Michigan based blog, Inside The Rift, interviewed Anji for their ‘Metaphysics & Spirituality’ section this month. The feature goes into depth about about vegan lifestyle and popular YouTube channel, as well as her long career in music. Prox also asks what books, music and YouTube channels Anji has been into recently. It’s a fairly lengthy piece, replete with related photos, video, and links. Check it out at InsideTheRift.com.
Here’s a quick peek at some of what was discussed
Prox: For those unfamiliar with the channel, what were some of the key factors in your decision to become vegan? Could you discuss your journey for us a bit? Was there a pivotal moment that made you say “ok, enough is enough”?
Anji: I bought a 7” single by a band called MDC when I was in High School that contained a brochure titled, “Are You Really That Hungry?” It laid out a solid argument against eating meat, bringing up the fact that our starving third world populations could be fed by the staggering amount of grains Western culture used to fuel the cattle business, as well as the deplorable treatment of animals bred for food. I decided to go vegetarian right then and there. This was in the eighties, when even PETA was pushing “GO VEGETARIAN,” rather than vegan. Much later I learned about the health benefits of omitting dairy from your diet, and because I was already suffering due to lactose intolerance issues, I knew I had to take the next step. By this time, too, the Internet had made it much easier to learn about the injustice and cruelty of the dairy and egg industries.
Prox: Were there any ideas or foods that you had trouble letting go of in the beginning since you made the switch much later in life?
Anji: Well, obviously it was the dairy that had kept me from being vegan much earlier in life. At the time I went vegetarian, which was considered quite radical still in the 80’s, I switched to buying a brand of cheese sold primarily in health food stores that claimed to be free range, organic, natural, blah blah blah. Same with the eggs I bought. Over the years, as new products came to market, I switched over to things like soymilk or Tofutti ice cream, cream cheese etc. By the time I started dating Ryan in 1998, I wasn’t buying eggs or milk and only casually consumed foods containing them when dining out. I lowered my standards at the time because I felt that going easier on Ryan would help to transition him quickly to a vegetarian diet, and then we could work on going vegan together afterwards.
I looked back at my journal today to find that in 2008 I said, “I’m trying really hard again to go vegan. I want to cut out dairy as much as possible, though I know sometimes it will be hard when we are eating out, like in Vegas this weekend. It was nearly impossible in December and shall be again, I’d imagine.” It seems so easy to be vegan in today’s day and age, with so many vegan resources surrounding us and information so readily available, but my journey runs pretty much parallel to the rise of veganism in popular culture. From subscribing to Vegetarian Times in the mid-80’s to having a vegan YouTube show in the 2010’s. What a trip.
