Being Vegan, Vegan Being: Lisa Marie – My Passion In Life Is Creating A Vegan World

Lisa Marie is a passionate vegan and animal rights activist.  This past year Lisa was named by Onalytica as the #1 Individual Influencer on Twitter in animal rights.  (More information including a link to Onalytica’s study can be found here.)   Lisa’s passion in life is spreading the vegan message in order to abolish animal use and create a vegan world.  She makes her living running her own business, virtually managing and assisting companies and entrepreneurs with operations and projects.  Lisa most loves putting her experience to use assisting vegan companies, organizations and entrepreneurs, and is currently involved in several exciting projects.  Lisa also donates time in helping other independent vegan activists, as well as mentoring individuals on going vegan.  Her mentoring includes everything from the ethics of veganism to shopping trips, through her vegan blog site and via Twitter at @GoVeganTweets.

Learn more about Lisa here.

What was the moment you realized that you wanted to go vegan? 

Without having always been aware of the term, I’ve always known I was vegan.  Like most I was born loving and empathizing with all living beings.  I worried about the vulnerability of all animals constantly, and yet as a child I consumed them in most every way society teaches us is the norm.

Read the rest of Lisa’s vegan story here.

 

 

Why is being Vegan important to you? 

Since veganism is a lifestyle it is the outward manifestation of who I am. My life is an expression of my love for all of earth’s creatures, and I have peace living in alignment with my values in not harming other living beings.  We all have the choice in deciding if we want more suffering or less to have manifested because we lived.  I think most of us would choose to remove suffering, and given that going vegan is least we should do.

Being vegan also allows my life to be an example to those around me, and inspires me to use my voice spreading the vegan message.  In being vegan I not only want to do the least harm, I want to create change as soon as possible for the innocent, defenseless animals who have only vegans to empathetically speak on their behalf.  It’s also gratifying knowing that living my values causes my negative impact environmentally to be as minimal as possible, and helps to positively impact climate change, species extinction, biodiversity, and host of negative conditions we currently face globally.

 

Any recommended social sites, Facebook Groups or other?  Do you have a favorite movie or video or your own media that you want to share?  

So much valuable information can be found online via social media, blogs and YouTube.  Documentaries are powerful change-agents and I highly recommend Earthlings, Cowspiracy, Forks Over Knives and What The Health.  Simple Google or YouTube searches for ‘animal agriculture abuse,’ ‘dairy abuse,’ or ‘abuse on egg farms,’ ‘fish farming,’ etc., will supply the facts.  Another search for ‘vegan recipes,’ shows there is a world of vegan options that replicate all of one’s favorite dishes and flavors.  There are also vegan activists producing unlimited resources across all social media platforms and YouTube.

On my website I share links addressing common myths about animal agriculture and resources on going vegan.   In addition, my Twitter feed  has over 10,000 tweets linking to information on going vegan, facts about animal agriculture and the inherent abuses, vegan health and environmental information, recipes and more.

I would encourage your non-vegan readers to make a choice to seek out information, and then to live in a way that reflects their personal values.  If they would never harm an animal with their own hands, to decide that they will no longer pay others to harm them. The abusive industries all operate according to supply and demand, and as we remove our demand the tide is turning.  This trend is only being created by people who care for animals and would never unnecessarily hurt them.  Becoming vegan is not only doable; it is easy, enjoyable and positive in every way.

 

 

Do you actively promote veganism?  Include any stories you would like.   

My life is really a living promotion of veganism.  (More about Lisa’s advocacy and information that others can use in theirs, including her cache of outreach materials and printable PDFs appears here.)  Also in my daily travels, I’m armed with leaflets and information for sharing and I advocate everywhere I go.  There are countless unexpected opportunities to advocate too.  Just today I met a new woman in my neighborhood who inquired about my fitness routine, and I used it as an opportunity to talk about veganism.  She replied she was for animal rights, and I’m excited that she is now on board for mentoring!

The message Lisa most likes to convey in her activism can be found here:  Why Your Veganism Matters.

 

 

What is your favorite Vegan meme? 

There are so many excellent memes that I don’t think I could choose just one.  I use them often in my social media posts, and send much love and gratitude to everyone who put their love for animals into making them.

You can find some of Lisa’s favorites here.

What is the vegan stereotype you hear the most and how do you respond to it? 

I hear quite a few of them and more often than not I try to not respond because they tend to arise from a place of defense, which can be the inception of someone’s awakening.  I think the one I’m most frequently tempted to respond to is, ‘vegans think they’re superior.’  While I understand where that feeling may originate, in our vegan stance that honors all living beings our view is that we’re not superior.  Valuing our taste buds over entire lives would be a superior view.  Humans are egocentric creatures and most vegans were once non-vegans and unconscious slaves to the system.  In hearing non-vegan responses, I try to remember this is someone who is unconsciously going along with tradition and habit with the approval of everyone around them, and encouragement from advertisers and educators.  When I keep the end-goal for the animals in mind, I more effectively respond rather than react.

 

I have a recent example.  I met a woman athlete seated next to me on a plane a little over one month ago, who I received an email from last week notifying me of her one-month vegan anniversary.  Our conversation didn’t begin without conflicting ideas as she was largely resigned to not changing.  She had a good bit of knowledge already about the atrocities in animal agriculture and she cared, yet had concerns due to the misinformation put forth by these industries.  She also had a poor perception of vegans.  I remained patient and listened to all of her thoughts while kindly offering facts in response.  When we parted ways she thanked me for actually listening and talking with her respectfully, and said she was willing to give veganism a try.  Consequently I began mentoring her, and I am so glad I took a patient route and didn’t feed the stereotypes.

 

 

Please share your favorite vegan recipe?                                            

This is my own lasagna recipe and it’s one I like to share because it demonstrates in going vegan one doesn’t give up traditional flavors, and that adding new flavors can make old favorites even tastier.

Some encouraging words for new Vegans?

Congratulations on making a beautiful, positive choice!  Much love and respect for making a change that will remove your participation in continuing to cause unnecessary harm to animals.  Veganism is the most compassionate and responsible lifestyle choice one can make, and it will change your life in so many positive ways.

To make this change even easier, make a list of the items and flavors that thus far in your life that have been significant to you, and choose vegan products and recipes to fulfill them.  Vegan products are so sophisticated today that there is a vegan version of everything, and they are only one Google search away with most products in your local shops or via online ordering.  Share your vegan food with your non-vegan family, friends, and coworkers also!  Do some research as well and learn how animals are treated and killed in order to be used as commodities, and share this information with as many others as you can.  You’ve taken the first most important step in going vegan, and from here you will create a ripple that will cause our world to be a more loving place for all living beings.   Check out my blog post The Vegan Voice for outreach materials, and feel free to contact me if you need assistance.

 

(credit: John Oberg, photo; pig in slaughterhouse truck)

 

Do you have a question for other vegans and what would be your answer? 

Want to discuss how we are going to veganize the world?  If you want to brainstorm, collaborate or need support or assistance, drop a message to me.  We are brothers and sisters in this fight to save our non-human brothers and sisters, and I would love hearing from you.

 

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