Four Lessons from Colleen Patrick-Goudreau: Having all the Answers

“Being vegan doesn’t mean you have all the answers.” Through my awakening to a plant based diet, I have read a lot of books, articles, magazines, and watched movies, and TV shows to get information about following a vegan diet. The more I see, and the more I read, the more inspired I feel about transitioning to this lifestyle, which is why I always recommend them to my readers. Despite all of this reading, I am not an expert. However, I feel so much pressure from skeptics to be an expert not only on a vegan diet, but all health, all nutrition, all agricultural laws and practices, global climate change, environmental laws, the sustainable food movement, the local food movement, restaurants, cooking, etc. Hopefully the preceding list impresses upon you how impossible it would be to be expert on all of these topics. I try to be educated; I try to be well-informed, but I am not a computer. I cannot pull statistics and references and talking points out of thin air. Please don’t let this deter you from asking me questions. I love to get questions. I love to meet open-minded and curious people. But don’t be disappointed if I tell you, “I don’t know.” I will do everything in my power to find the answers for you, and provide you references and reading materials if at all possible. I want to spread the joyful word that is veganism. But, I might not have the answer in my back pocket. For me, this has been freeing. The facts, and the research support the decision to follow a vegan diet, so I want to give this information to people. But, I don’t want to make things up, so please give me the chance to find the truth for you. In most cases, the most honest thing I can tell you is “I don’t know,” but I will always try to find the answers you are looking for.