Letter: For vegans, it’s not always easy being green

Published 1:30 am Wednesday, February 8, 2023

Editor,

If you’re thinking about becoming a vegan, you might want to consider beginning cognitive behavioral therapy. It is the treatment of choice for anger management. The hundredth time someone asks you where you get your protein, you’ll want to have already developed your coping skills.

More dismissive comments will definitely trigger your anger. You’ll need to be prepared for a calm selective response. I recommend joining a vegan meetup. You can practice as a group perfecting your referencing skills, i.e. books, documentaries, podcasts, that make the case for a whole food plant-based diet. Rather than engage in a debate, or attempt to educate an antagonistic proponent of unethical, unsustainable, unhealthy dietary choices, just give them a reference and move the conversation along.

If you’ve become vegan out of concern for animal suffering, “Farm Sanctuary: Changing Hearts and Minds about Animals and Food” by Gene Bar is a good reference. Ed Winter’s book “This is Vegan Propaganda” is also a good reference. If you’ve become vegan out of a concern for the environment, “Eating Our Way to Extinction” is a documentary that exposes animal agriculture as the most destructive industry on the planet. Livestock farming is responsible for more greenhouse gas emissions than all global transportation combined. If you’ve become vegan out of a concern for your physical health, “Forks Over Knives” is a great documentary to reference. Obesity, diabetes, heart disease and high blood pressure are the direct result of our standard American diet. It wouldn’t hurt to mention zoonotic diseases, and reference the CDC’s statistics on fatalities from the covid virus.

If you’re been a vegan for a while, you’ve no doubt already been practicing your anger management skills and have a few references of your own to share with the group.

Verrall Hoover

Langley