I am an urban vegan. I love the glossy pages of Vogue, even though I won't purchase the leather shoes and bags I see there, and being reminded that the fur trade even exists breaks my heart. It simply feels right to me to blend the glittery delights of New York City with a largely raw vegan diet -- with the soul-deep conviction that animals are not ours to eat, wear, exploit or experiment on. I sincerely believe that I'm meant to discover God, truth and how to be of service each day, right here on the magical island of Manhattan.
Like so many others for over 400 years, I am an immigrant -- not from Holland or England, Germany or Ireland, China or Pakistan, but from Kansas City. I write books and wanted to be where the publishers are, and the media, and that wealth of literary history alive today in the Algonquin Round Table and the Chelsea Hotel. But, truth be told, I was also drawn here by the grassy aroma of East Village juice bars and the heady fragrance of Bergdorf's perfume counter -- olfactory contradictions perhaps, but each enticing in its own way. This city, I believed, would accommodate all my aspects: my love of fashion and my PETA membership, the mutts and the Met, a desire to set the world on fire as a writer and speaker, juxtaposed with the prayer I learned in my first yoga class.
"May all that has life be freed from suffering."
I have found, after almost a decade, that this place does look after my motley facets, dependably and elegantly. It's not a panacea -- seeing those carriage horses out in traffic in every kind of weather makes me angry and miserable all at once -- but as planet Earth goes, New York is pretty terrific. When I wake up each morning and raise the shades, I experience the daily realization: I'm still here. "If you can make it here, you'll make it anywhere," Liza sang to me full-blast from the boom box the morning I left Kansas City. Lifting the blinds one more time tells me that I have made it -- for another 24 hours anyhow.
Not long after I arrived here, I had a midday chiropractic appointment near Grand Central. Famished at 2 p.m. when I left the doctor's office, I figured I'd settle for French fries or some other less-than-lofty food court fare at the terminal. When I found a pizza stand there that offered a "Mother Earth" slice -- whole-wheat crust, tomato sauce and tons of veggies. "Vegan," the sign said. I almost got teary. It was as if New York was telling me: "I've seen it all, kid. There's no religion or culture or language or cuisine I haven't been able to deal with. Taking care of you will be a piece a cake -- in your case, without eggs."
Even the street vendors catch on. During a fundraising walk for Farm Sanctuary (an idyllic home upstate for some of the most abused animals once destined for a dinner plate), a purveyor of scarves and shawls called out, "Genuine pashminas, the real thing, only $10." But after reading the signs carried by scores of potential customers, he changed his pitch: "Fake pashminas, just $10. No animal was harmed."
I love how relatively effortless it is to be myself here, my whole self. Back in the Midwest, shopping for non-leather shoes meant mail-order and PayLess. But on the Lower East Side there's an entire store, MooShoes, with vegan footwear, bags, wallets, and belts, and a bevy of rescued cats lounging about and adding ambiance. Babycakes, a vegan bakery, is around the corner; and at Teany, a cafe nearby, I can indulge in the Anglophile's favorite, afternoon tea, and have the option of every scone, pastry and crustless sandwich being free of animal products.
Of course there is tantalizing plant-based cuisine all over the place. Downtown mostly, but Uptown, too. Candle 79 and Cafe Blossom are upscale date spots; Peacefood Cafe and Raw Soul offer satisfying food in casual settings. I'd grown so accustomed to the near ubiquity of vegan fare that I was embarrassed several months ago when I ordered chocolate mousse and realized halfway through: "Wait a minute. This place doesn't make theirs with tofu." My lunch companion marveled at my "willpower" for being able to walk away from an only partially eaten dessert, while I was lamenting a foolish mistake. It was a reminder that I may never be a "perfect" vegan or, for that matter, a perfect New Yorker.
The two pair beautifully, however, imperfections and all. In hiking around town, I revel in the metropolitan fauna -- pigeons, squirrels, great bunches of dogs on pack walks with their nannies. I relish the plethora of farmers' markets, and the way fresh flowers and spring greens and Jersey tomatoes look like art again a backdrop of asphalt and concrete, stone and steel. On my monthly trip to the Westerly, a natural foods store in Midtown with narrow aisles and intuitive shelving, I celebrate this independent retailer and all those still surviving. And I feel smug that the Westerly's prices are so decent, the savings pays for my taxi back to Harlem.
I also find here the blessing of community. I connect with my tribe of different-drummer diners through events like Vegan Drinks (once a month, Downtown), somebody's book signing or somebody else's benefit, and meetings of the Sustainable Leadership Council where people in the vegan and animal advocacy network get together to share resources. These colleagues inspire me. They're dedicated to the max. And a handful of them read Vogue.
Follow Victoria Moran on Twitter: www.twitter.com/Victoria_Moran
SuperVegan - Vegan Blog and New York City Restaurant Guide
SuperVegan - NYC Vegan Restaurant Guide
Friends of Animals | New York Vegan Restaurant Guide
Vegetarian Restaurants New York - Health Food Stores by HappyCow
New York City Vegetarian Restaurants -HappyCow- Health Food ...
Potato chips are full of fat!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! They are fat AND salt and a paper thin slice of starch! No wonder our children don't eat, their stomachs are full of empty calories---they don't have a chance to be hungry for GOOD food.
But it always makes me sad when people who eat meat preemptively attack veganism.
In Eating Animals, JSF says it better than me,
"I can't count the times that upon telling someone I am vegetarian, he or she responded by pointing out an inconsistency in my lifestyle or trying to find a flaw in an argument I never made. (I have often felt that my vegetarianism matters more to such people than it does to me.)"
Does claiming plants have intelligence justify killing animals for food? Not to me, it doesn't. To compare plant suffering to animal suffering, and then to ignore it, to imply that they might as well suffer equally is not an argument against veganism. It's just a rationalization for meat eating. In actuality, plants don't have brains to think or nervous systems to feel pain.
Veganism is definitely not a black-and-white way of thinking. It's about being more aware of every choice we make and how it affects ourselves, others and the world around us. It's about reducing harm and suffering. it's not about making others feel guilty for their choices. If you can stomach the suffering and still want to eat meat, that's your right, but every time someone gets defensive about eating meat (when nobody attacks them for doing so), I wonder if they'd eat their own pet puppy, without the slightest feeling of guilt.
If you want to be "aware of every choice we make and how it affects ourselves, others and the world around us', then you should actually read what I wrote, as a vegan diet does NOT "reduce harm and suffering."
we can agree that factory farming causes more suffering, pollution and disease than either of our alternatives. we're both against harm. so that's a good start.
i respect ethical omnivores. I just hope they don't resort to factory-farmed animals (including sealife who have it the worst), because most of the time when you're hungry it's hard to find ethically raised animals.
But i don't agree with your attack on veganism. Vegan food doesn't come in pretty packages only for vegans. We're talking about fruits, vegetables, grains, nuts, legumes that everyone eats (unless you're saying you don't eat any fruits and vegetables).
In your argument, it's not the concept of veganism (which is more than just a diet) that's flawed. What you pointed out was the flawed execution, if anything. Even if what you're saying is true, vegans would want to adjust by not having animals killed in the process of growing vegetables. It doesn't mean we just go back to eating (ethically raised) animals.
Yes, biologically we're omnivores and it's our natural imperative to eat meat. But it is my choice not to. If an animal lived a long happy life and died peacefully and naturally, I still wouldn't eat it.
hypothetically a vegan can organically grow everything he needs in his backyard and eat that all day, right? If there's a will, there's a way, no?
Michaeleenflynn - Interesting perspective. I don't think veganism is about being perfect. It's about having the intention of not harming other beings.
BTW, I agree that NY has lots of good options - with regard to veg/vegan/macrobiotic options, Angelica's on E12th is my fave, I have been eating there since the early 90s.
In the U.S. the livestock population consumes more than 7 times as much grain as is consumed directly by the entire American population.
But even if it were true...nothing compares to the horrors of the slaughterhouse and factory farms. NOthing. And even animals raised on green pastures have to endure hell at the end.
I live in the LA area I feel I am very much like you! I am an urban vegan. I love fashion, creativity, positive cultural events. I love to go to book events, fundraisers...especially for animals. I have a strong spiritual bent and am grateful for the groups around me I can join for a spiritual community.
I, too, relish and am very grateful for all the abundance we have in vegan foods. When I go to the health food store I am always glad at the huge bulk section with many different types of grain, beans, nuts. Also the explosion in mock meats for fun occasionals and that allows us to make Betty Crocker type vegan recipes! www.meetshannons.net is a couple who is doing just that...showing us we can eat these kinds of foods vegan and in a fun way.
I also love the farmer's market, exploring new vegetables and constantly trying new recipes and developing my cooking skills. Also, there are so many wonderful vegan cookbooks out there to make delicious, healthy, cruelty free foods. This summer I want to make vegan fruit pies...no or low sugar.
In this era of vegan abundance...there is no need to feel bored or deprived. We are so lucky and blessed.
The point is, live and let live eh?
Why you would choose such a nice post, about a woman's joy and wonder at living in a city that is friendly to her lifestyle, to be confrontational, I just don't understand. You have gone to some effort to elicit condemnation from vegans to justify your presence, but you have received none. I'm sure you can find other articles where you can argue if that is your desire.
Might I suggest the article titled "Can you eat meat and still support the environment?" You will find much like-minded vegan-bashing there, and you will not be raining on this particular author's parade. It is a win-win.
.We cannot subsume our biological status as omnivores. This is not a logical fallacy, it’s biology. Everything you do to try to get around that truth results in far more wasteful and wanton killing.
So much for being "vegan".
All your so called “vegan” food comes at the cost of hundreds of millions of lives of innocent wild animals killed during the cultivation, production, harvesting, storage, and protection of all that wasteful plant food. All that so called “vegan” food in pretty packages at the grocery store is produced with earth-killing, petroleum-fed machinery, and does absolutely nothing whatsoever to “save” animals… particularly when we note that all your so called “vegan” food is fertilized almost exclusively through either the animal waste byproducts of factory farming or through… petroleum based fertilizers. Food that comes from ethically grass-pastured meat and dairy animals does not contribute to either factory farming, killing innocent wildlife in atrocious numbers, or the billions of gallons of oil now spilling into the Gulf of Mexico… however, your “vegan” grains and veggies do. Let’s not even begin to get into synthetic textiles.
You, as a vegan, are far more entrenched in the “unjust paradigm” of “specisim” than I as an ethical omnivore will ever be. We are omnivorous primates as designed by nature. No amount of wishing and hand-waving will dismiss that reality. You cannot cheat your way around nature. The laughable part about veganism is how hard you people try to do so… and in so doing, are promoting a grossly unsustainable and horrifically murderous philosophy on behalf of a largely meaningless theoretical ideology.
Hey, and don't fret about the mousse mistake. I was so moved by my desire for the avocado and sprouts listed as ingredients I mistakenly ordered a BLT. I've been veg for 35 years.
What was I thinking? Of course there was bacon on it too!
I haven't eaten red meat in twenty years, no fowl for three years, but the big health change came from going organic, and dairy free. I finally sleep like a baby, feel free and wonderful and have never enjoyed life so much. Read "Eating Animals" by Jonathan Safran Foer..... a fantastic book that every human being should be required to read.