TRE: What is your current relationship with food?
TRE: Why did you make the switch?
TRE: Did you just go cold-turkey one day, or was it a gradual process?
Like recently when a person burned her dog Bobo and was arrested for animal cruelty, I kept thinking about all these people who felt so bad for that dog but probably go to McDonald’s after they donate money and contribute to even worse cruelty themselves.
TRE: Do you miss the things you used to eat? How much of an adjustment was it for you?
TRE: How has your body responded? Do you feel different? Are there nutrition supplement considerations?
When it comes to feeling different, I don’t notice anything different. For example, I can rock climb just as hard as when I was training and stuffing my face with a high protein meat diet.
TRE: You’ve attended a few Vegan meetups recently, how did you find that group and what has it been like?
I mainly just wanted to meet people with like mind. Unfortunately for me there’s not a lot of single ladies. Haha. I’m new to the group but so far no one has made a vegan tofu dish that even came close to yours Ryan. =) Thanks again..
TRE: You heard it here first ladies - JVonD is available! It’s funny, most of the people I have interviewed don’t often get involved in food related conversations, even though it’s a subject everyone can relate to! But I understand where you are coming from, I don’t usually have those conversations either. Maybe there is a way we can make it happen without being preachy?
You seem to be pretty involved in the local scene, what other stuff do you do (besides eat!)?
But I mainly consider myself a Trance/Ambient recording artist and enjoy performing around town with my one of a kind workstation called the BEATOMATIC III Turbo. I don’t know what it is but I really enjoy being a “bar fly”. Talking to friendly folks over beers is probably my favorite thing to do. I stay busy trying to get my “JVonD Productions” business off the ground which is a combination of a couple startups I’ve been messing with. Streaming & hosting media relay servers, video production, audio productions stuff. Hoping to redesign my sites soon to offer more participation from the community.
Mainly though I really enjoy being a “real” person. All though I have a strong internet presence, I strongly encourage others to “stop hiding behind your internet avatars” and get involved. For example, go tell your city council what you think instead of ranting on a blog about it kinda thing.
TRE: Interesting…it’s easy to assume that “bar-fly” and “people who care about what they eat” are two mutually exclusive categories! Do you see veganism growing at the same pace as the organic movement, or are they separate?
The worst is when you meet an individual who considers themselves a vegetarian just to realize that they are only concerned with their own well being and not actually trying to help the planet in general. Although a good vegan diet can be amazingly beneficial, its really hard to do it right. I’ve been a vegan since about 2001 and I will be the first to admit my diet is horrible but the human body seems to have the ability to conform to extremes. I ate processed veg. foods for over 6 years and now my diet is non-processed and no-MSG and I’m still alive in this “cruelty free” lifestyle.
But seriously, “I’M WILLING TO DIE” before I participate in my old habits growing up in this new “somewhat evil” uninformed civilization. It’s unfortunate that people are blind to the practices of the world around them.
TRE: Interesting. I’d never thought of organic vs vegan being a matter of being interested in self vs others. Do be careful about generalizing to everyone though…before I started eating locally & organic, I had cut out probably 80% of the meat in my diet mostly for “be good to the planet” reasons.
I’d heard that people often GAIN a lot of weight when they become vegans, and you mentioned that your diet is horrible. How specifically is it horrible? And is that the way it has to be for vegans?
Gaining weight from a Vegan diet? I haven’t heard about that. My personal vegan diet being horrible meaning eating lots of processed food and stuff containing MSG. I’m getting better though. Considering the majority of people I know are concerned with some sort of balance in their intake whether it being vitamins, minerals, proteins, etc.. often taking pills and now almost every talk radio station has some sort of fish oil supplement commercial. I don’t really keep track of things. I just eat what my body tells me to eat.
There are so many vegans that can cook amazing nutritional foods. I have trouble coming up with good recipes and often would rather save my time for other things than to have to prepare a big meal. My new food processor is helping me get a bigger variety foods by making purees all at once.
Sorry if I come off as a jerk sometimes. I don’t mean to piss anybody off. If you don’t mind, why do you have a 20% meat intake?
TRE: Hm, good question. I haven’t stopped eating meat because 1) There are plenty of places you can buy meat raised responsibly (with no cruelty and little environmental impact). The ethics of eating another animal doesn’t bother me…everything we eat is a living thing. 2) My wife isn’t interested in being a vegetarian. We used to eat separately, but we ate crap. Cutting back on all that processed food (which has huge negative health and environmental impacts) seems to me like a better compromise. Reason #2 is weak, but basically it explains why we occasionally have meat in the house. Regardless of that, I would probably still eat some meat if that was what was served at a party or friends house.
I realize that we could do the same without any meat, and maybe that will happen someday, but idea that everything has to be so black and white is too big of a roadblock. If we “allow” people to start changing their consumption habits little by little in the right direction, it will have a greater net impact than criticizing them for not “going all the way” (not to imply you are criticizing).
In the end, the short answer is that, while I am against the systematic animal cruelty of the industrial food machine, I am not against eating animals that have been raised responsibly. Again, maybe that will change someday, but right now my convictions are not strong enough to make me eat zero meat.
I’m curious, what’s your reaction to my explanation?
About “no cruelty or environmental effects”, I’m curious to how that’s possible but I’m just satisfied that somehow you make it happen and I’m happy to leave it at that. Again, I really try to discourage arguments. I really think your low animal intake is such a positive thing I just hope more people out there can find at least a day out of there week to find a way around it and eat plant based foods. For me its all mental, it really makes feel good about myself.
Unfortunately I have a problem when someone has to eat meat/dairy around me as if they couldn’t live without it for a meal. I just want to say “Hey! I’ve done it for over 7 years straight, do you mind?” but I obviously wouldn’t say it…
TRE: Thanks for sharing so openly, I really appreciate it. It’s definitely made me think even more about the food choices I’m making. Do you have any last bits of advice or wisdom for our readers?
My advice is to do what you can to get your hands on Ryan’s amazing tofu dish. Its the bomb!
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
Ryan, you always have the best interviews. Great job once again.
I grew up on a farm where everything on the dinner table was either raised or grown by our family. So, I have a difficult time understanding the “cruelty to animals” concept.
Having said that, I do not equate eating what you raise on your own farm to “the industrial food machine” which you refer to and that so many folks choose to….how shall I say….conveniently ignore. I can certainly understand why that would be a tummy-turner.
While I do not foresee myself giving up the foods I enjoy I appreciate you and your guest’s candidness on the subject. Whether folks choose their eating habits based on health reasons or social concerns, it shows that people base their decisions about what they buy and consume for as many reasons as there are products to choose from.
So my question is: all things being equal (price, convenience, and knowledge of the subject), do you think a typical person would willfully change his/her eating habits, buy only organic food, or stop eating meat products? In other words, are those the only reasons people don’t change their eating habits or are there deeper reasons?
The Hippo
Thanks for the stats on the Sweet Surpise campaigns (found you via Mama Manifesto). Very interesting!
First off, Ryan, your link to your bomb-digity tofu dish at the end of the interview 404s.
Secondly, this was a very interesting interview with JVonD. I’ve ‘known’ him online for several years online through podcasting, and though his veganism had come up once or twice, it has never been a ‘big deal.’ Like with everything else he does, his attitude it 100% full-on casual, if that makes any sense. He’s totally dedicated to his music and puts in all the prep work for a show, but when it comes down to it, he makes it look easy - laid back. Likewise, his veganism is something he’s obviously spent a lot of time thinking about and yet it’s not something he forces on others. That’s refreshing.
I’m surprised how many people these days are passionate about food and what they eat, but you’d never know it. It’s certainly better than the way I used to think things were: you’re either a vigilante vegetarian, or you just eat like a normal person.
Thanks for the comment Oblivion. I fixed the tofu link. Sadly, I’ll have to go through all of my old posts and update many of the links.