Eating Green | Frank Spade

I don’t call myself vegan, since it is sort of a cuss word. I am a humanist, who has compassion for all sorts of life. For more than 30 years I have avoided harming men, animals and plants as much as I can. I grew up in a German family after World War II, which had to get by with little money. It was considered a privilege to be able to consume animal foods, but we were only able to afford it on Sundays. I was told that I had to consume it if I wanted to grow up and be a strong man. I loved to drink milk and eat cheese just because of its taste. During school holidays I would stay on a farm and enjoy the animals, including riding pigs and milking cows. It all seemed natural and in harmony. The animals appeared at peace and well cared for. It was a small farm with maybe ten pigs, twenty cows and a bunch of chickens.

While serving in the army I suffered appendicitis and had surgery. After the operation the doctor told me what not to eat to get well again. That was the first time I had to think about what I ate, which led me to place my focus on whole foods. During my wedding holidays in Israel I came across a chicken farm with hundreds of caged chickens on several levels above each other. Before that I had no idea about factory farming and started to contemplate what I was doing. I studied Natural Hygiene (a philosophy about natural living) and learned about the suffering of animals and workers in factory farming. I learned that we are the only animals on this planet which drink the milk of another species after we have been weened. I also couldn’t imagine killing an animal to eat it and therefore couldn’t request others to do it for me.

Later I also came to realize that we are the only animal on this planet that destroys its food before we eat it. That didn’t make sense to me either, so I slowly reduced the amount of cooked food I ate. I am now trying to learn about wild herbs and have more green stuff in my diet. It feels great and gives me a lot of energy. I enjoy long-distance running and sometimes team up with vegan runners in Berlin. As a retired humanistic consultant I speak at weddings and funerals, and even held a mourning talk about a cow at the graduation ceremony of an intercultural hospice course I attended. For years I have only bought clothing which hasn’t caused harm to animals and nowadays try to stay away from clothing which has been produced under unfair conditions. I also try to stay away from products that have traveled from afar, because it no longer makes sense to me. There are plenty of local foods I can enjoy, and I am learning to recognize and prepare more and more of them.

I learned that other people like my food if I don’t call it vegan, so I don’t and everybody is happy. During my 66 years of life I have learned a lot and still do. I wish that in childhood I had learned most of what I know now, because it makes so much more sense.