Benjamin Payne

How and why did you go ve­g­an?

Af­ter I be­came in­ter­est­ed in veg­e­tarian­ism at an ear­ly age, I made the tran­si­tion to ve­g­an­ism when I was a tee­nag­er. It al­ways seemed clear to me that our use of other an­i­mals pre­sents a mo­ral dilem­ma. When I couldn’t find any co­her­ent jus­ti­fi­ca­tion for spe­cie­sism, be­com­ing ve­g­an was the log­i­cal step to take.

As ve­g­an writ­er Dan Cu­dahy has argued, ve­g­an­ism is the least we can do for non­hu­man an­i­mals. By re­fus­ing to sup­port the use of an­i­mals for any pur­pose, we take a mo­ral and po­lit­i­cal stand against an­i­mal ex­ploi­ta­tion. It is a per­so­n­al and po­lit­i­cal ac­knowl­edg­ment of the fact that—as was made clear by ve­g­an pi­oneer Do­n­ald Wat­son—our ‘pre­sent civil­i­sa­tion is built on the ex­ploi­ta­tion of an­i­mals, just as past civil­i­sa­tions were built on the ex­ploi­ta­tion of slaves.’ Ve­g­an­ism en­vi­sions a world with­out our do­minion over other an­i­mals, and pro­vides a prac­ti­cal means to achieve that world.

Did you en­coun­ter any dif­fi­cul­ties? If so what were they and how have you dealt with them?

Adapt­ing to the ve­g­an di­et and lifestyle took some time, but be­ing ve­g­an is re­al­ly very easy. Re­main­ing com­mitt­ed to ve­g­an­ism re­quires that you re­mind your­self reg­u­lar­ly about why you went ve­g­an. Above all, I have found the so­cial as­pect of ve­g­an­ism the most dif­fi­cult to ne­go­ti­ate. By be­ing ve­g­an, you make spe­cie­sism vis­i­ble and set your­self apart. Learn­ing to ad­dress others with care and re­spect is vi­tal.

How have your fam­i­ly and friends re­act­ed to your ve­g­an­ism? Have you in­flu­enced any­one else to go ve­g­an?

My fam­i­ly have been large­ly sup­por­tive, even if they do not ful­ly un­der­s­tand ve­g­an­ism! A few of my friends have gone ve­g­an, but I hope I have al­so in­flu­enced many others to change. It is very im­por­tant to me to be a pos­i­tive ve­g­an role mod­el.

How do you feel switch­ing to ve­g­an­ism has im­pact­ed your health?

Be­com­ing ve­g­an is a great way to pre­vent a whole host of se­ri­ous dis­eas­es and health problems, and it has en­cour­aged me to think care­ful­ly about what I con­sume. Learn­ing about ve­g­an nu­tri­tion has helped me to estab­lish health­ful eat­ing habits, and I now choose a wide va­ri­e­ty of or­gan­ic fruit and veg­eta­bles as the ba­sis for my di­et. Be­ing re­spon­si­ble for your health is very em­pow­er­ing!

Can you de­scribe some of your favou­rite meals?

I love to cook a wide va­ri­e­ty of dish­es, some­thing that emerged from the di­ver­si­ty of in­flu­ences within ve­g­an eat­ing. I make soy prod­ucts such as to­fu and tem­peh part of my dai­ly di­et along­side plen­ty of fresh fruit, veg­eta­bles, whole­grains, nuts, and seeds. I es­pe­cial­ly love eat­ing av­o­ca­dos, chick­peas, broc­coli, ba­na­nas, and nuts. Those foods are al­ways in my cup­board at home! I reg­u­lar­ly eat out with friends, and Mel­bourne’s Vegie Bar is one of my favou­rite places to share a meal.

Have you en­coun­tered any ab­surd stereo­types, com­ments or neg­a­tive at­ti­tudes?

There must be mil­lions of stereo­types about ve­g­ans! I have been told that I must be ane­mic, weak, or sim­p­ly crazy. Be­ing strong and healthy as a ve­g­an is seen as an im­pos­si­bil­i­ty, and the idea of a ve­g­an ath­lete is a shock to many. I have found that be­ing a sane, friend­ly, and con­sis­tent ve­g­an is enough to com­bat most of th­ese mis­con­cep­tions and prej­u­dices.

Is there any­one who has par­tic­u­lar­ly in­spired or helped you?

An­i­mal rights the­o­rists such as Tom Re­gan and Gary Fran­cione have in­spired me to cont­in­ue to think about our re­la­tion­ship with other an­i­mals, but all those who make up the ve­g­an move­ment en­cour­age and en­light­en me. A pas­sio­nate com­mu­ni­ty of ve­g­ans is vi­tal to the the suc­cess of this idea, and there are so many who work tire­less­ly to pro­mote and de­vel­op it.

What do you think are the most ef­fec­tive ways of help­ing ve­g­an­ism to be­come more main­stream?

We must not margi­nalise ve­g­an­ism, di­lute it, or be ashamed of tak­ing a mo­ral stand against an­i­mal use. In­stead, we must ed­u­cate others with re­spect and en­er­gy, mak­ing the mo­ral ba­sis for ve­g­an­ism and the goal of abol­ish­ing an­i­mal ex­ploi­ta­tion clear. We should share ve­g­an­ism with others and chal­lenge prej­u­dices, but I of­ten think that it is most ef­fec­tive to sim­p­ly prac­tice ve­g­an­ism with in­tegri­ty.