{"id":18169,"date":"2021-10-20T09:00:19","date_gmt":"2021-10-20T13:00:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/?p=18169"},"modified":"2021-09-29T10:12:12","modified_gmt":"2021-09-29T14:12:12","slug":"the-vegetarian-resource-group-2021-essay-contest-for-kids-winner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/2021\/10\/20\/the-vegetarian-resource-group-2021-essay-contest-for-kids-winner\/","title":{"rendered":"The Vegetarian Resource Group 2021 Essay Contest for Kids Winner"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Go Vegan! by Liv Byham <\/p>\n\n\n\n

You\u2019re in the same dark and crowded\nroom you\u2019ve been in since you were born, 6 years ago. You\u2019re being pushed into\na truck. You see sunlight for the first time, through the windows of the truck.\nAre you being freed? You find out the ugly truth when you are forced out of the\ntruck and into\u2026 the slaughterhouse. You are beaten into a small cage. Watching\nyour friends be beaten, thrown, or stabbed to death. You choke on toxic air as\nyou kick and scream until death. Sadly, this is what happens every time you\nhave bacon, ham, pork, or ribs. Each time you are causing the suffering of an\ninnocent animal. And that\u2019s only what happens to pigs. Going vegan is easy and\nworth it for the suffering you don\u2019t cause.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \nI learned the truth three years ago when I went vegan. I was a big meat\neater but also considered myself an animal lover. My older sister and mom went\nvegan and tried to force me to watch documentaries of the slaughtering of\nanimals. I refused. One night, after a dinner through them talking about\nsuffering, I had a dream. I had to face each animal I had eaten. I heard the\nscreams of \u201cwhy?\u201d \u201cWhy would you put us through that?\u201d They wanted to kill me.\nThey wanted to show me how much suffering I had really caused. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \nThat morning I went from your regular chicken nugget lover, to a full\nvegan. The transition can be weird but pretty soon I no longer looked at the\nanimal products as food I was missing out on but instead an animal who has to\nsuffer for that bite. I was picky too. I didn\u2019t even like French fries! And for\npizza I had to get it with no sauce. But when I went vegan I ended up not\nlimiting the foods I liked to eat but I expanded. I tried new things and really\nliked them. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \nIf ten-year-old me can go vegan so can you! Some may say that a vegan\ndiet is expensive but it doesn\u2019t have to be. A can of chickpeas can cost a\ndollar while a dead chicken can cost 4-20 dollars! Even restaurants are moving\ntowards cheaper vegan meals. At Chipotle the sofritas cost the same as chicken\nand are cheaper than steak. Also tofu and beans can last longer than meat so\nyou can worry less about it going bad. So why are you still eating expensive\nanimal corpses when you can be eating cheaper, healthier food that comes from\nplants? Now is the best time too! With the pandemic you don\u2019t have to worry as\nmuch about people judging you and there\u2019s a vegan version of everything so you\ndon\u2019t even have to give up some of your favorite foods.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \nBeing vegan has tons of benefits other than cost. Animal agriculture\nproduces more greenhouse gasses than all travel put together. The decision to\ngo vegan could be the decision of the next generation having a future or not.\nAnd as for the animals their decision is already made. They don\u2019t get a say if\nthey want to be food or not. If COVID has taught us anything it\u2019s how it feels\nto be locked up or have loved ones taking away. The animals live this way their\nwhole lives only to be brutally killed. Cows have best friends too that are\nstressed when apart. Pigs are just as smart as dogs and would respond to their\nname being called. Cows are forced into pregnancy and then have their child\nripped away from them right after birth. Only so we can drink the milk that was\nmeant for the baby. Male chicks are grinded alive because they are useless to\nthe industry. The animals suffer and the planet is dying all so you can have\nthat one bite.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \nSo why are you paying money to kill our planet and make animals suffer?\nDoes it really taste that different from the alternatives? Is all the cruelty\nthat you cause that worth it? That\u2019s your decision. You can keep eating that\noverpriced animal corpse cause it\u2019s only going to cost us the future of the\nplanet, a life of suffering and a brutal murder. Or you could just go vegan.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Go Vegan! by Liv Byham You\u2019re in the same dark and crowded room you\u2019ve been in since you were born, 6 years ago. You\u2019re being pushed into a truck. You see sunlight for the first time, through the windows of the truck. Are you being freed? You find out the ugly truth when you are […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18169","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18169","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18169"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18169\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18171,"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18169\/revisions\/18171"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18169"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18169"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18169"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}