Hey all, I'm Rohan :-)

[RohanMcAvee]

I'm unsure why I didn't find this forum sooner but better late than never

Anyway, my name is Rohan and I've been vegan for over 8 years now, having been vegetarian for 20 years before taking the final step. I decided to set up the Vegan Slate website in June 2021 and have been posting vegan content ever since.

I'm glad to be here and looking forward to getting involved.

[Red]

Welcome to the forum Rohan! It's been a little inactive recently, but we're hoping to get it up again.

What initially inspired you to go vegetarian? Did you have a hard time transitioning to vegan?

[RohanMcAvee]

Hi Red, thanks for the welcome!

I was inspired to go veggie due to meeting an amazing woman who would, 8 years later, do me the honour of marrying me. She was raised vegetarian on a traditional North Indian diet and when I tasted the first meal she ever cooked for me, I knew I'd never need to eat meat again.

During the first year or so of our relationship I learned a lot about the industry behind meat production and I had no idea how barbaric it all is. I grew up on a small farm as well!

It took us a long time to finally go vegan. My wife had dipped in and out of veganism for a while. She knew it was the only way to go. One night she showed me a video of the abuse dairy cows are subjected to and it moved me to tears, I don't mind admitting!

We went vegan overnight and have never looked back. It wasn't difficult to make the transition since we were both committed vegetarians. The cheese was probably the hardest thing to give up but those cravings only lasted about 3 weeks.

I thank my lucky stars every day for having been shown the light

[Red]

I was inspired to go veggie due to meeting an amazing woman who would, 8 years later, do me the honour of marrying me. She was raised vegetarian on a traditional North Indian diet and when I tasted the first meal she ever cooked for me, I knew I'd never need to eat meat again.

During the first year or so of our relationship I learned a lot about the industry behind meat production and I had no idea how barbaric it all is. I grew up on a small farm as well!

That's a great story, it's always good to realize you can have delicious food without suffering and death. Would you happen to know the recipe? @thebestofenergy would be interested in it, so he can add it to our wiki.
http://philosophicalvegan.com/wiki/ind ... of_Recipes

It took us a long time to finally go vegan. My wife had dipped in and out of veganism for a while. She knew it was the only way to go. One night she showed me a video of the abuse dairy cows are subjected to and it moved me to tears, I don't mind admitting!

We went vegan overnight and have never looked back. It wasn't difficult to make the transition since we were both committed vegetarians. The cheese was probably the hardest thing to give up but those cravings only lasted about 3 weeks.

I thank my lucky stars every day for having been shown the light

That's great to hear! It becomes much easier to stay vegan when it's done as a couple. I see you write a lot at this blog: https://veganslate.com/author/rohan/
Any articles you suggest checking out?

[RohanMcAvee]

That's a great story, it's always good to realize you can have delicious food without suffering and death. Would you happen to know the recipe? @thebestofenergy would be interested in it, so he can add it to our wiki.
http://philosophicalvegan.com/wiki/inde ... of_Recipes

Her mother taught her well. They are both amazing cooks ... as for the recipe, she's one of these chefs who just "throws it together". No measuring or specific timings. It's so ingrained in her being that it just comes naturally! I seem to remember though it was a very simple Saag Aloo dish with chickpeas figuring somewhere in there too. I'm trying to find the time to document some of her recipes.

It becomes much easier to stay vegan when it's done as a couple. I see you write a lot at this blog: https://veganslate.com/author/rohan/
Any articles you suggest checking out?

Yes it's true ... going (and staying) vegan is a lot easier when there's two committed parties. It must be really tough having to cook meat for a non-vegan partner. Not sure I could do it to be honest!

Thanks for taking a look at my blog Just my own little way of spreading the vegan message. I think the "anti-indigenous" article is one of my faves along with the "ahimsa" article which talks about Jainism.

[6-28-496-8128]

Hi.

I like your blog! It seems you really think things through.

But are white people not indigenous, too? They too come from areas on Earth, right? So would they not be indigenous to those areas? What about for example the Caucasus region? What about all the white people who still live in Europe and whose ancestors never went to America?

I get that American white people are clearly not indigenous, but I am not as convinced about the European white people.

[RohanMcAvee]

I like your blog! It seems you really think things through.

Thank you

But are white people not indigenous, too? They too come from areas on Earth, right? So would they not be indigenous to those areas? What about for example the Caucasus region? What about all the white people who still live in Europe and whose ancestors never went to America?

I get that American white people are clearly not indigenous, but I am not as convinced about the European white people.

It's a great point. White people are, of course, indigenous to Europe and places like the Caucasus region. The Caucasus is actually a real melting pot of genetic variation with influences from all points of the compass. Equating Caucasians with white people is not all that accurate, in reality.

I think the argument goes that white Europeans had colonised places like Africa and the Americas, dominating or displacing those indigenous people and profiting handsomely by doing so.

This has created a situation, in the modern world, where white dominated financial systems control the flow of money and have created prosperity in the Western world.

It is this prosperity that has allowed veganism to flourish because it has given us access to foods which may not have been available, had history not played out in the way it did.

The anti-indigenous argument seems to have come about because some enthusiastic vegans have attacked indigenous people for hunting and living their traditional way of life - which involves meat eating. Then this developed into an excuse for indigenous people who do live in the cities and who could go vegan, to reject veganism as anti-indigenous.

In my article I try to show that veganism actually has nothing to do with being anti-indigenous (not sure if I succeeded!) and the argument is just a distraction from what we should be focusing on ... which is animal oppression, of course.

Thank you again for reading my blog

[6-28-496-8128]

Very interesting. I know white people have the most power, but I did not put much thought into where it came from. I guess it makes sense that a significant part of it would come from plundering other nations, as is still done by white cultures today. All that plundering has got to be profitable!

I used to dislike ethnicity arguments, but now I opened up a lot to them. I think they often make very good points which I just used to overlook entirely.

Equating Caucasians with white people is not all that accurate, in reality.

Indeed, this is something I very recently learned. The history of races and ethnicities is pretty complicated. I guess that happens when you keep mixing them all the time. It is pretty difficult to even get my terminology straight.

This has created a situation, in the modern world, where white dominated financial systems control the flow of money and have created prosperity in the Western world.

This to me is a kind of ethical problem that is pretty common. On the one hand people deserve to keep their property as they acquired it honestly be e.g. doing fair work. But on the other hand, their wealth is "dirty" wealth because it came from crimes thanks to which other people now live in poverty. This is a situation that is guaranteed to be unethical because the unethical damage has already been done by people who are not involved anymore.

What characterises these kind of ethical problems is that there is some damage whereby everyone has the right to live without that damage, but no one has the duty to undo the damage. So if you solve it then that is by unethical means through burdening people with a burden they should not have, but if you let people live with it is unethical as well because those people deserve to not have to suffer the damage. These kinds of damages come from unethical acts, like violent colonialism.

[RohanMcAvee]

The history of races and ethnicities is pretty complicated. I guess that happens when you keep mixing them all the time.

For me this really cuts to the heart of it. I mean, what is indigenous anyway? We're all part of the human race and we are all indigenous to planet earth. The sooner we all realise that and start respecting all life, the better