A Journey to Veganism with Selene Nelson, Part 1 of 2

Selene Nelson is an author, freelance journalist and vegan activist. Her latest book, Yes Ve-Gan! is a well written guide on how and why to go vegan. Selene Nelson was a vegetarian up to 2017, when she made the transition to veganism. Let’s find out what motivated Selene to make such a change. “What motivated me to become vegan was my love for animals, first and foremost. I was already vegetarian, when I went vegan, because I’d seen slaughterhouse footage and I thought I just don’t want any part of that but it’s very easy to look away from the dairy industry and the egg industry. I did that very successfully for quite a few years and it got to a point where I couldn’t look away anymore and I confronted the reality of these industries and once you see the footage and you are aware of how awful it is, I realized I would be just a real hypocrite if I decided dairy cows didn’t matter in the same way I thought beef cows did. So, it was just a decision I felt compelled to make.” “I wanted to travel and just experience life and it was that travel experience that made me become vegan. As soon as I did, I felt like I wanted to spread the message of veganism and let people know the reality of animal agriculture and allow people to make up their own minds, because I didn’t know any of that stuff before I was vegan and I think if I had that information I would’ve made the switch sooner, so I kind of felt it was my duty or my calling as cheesy as it might sound to actually use my journalism to spread that message.” Selene writes about the three main reasons for veganism: health, the environment, and animal ethics. Having travelled so extensively around the world, she shared with us how the vegan movement was reflected in all the various countries and cultures plus the reasons to motivate the success of veganism around the world. “I think definitely in the UK and the US there has been a strong interest in the health side of it, particularly recently. You have documentaries like the Game Changers on Netflix that are really popular and getting people to understand that vegan diet is not only healthy but it can actually be the best diet for you.”