Jay Wilde grew up on a dairy farm in England. From an early age, he felt an emotional connection to the cows who surrounded him. He couldn’t bear the thought of any animal ending up on his plate. And so, he became a vegetarian.
Jay was groomed to follow in his father’s footsteps. When his dad died in 2011, he began running the dairy farm. He quickly failed at his new job.
Jay explained, “To take the cow’s milk, you have to separate her from her baby. This is really difficult. The cows get very upset when they are separated. It takes them a long time to get over it.”
Jay couldn’t do it, so he decided to try his hand at beef farming instead.
On beef farms, cows are allowed to keep their calves for at least six months. However, the stress of sending animals to slaughter was also too much for him.
A member of the Vegan Society offered Jay an opportunity to use his farm to grow plant foods. Jay jumped at the chance.
Jay has since turned vegan, and his vegetable farm is flourishing. He hopes to set an example for the rest of the world. He believes people should not blindly follow tradition. They should listen to their heart instead.
Australian, Tammi Jonas, knows all about listening to her heart.
When she was 19, she read a book called Animal Liberation. Its description of poor conditions in the meat industry sickened her. She became a vegetarian in protest.
She didn’t eat meat for over a decade. During that time, she gave birth to two children. In her third pregnancy, she became anemic. Supplements didn’t help.
At her wit’s end, she thought, “a burger would fix this.” She succumbed to temptation and ate some meat. It was a major turning point. Meat was back on the menu, and her health returned.
Tammi explains she never thought it was wrong to take an animal’s life for food. She just thought it was wrong to treat them cruelly and confine them to sheds.
In a dramatic u-turn, she has since become a pig farmer and butcher. As a meat-eater, Tammi wanted to create a farm that treated animals well.
She said, “I feel justified in eating the meat when I know the animals experienced no fear or pain. They were alive and then they were dead. That’s all.”
No matter which side of the fence you’re on, both Tammi and Jay’s tales are certainly food for thought.