A Guest Contributor

Lyra Alves, Belgium (Brazilian living in Belgium for 15 years) I was brought up in a very carnivorous environment in Brazil. My father strictly made sure my brother and I ate all kinds of foods. I remember my brother crying, looking at his food on the table, saying that the chicken on his plate was […] Read more

I’m a vegan nurse and I am also 65 years of age. Becoming vegan at 50 makes me a very late starter. I am vegan for ethical reasons, recognising that animals are beautiful, thinking, feeling creatures just like us. I am also a wife, mother, grandmother and great-grandmother. As an ex-farmer, I have done many years penance and grieving for the animals I used and abused.

Ramilyn P. Delposo, Philippines … There was a time when a girl, with her family, grew chickens. She trapped one or two to sell for money or dinner. She wove coconut leaves and made them into chicken nests. Some of the eggs were for breakfast – boiled or scrambled. The rest were kept for meat […] Read more

by Mimi Yoshiyama … In December of 2015, on a very sunny spring day, I arrived at this hidden valley in the far north of New Zealand. My first week in Gentle World passed by so quickly, as I helped with weeding, cooking, cleaning, renovating a caravan, and preparing amazing, soulful veganic dinners every night. After my first […] Read more

Anke Hagen, Hanover, North Germany I grew up in South Africa and experienced a number of transformative, life-changing events at an early receptive age, like trying to bargain with a female witch doctor who worked for my parents when she wanted to slaughter some chickens in our garden, whom she had “procured” for her magic. […] Read more

Carol Williams, United Kingdom I was raised to eat animals, just like most children in our society. I spent 58 years condemning sentient beings to lives of ruthless exploitation that would end in brutal death. For a few years I was vegetarian and then lapsed back into my old habits. I have no excuses for […] Read more

Tim Oseckas, Melbourne, Australia For 25 years I had been living my life like most other people in my culture and society, consuming the flesh from other animals, their milk, their eggs, their honey, wearing their skin, wearing hair taken from their bodies, using products tested on their bodies, and didn’t really reflect on the […] Read more

Susan Cho, Chicago, USA I will always be vegan: Because of the bear trapped in a tiny cage, continuously drained of the bile so prized by humans. The elephant whose family was shot so she could be used in a circus. The lobster who had been guarding her children when she was trapped and boiled […] Read more

by Alannah Quinn, Brisbane, Australia There was a time when I was unconscious, wrapped up in superficial wants. My mind was fixed on my materialistic needs. I existed purely in a little bubble of simple self, warm in the comfort of my easy ignorance and unable to see the horrific truths of the world through […] Read more