Every step toward a plant based diet is positive, deserves respect and support

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Message for Savvy Vegetarian:

“I was so excited to find your site and have recommended it to tons of folks and posted it on Facebook walls for my clients.

I was horrified to see eggs and dairy products in some of your recipes. Why on earth would you be promoting eggs and dairy? It contributes to massive suffering, planet destruction and human disease.

Please consider making your site vegan and ditch the eggs and diary. Until then i will not promote anymore.” Sincerely, Lisa S.

Savvy Vegetarian Response:

Hi Lisa,

I’m sorry you feel that way. I’m not sure what I can say that won’t sound defensive, and inspire outraged vegans to throw rotten tomatoes, but I’ll do my best.

Savvy Vegetarian is inclusive, not exclusive. On the home page, right at the top, it says, “Savvy Vegetarian is for everybody, from life long vegetarian or vegan to just thinking about a vegetarian or plant based diet.”

Just For the Record: Savvy Vegetarian recipes are 90 - 95% vegan. A small number of the recipes have eggs and dairy, dating from my pre-vegan days. Many of those have vegan options.

I can think of maybe half a dozen purely lacto or ovo-lacto recipes out of close to 400. We intend to add vegan versions, but that project isn’t top priority. I’m not forcing anyone to make those recipes, or promoting eggs & dairy. Nor am I enforcing a vegan diet.

If I were to make Savvy Vegetarian 100% vegan, that would exclude a lot of people who might someday become vegan and who need support getting there, in their own time and their own way. If they decide to get there.

In my experience, going veg is a personal journey. Some people go fast, some go slow. For some it’s easy, for others it’s hard.

Some can jump right into a vegan diet and do it for the rest of their lives. Some go back and forth between veg and non-veg for many years. There isn’t a set of rules that can be applied to everybody.

My Story: I’m 64 years old and I’ve been vegan for 3 years. Before that I was an ovo-lacto vegetarian for 30 years. Before that for 7 years I considered myself a vegetarian but ate fish once a week.

I started my vegetarian career as an extreme macrobiotic, quickly developed malnutrition, and went back to eating meat for a while before I went vegetarian again. That’s 42 years of commitment to a vegetarian diet.

Do you think that only the last 3 years of my journey count, and not all the years which brought me to the point of going vegan?

I admire your concern for the planet, and for human & animal suffering.

But what’s your feeling about those people who want to go vegetarian and need help and support? Do you honestly feel that they shouldn’t get any help unless they go strictly vegan immediately?

By turning your back on Savvy Vegetarian, you’re throwing the baby out with the bathwater, depriving yourself and others of a valuable resource for adopting a plant based diet. Why would you want to do that?

The day may come when there is no omnivore, no vegetarian, only vegan, but it won’t be soon.

Meanwhile I would rather see many people going vegetarian or semi-veg than a tiny minority going 100% vegan. I think that would have a far greater and more immediate impact on the environment and on human and animal suffering.

In my opinion, “my way or no way” veganism repels more people than it attracts. Please have compassion and tolerance for those who are on the same path, but in different locations.

My belief, and the basis of Savvy Vegetarian:

Every step that anyone makes toward a more plant based diet is positive for themselves and the planet, and deserves respect and support.

Related Posts

^[2]Savvy Vegetarian Comments on French Vegan Baby Death ^[2]

^[3]Pro-Choice Vegetarian: “I Don’t Care What’s On Your Plate” ^[3]

^[4]The Jazzy Vegetarian Interviews The Savvy Vegetarian ^[4]

^[5]Your Vegetarian Diet Is YOUR Business! ^[5]