Like in the 90s, there were zero veg restaurants (in my town, anyways). The best you could do was Indian, and damn I ate a lot of Indian. I was lucky if a store had one kind of tofu. Soymilk wasn’t really sold in the store. Fake meats and specialty veg foods didn’t exist. No vegan ice creams and desserts and shit. Also no Uber Eats.
I listen to people complaining today and I really have no patience for it. I went vegetarian (not vegan*) at 19. I bought and cooked my own meals. I made a fuck ton of rice and beans. And I had to do this in a suburban hell with no car. Adults in a city whinge that it’s hard and I’m like
Granted, people living in rural Kansas or whatever food desert might have it harder. For the rest, fucking just do it.
*I’ve been vegan for ten years now
Veganism is so much damn easier than your average omni realizes. It requires a step out of that major comfort zone of carnism that most of us end up growing an attachment to from an early age, and that’s what psychologically makes it sound insanely restrictive and challenging.
I realized that once my sense of ethics began overriding that attachment to carnism, I actually find it, in some sense, more difficult to be a carnist, not less. Veganism is very second nature to me, and I do not see animal flesh and secretions as food anymore. I do not see animal skin, fur, and wool as clothes anymore. I don’t see horses as animals to ride or elephants as astounding entertainers either.
To clarify, this isn’t me saying that things like meat “taste bad” (because for some reason, people think being vegan comes with the notion that you believe animal-derived foods don’t taste good). However, it really is me saying that the source of said good taste puts me off of it immediately.
Some of the people I grew up knowing but have not talked to in ages, including my late mother who passed before I even went vegan, would be baffled to know that I now have such a strong commitment to veganism because, beforehand, all of my favorite foods consisted of some kind of animal product. Even without fancy mock meats and dairy alternatives, which I won’t deny that I enjoy, I’d take being vegan over being a carnist any day of the week. Eating a plate of beanis, potatoes, and broccoli brings me more peace, comfort, and satisfaction than that plate swapped with fried pork instead of beans and the potatoes and broccoli smothered in cheese, and that was a very common kind of meal for pre-vegan me to eat with a smile on my face.
Very successful cultural indoctrination: meat tastes good. Vegan food tastes bad, and anyone who eats it must be some weirdo who doesn’t like the taste of meat.