One thing I struggle with is how to cope with my non-vegan family, both my wife and puppies as well as my parents, brother and sister. My ideas on veganism and vegetarianism are probably not shared by those who are one or the other. In fact, if we look at the definition of each in the New Oxford American Dictionary, we find the following definitions:
Vegan
noun
a person who does not eat or use animal products : I’m a strict vegan | [as adj. ] a vegan diet.
Vegetarian
noun
a person who does not eat meat, and sometimes other animal products, esp. for moral, religious, or health reasons.
adjective
of or relating to the exclusion of meat or other animal products from the diet : a vegetarian restaurant.
I, however, consider veganism synonymous with activism, animal rights as well as a strict vegetarian diet. In other words, veganism is a much broader characterization of its meaning. But vegetarianism, in my opinion, has meaning that is much more specific. I think that it only has to do with one’s diet. Thus the various categories in which it falls: strict, ovo-lacto, etc. As a vegan, when I say that mine is a vegetarian diet, I mean a strictly no-animal ingredients whatsoever diet, which is synonymous with what is termed a vegan diet.
So I’ve been pondering some questions and ideas, one of which has to do with the questions of living in a non-vegan home. I wonder to myself if being vegan means that if you cannot convince your family of its virtues then you let one another live as each wishes. But also, I wonder, does it mean that if you are the primary cook in the family, should you cook non-vegan dishes for them? That is, if my wife wants a “juicy” steak or fried chicken, should you have her make her own?
Now, given my definition of vegetarianism, whether or not you are a strict vegetarian, if you don’t consider yourself a vegan, would there be a problem or some invalidation of your vegetarianism if you cook non-vegetarian dishes for your family? I think the key here is the fact that this kind of vegetarian does not consider themselves a vegan. If you don’t hold to the definition of vegan, thus considering yourself, perhaps only for reasons of health and taste, a vegetarian, then perhaps it is okay to cook non-vegetarian for your family since you hold no notion, necessarily, of the cruelty to animals to which a non-vegetarian diet contributes.
So as a vegan, I might recommend to other vegans to try to find for yourself a vegan mate or accept your non-vegan mate and refuse to contribute to suffering by holding to your values and refusing to cook non-vegetarian them. This might cause some level of consternation between the two of you, but, as I am discovering, if you can talk your mate into enjoying with you every so often a vegan meal, things between you might be less of a headache.
