During this week as a fieldworker, I gathered information via an interview of an individual belonging to the vegan culture. I asked a series of questions, to which I recorded the responses. The individual being interviewed is a white male, 26 years if age, who lived the first 18 years of his life in a small town in Pennsylvania, before joining the military and eventually making California his new home. He currently resides with his wife, a white 26-year-old California native, who also practices veganism. They live with two dogs and two cats in a small house that they bought. When asking the individual why he first decided to become vegan, he responded “Well, I had eaten meat and dairy my entire life and enjoyed eating it. I only was introduced to the vegan lifestyle through Johnah (his wife at the time), who was vegan long before we started dating. I had a love for cooking, so I would always cook us dinner. To be honest, I just got tired of having to cook two different meals for the both of us, so I began to just cook the vegan meals. And then I just learned a lot more about vegans, and I’ve always had a love for animals, so I decided to try it. Plus, Johnah wouldn’t kiss me if I had eaten a hamburger.”
I then asked the subject if he had ever altered from the “rules” of veganism, to which he responded: “Well, when I was first starting out, I actually didn’t go full-on and become a vegan. I started cutting out like red meat, and then white meat, fish, and all that. Eventually I cut out cheese, and then cut out dairy products altogether. It was pretty hard at first, but once I got the hang of all the different foods I could eat and how to cook them so they’d taste good, it was easy. But there was one point when I was stationed overseas where I decided to bring back eggs into my diet because I thought it would be easier to get some nutrition, but it totally backfired and I was on the toilet for hours. My body definitely did not agree with it.”
I then asked him about a distinguishing artifact of vegan culture, tofu. I asked him if he ate it and how he used it if he did. He responded, “I ate a lot of tofu when I first became vegan, but I don’t eat it as much anymore for some reason. I guess I just know how to cook better so I can really just make whatever I want. I definitely still eat it though. I use it most often to make “vegan eggs” which is really just tofu and some seasonings like turmeric, garlic powder, Dijon mustard, pepper, and some other things to make it look and taste more like eggs. Vegans just call it “tofu scramble,” though. I just figured you wouldn’t know what I was talking about if I called it that. I usually throw in some salsa, too. But yeah, it’s basically just mushed up soybeans. It’s really high in protein.”
Taylor's Blog 