What does it really mean to be vegan? On face value, it means not eating or using animal products. It also refers to abstaining from products tested on animals (whenever possible, I mean if you need life saving medicine that was once tested on animals, take the medicine! It's important to have reasonable exceptions to … Continue reading Vegan Gray Areas: Palm Oil
I think the average person knows bees pollinate plants and can deduce from this that they're good for a garden. However, I know for myself that I wasn't aware of just how important they are. In fact, they're quite vital. There are other insects that pollinate, such as butterflies, but bees appear to be by … Continue reading The Importance of Bees for your Garden
About four years ago we brought our cat José home for the first time. A coworker was no longer able to keep him and we took him off her hands so he didn't end up at the shelter. He was roughly eleven weeks old and I remember feeling nervous because even though I'd had pets … Continue reading Why you Shouldn’t Declaw your Cat
On face value the answer to whether or not eating oysters and other bivalves (such as clams, mussels, and scallops) is vegan would seem obvious. They're animals so of course they're not, right? The argument is that because they don't have a central brain it is unlikely they're able to feel pain. There's also no … Continue reading Vegan Gray Areas: Oysters
Photo by kinkate from Pexels I made the decision to be vegan mid January of this year (2019). My first priority was to understand how to eat a balanced plant-based diet. However, I knew being vegan wasn't just about food. Another regular purchase I make is beauty products. I started off doing a simple google search for cruelty … Continue reading Cruelty Free vs Vegan Beauty Products
I'd like to preface this by saying that I'm not getting into the health aspect of whether eating eggs is good or bad. The focus of this is purely from an ethical standpoint in the case of backyard chickens, not those from factory farms. Photo by Oleksandr Pidvalnyi from Pexels For many homesteaders, having backyard chickens is a … Continue reading Vegan Gray Areas: Eggs From Backyard Chickens
You've probably heard the phrase 'adopt don't shop' at some point in your life. It's a stand alone statement that many feel requires no further explanation. The implication is that adopting an animal is clearly a good thing, but shopping for one through a breeder is not good or ethically neutral, but is in fact … Continue reading Adopt Don’t Shop: Why it Matters
I was going to write this post about the psychological trauma slaughterhouse workers experience due to the nature of their work. I found my words to be largely inadequate and have instead decided to allow them to speak for themselves. But let me just say, on top of being physically dangerous, slaughterhouse work has been … Continue reading The Effect on Slaughterhouse Workers (Part 4 of Why I Went Vegan)
The Vegan Homesteader 