Who is this hippie, tree hugging, animal loving New Yorker?
- May 5, 2015
- 4 min read
Hello my name is Marixsa Watson I am studying Animal Behaviour/ Wildlife Conservation, the founder of the Raintree Conservation Society, and I am the vegan in the room.
There I said it.
Some of us have heard the old joke how do you know someone is vegan? Because they will tell you. Well I will definitely tell you and then feed you a delicious variety of food so you know I don’t just eat grass.
I am an ethical vegan first and an environmental vegan second. That simply means I love animals. All animals. I believe they think and feel just like human animals and the idea of eating a dead, decomposing body or the fluids is just to... what is the word I am looking for, oh yes disgusting.
As for being an environmental vegan well I think destroying the rain forest so we can plant grain not to feed the millions of people that are starving worldwide but cattle so then we can feed cattle to people is in poor judgement.
Where it all began
I was not raised vegan or even vegetarian for that matter, but when I was about 12 years old I realised that I loved everyone non human and human animals alike. I stayed vegetarian for many years and although I was classed as a ‘junk food vegetarian’ eating mostly rice, beans, pasta and my favourite pizza. And yes I still eat pizza with cheese, which is vegan of course. It wasn’t until I was misled by my doctor that I started eating meat again. Being a ‘junk food vegetarian’ met I wasn’t getting enough nutrients. I mean spinach and broccoli yuck. I was on the verge of becoming anemic and was looking, well unhealthy. So I chose to slowly and regrettably eat meat again. After over a decade my body was not to pleased with this change at first. Over time I put the blinders back on and tried not to think about what I consumed. If anyone pointed it out it would put me off completely leaving whatever I was eating on the plate.
Sure I would sometimes go months and sometimes years without eating those wonderful animals I once loved but it wasn’t until a few years ago that I found the support I needed.
Close friends of mine went vegetarian for health reasons. Just trying to get an edge on being healthy and I ran with it. I campaigned for vegetarianism to my meat loving husband and he went for it although not fully committing. I was doing it for health reason and felt great.
Vegucated - My new life
One night I decided to watch a ‘smart’ film (that’s what I call a documentary) that had been sitting on my Netflix list for a few months named Vegucated. This was a life changing film for me. It is a pretty basic documentary. It follows 3 New Yorkers (I like the sound of that) that decided to adapt a vegan lifestyle for 6 weeks. It shows their journey and explains the health and environmental benefits of a vegan lifestyle. They are also shown a short clip of life on a dairy farm. By short I mean maybe 3 minutes long. Now pay attention because this is where my blinders came off. I saw a cow give birth and before her baby hits the ground the farmer is already dragging him/her away. She immediately gives chase and
was crying for her baby, only to have a metal gate slammed on her. I still cry when I think of this clip and yes tears are making their escape from my eyes as I type.
I paused the film and collected myself. This took a few minutes. I went downstairs to announce to my husband I will no longer eat cheese or any other dairy products. He looked baffled and I turned around and went back to finish my vegucation.
No looking back
My vegetarian friends who also watched the film just a few days after I did also adapted a vegan lifestyle along with my husband. Now I am not suggesting the film will change everyone but it was a real eye opener and I will have to add it to the films Raintree Conservation will be featuring next year. I think it set me back on my previous path of being a voice for those who cannot speak. This also includes human animals. People die of starvation everyday. We destroy our rainforest everyday. We wipe out entire species everyday. We overfish and destroy our waters. We cannot continue this destructive path or we will not be here and if we are it will not be the future we dreamed about for ourselves or our future generations.
Only the beginning
I am here to help guide, give information, recipes and let you know how you can help save not only the non human animals and the planet but ourselves. I say be selfish save yourself and the rest is just a bonus.
Now for food
I’ll leave you with one of my favourite recipes coconut bacon by Cookie and Kate. It is fairly inexpensive. The liquid smoke can be used in other recipes like pulled ‘pork’ and is the most expensive thing you will buy on this list. I purchased a 3 pack on Amazon (they have free delivery on student accounts) almost a year ago and still have 1 left. It comes in different flavours so it is completely up to you. Remember if this is new to you like all things it take practice. The more you cook the better you get at it. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do and keep an eye out for my next recipe BBQ pulled ‘pork’.
Click on the link below.
Comments