questionablemotivations:

Aside from being kind, I feel like as people we need to own our choices.

I bleed a lot. It’s a thing. I need lots of protein otherwise I faint a lot and plant protein doesn’t cut it. But I’m also trying to eat less meat because while I believe that mass factory farming is awful, I don’t think all farming is and that this giant-portion-of-meat-for-every-meal concept is a bit ridiculous. I have the luxury of only being able to afford to eat only certified free range animal products, made easier by living in a country where beef and lamb is free range and grass fed by default. I’m lucky enough to know a few hunters who will share their home kill in exchange for me cooking it for them. I’ve slaughtered sheep myself in the past. I spent a month with the shearing gangs this year and six months working on a dairy farm when I was younger. I’m not ignorant as to where it comes from, so please stop assuming as much.

I only purchase free range eggs because I determinedly disagree with cage farming. I think it’s evil and I have the ability (feeding only myself) to restrict what I buy to what I believe.

I tend to avoid imported food unless there’s little other choice. I prefer to buy produce that’s not only local but that has the farm’s name on the box I’m picking from.

Most of my clothes (aside from jeans and shoes – the later largely because I have very fucked up feet in part caused by childhood neglect) are second hand because it’s cheaper and frankly I disagree with fast fashion.

Most of what I purchase, I purchase with an eye to the future. And I am privileged to be able to do so and to have the money to prioritise that.

I am likely never going to stop eating milk, eggs, honey, meat or wearing wool, leather and fur because for the person I am in the place that I live, that makes the most sense to me.

I’ll do what I can to mitigate the environmental and moral costs of those choices because that also makes sense to me.

Please stop telling me I’m a murdering carnist whore for those choices. It’s unnecessary and just stirs up hatred.

This are my choices. I have my reasons for why I make them, as I assume that you (generic) have yours. Neither of ours make much difference in the grand scheme of things, something else we need to own up to. Our choices are largely irrelevant.

That said…if you try and tell me that something is killing animals when it clearly is not, if you try and tell me that your choice to wear chemical dyed polyester and rubber is more moral than my choice to wear vegetable tanned leather and wool…don’t expect me to take that lying down, any more than I would expect you to take it if I told you that your choice to wear plastic pants is personally ending the world.

…you may notice that I have never done that.

And hey, you may be more comfortable wearing those plastic pants and knowing that they don’t come from a domesticated animal bred for meat. Me, I’m happier knowing that the not-meat-animal-parts aren’t being wasted.

It’s all choices. It’s not good or bad or world saving or world ending and they’re easier if you understand the how and why behind them but in the end they’re just…choices.

Own them.

I must admit that I am supremely jealous of your fortune in having that sort of food available to you so easily; from how you describe it. And thank you for the reminder to begin looking for pieces I can wear the rest of; or the next largest portion of; my life. 

Particularly as I begin my transition in earnest and look for a comfortable weight I can maintain; I hope to Gods never to see over 150 again I was SO unhealthy!; I have the OPTION of buying slightly more expensive but much better QUALITY clothing that will last if taken care of.