It has been 17 years since my wife Lynn and I started to question our diet. We were becoming uncomfortable consuming the flesh of cows and pigs. When we were married in 1984, we no longer ate these animals. It didn’t take long for us to realize that our diet should also exclude chickens, turkeys, fishes and other sentient beings. We were vegetarians!

Some years after becoming vegetarians Lynn and I made the natural (at least for us) progression to becoming vegans. It didn’t make sense to choose not to eat cows or chickens, but to drink milk and consume eggs. After all, the main reason we had become vegetarians and then vegans was because we cared about animals and didn’t want to contribute to their enslavement and suffering.

Lynn and I didn’t have to consider any more dietary decisions again until 1994 – the year Gleannan, our daughter, was born. After looking into the health aspects of raising a child as a vegan, we decided to include Gleannan in our vegan lifestyle. In 1999 we welcomed our son Liam into the world. Liam has also been a vegan since birth.

Not wanting to harm animals was the main reason why we stopped eating them. However, we were pleased to learn that our compassionate diet had other benefits, both for ourselves and the Earth. A vegan diet is healthy for us and the planet.

The world we live in is a violent place. Respect is in short supply. Every year billions of animals are killed for our species’ unhealthy diets. Billions more are enslaved for things that we take from them. Animals are killed and displaced when forests, wetlands and other natural areas are destroyed making way for more farmland, factories and housing developments.

Recent generations have lost respect for animals and nature. With such things as a rapidly escalating human population and “advances” in technology, the quest for money, power and material objects is replacing many truly important things such as a healthy environment, family values and kinship with animals – both nonhuman and human.

One of the reasons Lynn and I moved to “our” 25-acre rural property is because we wanted to live in a natural setting. Porcupines, raccoons, skunks, foxes, coyotes and deer, among many others, are regular visitors to the fields and woods surrounding our 110 year old home. Gleannan and Liam like to walk on the nature trails and observe the animals, plants and trees. Last winter, which was a particularly harsh one, we would all gather in the bathroom where, at dusk, we would watch several deer through the window browse on the cedar hedge 20 feet away. What a beautiful site!

We must learn that everything is connected. In 1854 Chief Seattle said, “Whatever befalls the earth befalls the sons of the earth. Man did not weave the web of life, he is merely a strand of it. Whatever he does to the web he does to himself.” Our species is growing further apart from the natural world. In order to make the Earth a healthier, kinder place we have to start respecting the natural world and the nonhuman animals with whom we share the planet. And we have to teach these vital messages to our children and future generations.

Lynn and I chose “our” 25-acre rural property consisting of meadows and woods because we wanted to live close to nature and raise our children and animal companions in this wonderful environment. Surrounded by nature as well as canine, feline and equine siblings and with a little guidance it is our hope that Gleannan and Liam get a healthy and compassionate start to life and build on their already developing respect and concern for animals and the natural world.

Note: This column appeared in Vegetarian Baby & Child magazine.