Today is the first day of a new month, which means its resolution time. Lately I've been a little lazy in my brainstorming and I think my productivity has reflected that. However, July's resolution - to broaden my horizons - was so successful that it creates the perfect segue ("seg-way" - I know, I didn't know how to spell it either) into August's resolution:

I'm going to go vegan for the month in the hopes that I can go vegan for the foreseeable future.

Whoa, right? I've mentioned that I stopped eating pork in my first year of vet school. I've talked about becoming a vegetarian, and I was really successful (and happy!) with my resolution to eat less meat earlier in the year. I felt better physically, mentally and "morally". But now, to leap into veganism cold turkey (or should I say tofurkey or turk'y)?

Let's break it down.

First, what does it mean to be a vegan? Generally speaking, a vegan does not consume anything that came from an animal. This includes meat, dairy and eggs but extends to products like gelatin and leather. But that's the simple version. I see vegans in a few distinct categories - those who do it for dietary reasons, those who do it for the morals and those (a subset of the second) who take it to the extremes.

Next, why do I want to be vegan? I would consider myself a mixture between the first two categories. Having been nearly vegetarian for a month, I felt great eating less meat and I lost weight. But I'm definitely in the second category, too. I don't like how a lot of livestock are raised: small cages for poultry and pigs, pushing animals - especially dairy - to their limits to their detriment, unenriched environments, etc. I particularly don't like how there are so few (and then only loosely regulated) regulations on transport to slaughter and slaughter. There is so much room for error and I hate the idea that an animal that I consume (or a product of an animal that will one day go to slaughter) could have been one that was ineffectively stunned or injured badly on the trailer or whatever.

The funny thing is, a lot of people look at lab animals like this and while it is largely untrue, there are always instances that crop up that make you sad due to human error. So how can I possibly be OK with animal research? I'm going to be there, working my rear off to make sure that every single creature under my control is treated with the utmost care and respect. I feel like my contributions to the problems outweigh any moral qualms I might have. In addition, I think the field of lab animal medicine is a lot more progressive than that of production and that makes me feel as though a lot of positive steps can and will be made. I don't feel that same assurance with the food industry.

So what will I eat? No meat, dairy or eggs, of course. But if I examine my reasoning for wanting to become vegan, I've decided that I will allow myself to eat animal products that come from local producers that raise their animals in a way that I feel happy with (free range chickens, for example) and slaughter their own livestock. As they have far fewer animals to process and do not have to ship to a far-away slaughter house, I can feel more confident that the animals will undergo a humane death. If people want to bash me for that, that's fine. It's about doing what I believe is morally acceptable.