Welcome to Your Daily Vegan!

My very first post! Everyone has to start somewhere, and I’m starting right here! I started this website because I want to spread veganism as far and wide as I can. I’ll be talking about the ins and outs of living vegan, and I might even toss together a few recipes. I’ll be talking about all the fresh vegan products I find and places to go. I also want to feature other vegans and their stories, so we all feel less alone. I’ll be talking about a lot.

My vegan journey began on January 1, 2005. In those days, you’d be thrilled to find a veggie burger on a restaurant menu, even if it tasted like cardboard, and finding vegan cheese that could melt was impossible. I had been vegetarian for many years before becoming vegan, so I was familiar with the vegan diet, and making the transition wasn’t hard for me.

What’s in a name?

I decided to name this site Your Daily Vegan, or YDV for short. I wanted the word ‘vegan’ in the title for obvious reasons, and I chose ‘your’ and ‘daily’ to invoke an old fashioned newspaper. When I imagined how I wanted this site to be, I imagined a vegan newspaper. Plus, I like the way YDV sounded as an acronym- strong.

What’s in a logo?

By now, you’ve noticed the cool Your Daily Vegan logo. Let me tell you about that.

When I decided to live vegan, I also decided to start researching the ethical aspects of veganism at length. Once I learned the truth of how we treat animals, I saw the world in a whole new way. My years of research led me to believe that I had become well-educated on the subject of veganism- I even wrote several position papers in its favor. So when I planned the trip to Farm Sanctuary in 2008, I didn’t anticipate learning something that I didn’t already know.

But I did, and what I learned changed my life.

My Visit to Farm Sanctuary

It was a cold day in October that I visited Farm Sanctuary. I had misread the website and chose the wrong day to visit because they were closed to the public that day. After explaining the situation, the staff graciously let me walk the sanctuary- though I wasn’t permitted to enter any of the animal enclosures. Disappointed but grateful, I made my journey into the sanctuary.

Before I go on, I want to mention that I’ve been around many, many animals. I have lived in Ohio much of my life, which is home to plenty of farms- agricultural and fur. My uncle raised livestock on a farm where he still resides today. My parents loved animals so that we would visit the zoo often- we even drove to other states to visit their zoos. For as far back as I can remember, my family always had a few animals living with us- dogs, cats, gerbils, mice, or birds of every size, color, and species. I have always loved animals and have sought out every opportunity to be with them. I thought that my familiarity with being around animals had given me a good idea of who animals are.

I was utterly wrong.

Walking among the animals living at the sanctuary, I witnessed something that I had never seen before- the animals were living. Not free- it would be unsafe for them to exist in our human world without protection- but free to exist without human obligation. I had never experienced animal freedom like this before, and it was intoxicating. Seeing the animals in the sanctuary environment was like seeing animals for the very first time. The animals, for me, had always been a group to advocate on behalf of- but seeing them face-to-face and eye-to-eye, the animals stopped being a group and instead became individuals.

It was during this trip that I met DiMaggio.

I don’t know a lot about his history, where he came from or how he arrived at the sanctuary, but he was there that cold October day- welcoming and so friendly. I had stopped at the goat enclosure and was chatting up some of the other goats when DiMaggio came over and butted in, rubbing his horns on the fence in-between us. I’m a sucker for a cute goat face. I scratched his ears and back; I talked to him- I fawned over him for a good half hour and then tried to walk away, but DiMaggio was having none of it. He followed me up and down the fence, talking to me- encouraging me to spend more time with him. I didn’t want to leave, and he didn’t want me to go. I did eventually, but only after a few sniffles and a vow to visit again someday.

I left Farm Sanctuary that cold October day with a stronger connection to animals and an intense desire to advocate on their behalf. The seed of inspiration was planted, and a few months later, I started Your Daily Vegan.

What’s in a blog?

Without a doubt, my veganism is the most important thing to me. I want to share my journey with you. I hope we become great friends, you and I. I have big plans for Your Daily Vegan. I want to create a vegan resource for the community- to help people go vegan and stay vegan, to help answer basic questions about nutrition or cooking, and create guides on the grey areas of veganism like zoos, for example. If you have anything you want to share or want to see covered, let me know in the comments.

I’m so excited to see where this journey takes me; I am glad you’re here with me for the ride. Let’s bring veganism and Your Daily Vegan to the mainstream!

Photo: Thomas Hawk