so what’s it really like? By: Halee Miller Veganism and vegetarianism are becoming more and more popular in the United States, but some Americans have a hard time understanding and accepting the lifestyle. Unless one practices the diet themselves, it can be challenging to comprehend the desires of others to pursue it. That is why we sat down with two people that would know firsthand what the diets are like: one vegan and one vegetarian. We discussed what the diets mean for them and all the challenges that arise in daily life. Kathryn Burns and Kierlyn Casmirri are both juniors at Iowa State University. Burns is a vegan, and Casmirri is a vegetarian. They gave us the insight that we cannot get from a website or textbook. Let’s define the two terms first. “Veganism means not consuming any animal products; that’s with diet and products, like wearing leather,” Casmirri said. “That also includes honey for me.” “Vegetarianism for me means I don’t eat any meat, but sometimes on vacation, if the fish is local, I will eat it,” Burns said. “But I do eat cheese and dairy,” Those of special diets typically have a motivation for choosing to change their eating habits, whether it be health reasons, animal rights or environmental concerns. Casmirri said that she took an animal science class at Iowa State during her first semester. Each Friday, the class visited some farms as a class lab component. Soon, she could not bear the thought of eating the animals she was seeing in front of her each week. Burns had more of an environmental perspective when choosing to change her diet.
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“I did an interactive news article in high school that showed how bad eating meat was for the planet,” Burns said. “So, I’ve been vegetarian for two and a half years, and I haven’t eaten red meat in three years.”
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