I've been a vegan for about five years now and lots of folks still ask me why.  There are many many reasons (see below) to go vegan but compassion tops the list.  My daughter wrote a report on factory farming while she was in high school and it started my journey toward a vegan lifestyle.  It didn't happen overnight but once I started really thinking about who I was eating, I just couldn't do it anymore.  Eggs and dairy also exited my diet once I began to fully comprehend the abuses that egg laying chickens and dairy cows are subjected to during their short lives. 

Still, I knew that most of the vegetables I ate, save the ones grown in my backyard, were raised using animal products such as fish emulsion, blood, bone, hoof, and feather meals, and manures.  So, my vegan lifestyle was still founded on the death of animals - a thought that was profoundly distressing to me.

So - what to do?  I had been planning a small farm for some years and decided to go not only sustainable but vegan on the farm - and it's working!  I grew more produce than I was able to sell, even through the downpours of August. 

You can be assured that all of the produce grown at Reverence is grown without animal products or any pesticides, herbicides, or fungicides.

PS - Since I've gone vegan I've lost 40 pounds, reduced my total cholesterol by 40 points while increasing my good HDL's, reduced my resting blood pressure to 110 over 65, and reduced my resting heart rate to 50.  And I've been eating the best and tastiest food of my life and expanding my culinary horizons.  Don't be fooled by the awful stuff many restaurants try to pass off as "vegetarian" - they're just showing a lack of creativity.  Vegan food is fabulous!

Reasons to Go Veg For Life! (from http://goveg.com/theissues.asp)

Your Health - Research has shown that vegetarians are 50 percent less likely to develop heart disease, and they have 40 percent of the cancer rate of meat-eaters.^3,4 Plus, meat-eaters are nine times more likely to be obese than vegans are.⁵

The consumption of meat, eggs, and dairy products has also been strongly linked to osteoporosis, Alzheimer's, asthma, and male impotence. Scientists have also found that vegetarians have stronger immune systems than their meat-eating friends; this means that they are less susceptible to everyday illnesses like the flu.⁷ Vegetarians and vegans live, on average, six to 10 years longer than meat-eaters.⁸

The Health of the Planet - Many leading environmental organizations, including the National Audubon Society, the WorldWatch Institute, the Sierra Club, and the Union of Concerned Scientists, have recognized that raising animals for food damages the environment more than just about anything else that we do. Whether it's the overuse of resources, unchecked water or air pollution, or soil erosion, raising animals for food is wreaking havoc on the Earth. The most important step you can take to save the planet is to go veg.

World Hunger - There is more than enough food in the world to feed the entire human population. So why are more than 840 million people still going hungry?¹

Our meat-based diet is partly to blame, as land, water, and other resources that could be used to grow food for human beings are being used to grow crops for farmed animals instead. According to a recent report by Compassion in World Framing, "[c]rops that could be used to feed the hungry are instead being used to fatten animals raised for food." It takes up to 16 pounds of grain to produce just 1 pound of edible animal flesh.

Exploitation of Workers - Killing animals is inherently dangerous work, but the fast line speeds, dirty killing floors, and lack of training make animal-processing plants some of the most dangerous places to work in America today. According to statistics from the U.S. Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics, nearly one in three slaughterhouse workers suffers from illness or injury every year, compared to one in 10 workers in other manufacturing jobs.¹ The rate of repetitive stress injury for slaughterhouse employees is 35 times higher than it is for those with other manufacturing jobs.²

Exploitation of Animals - The green pastures and idyllic barnyard scenes of years past are now distant memories. On today's factory farms, animals are crammed by the thousands into filthy windowless sheds, wire cages, gestation crates, and other confinement systems. These animals will never raise their families, root in the soil, build nests, or do anything that is natural to them. They won't even feel the sun on their backs or breathe fresh air until the day they are loaded onto trucks bound for slaughter.

Animals on today's factory farms have no legal protection from cruelty that would be illegal if it were inflicted on dogs or cats: neglect, mutilation, genetic manipulation, and drug regimens that cause chronic pain and crippling, transport through all weather extremes, and gruesome and violent slaughter. Yet farmed animals are no less intelligent or capable of feeling pain than are the dogs and cats we cherish as companions.