On a cold winter day, junior Monica Sentmanat handed out hot chocolate to passersby in front of the School of Fine Arts. The steaming drink contained no dairy products. Using soy milk and chocolate syrup, Sentmanat wanted to prove that the vegan diet is possible with slight modifications.\nOn that cold day nearly a year ago, Sentmanat and other members of Speak Out for Animals gave concrete examples of what was possible. They also distributed information on the harm the meat and dairy industry do to animals and the environment.\nToday she feels just as strongly about veganism. For every product Sentmanat consumes, she must know its origins. Every purchase at the grocery store has moral and ethical questions that she and many other vegans consider. Unlike many consumers, they know of the dangers associated with the meat and dairy industries.\nNot many people have the courage to give up all animal products, down to the smallest ingredients in foods. As more and more people decided to take on vegetarianism, a growing number also said no to the diary industry.\nDavid Agranoff, a 26-year-old member of Speak Out for Animals, is determined to bring an exclusively vegetarian restaurant to Bloomington. With the upcoming Vegfest, from April 28 to 30, put on by Student Environmental Action Coalition and Speak Out for Animals, Agranoff wants to show that there is a demand for such a restaurant.\n"We want to show there is a greater community of vegetarians than just kooky kids who run into each other at shows," Agranoff says. "I think a vegetarian restaurant would do very well in Bloomington."\nWhile he lived in Syracuse, N.Y., Agranoff and a few friends ran a co-op vegetarian restaurant. In front of the foods, they listed the information about how much pollution they stopped by using those foods instead of animal-based foods. His only customers his first day were members of the vegan straightedge band Earth Crisis.
Vegan Gathering\nA scaled-down version of this happens in Bloomington at a house on Fifth Street every Sunday. Agranoff and friends Sentmanat and Christine Carey, who is an exchange student from Australia, all take part in the Sunday night pitch-ins at the vegan household.\nIt was here that they sat down and talked about their views: why they became vegan and how this change in diet has affected many other areas of their lives.\n"Vegan is a lifestyle," says Sentmanat. "It's pretty different from the mainstream. You have to be a lot more conscious of what you buy."\nShe mentions her apprehension about making the switch from vegetarian to vegan. "It was a learning process for me,'' Sentmanat says. "When I first went vegan I wasn't aware of all the options open to me foodwise. The longer I've been vegan, the more choices I run into from restaurants to\nrecipes.''\nAgranoff found being vegan a sacrifice at first. After eight years, it has gotten easier for himself and other people, he says. He talks about how there is more available in the market in the way of meat and cheese substitutes.\n"I don't want to fool people; it is hard at first," Agranoff says. "Being vegan now is a million times easier than when I first started. Still, one of the only disadvantages is that you can't get a vegan burger at a truck stop if you're on the road," Agranoff says, emphasizing that it just takes a little bit of planning.\nSentmanat and Carey agree that being vegan has made both of them more health-conscious. Many people make the argument that vegans and vegetarians don't get the necessary nutrition they need. But Sentmanat feels it's completely untrue.\n"I get tons of B-12 through yeast. And B-12 is what they always say we don't get enough of," Sentmanat says.\nThe transition to veganism forced her to plan meals more creatively.\n"I think it makes me appreciate food more," says Sentamanat. "Now, I'm cooking up a storm."
Veggie Music\nSome remember the heyday of the vegan straightedge scene that erupted in the early '90s, with bands like Vegan Reich and Earth Crisis shouting the message. For a number of those people, the lifestyle died with the trend.\nWhile music introduced Agranoff to veganism, it was not the sole reason he made the lifestyle change. He agrees that people who became vegan only because of the music and the trend never really cared about it. For Carey, in the music she found a message that echoed her beliefs.\n"Bands like Propagandi on their album Less Talk, More Rock say, 'Meat is still murder, dairy is still rape.' (That) really reaffirmed what I believe in," says Carey.\nIn the booklet of Less Talk, More Rock, Propagandi provides their opinions and arguments against capitalism to sexism. One section entitled "Animals are not biological machines" encourages fans to "challenge these customs (of eating meat) just as we challenge discrimination on the basis of gender, race, age or sexual orientation."\nJust as Carey identified with Propagandi's message, Earth Crisis and Vegan Reich's messages were the bands that Agranoff heard that reinforced what he believed in.\nEarth Crisis is just one of the many other bands that emphasized a vegan message. In the song "New Ethic," Earth Crisis explains its problems with the treatment of animals in the meat and dairy industry as well as the fashion industry. In this song, they sing, "Dairy, eggs, and meat/fur, suede, wool and leather are the end products of torture, confinement, and murder."\nAgranoff also found the straightedge message in Earth Crisis, and he relates that message to his interest in veganism.\n"When I made the choice not to drink and do drugs, it opened up my eyes to trying new things," Agranoff says.\n"I think that the important thing is veganism," says Sentmanat. "I think that when you put those two together, you limit the outreach. What is important is veganism, not straightedge."\nBut vegan doesn't necessarily go hand in hand with straightedge, or a drug and alcohol-free lifestyle.\nReligion, the environment, and health issues are only a few reasons people choose the vegan lifestyle. Seventh Day Adventists choose not to eat meat because they emphasize the "intelligent" care of their bodies, which includes a healthful diet without meat. They also look at the environmental aspect and see their responsibility to not add to pollution.\nHare Krishnas also abstain from eating meat for religious reasons, citing the "though shalt not kill" commandment. They also emphasize the economic and ethical reasons, as well as health reasons. Additionally, they look at karma and see a spiritual side to a meat-free diet.\nCelebrities like Woody Harrelson, Kim Basinger, Alec Baldwin and even Prince and Weird Al are also vegan.
Eating Bambi\nSo, why do people choose to change their eating habits from an easily accessible meat-and-cheese diet to animal-free diets? Carey, for one, saw the connection between animals as pets and animals as food.\n"I couldn't separate the idea between a pet and what I'm eating," Carey says. "I don't want to eat something that I can have a relationship with."\nWhile animal rights might be the main focus of veganism, there is more than one dimension and more than one reason to make the change.\n"I see veganism as an ethical choice more than a moral choice," says Carey. "It causes a lot of cruelty to the environment and to animals. It's about what's sensible and necessary. Plus it challenges the hierarchy of men (being humans) above animals. It really challenges that point of view."\nSentmanat says most people have no idea what actually goes on in factory farms; that the meat and dairy industry project an image at us so that we remain blind to what really happens.\n"People have to go out and develop ideas for themselves," Sentmanat says. \n"When animals are just being kept alive to give us something we can do without, it's really unfair. People have a really distorted view about how animals are treated," says Carey.
Choosing a Lifestyle\n"It's your right to choose not to be vegan, but animals don't have a say," Agranoff says. \nAgranoff believes individuals as well as corporations are to blame for mistreatment of animals. He chooses not to eat pork products because he doesn't want to add to pollution and ecological damage. \nHe used the example of hog farms, which contaminate groundwater with nitrates from hog waste. Since they are the largest polluters in the state, he finds it frustrating that people always emphasize their "right to choose" when their decisions affect the rest of the community.\n"People, in my opinion, do not have the right to choose another being's misery and suffering," Agranoff says. "Yet because someone else chooses to buy meat, dairy and eggs, the environment that all life depends on has to deal with that person's choice.''\n "I disagree with you," says Carey. "I don't think the blame should be on the individual, but on corporations. People don't always have a choice about not buying clothes made in sweatshops." \n"Wait a minute, maybe we do agree," Agranoff interjects.\n"People putting pressure on corporations and looking at people doing the decision-making will make a difference," Carey says. "We get the beliefs of the industries pushed on us every day."\nCarey, Agranoff and Sentmanat all found that once they started reading literature about veganism, it opened the door to other political issues.\nSome of the facts they found shocking are that meat and dairy industries consume nearly half of the water used in the U.S. Feeding an average meat-eating adult requires 3 1/4 acres of farm land a year, and one-sixth of an acre is used to feed a person who consumes no animal products at all, according to The VivaVegie Society's "101 Reasons Why I'm a Vegetarian."\nAnimals packed tightly in the factory farms also exhibit bizarre behavior. Chickens often have their beaks cut off because they will begin to peck each other out of frustration of being overcrowded. Similarly, pigs often have their tails cut off because in their boredom and frustration, they will bite the tails of other pigs, according to "101 Reasons Why I'm a Vegetarian." The pigs are also then kept in darkness except for at feeding time.\nAfter learning the gruesome details about their dinner, veganism seemed to be the best option. It also exposed them to related environmental concerns.\n"It's a gateway drug, totally," says Sentmanat. All three gained an awareness to pesticides and turned to organic foods.\n"If I had never been vegan, I probably wouldn't have cared that they were putting stuff on my food," Agranoff says about pesticides.\nFor people like Agranoff, Sentmanat, and Carey, veganism is not just a one-issue topic. It spans over environmental issues, which mesh with workers' rights issue, which mesh with countless other concerns. They argue that once someone becomes aware of animal rights and the environmental reasons to become vegan, it's hard to ignore other important issues. Surely, it's not just a change in diet; it's something deeper. It's a lifestyle.
