Thomas Bell
The Humane League UK volunteer Thomas Bell tells the story behind his vegan journey.
Going vegan can be a big change for some people. It’s often not simply a diet change, but a switch in perspective, a lifestyle revamp. For me, it’s become an integral part of who I am.
I first went vegan in 2007 after falling in love with a vegan. It was pure heart over head. We were teenagers learning about the horrors that go on behind closed doors on factory farms and I made the connection between the meat on my plate and the suffering of the animals that died to produce it.
My parents were horrified, my mother even forbade me from going vegan. Which meant of course that I now had to go vegan. And so I did.
I wish I could say that I never looked back, but life isn't that simple. The hardest time was when I moved to a new place, and didn't have vegan friends around me. I've experimented with pescatarian, veggie, intermittent-fasting and paleo diets, to better learn what works for me.
I've tried to remain skeptical, and to update my behaviour based on new evidence. Reading ‘The Big Meat Book’ by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall left me thinking maybe I should find a middle road, and compromise on my absolutist ethical principles. I tried minimising the negative impact of my diet on the environment and animals, avoiding animals perceived as more ‘intelligent’ and picking those ‘lower down the food chain.’
At the end of all that experimentation I had certainly learned a lot, but my heart just wasn't in it. I remember staring down at a tin of sardines in my hand and reflecting on how much it looked like a tiny fish-coffin. I was at a low ebb.
In 2016, I moved to Brighton, where I was instantly surrounded by vegans. Times had changed, and a variety of plant-based foods had appeared on supermarket shelves and café menus.
It was at this point, whilst living with a couple of brilliant vegan friends, that I learned about the Effective Altruist (EA) movement. They taught me that EA is all about combining head and heart, and trying to create the most good possible with our limited time, and money and skills. The point of EA is to maximise the positive impact we can have, be it by saving lives, reducing suffering, improving health outcomes or mitigating the risks of existential threats to humanity.
I already wanted to make my corner of the world a better place, now I had a set of concrete steps that would make a measurable difference to help others, including animals. So, I decided to commit to a year of being vegan, and see how I went.
Four years later and I'm still vegan, but this time I have all that I've learned about Effective Altruism to keep me motivated. I've learned to keep reaching out and making friends. I still have my grief and rage from first discovering the cruel, inhumane side of industrial animal agriculture. I still have that healthy sense of skepticism so I actively seek out people who don't share my points of view. I still love experimenting, but now I do it with new dishes, not new diets.
