Lets get this "where you work" topic out in the open, shall we?
can you be considered a vegan and work at a fast food restaurant?
how about a factory farm as a receptionist?
how about as a slaughterhouse worker?
does it depend on your reason for veganism?
thoughts people
also, I like to beleive, being a vegan doesnt just show I am compassionate about animals, but compassionate about people as well (as they are animals themselves)
I like to think veganism is an expression of care for the earth and everything on it.
Now granted, I have a problem with this beleif sometimes, because I believe that people have more options and chances to change their situations, as opposed to some pigs that were born to the farm that sells to Mc Donalds...and are doomed to horrible lives. They can stand up and say "umm, I didnt sign up for this, I quit" and then fly away....like Spider Pig (for meggs)
Oh that is a tough one.
I work at a nursing home. I (hopefully) help take care of people. But the nursing home is NOT exactly veg friendly. They serve bacon, hamburgers, chicken, turkey, ham, etc.. all to the residents. Would a vegan be any less or a vegan for working in a hospital or nursing home? No I don't think so. But other people may feel differently.
I know you (were) in a band, but what is your other job, AC?
Me: I teach art at a public school, teach pottery freelance-style, substitute teach, and work at a non-veg restaurant part time. OH, and I raise a vegan child at home in my spare time. I don't get paid for that one, but its hard work!
I have said this before, and I will say it again, our jobs unfortunately do not always define who we really are. Some of us are lucky enough to get paid for our passions, but it doesn't always work out that way. Pretty soon I will be able to give up the restaurant, but I'm still paying for our pricey move out of state because we had to haul so much shit with us. ;) Hence my desire to be less consumeristic!
Some of us are lucky enough to get paid for our passions, but it doesn't always work out that way.
Oh I know. There are a dozen jobs I would rather do. But being a teen parent things didn't work out exactly the way I wanted. :( I'm sure it is that way for many people. It is just one of those things.
grrrr
I tried opening up my "food service" thread a while back, but not many people really wanted to discuss it for very long.
but this one does open up discussion to different kinds of jobs...
OKAY.
I agree with you, adam, regarding veganism as an expression of care for all of the earth's creatures (and the earth itself). That's how I feel that I should live my life.
BUT! just HOW vegan, just HOW strict, HOW far can we realistically GO?....think about it, you can trace any one of your actions back to somehow contributing to an "evil" cause, in some convoluted way or another...
* you drive a car and run the risk of hitting birds, bugs, and all kinds of little groundlings...you also pollute the air AND support oil companies and car manufacturers who ALSO contribute to the killing of animals (and people) in what they do.
* you buy beans and rice from your local HFstore/coop, who ALSO sells organic/local meat and dairy products...ultimately "supporting" that cause
* you purchase some non-leather, non-sweatshop shoes from a certain manufacturer....who ALSO make shoes from animal skin...
or, you purchase your "I don't eat my friends" T-Shirt from a company that ALSO produces/sells silk, leather, and fur goods....
.....so, for those nay-saying anti-veg*ns out there (they exist, trust me, I've dealt w/my fair share), or ANYbody who accuses me of not being a "genuine vegan": YES, I DO contribute to some of these very sources of pain and suffering, I DO pay money to people who get profit from selling murder and destruction, and I DO work at a campus dining center that serves meat.
As I said before,
My dining center also serves lots of vegetarian options on a regular basis, and strictly vegan items are becoming more and more present in our regular menus. We ALSO cater to special dietary needs: if you have a food allergy or any special diet (vegan!), you can sign up for specially-prepared meals--which ARE, by the way, prepared with absolute care and concern for the specific needs...we have separate utensils, cooking pans, and skillets for each type of request (GF, FF, V, LI); I know because I've worked back in the kitchen when these were being prepped--and it costs no more than the regular meal plans...but they ARE expensive meal plans here, sadly...
The Piazza Dining Center has been growing and improving since its establishment on our campus....I do believe that because of certain students/customers, and workers like me (and some others that I know), the Veg*n demand is becoming more widespread and better served than it ever has been at UNI. We also purchase a lot of local produce (and we prep it in the commissary/bakery downstairs) and meats from neighboring farms. We do, of course, have a lot of frozen/factory-farmed/processed CRAP on the menu as well...but I think that the good things on our menu speak volumes for us as a state university dining center.
Our standards for sanitation and safety are also set quite high, and they are enforced and met as much as is humanly possible.
I say this NOT because I'm "loyal" to that place....IN FACT, I'll tell you next just how much I've gotten to hate the place....but I just want to make it clear that my job is NOT as bad as some would make it out to be.
Some of us are lucky enough to get paid for our passions, but it doesn't always work out that way.
Oh I know. There are a dozen jobs I would rather do. But being a teen parent things didn't work out exactly the way I wanted. :( I'm sure it is that way for many people. It is just one of those things.
wow! I didn't realize you were a teen parent. How old is your child now? I forget, where are you in NC??
music doesnt really pay the bills? no does it allow a message I believe in to be spread to the ears of our fans? yes it does
so I work at a werb hosting company, nothing too horrible there, althought its hardly a green company
My freelance side work, is computer graphics and such. I freelance out to production companies, who then work for whatever company is having the big conference or metting. This is where I can be conflicted at times. Because sometimes its pharmacutical companies that are the clients. So some of my income comes from the pockets of companies that most likely do animal testing. This does bother me sometimes.
Could I afford to stop doing the work for the Pharma companies, most likely. Would I be able to continue having as much free time to volunteer to the good causes I support? No
Would I have the extra money to donate to charities I feel are doing good work? No
Some of us are lucky enough to get paid for our passions, but it doesn't always work out that way.
Oh I know. There are a dozen jobs I would rather do. But being a teen parent things didn't work out exactly the way I wanted. :( I'm sure it is that way for many people. It is just one of those things.
wow! I didn't realize you were a teen parent. How old is your child now? I forget, where are you in NC??
I live in a little town just outside Greensboro, NC. My son is 5. I got pregnant with when I was 18. I know that you moved here to NC. I hope you are enjoying it.
i used to work at a locally owned (awesome!) italian restaurant that was well known for its cheesesteaks and pizza(not awesome). i felt pretty bad about working there. sometimes, i just wanted to tell people , after they order, no, im sorry, you are too unhealthy already, i will not give you that. one man who worked next door came over every day and ordered a foot long cheesesteak or a whole fucking calzone and an extra large coke. he must have weighed 300 hundred pounds, he could barely breathe. i felt so horrible giving him this food. luckily. there were a group of construction workers that came in every day and ordered salads! they were so nice and we talked about guitars.... anyways. i felt pretty horrible about working there. but i needed to find a job for only 2 months because i was going on tour, and this job opened up for only 2 months because the manager was really busy for those two months while finding another job. i would have been stupid to not take it!
this was just a job. if a vegan had a career in animal testing or working at a place like this.... i might say, maybe you could look for another career. but this was just a job. nothing i was passionate about. just something to take me through a semester of college...with some help.
a lot of good points have been raisesd here. I just want to add a bit.
we live in a veg-unfriendly world. and, in some way or another, because we live in this world, we contribute to the suffering of animals. it's unavoidable. buying groceries from a store that sells meat, dining at a non-veg restaurant, receiving non-veg gifts from friends and family (like beeswax candles, lip balm, etc.). it's unavoidable. there are some things we just don't have control over.
but we do have control over our own choices. what's important about veganism is that we try to reduce the harm we cause - to animals and the planet.
that's about all most of us can do, but it's so important - and so applaudable. I'm clapping right now - good job team!
Lauranc-I have always wondered what would happen to me at a nursing home-what would they feed me? By law nursing homes have to recognize resident's rights and if a resident choses a vegan diet the nursing home is obligated to provide it. I bet a vegan resident would throw the dietary department in a frenzy!
Working at a nursing home can be both physically and emotionally exhausting. If you care about the residents it is evident in the work you do. And absolutely that is helping. :)
Lauranc, you have a hard job. Its not easy caring for elderly people, and also people who dont have anybody. Personally I think people like you should make 100 grand a year, and youll have earned every penny.
Lauranc, you have a hard job. Its not easy caring for elderly people, and also people who dont have anybody. Personally I think people like you should make 100 grand a year, and youll have earned every penny.
Thanks!
Lauranc-I have always wondered what would happen to me at a nursing home-what would they feed me?
I happen to work at a Jewish nursing home right now. I think I normal vegan diet wouldn't be too hard. Although for snacks you would want your family to bring you in something you can eat. But if you are on a special diet, like many people in a nursing home are, it might be a problem. And if you are being fed through a tube I'm not sure if there are any vegan options. Hopefully in the future there will be more options for vegans in health care facilities.
Hi. I don't work.
Therefore, I don't have issues with this.
I work in a nursing home too. I used to take care of residents, but then a new building opened, new and better people got hired and I was lost in the shuffle. Now I'm a stupid waitress in the facility's HUGE upscale dining place. I don't know the first thing about half the omnifood they eat there. The residents always ask me to recommend shit, and I just say......oh that's no good, they're salads and baked pasta are the best! I actually got in trouble from my boss because some lady wanted this HUGE 10 oz s**** and I talked her into the smaller sized one. She was like: "I'm not that hungry, I just want s****. And I want a thick one, I heard the smaller ones aren't thick so I want the big one." I was irrate lol, thinking: "Yeah well I WANT you to stop being an asshole, but we don't always get want we want?" But I just said they were plenty thick and she will enjoy it.
My boss was like: "Thanks for losing us 10$." Fucking asshole. I'm looking for a new job.
My job kicks all-ya-all's asses, vegan perspective wise. I feel like the division is pointless. Someone doesn't work with food at all, but flys a lot. Someone works to protect the environment, but commutes. Someone who takes mass transit or bikes, but works with meat. It's pointing fingers at an area of your life where you shine while not bringing up something you do that's not so great.
Take flying, for example. The main greenhouse gases include water vapor and carbon dioxide. Water from the vapor trails forms ice crystals, which trap heat. There's also a huge dump of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. When aircraft fuel burns it excellerates the total warming affect caused by the CO2. So, you don't just have the harm of the carbon dioxide, but multiply that by 2.7 for the total warming effect.
When working with meat there's a direct association with an animal. The inputs to global warming may be more spread out, but the impact to animals is global. Which is worse, which is better? Neither.
I work at a school that doesn't serve food (two half-day programs, so kids bring their own food if they're around for lunch), so I avoid the ethical issues there.
My biggest work-related triumph was the school where I worked a couple years ago. We had a lot of low-income students, so we qualified for a government-funded free-meal program. Great, right? Well, we started to get the meals, and they were disgusting. Unbelievable. Breakfast was something carby-- always refined white flour and sugar, either a muffin or donut or sweetened cereal or something-- and a juice and 2% milk. The juice was the only part of the meals that I supported b/c it was 100% unsweetened fruit juice. And the lunch, oh it was the worst thing I've ever seen. It was a sandwich on white bread, processed meats and American cheese-- saturated fat, sodium, nitrates, cholesterol-- with mayo and mustard packets; a couple snacks, usually cookies and/or cheet0s or something-- refined white flour, salt and sugar, no nutritional value whatsoever; sometimes a piece of fruit; 1% chocolate milk. And they're serving this nutritionally devoid meals to children, often children who aren't getting much or any other nutrition during the rest of the day! Where are the vegetables!? We barely even have fruit!
Anyway, I fought the other teachers, who supported the program, and when I didn't get support there, I moved up to the Director of the school. She didn't understand either, so I worked with a couple of other kids' advocates/nutritionists for a formal presentation against the school district here (not specifically about the free-meal program, but about the public school food options in general). The Director came around to my side before we officially presented, so we dropped out of the free-meal program-- thank god. Some of the more financially stable parents took up the slack to make up the difference at our school so that we could continue to offer food to the lower-income kids. And I put together recommended menus and snack lists and gave a couple of nutrition seminars. Seriously, I'd rather take a pay cut ANY day than serve that to kids.
My current school is not the greenest place. We don't recycle as much as we should ( to the point where I take plastics home to recycle at my house), and we're wasting a lot of water right now b/c one of the toilets runs sometimes. I like to think that I'm teaching people, whatever I do. Baby steps.
for this year, I am a research assistant, working on mostly epidemiological studies involving prostate and breast cancer, until I finish my Masters, then I will be a dietitian, I am not sure in what capacity I will be performing my RD duties. The Eugene school district was looking for a vegan RD a year ago, doubt it is still available.
Last year, I was a dietetic intern at the Veteran Affairs Medical Center. I worked in every ward, on every floor. I worked in hospice with men that had 3 days to live, I worked in outpatient, with 22 year old veterans who already had diabetes and alcoholism, I worked in the psych ward, with poor little old men who were found in a dumpster covered in their own excrement. It was not very vegan to say the least. I tried to encourage a replacement of meat and dairy with fruits and vegetables, and I even pointed one patient to vegweb, since he was interested in veganism. I will admit it, I encouraged all sorts of meat and egg consumption when I was on my renal rotation. Potassium and phosphorous can be deadly to a dialysis patient. Fruits, vegetables, grains, and beans were pretty much out or limited. My job was to keep these men from having a fatal amount of potassium in their body that would stop their heart from beating, and that overrode my personal beliefs. I am not entirely happy about that, but I feel that I made an appropriate choice.
I used to work in a nursing home and part of my job was cooking non-veg foods...But that was not the POINT of my job. The point of my job was caring for the residents. I incorporated more veggies into the meals than most of the staff...so I thought it was some kind of balance...
Now, I sculpt fruit for a living...some of it is dipped in chocolate, mind you, but its about as vegetarian as it gets...
I will admit it, I encouraged all sorts of meat and egg consumption when I was on my renal rotation. Potassium and phosphorous can be deadly to a dialysis patient. Fruits, vegetables, grains, and beans were pretty much out or limited. My job was to keep these men from having a fatal amount of potassium in their body that would stop their heart from beating, and that overrode my personal beliefs. I am not entirely happy about that, but I feel that I made an appropriate choice.
Oh, this was the specific situation at my nursing home. (at least the most recent one) and there are very specific foods to avoid. I found a very helpful website about it and will see if i can dig that up for you, though I'm sure you already know most of it. there was some research to suggest that if you can maintain a low phosphorus diet with few meat product you can begin to reverse the dependancy on dialysis....
Yes, meat is high in phosphorous, which is what makes the renal diet such a pain! They can hardly eat anything, and they can't drink water. And to top it off, most of my patients were diabetic, which why they have kidney disease in the first place, so then carbs have to be monitored as well, that is part of the reason I reccomended eggs. The average person needs about 0.8 gm/kg of protein, where as a renal patient needs 1.3-1.5 gm/kg, since the dialysis pulls so much protein out of the blood. Dialysis can be used for both acute and chronic renal failure. I think that the source that you had probably dealt more with acute than chronic, and I would love if you could find that source about the low phosphorous/dialysis dependency! It would be interesting reading.
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