Your Daily Vegan

Petrol Storage Depot Fire

Money doesn’t really make the world go ’round, but virtually every modern society is obsessed with it. Many people say their life’s work is meaningless, little more than a means by which they bring money into their home. Success is often gauged in terms of how much money one has accumulated, or in terms of particular purchases that the accumulated money has enabled. Success then isn’t a measure of how happy or healthy a person or business may be, it’s simply a measure of financial status. It’s not possible to measure the success of our planet in these terms; Earth has no use for money. What the Earth does show us clearly though is that man’s insatiable quest for wealth is damaging the planet’s continued ability to sustain this species.

Every April businesses and citizens across the United States file their tax returns. Nearly every single business and citizen will have claimed deductions, i.e. amounts of taxes they feel they should be exempted from paying. Savvy companies and individuals will have planned for this throughout the year and may have amassed so many deductions that they end up paying little or no taxes at all. They probably believe this has worked out well and may even congratulate themselves, until it turns out that the government doesn’t have enough funds to function properly. Services get cut, government employees get laid off, benefit programs are suspended or stopped, parks are closed, funding programs get rolled back, and budgets are slashed. Government ceases to function as it intended, though through little fault of its own; its citizens and businesses didn’t fund it adequately. The once-savvy companies and individuals then get angry, start blaming everyone but themselves, and the arguments begin. At some point it should occur to them that they cannot keep taking without giving back, but that realization often comes too late; by the time the necessary funds are available again, those who relied on the cut programs may have given up or in certain cases even died.

Our planet operates in a similar way. It doesn’t need money, but it does need for every individual and every company to give back as much as we take. Without giving back to the Earth in equal terms we risk a budget deficit, and the planet may be forced to slash budgets and cut programs. Our weather is already no longer made in the USA; it has been outsourced to a handful of less expensive suppliers in China. Quality control is an issue so we may see the occasional drought, flood, heat wave, snowstorm, or other anomaly, but the savings are significant. Several years ago polar cooling was outsourced to some discounters in a free trade zone somewhere in South America. The Earth didn’t want to take this step, but it was entirely necessary given the budget that individuals and companies provided. Biodiversity and habitat maintenance are being handled by a coalition of prisoner work programs, and they provide very inexpensive management of this critical area. Their work is especially commendable given their lack of scientific expertise and the other challenges they face. Some habitat is lost and some species go extinct, but given the funding that individuals and corporations have provided the Earth we are all getting exceptional value.

The mainstream media tends to repeat phrases like “tax breaks” and “industry self-policing” and “market driven policy.” Despite that, at some point in the future funding may be restored to these programs, and then Earth will no longer be forced to outsource. The good news is that we decide when funding is restored. It is up to us, as individuals, as families, as schools, as businesses, as governments, and as a species – to begin giving back more than we take from the Earth. It’s really quite easy, just something we’ve lost touch with since petrochemicals began defining our lifestyles. Our entire species lived sustainably and organically until the early 1900s. Billions of human beings still do so today. We have the capacity, the knowledge, and the reason; all we need now is the desire. As individuals we need to decide that the continued existence of our species is worth more than the wasteful conveniences to which we have become accustomed. As companies we need to decide that the continued existence of life as we know it is worth more than the ceaseless pursuit of unending growth. As both individuals and companies we need to understand that happiness and health hold more value than money and possessions. We don’t need to return to the Stone Age or even to the 1900s to regain these values; we simply need to start living them.

Rob Branch-Dasch runs a vegan business researching ways to incorporate organic native and desert-tolerant plants into a compassionate, sustainable, healthy American diet for the future.

He is the author of KnowThankYou.com, a blog guaranteed to make you stop and think. He and his wife share their home with Marbles, an adopted rabbit; Rosie, a rescued dog; and millions of uninvited dust mites that they are struggling to name.

Suggestions can be shared on the blog or via twitter at @knowthankyou
[line]Rob Branch-Dasch has been featured on Your Daily Vegan before! Check out his previous posts by visiting the YDV Contributors Hall of Fame.

These are the Stories of Vegan Evolution, stories from vegans around the world sharing their personal journey into veganism. Rob Branch-Dasch of KnowThankYou.com answers the ever important question, why vegan?

Hugo the Temptation Busting Cow

“Up!” I urged myself. “UP!” My legs pushed, fingers clawed, and slowly I pulled my body onto the next ledge. That October I had begun an ethnobotanical expedition of South America, and a few fences and warning signs weren’t going to keep me away from one of the world’s most amazing cultural landmarks. I had scaled half way up the side of Machu Picchu when the altitude and my early pot of Peruvian coca leaf tea shook my brain violently. A shimmering vision of a cow appeared before me, and almost at once her deep, brown eyes had me both hypnotized and paralyzed. I was powerless, able only to stare and listen to her urgent message. Her words still haunt me today; they went something like this: “Mooooooooooooooooo.” Unfortunately I don’t speak cow so probably missed the finer nuances of any detailed instructions. Nevertheless, my new vegan mission in life was clear.

Of course, that’s all complete bunk; coca leaf tea actually helps erase the symptoms of altitude sickness. And if you want to get technical, I’ve never actually been to South America. Unless you count Mississippi. But I have looked very deeply into a cow’s eyes, and do believe that on some species-spanning level we communicated. I suppose the story of how I became vegan really isn’t so glamorous after all.

As you’ve probably guessed I was one of those annoying little kids. Not a bully, and not even one of those obnoxious ones that runs around restaurants screaming and throwing feces. I was worse: one of those weird arty kids who spent more time socializing with trees and animals than with people. I created homemade signs with environmental messages and carried them through the neighborhood, picking up trash. That’s right, an annoying little do-gooder even back then. At that age though I didn’t understand the complex relationships between environment, animals, and health; I just wanted people to stop littering. I was a greenie very early on.

Years later a friend said she was giving up something for Lent and asked what I was giving up. I didn’t share her religion but chose to give up meat as a challenge. Some kind of challenge – I ended up enjoying life without meat. I reconnected with a lot of vegetables; it turned out to be something like joining Facebook. At that time I was living in Hawaii, and the local culture’s focus on health and its acceptance of vegetarian food was inspirational. I did resume eating meat, albeit in smaller quantities. My transition to a healthier diet and lifestyle had begun.

After I moved to Arizona I “bunnysat” for some friends while they were on holiday. I gave their rabbit friend Chloe free run of my home and was surprised to discover how vibrant a rabbit’s personality could be. When Chloe went home I decided immediately to adopt a rabbit from a rescue group. I discovered a friendly little fella that was almost entirely black, except for silver fur on the bottoms of his feet and a tiny goatee. He looked something like a hopping motorcycle jacket and I named him Spike. He changed me forever.

I adopted Spike when he was just six weeks old and searched the internet high and low for responsible care information. This was the mid nineties so there wasn’t as much online, but search results often surprised me with sites about vivisection. What? Animal testing! LD50! LD100! How people could do that to someone as precious as Spike was beyond my comprehension. Many of the sites promoted veganism as a way of reducing animal suffering, so veganism became my goal. I created a list of manageable steps and went about achieving them. I took veganism out, kicked the tires, and it ran perfectly. I had some questions but didn’t know any vegans to turn to; unfortunately I didn’t realize yet that almost any sun-avoiding, underweight, tattooed, highly caffeinated person wearing Chucks was likely to be vegan. I was sure I was doing the right thing but felt like I was on a lone crusade; I needed direction, tips, and some reassurance that being vegan wasn’t somehow turning my brain into a block of tofu.

That reassurance was received when I joined Arizona’s first Farm Sanctuary Walk For Farm Animals. As our group walked through Scottsdale carrying signs proclaiming that farm animals had feelings, other people stared at us. I didn’t just feel different, suddenly I also felt like I was part of a different group, and part of a better future. I began talking to others on the Walk and discovered that most of them were also vegan. They included all kinds of people; some weren’t thin, pale, or tattooed, and none of them had either visible scars or electronic ankle bracelets. It appeared that I could actually be vegan and remain successfully embedded in the omnivore’s world while working to change it. I never looked back.

More than a decade later temptations have come up, they’ve been easily controlled – probably because I’m an ethical vegan and made the transition in manageable steps. The cheeses, desserts, meats, and other foods that some people miss haven’t swayed me. A visit to Farm Sanctuary later was also a big help; there I met a peaceful cow named Hugo. I apologized to him for all the horrors that my previous lifestyle had supported, and promised him that if I were ever tempted by those things again that I would stop and think of him. I also think of a future in which all animals – including humans – can live naturally, peacefully, and sustainably. In such a future, wonderful organizations like Farm Sanctuary won’t even be necessary. That’s because veganism won’t be glamorous, it will simply be normal.

As a vegan, you know that there are all sorts of challenges that you can be up against. From deciphering food labels, all the way to critically rethinking everything you’ve ever been taught about the rights of animals- veganism isn’t always black and white. One of the things that can help is knowing that there are other people out there facing the same issues you are and hearing their stories.  It creates community, it creates a place for education- a place to share experiences so that we can all grow and evolve even further.

Find out how to contribute to Your Daily Vegan- who will you inspire with your vegan compassion today?