Being A Vegan? Don't Ask Oprah

Oh boy, another "vegan" challenge, but this time it wasn't from Peta or HSUS. It was from Oprah. At first, I thought maybe it would be a good discussion talking about the benefits of increasing the amount of fruits and veggies in your diet, but alas it was nothing of the sort. It was, once again a simplistic, emotional, appeal to not eat meat.

Image from Mas-Luka on Flickr

First, let me say that everyone I know involved in livestock production take excellent care of their animals and treat them like members of their own family. Folks like Mike Haley, Jeff Fowle, Ray Prock, and Chris Chinn provide the utmost care for their animals. As a matter of fact, I believe I can speak on their behalf that they feel it is a privilege to raise animals to provide the rest of us with food (and other items I will mention later).

In case you missed it, Oprah challenged her staff and others to go "vegan." Well I am here to tell you that going vegan is much more complex than just not eating meat or food products from animal agriculture.