Veganism

Vega- what?

A newspaper column

As Germans go, my godfather fulfils all the requirements to keep every last stereotype alive.
He loves his beer, and boy, does he love his meat. So imagine the devastation when his favourite Steak House closed. And then, when he read the paper and learned what kind of restaurant was opening in that spot- you could look at him and almost pinpoint the exact moment his heart broke in two.
A raw vegan restaurant. Vegan. Raw. My godfather went right through 4 of the 5 stages of grief: denial, anger, bargaining and depression- just to circle back around and start all over again.
Acceptance followed a few days later as he commented, shaking his head in resignation, on the return of the „Hippies and all those other tree-hugging earth fanatics“.
Well, choice of words aside, he actually was on to something there. Vegetarian and vegan restaurants are popping up left and right, there are whole vegan sections appearing in grocery stores and in any bigger city, especially one with an university, you will hardly find a lamppost or traffic light without some anti-speciesism or pro vegan sticker.
Meat free Mondays? Go green? It is hard to ignore: within the last few years, there has been a shift of consciousness in peoples' minds that apparently was substantial enough to drag veganism out of obscurity and into the limelight. And its gaining momentum.
Many of you are probably wondering now: So what, pray tell, IS veganism? I did some research and tried to answer that same question for my godfather:

Veganism is a way of life. Or a mindset. For a vegan, it is important to cause the least harm possible, which means that apart from eating no animal products, they also do not wear anything made out of leather, wool or silk or use any product tested on animals - and on top of that most vegans stand up against inequalities of any kind, which is where the term „speciecism“ comes in: just like racism is the belief that somebodies skin colour determines...