Interview:
In this interview we talk to the Korean Hong Hyun-Ai. She is a mother of two boys and has a loving husband. Her family lives in Seoul, the capital of South Korea. We asked her some questions about vegan/vegetarian.
Do you know what vegetarian / vegan is?
Vegetarians refers to people who avoid meat and eat foods made from plants.
Do you know the difference between the tow?
Vegan is one of the types of vegetarians, and they eat only plant foods, rejecting meat and fish, as well as foods obtained from animals such as milk, animal eggs and honey.
Do you pay attention to eating vegetarien / vegan?
It is not often seen in Korea, so it is interesting to look at it.
How common is veganism / vegetarism in Korea?
I searched all my family, relatives, and co-workers, but no one was found. It is still not common in Korea.
Do you have have vegetarian / vegan produkts in Korea?
Food for vegetarians is on the rise in convenience stores. For example, dumplings, kimbap, hamburgers, etc.
Would you trie to go vegatarien or vegan for 1 week? Why?/Why not? Wich?
One week is a short time for health, so I'm thinking of giving it a try.
Do you pay attention to organic (Bio) labels when posting?
Not really.
Do you have in Korea many diffeerent labels?
We have some labels, but not many, because it's so rare for a Korean to be vegan/vegetarian.
Do you know their meanings?
No, I don't pay attenton to them when I go shopping.
Podcast:
https://2022.the-horse.education/file.axd?file=/VZ21%20Wetzikon%20ZH/Alina%20ZIMMI/Podcast-VVP.mp3
Since the podcast is only from the point of view of a vegetarian, we have set out to find a vegan in our circle of friends. Josh Anderegg, who has been a vegan for over 1 year now, has agreed to answer the same questions. Unfortunately, we could not meet and therefore conducted this interview via WhatsApp.
What does it mean to be a vegan?
Not eating or consuming animal products consciously. Or at least trying to minimize your dependency on them.
Isn't it challenging for you?
The only challenging part is when other people get involved, e.g. if you try to eat at a restaurant with friends and the restaurant doesn't offer a vegan option, or if your family wont cook something vegan at a family gathering, or if you have military service due and there's no vegan option. As long as I'm fully in control of what I eat it's not an issue at all.
Why did you choose to became vegan?
Health reasons, less of an environmental impact and less support for a corrupt industry branch (e.g. diary and meat industries)
Why aren't you vegetarien?
Basically answered in 3. Diary and egg products are just as threatening to your health, just as damaging to the environment and just as corrupt industries like the meat industry. I don't really care about the conditions of animals, but if someone does and decides to eat vegetarian so no animal is killed it's not really consequential either. You just hold the animals hostage, force breed them and abuse them instead of killing them, I don't really see how a vegetarian diet would improve their condition by abstaining from meat products.
Do you think your vegan lifestyle helps the enviroment? Why? Why not? In which way?
Vegan products produce less of a carbon footprint than animal products (even if you factor in transportation costs), usually they produce less water pollution and they also need less land to be produced. The "why not" can be broken down to the fact that a lot of essential vegan resources (such as protein from soy) can't be produced everywhere on the globe and therefore have to be transported to Europe from Brazil or West Africa, which of course needs energy, most of the time in the form of fossil fuels. It is up for debate if beef locally produced in Switzerland produces less of a carbon imprint than an avocado grown in Brazil. I'd say no, but it depends on the calculation and which factors are brought into the equation though.