Finding the positive in everyday vegan life

It’s been a frustrating week on social media. In fact, I nearly called this blog post ‘How I almost lost the will to live on social media’. I don’t usually get embroiled in outright arguments with the keyboard warriors (not since Brexit, anyway). And, I rarely share gory photos of slaughterhouses. I refer the gentler approach to vegan witnessing – providing information, researching evidence-based facts, and sharing recipes, too. But this week I came across a few threads in the various groups that I belong to that contained such ridiculous comments that I was compelled to respond with some accurate facts. But people don’t want facts, they don’t want scientific research results and findings, and they certainly don’t want to listen to any ‘so-called experts’.

What’s up with everyone? Is it a phase of the moon? The threat of Brexit chaos? Or the fact that the UN has just published the latest IPCC report on climate change clearly stating that the writing is pretty much on the wall for the planet. Even France3 Limousin was leading with it, way ahead of the usual baton twirling and clog dancing reports. But the climate change deniers and the anti-vegans weren’t having any of it. I guess it kind of follows on from last week’s post about the psychology of carnism. Clearly a large proportion of the population don’t want to engage in reasonable (or reasoned) debate – 52% maybe 😊? At one stage I felt like beating my head against the wall; my favourite comment was “… I’ve done no research these are just thoughts …”

It was probably time to take a break from social media. Easier said than done when it pervades every aspect of your life, from work to volunteering. I did step back for a day or two, then I decided that rather than let the nay-sayers get me down, I’d look at things in a different light. Life as an English-speaking vegan in France may not be easy, but it’s a lot better than two or three years ago. ‘Count your blessings’ my granny used to say, or ‘practice gratitude’ in modern mindfulness parlance. So, I decided to note down seven positive vegan things that had occurred this week.

1. On Mr VV’s mid-week shop he found (and bought) vegan Magnums in Leclerc.

2. What’s more, the young lady on the checkout told him she was vegetalien (vegan) and loved the Ben&Jerry’s Chunky Monkey he also had in the trolley.

3. Non-vegan friends came round to share supper one evening, tapas style, and I had positive feedback from their teenager about the vegan food. Another convert in the making?

4. I secured the winning bid for a ‘Friends not Food’ t-shirt in the Big V Sanctuary auction – it’s a fantastic vegan sanctuary that cares for all species, happy to support it.

5. My Amazon order for two new vegan-oriented books arrived, adding to my growing library of vegan research. Already quarter way through John Robbins’ Food Revolution.

6. For the weekend ‘big shop’, we went to Carrefour, south-east Limoges. It’s such a hike (over 1¼ hours each way) that we probably hadn’t been this year. What an improvement vegan-wise: two types of vegan mayo, non-dairy cheese, wine, pesto, lunch pots, Alpro frozen dessert, B&J’s Chocolate Fudge, plus lots of accidentally vegan stuff (drove Mr VV mad checking the labels 😊).

7. Realised how crazy vegan I’ve become when found myself catching a stray ant in a box and putting him outside. Plus this week we have ‘re-located’ a load of spiders, several beetles and small mouse. Though we still haven’t persuaded Lenny the Loir to move out (he’s been living under the bedroom floor for two years now).

On balance, a good week. Though non-dairy frozen desserts (AKA icecream) do seem to feature strongly on the list. And, yes, I know they are made by multinational companies, etc., etc., but in my view, if we vegans don’t buy them, they won’t make them and will just carry on making the dairy stuff; we need to show the market is there to influence change.