vegaroo!

[Editor's Note: The following is a guest post by Paul Goodsell, who will be embarking on an epic bushwalk along the Te Araroa Track in New Zealand in a few months to raise awareness about the capabilities of vegans. He's showing the world the vegans kick some serious arse and we wish him the best of luck on his journey! Here he explains more about his motivations.]

Going vegan. Several years ago I would have laughed at the prospect. You see, I was one of those typical people that didn’t think too much about the wellbeing of non-humans, and thought of vegans as these anti-social salad-munchers that looked in need of a good blood transfusion, or steak.

In 2007 I started an Arts degree with a major in philosophy. In Intro to Philosophy, one of my first subjects, we were required to read a chapter of Animal Liberation by Peter Singer. By the time I put the paper down I was converted. I had been naive. I couldn’t justify eating meat any longer. I went vegetarian immediately.

When I made this choice I did so with the intention of turning vegan. Dairy and eggs, I thought, didn’t directly lead to the killing of animals. And there was a lot of effort being put into making these two industries, at least, more humane. I had trouble reconciling this argument and started to research the abolitionist movement, reading the likes of Francione and Yates.

Abolitionists, it seemed, didn’t much like Singer and his utilitarian / welfarist position. I started to see why. I went vegan immediately after reading a number of papers by Francione and emailed him, thanking him for shining the light. I disagree with Francione on a lot of things, I don’t worship him the one some do, but I think his core argument is essentially right and hard to rebuke.

I’ve been vegan for just over 6 months. I was vegetarian for 3 or so years. As much as I would like not to alienate myself I find myself, more often than not, engaging in discourse with people about why I am vegan and why using animals is wrong. I find the majority of people to be extremely curious, and have rarely faced hostility. Ignorance and irrationality, yes. Hostility, not so much.

As much as I have tried to keep a low profile, it’s not for me; I’d like to make a difference.

One of the things I enjoy most in life is tramping (which is Kiwi speak for hiking or bushwalking). There’s something truly invigorating about getting away from civilisation using your own steam. Carry one’s life on their back, the smell of a coal fireplace, milky tea (soy milk of course) in the evening. Just writing about it makes me feel all warm inside, and ready to just throw everything in and don my boots.

As such, I have been hiking my local tracks for a good 12 or so years – since I was in high school in fact – and have even made a couple of trips to the more demanding tracks of New Zealand to push myself a little more. And the time has come for another challenge. I intend to head to New Zealand again in October 2010 and embark on the Te Araroa Track.

The Te Araroa is like nothing I have ever done. It’s 3000km long. It runs from Cape Reinga in the North of New Zealand’s North Island to Bluff in the South of the South Island and passes through all sorts of pleasant (and scary) environments: from long beaches to lush forests to the sort of stuff you see in the Lord of the Rings to flat and infinite farmlands.

I wish to achieve two things on this trip (but if I achieve additional things along the way, well that’s OK too). I wish to make a point about animal rights and veganism. I have come up with a neat little mantra (well I think it is) that puts it pithily: vegans can walk just as far, climb just as high and push themselves just as hard as anybody else. It is a misconception that vegans are all lethargic salad-eaters. A vegan diet can sustain one’s body just as well as an omnivorous one and hey, it does so without resorting to killing other creatures. Neat huh?

I’ve had a bit of experience playing around with various menus that provide enough energy and nutrients to get me through a solid day of tramping. It’s amazing how creative one can be by putting a little time and thought into it. My trip will showcase this.

Bit of an aside, I read the other day the sentiment of an American tramper with regards to the 3500km Appalachian Trail which extends from Georgia to Maine in the US. He stated, matter of factly, that vegans “never finish”, referring to finishing the Appalachian Trail. Well, he was proven quite wrong by a fellow vegan tramper, and I am sure many more.

This is also very much a personal challenge. I’m doing it for myself too. It’ll provide plenty of time to clear my head of years of stressful work and study. We all need a break once in a while, right?

So to those meat eaters, and vegetarians to an extent, out there that argue otherwise, I wish to show you that the myths you hear about a vegan diet are just that, myths. But don’t just listen to me. Look at the scientific research.

And dear readers, if you’d like to keep in touch before, during, or after my trip, please visit my blog: teararoaonveg.wordpress.com

This entry was posted on Friday, August 13th, 2010 at 7:55 am and is filed under Guest Post, New Zealand. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.