Edan Borbiro McKinnon

My name is Edan and I have been vegan my entire life. I am vegan because I choose to be. I love being vegan because I am not causing harm to any animals. I am not contributing to the cruelty of animals by buying animal products. I love being vegan and I am going to be a vegan for the rest of my life.

Throughout school my friends have all been extremely respectful of me not wanting to be around non-vegan products and I’ve been very thankful for that. My friends have never teased me for being vegan and whenever they are asking about whether something is vegan or not, however obvious it seems to me, I tell them and they seem genuinely interested in knowing the answer. Whenever I go out with my friends they will always choose a vegan-friendly place that they know I will be comfortable eating at.

Finding vegan food is not hard, there’s a vegan version of practically everything. If you are having trouble figuring out if something is vegan you can always contact the company and they will respond saying whether it’s vegan or not. Sometimes one of my friends will ask me simply, “Why are you vegan?” Unlike my mum I never have one answer at the ready that explains it perfectly in detail that requires no further questioning from the person and makes them satisfied with my answer. So I usually just say, “I’m vegan because I do not want to contribute to the cruelty of animals.”

Being vegan is healthy for me as well. I love the health benefits of being vegan. I try to eat a healthy vegan diet by eating greens, fruits and veggies, making sure I consume enough nutrients like vitamin D, iron and I take B12 supplements.

I never feel like I am missing out on anything. Being vegan is not a diet, it’s living by my morals. I can eat a wide variety of vegan food and stay healthy. There are so many foods that are vegan and I feel more than satisfied. This is the best way to be living, for yourself, and all animals.

When I go to a supermarket I know they will have a large variety of vegan food, most supermarkets have a vegan version of nearly everything so I can find whatever I’m looking for easily. There are so many products that are accidentally vegan that you might never have thought would be vegan. There are so many vegan foods it just makes me laugh when people ask, “but, what do you eat?”. When people ask what can you eat I correct them because it’s not what I can eat it’s what I do eat, it’s my choice. I could stop being vegan at any time but I make the choice to be vegan.

Lastly I would like to say, stop contributing to the horrible industries that torture and kill animals daily and go vegan!