Vegan unbeliever? This quirky Korean beginner’s guide to the plant-based diet and animal rights might change your mind
Vegan author and cartoonist Kim Bo-sun tells the inconvenient truth about meat-based foods and encourages readers to think about the food they eat and how it is made
This punishing thought came to Kim Bo-sun, a 31-year-old vegan and author of My Veganism Cartoon, several years ago while she was watching a food show featuring gourmet beef dishes.
The stars on the television show were talking about their favourite cuts of beef and some shared stories about the best beef dishes they had ever tried, while tasting beef steak prepared on the set.
“The surface of beef is brown and crispy but inside it’s moist and soft. It’s irresistible!” one of the cast said.
Kim said she thought at the time, “What the heck is he saying?”
“Back then, I was not a vegetarian. Nevertheless, the television show was disturbing. People were grading the flesh of dead cows and commenting on its taste. Cows would have been terrified if they understood their conversation.”
Nowadays Kim tries to view the world from the animals’ perspective whenever the meat debate pops up. She has researched animals’ lives before they are slaughtered to provide meat for people and found some alarming facts.
Dairy cows are forced to breed to produce milk. Heifers undergo artificial insemination once they turn 13 months. During their 305 days of pregnancy, farmers collect 40kg of milk every day from heifers. Newborn calves are separated from mother cows after three days otherwise the bond between mother and calf will be troublesome for the farmers. Heifers become replacement cows once their mothers no longer produce milk.
Bull calves, meanwhile, are sold to market as soon as they are separated from their mother and raised in small pens with other calves. They are fed with milk supplements with insufficient nutrients and get anaemia.
“They are raised like that, because to produce premium veal, dairy farmers need to prevent meat from getting redder and tougher. Once bull calves turn 16 weeks of age, they are slaughtered for veal,” said Kim.
