Humans have not been on this earth for that long, but we have dramatically affected it. One way to reduce the harm that humans have had on the environment is veganism. A vegan is someone who does not any meat and any other animal products like milk, eggs, and gelatin. Veganism helps to combat world hunger, conserve water, reduce energy consumption, purifies the soil and improves soil quality.

I decided to adopt the vegan diet as a way to help the environment. When I started, I expected it to be hard because animal products are in a lot of foods.

To start my vegan journey, I researched recipes to get a plan for the meals I was going to eat that first week. I printed out all my favorites and wrote down all the ingredients that I would need. Then it was time for me to go to the grocery store. Luckily for me, my friend said she would try veganism too, so she went shopping with me. It took us a long time to finds all the ingredients that we need because we had to check the label of each food. We went back to my house to make our first vegan meal; it was vegan pad Thai. The recipe was much longer than the average meal that I make, but it was a lot of fun to experiment with different ingredients. I had never tried some of the food that we used, like tofu, so I was a little apprehensive to try it not knowing if I would like it. The pad Thai ended up having a lot of flavor and was good, but it was not practical for me to make a meal like it every day. Having a success with my first meal, I felt better going into that first week.

As I continued being vegan it got easier; I knew what foods I could and couldn’t eat at the grocery store. One hard part was when I was going out to eat I had to look up the menu ahead of time to see what options the restaurant had for me, but again as time went on, I learned what would be okay for me to order. Although there were some hard times and accidental slip ups, I love being vegan and all the positive effects it has for the planet.