George Straight, All My Ex’s Live in Texas

Living as a vegan is one thing; living as a vegan in Texas is something else altogether. There are myths about vegans: we are skinny, undernourished hippies; we are extremists; we are domestic terrorists. Then there are the myths about Texans: we all wear cowboy boots, live on ranches, and raise cattle. But this podcast is going to present a different view of both vegans and Texans. We are going to dispel some of those myths about both and take a look at what is going on in the movement towards animal rights and plant-based eating.

First up is Ken Botts of Denton, Texas, home of the only all-vegan cafeteria in the nation. Denton also boasts a vegetarian society, a vegan store, and a vegan restaurant or two. Ken and his wife, Lori, also run an animal-based service business and are two of the nicest people I have met in Texas. They epitomize the best: gracious, kind-hearted, and working for a better world. Here is Ken Botts.

Tape of Ken Botts

Then there is Nora Kramer, the innovative developer of the Youth Empowerment Action Camp – an all vegan camp that helps kids find their voice and learn how to get active for things in which they believe. I first heard of Nora through her innovative camp and was impressed with the bios of her camp counselors. I lamented I was not a teen for the first time in decades — I would have loved to attend a camp specifically for young activists. Following an interview with Nora for the Veganacious blog, I began following the success of her YEA camp, which has grown from a single location to now taking place in three states.

Tape of Nora Kramer

Ann Mai and a host of enthusiastic young activists comprise The Vegan Club at the University of Texas at Arlington. Ann and company partnered with Animal Rights & Rescue or North Texas recently at a vegan advocacy and food sampling event on campus. It was great to see the enthusiasm and energy of The Vegan  Club.

Chat with Ann Mai of The Vegan Club

Ann also mentioned to me that UTA offers an Animal Studies course, which allows students to consider alternative views about the human-nonhuman alliance through discussion of literature.

Another strong activist changing hearts and minds in Texas is the cookbook author Christy Morgan, known as The Blissful Chef. Christy actually came back to Texas for culinary school and can be seen at local vegan events such as The Texas State Veggie Fair. I reviewed her excellent cookbook, Blissful Bites, on the Veganacious blog.

Christy Morgan of Blissful Bites

While it might seem that all the vegan advocacy is coming from transplants like me, that is not the case. One of the people who worked at the UTA outreach event in March is Margaret Strebeck, a local woman who came to animal rights through the raw food movement. Margaret is a native of Texas and came to veganism later in life, just like me.

Tape of Margaret Strebeck

Thank you for sharing your amazing journey with us, Margaret.

Now on to a couple of Texas natives, Claire Osborne and Adam Little, who best know — as Margaret does — both the challenges and the delights of being vegan in Texas.

Tape of Adam Little and Claire Osborne

Whether one is a transplant or a native of Texas, we are all now Texans. We face different challenges, but we all face them together. It is encouraging to hear a recently arrived Texan like Nora and a lifetime Texan like Margaret have both found Texas people to be receptive, gracious and open to the vegan message. There are now several vegan meetup groups in the DFW area, and many more in the rest of Texas. Austin is a center for progressive thinking and is home to many vegan enterprises, but there are also vegan groups starting up in San Antonio, Houston, El Paso, Denton, Ft. Worth, San Angelo, and Lubbock. Our local markets now carry many vegan products, and there are a number of local vegan and vegan-friendly options available for those going out to eat.

The work is far from over, but it gets better year by year. With folks like Ann Mai and Ken Botts making university campuses more vegan friendly, with enterprising individuals like Nora Kramer and Christy Morgan reaching thousands of people through their respective camps and classes, and local activists like Margaret and many others trying to reach people throughout the area and beyond, Texas is slowly becoming veganized. If this is happening in Texas, heart of cattle country and animal agriculture, this can happen anywhere! Why not make it happen where you live?

Willie Nelson and Waylen Jennings, Mamas Don’t Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Cowboys

Related links:

UNT Dining

MFA Texas Campaigns

YEA Camp

The Blissful Chef

The Vegan Club at UTA

The Shorthorn (Broccoli Bulletin)

Dallas Vegan

Lone Star Plate

Animal Rights & Rescue of North Texas

When we got to the beautiful gardens, it was only misting, but I received a call that the professor had decided to cancel the class – great timing, after being on the road for almost an hour! So we decided to go ahead and shoot our photos and call it a day – and a field trip. The lovely wet weather was perfect for photography; I took many misty photos with clean, green foliage. I even found a spot where I could place my camera on a post and get a slow shutter speed effect to allow lots of light and motion into the shot. I shot waterfalls, Japanese architecture, flowers, fountains. We has plastic bags over our cameras to protect them, and it did keep raining pretty hard intermittently, but I was glad to get the assignment behind me and get back home – I had articles to write.

On the way back, my very kind fellow student wanted to stop for lunch. I knew then that my cover would be lost – I would have to tell her I was vegan. I told her, among other things, that I was not particular and could find something to eat most anywhere. Her comment was thus: “On no, you aren’t particular, you just have the entire kitchen working to make you something to eat.”  That was in response to a recent situation I shared, when my son invited me to go to lunch with him at On the Border, a Mexican restaurant that had nothing on the menu that was animal-free. I asked to speak with the restaurant manager and gave him my business card, explaining that I write for a dot com and would like to review his restaurant from a vegan perspective. He was lovely and brought out some food that probably required little effort and was most appreciated by this vegan: shredded lettuce, tomatoes, avocado in tortillas with lime cilantro rice and delicious black beans. The manager/owner seemed to appreciate the challenge and I certainly appreciated being able to eat.   It seemed like a win-win and allowed me to let this restaurateur know that we vegans exist and to let vegans in the area know they will be accommodated at this restaurant. Let me set this up: this is cattle country, this is the area of barbecue and steak. I once went to a luncheon where there was not a single item I could eat. But there are over 400 vegans in the local DFW vegan meetup, so we vegans exist. And our numbers are growing. Still, the attitude in the comment seemed a bit hostile, but I let it go. This was a very nice woman; she had even brought a bottle of water along for me, in case I got thirsty.

Throughout the entire lunch, there were comments about meat. She would not eat a bison burger but her family member would – she could not bear to think about the dead bison. (I guess cows, pigs, chickens have no nerve endings and do not feel.) She told me that she doesn’t think chickens are very smart as if that made it okay to harm them. I interjected that it wasn’t about how smart they were but if they could feel. Right over that comment she went into a dialogue about meat again while I tried to change the subject. It was hard to face my vegetarian vegetable soup and my whole grain cracker,  with images of slaughterhouses running through my mind.  I said that I became vegan when I found out what happens to animals and my bet was that most people would become vegan if they knew the truth.  She said she could appreciate someone standing up for what they believe just so they don’t try to change her. Time to change the subject again: How about that rain? Imagine that guy canceling on us? And two of the students had taken off work to attend. Bet were they mad! What on earth was going through her mind that forced her to discuss meat, a topic I obviously find abhorrent?  Defensiveness, amusement at my oddity? Trying to figure it all out? I was perplexed.

When I returned home, I was left feeling relieved but a bit discouraged. I realize that there is no way for someone to know what I now know, not instantly anyway.  Everyone has to find their own answers in their own time.  Learning to walk the fine line between being obnoxious and encouraging someone to think outside their large enclosed box is challenging.  There were political comments and religious comments that made me wince – I did not line up in any way.  Still, I could tell she was trying, and for a Texan, she was moderate.  At least she did not try exorcising my demons or any of that, and she did not offer to pray for me, as others have done in the past.  She seemed like a good person. But I felt like I was unprepared, like there was something I could have said or done that would have given her more information or made a bigger impact. She did offer to call me again to go photoshooting; maybe getting to know a real vegan would make the biggest impact of all, as long as that vegan is not too over the top. Where is the line? It left me thinking…

A few days later, I was invited to go out again with the same fellow student. This time the weather was perfect, and I got shots of two turtles, bees, butterflies, dragonflies, flowers, trees, brooks – a great photoshoot.  It was a wonderful break from nose-to-the-computer-grindstone that comprises most of my time these days.  When she offered to take me to lunch, her treat, I told her to select wherever she wanted; I can always find something to eat.  But instead, she went out of her way to suggest a soup and salad bar where she knew I would be accommodated (SouperSalad).  It was a far better experience than my first meal and such a gracious gesture – and not a word about meat or my weird eating habits.  Given how few vegans are in this part of Texas, I can imagine how shocking my stance must have seemed.  But my colleague had time to reflect and I was touched by her graciousness. This time, I returned home, feeling slightly elated and very affirmed.  I didn’t feel like an outcast or an oddity; I felt accepted and appreciated. At times, it really pays to take a deep breath and let the chips fall where they may.  Beyond the veganism, we even found a few things we shared.  It was a lesson for me in patience, towards myself as well as others. I hope her attitude towards vegans has changed as positively as my attitude towards omnivores and Texans!