Vegucated

The title of this post has a few meanings. I was simply going to write about the documentary Vegucated that I watched this past weekend but it became so much more as I thought about it. I can't undo what I've learned in the past couple months. I can't pretend that I didn't watch this movie. I can't remove the words that I read from My Beef with Meat and The Kind diet from my brain. What's done is done.

Vegucated takes you on a 6 week journey where 3 avid meat eating New Yorkers learned about Veganism and everything that comes along with it. They went to farms, slaughter houses, educational seminars, food & clothing stores and of course consumed a Vegan only diet. The participants were in tears. I was in tears and I've been to slaughter houses. I know what it's like to be just steps away from where a stun gun is put to an animals head. My experience years back didn't stop me from eating meat, but I'll never forget the visions from those visits. What I maybe didn't realize was that I was going to some of the best of the best slaughter houses. In this documentary I saw the darker side and deeper view into the elements of the animal production process I didn't know about. I've been haunted by what they do to poor baby chicks. They put live chicks through machinery that looks the exact same as what you'd process candy or crackers with. I've saw pigs dipped into vats of boiling water. These are live animals we are talking about.

My Beef with Meat and The Kind Diet do a really great job of outlining the cause and effects that animals products have on our health and wellness. They outline how animals products cause all sorts of cancers and disease in just about every organ in our body. They share how the production process of animal products is depleting our natural resources like water and oxygen (that we need to stay alive!). Most importantly they share how every bit of a positive element that can be highlighted in an animal based diet can be replaced easily with a plant based diet.

There are few things that I just can't erase. I can't erase what the poultry industry does to baby chicks. I can't erase how female cows are continually impregnated until they are disposed. I can't erase the terrible physical feeling I had after having fish/dairy in my 24 hour relapse a few weeks back. I just can't. Not today.