veganism

collage of vegan products, by noémie ventura

oftentimes when i meet someone they ask me why i'm a vegan. if you have read my previous posts on this blog, i guess you already know why...
to sum up: i love animals, and i believe that a vegan diet causes less suffering than a diet centered around animal products. it's such a shame to see how cruel is today's farming and how our western countries treat animals, with such a lake of respect. animals are sentient beings, they do feel pain, fear, stress... and they have their own wills. To me it's really unsane to force our will onto another creature just because we're able to.
we've been too far in the extreme of intensive farming, with battery breed, so i believe that now the only solution is to go too far in the other way.
and at last, a lot of medical evidence points the fact that a vegan diet is really healthier than a diet centered around meat.

a vegan: someone who neither eats, wears, or uses animal products.

i live in france, a country which is a distance solar system away from veganism. as you probably know, france is famous for its food and cosmetics. the french food is mainly based on meat, and france is one of the countries who test the most of chemicals on animals in the world:
in france 30 000 animals are used every year to test cosmetics. it's 3 times more than in whole europe. a lot of people don't give a shit about animals suffering. it tends to change a bit... but we are really in late, compared to england, germany or northern europe countries. so when i say i am a vegan, french people consider me as some kind of freak... and they always reply "meat is the best thing ever! how can you be a vegan?"
now i am used to it, but it's sometimes really annoying. i always try to respect meat eaters. but it's hard sometimes when you have to eat with people who eat foie gras, staring at you in the eyes, smiling.
i am very sad when i see how much people don't care about what they buy. i can try to admit that people don't want to stop eating meat... but i think they should, at least, try to buy meat which come from a quite healty way of farming. they should be careful to do not buy meat, eggs, dairies... from battery farming: battery farms are real slaughter houses: one of the worst thing ever created by human beings. and for cosmetics: EVERYONE SHOULD BUY ONLY CRUELTY FREE PRODUCTS.
for the french who are reading this, they should go there, it's a great website in french about veganism, it explains clearly the importance of being a vegan today.
i made this collage (see the top of this post) with packaging of vegan products you can really easily find in france, to help you to buy vegan stuffs. of course there are so much more others good vegan cosmetic products, these ones are just examples. you can check the links on the right of the screen to visit the websites of many vegan brandts.
but be careful: there is not any official vegan brandt in france: every single cruelty free brandt sometimes use honey, bee wax, propolis, wool (...) in some of their products and they sometimes use animals ingredients. it's not because a product is not tested on animals that it doesn't contain any animals in it. so it's important to read the ingredients list:

there is a great book, called "animal ingredients from a to z" (by the E.G Smith Collective, AK press) which compiled all the animals ingredients used... not only in cosmetics, but in food and in every single thing for sale.
first time you read it, it makes you freak out, you become a bit paranoid, discovering all the dead animals contained in everything around you (by ex cetyl alcohol: a wax found in spermaceti from sperm whales or dolphins, used in lipsticks, mascaras, nail polish removers, hand lotions, cream, rouges and many other cosmetics, shampoos, hair lacquers and other hair products, deodorants, antiperspirants (us regulations recently prohibit the use of ingredients derived from marine mammals)... but after a while you just use it as the "guide of the consumer who care".
well, i hope this post wasn't too boring to read... if you are now reading this it means you've been reading until here, so thank you!!!
don't hesitate to email me if you have any question about veganism, i'll do my best inform you!
thanks for your attention,
noémie