Practicing Veganism In a Constantly Changing Cultural Landscape: How Does One Do It?

Going vegan requires more than just determination and values

Photo by Kimson Doan on Unsplash

This issue is discussed through personal experiences and must not be taken to be a binding and absolute judgement of anything.

Going vegan isn’t as easy as you think. Ground realities must be taken into account whenever attempting something out of the ordinary, especially choosing a different dietary path, something that is so intrinsically tied to culture and tradition. In most cases, there is a huge chasm between the expectations of following a vegan lifestyle and the capacity to live such a life in a non-vegan world. Most often, the ground realities are much more harsh and unforgiving.

So how exactly does one stay vegan amongst the constantly changing tides?

In this article, I talk about my personal vegan journey of about little more than a decade, and how the meteoric culture shift in my city put me at a crossroads that would break my firm belief and conviction to continue following the diet. But first, a little bit of background. I grew up as a meat eater for the first 20 years of life. I ate seafood, chicken, dairy, and poultry on a daily basis. Lamb was consumed very sparingly may be around once or twice a month. Beef and pork were literally unheard of. I then…