"For the Vegetarian in You"

In November 2006 Gord and I took a trip to Victoria for a little vacation. We were doing one of our favorite things, browsing through used bookstores, when I happened upon a book called "For the Vegetarian in You." Actually, I think I found the book in one of the Sidney thrift stores. I had been seriously considering vegetarianism by this time, and the introduction to the book really grabbed me. It outlined a vision of a world where people didn't eat animals. There was enough food for everyone; no one went hungry. The remainder of the book just solidified the case for becoming vegetarian. It moved me so much that I posted the following on the CavyCages website vegetarian forum in December of 2006:

I have been 'sort of' vegetarian for the past year or so. Last month I was on holidays and while leisurely poking through a used book store in Sidney, BC, I came across this book:

"For the Vegetarian in You" by Billy Ray Boyd (1996, Prima Publishing, Rocklin, California, USA).

This book is a compelling yet easy to read account of a man, raised in the Ozark mountain area in a pro-hunting culture, and how he became a vegetarian and then a vegan. He goes on to talk about the personal and worldwide implications of meat-eating vs. veg lifestyles. Once I read that we could feed the world easily if everyone went vegetarian, instead of feeding that food to 'food animals' destined for slaughter to feed (likely more privileged) humans, I knew I had to stop eating meat.

My first step toward vegetarianism came last year when on another holiday to BC I found myself parked on the loading deck of a BC ferry beside a chicken transport truck. When I went to get into my vehicle after the ferry ride, I looked over at the chicken truck, at first just pissed off that some chicken poo had gotten on my car. Then I made eye contact with one of the five or six chickens (or the chicken made eye contact with me, I'm not sure which) who were stuffed into a cage only 1 foot high. The truck must have contained hundreds of these cages. I felt nothing but shame to be a human being at that moment. Mr. Boyd's book has helped me work towards the promise I made to those chickens that day. I encourage everyone to read it.