From Beef Farming To Veganism

For 22 years of my life I was an omnivore; living at home with my parents.

I worked on the family farm producing beef cattle from birth to the butcher counter. Occasionally we would send an individual heifer to the local butcher who would kill the animal, hang the carcass and butcher the meat, portion it and give it back to us. We would then fill our freezer with the produce and eat it for the coming weeks and months. When eating that meat I could picture the animal in my mind - often being able to remember the night she was born, knowing the cow that was her mother, remembering the day we would debud her horns, separate her from her mother and start the process of intensely feeding her to fatten before being killed. Many, many times I would have been present at a calf's birth, feed it for its entire life only to be the one to encourage it in to the truck that would take it to the 'factory'.

If you were to spend a day on my farm, you would look at the animals and think they were the happiest creatures on the planet. My father is a fantastic farmer. Our farm is in Cork in the south of Ireland. We live in a mountain range with relatively poor quality land. Yet the animals produced are prize winning beef cattle. My father is a genius when it comes to selective breeding, and is second to none in the beef industry in animal husbandry. He loves his cattle, a trait he certainly passed to me. In the summer there is nothing more relaxing than sitting in a field listening to cattle rip grass from the ground and chew it as they inquiringly wander over and smell at you. Five minutes in a field of relaxed cattle and you realize that they are incredibly social and intelligent animals in that sense. They sense tension, they sense calmness. They are individuals. Some completely docile, others ratty - responding by snorting and throwing their head in the air annoyed if you approach them against their will.

In the winter the shed where we house them is like a little town. Often fifty or so animals eating and lying down in the shed. Countless times my alarm has been set for 2 or 3am to go up to the shed to monitor a cow near to giving birth. I would sit in the shed for up to an hour just in silence, surrounded by the animals.

If an animal died in tragic circumstances it was heartbreaking. For me, my father or my brother and mother who both also pull their weight on the farm. It would feel like a needless death. Unfortunate. Be it a calf who died due to an illness picked up in its fragile first week of life, or an older animal who was fatally injured or got a disease. It was sickening to see the carcass of the animal carried away.

My whole life I played sport. In 2014 and 2015, I over did it. Playing a game or training 3 to 4 nights a week. Intense cardio workouts or contact sports with minimal focus on recovery. Midway through 2015 I started to cut back on red meat on advice from a trainer. This was the first time in my life I started thinking about what I ate. I was always fit, always loved food and cooking - but now it was about nutrition. My performance change was incredible. Shorter recover and overall better performance. I cut out red meat. I ate mostly fish, some pork and a lot of chicken. I tried tofu for the first time. I started going a couple of days or even a week without meat. I was fitter than I ever was - but something wasn't right. Injury marred my summer - I never missed a game, but I couldn't bend over to put on my shoes or socks. My groins were rock hard, and no amount of physio could loosen them. The football season ended and I got a scan. I needed surgery on both my hips.

I would consider myself to be very health conscious. I knew that post surgery I would not be anywhere near as mobile as I wanted to be. I needed to change what I ate. In January 2016 I cut meat as much as I could. If I was cooking dinner it was meat free. I had my surgery the first week of February 2016 and ate meat in a meal for the last time that week. Inspired by someone close to me I went vegetarian. I knew it would be good for me - a diet lower in fat meant I would remain an OK weight while not being able to train. Rehab for my surgery was an exercise bike and swimming. I felt healthy doing these cardio workouts. I was living at home and working nights in a small convenience store. I started to cook for myself more and doing my own shopping. I decided to go vegan, I gave myself a date to go vegan in the middle of April, but ended up dropping dairy and eggs a few weeks before my target, and never ever looked back.

It did nothing but further fuel my passion for food. I now cook amazing foods I had not even heard of two or three years ago, and share my prettier meals on Instagram (@probablyvegan_). I am midway through a masters in Food Business; which has already seen me get a role in an amazing company producing chilli sauces which happen to be vegan. Veganism has inspired me to better myself physically and has changed my mindset completely.

I always saw myself as an environmentalist, and when I began studying food production in my undergrad, I literally walked out of the first lecture thinking to myself ''Why isn't everyone vegetarian?''. This was when I was the ultimate omni - eating two chicken breasts and an egg a day for the protein while drinking copious amounts of milk and eating cheesy pasta like any college student does. I was always the one who would be frustrated by vegetarians and vegans making their points because eating animals products was just the way the world is. It made sense. It made my family money. It still does. I would be genuinely aggravated if there were valid points made against an omnivorous diet because it challenged everything I knew.

Now when I walk around the farm, I see things differently. I get a huge guilty conscience about what I know will happen to the animals. I finally have empathy for them. I am consciously much more relaxed around them. I want their lives to be optimal. I know how it will end, but I want it to be the best it can be while they're here. I've always considered myself an environmentalist, as would my father consider himself one also - we are cutting back completely on synthetic fertilizers and are part of a scheme run by the EU and the Irish government which protects natural habitats and unique species(most people have bird boxes, we have bat boxes).

For me, life as a vegan is healthier, clearer, cleaner and fitter. Just 8 months after my surgery I ran a half marathon. This weekend I ran ten miles for fun, and was in the gym the next morning. My recovery time has gone from 3 days to a good nights sleep.

I am the stereotypical ''I could never go vegan'' vegan, and I don't apologise to anyone for how good it feels.!