism is the right choice for them, or for a reader on the fence about the practice overall.

Recording of Personal

Here's the link to my "podcast" recording of Project 1:

https://soundcloud.com/user-672926578/personal