My sister constantly makes fun of me for eating so much cheese. One of her favorite memories to laugh at is a dinner at the Cheesecake Factory when I ordered fried macaroni & cheese balls for an appetizer, 4-cheese pasta for an entree, and then joked about ordering some cheese water to drink. Because cheese is clearly one of my favorite foods, I do not know what I was thinking when I decided that I would go vegan for the week. I’ve had slip-ups on various other non-vegan foods: cookies, yogurt, garlic bread, but I have yet to accidentally eat cheese. Every time I see some, my mind screams, “NO CHEESE”.
This week has made me wonder: why go cheese-less? Coincidentally, I am in the process of writing a research paper for my Communities of Hate class for which I chose to research the overlaps between the treatment of animals in modern day CAFOs and the treatment of Jews in Nazi concentration camps during the Holocaust. So where better to start than a gruesome book which goes into detail about how each animal is slaughtered? In Mark H. Bernsteins book Without a Tear: Our Tragic Relationship with Animals, I had the wonderful opportunity to read about cattle being fed blood (Bernstein, 95) and chicken’s being debeaked (Bernstein, 108). I suppose that this book has come at the perfect time, and has given me a valid and heartbreaking reason as to why I am sacrificing my beloved cheese for the week.
Bernstein, Mark H. Without a Tear: Our Tragic Relationship with Animals. Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 2004.
How can you survive without cheese its a neccesity in my life!!!
Wow…I never even thought about going Vegan. That’s a great point. Keep it up, Zoe!
Zoe, I have also gone vegan this week! I feel ya on the cheese issue though, I find it hard to resist adding cheese to the wraps and sandwiches that I like to order at the grill or at MealX. I’ve been pleasantly surprised with the vegan options available at Curtis, I find they are usually pretty tasty. And I don’t know about you, but I definitely feel healthier eating this way! It’s great.
I have been thinking about going vegan for the last day or two of this week, but it looks pretty tough at the dining halls. There seem to rarely be many vegan options. I also think that giving up cheese would be one of the harder things to give up.
Zoe, I think it’s great that you haven’t eaten cheese yet. I gave it up as well, and have slipped once. You must be getting very creative in the dining halls. They put cheese on or in everything!
I have the same exact problem with cheese! I absolutely LOVE it. Favorite food by far. I think it is so cool that you are trying to go vegan this week. My two cousins are vegan. I don’t think I could ever do that. I have been trying to cut down on my dairy though this week. It is pretty tough. Cheese is one of those things you don’t realize you are eating before it is too late. I hope you can make it the whole week because that would be a good accomplishment. Keep it up! You can definitely do it!
Very, very interesting about the paper you are writing. That;s very disturbing, the way that they treat the animals! And P.S i love cheese as well!