Vegan Conversion Stories

[garrethdsouza]

Has this been done? How people got to becoming vegan?

[EquALLity]

I have one friend who self identifies as vegan. It happened like this.

Awhile ago, my friend (that utilitarian again) created 'debate club'. Barely any people went after a club merge and then demerge (complicated and not relevant), but we had really great debates. We had a debate on animal testing, my (now vegan) friend and I being on the against side, and the next day she told me she was a vegetarian. She also followed my animal rightsy Instagram account, and I think that was a big part of it too, because I posted a lot of pro-vegan things that she liked. I also showed her Earthlings, and that's when she first described having interest in veganism.

She later wanted help going vegan, and I wrote her a small guide, and recommended some other resources.

She told me she was vegan about two weeks ago, and later that she gradually cut things out throughout the month. I was really surprised.

I have friends who want to be vegan/vegetarian, but their parents aren't open to it.

I have three close vegetarian friends. One went for the animals as a New Year's resolution with her mom (her mom gave up), even though I don't think we really talked about it. Another went vegetarian after I got into an argument with a meat-eating friend about carnism, and my friend sided with me. He said he was hypocritical, and started the change right there. Another went vegetarian for health reasons, and she also sided with me in that debate, so now she agrees with vegetarianism morally as well. That meat-eating friend is actually trying to be a pescatarian now (it took a lot of debate to get him out of his "I don't give enough shits to change even though I recognize it is unethical" mentality).

I also have a friend who went vegetarian for two months. She said she did it to upset her parents (but I'm pretty sure that was a joke). When I tried to convince her to stay, she used her religion as an excuse (my religion says I have to eat meat this time of year blah blah blah), and that it's really hard. I debunked the religion thing, but she didn't really seem to care.

Then I have a friend who told me she was sick for awhile and decided to go vegan for a certain period of time for health reasons. She went vegetarian almost a year ago but failed, and was then really closed-minded towards veganism. When I tried to show her Earthlings, she said, "I eat meat, that's not going to change." She went from Catholic (raised) to atheist to Mormon (she was Mormon at the time she said that) for about 6 months, and is now an atheist again. She might have just been going through a closed-minded period.

Lastly, I have a family member who went pescatarian or vegetarian (can't remember). I didn't really talk to her about it either. She might've asked questions about it. I don't remember.

Rational debate and education, I guess? Some people also just seem to need to know a ve*an. Maybe it plants a seed.

[thebestofenergy]

I can see you have good taste in anime
FMAB is one of my favourite - if not my favourite - anime.
Did you draw that picture yourself?

I remember a similar thread, but it's really old, and new members have most likely missed it.
We pretty much make people tell us how/why they went vegan in their introduction post

Since I was a kid, I've always tought that eating animals was wrong.
How could I care for my dog, but not for pigs? How could I think of myself as an animal lover by eating them?
Why not just eat plants?

My father and my entire family was really against it (except my mother). And I wasn't really aware of things at that age.
They were saying things like 'it's the circle of life', 'it's nature', 'you don't grow muscles', 'you need meat to grow like you should', or just laugh. It's pretty pathetic that even the doctor said that I should've gone vegetarian only after being completely grown.
But hey, when it comes to nutrition, most doctors are completely ignorant. I've met so many idiots in the medical community who know nothing about nutrition, but still feel competent enough to give the wrong advice.

One day, when I was in India with my parents (travelling for work), we sat in a restaurant to order food.
You could choose live lobsters from the acquarium, and they'd cook them for you - I was already disgusted at that idea.
But when we ordered some of them, and I saw the same lobsters I saw alive before, dead in my plate, that was the final straw.
I didn't care for what my family said. I went vegetarian overnight, and never touched a piece of meat again (except the rare casual occasion where people 'accidentally' put a piece of meat in my plate).
Fortunately, my mother was really supportive, and I convinced her to go vegetarian with me.
So, I went vegetarian at 10.

I've been hearing the word 'vegan' here and there, but never really cared - I tought it was for some other reason, nothing related to ethics.
Then, one day, while I was talking with a friend at a dinner table with his family, his father said (he wasn't vegan): 'if you do it for moral reasons, then you should be vegan'. I asked why, and he roughly explained me.
So, I looked it up. I came accross TVA's channel, and I watched some lectures and presentations (Earthlings, Gary Yourofsky's speech, etc.). Before that, I didn't know how dairy and eggs would get to my plate, and I didn't know what consequences it was having.
So, I went vegan immediatly, after a day of research - with my mother following me (I was 17).
It's probably the moment where I felt the most dumb in my life. 7 years, and I didn't think about any of that? How was that possible?
I hated myself for that.

That's pretty much it. The story came longer than I expected.

[EquALLity]

Wait... Is this about forum members going vegan, or forum members' stories of getting other people to go vegan?

[thebestofenergy]

Wait... Is this about forum members going vegan, or forum members' stories of getting other people to go vegan?

LOL
Sorry, my bad. Read the title wrong.
Well, that might count as how I got my mother to be vegan.

Regarding converting people to veganism/vegetarianism...
I've only really converted my mother.
I made a few friends of mine and my grandparents diminish their consumtion in meat/dairy after hearing some rational argument, but no complete switches.

[EquALLity]

LOL
Sorry, my bad. Read the title wrong.

But it might be the conversion of yourself to veganism, so I don't know...

[knot]

Myself: Watching Earthlings many years ago was probably where it started. Didn't stop eating meat because of it, but I always had it in the back of my mind. Later on I found some videos with Peter Singer and then it went from tehre..

Others: I've only managed to convince my mom, seems like it's effin' impossible to convince anyone else. Maybe I have planted seeds of doubt that will eventually amount to something :3

[zeello]

What's funny is, I don't remember 100% where my interest in veganism came from. It happened gradually I guess. I think Food Inc played a large role, but I rented that movie by own choice, so I was obviously halfway there already. Maybe i was just interested in the gmo debate, but actually, I think the Mario parody PETA flash game, in which you play as mustached chicks, might have been where it all started for me. (and maybe the Cooking Mama flash game) PETA is not taken seriously, but I took the footage in the game as authentic. It would be illogical to ignore the truth just because I did not like the truth teller.

Never heard of Earthlings until this thread, maybe I should check it out.

[garrethdsouza]

Myself: I had interacted with my traditionally vegetarian friends from hindu upbringing and they suggested they wouldn't have minded the meat if it wasn't for the pain component. So I felt that made sense to me and I started going off some meat like beef and pork, then one of them sent me earthlings and that started me questioning why exactly was I OK with it.

Then I came across einsteins quotes on vegetarianism and I always respected his views as a scientist so I was also taken aback about his stance. I came across how many vegans were atheists and i also started seeing the connection about the rationality and ethics of my choice. Then after watching peter singers videos, and his interview with Dawkins, along with thereasonablevegan's post and cowspiracy I decided I'd go vegetarian and in a few months vegan. I also liked PETA's video "skin", seeing the animals condition personified literally also was pretty important. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=kr-xkM0RruA
Others: a friend of mine changed to vegetarian after my debates on a freethinkers forum and said they want to progress to vegan too, another friend who was vegetarian for the animals, I sent her earthlings and she switched overnight and is now a dxe member in Mumbai.