Vegans, Keep Planting the Seeds – Why Every Conversation Matters More Than You Know – Vegan Psychologist

I became vegetarian in my late teens after reading about a cow being led to slaughter.

No footage. No sound. Just words on a page.

And something shifted permanently.

What I didn’t realise was that I’d remain vegetarian for the next thirty years — believing I had done enough.

I was somewhere in the middle of what I now call the Continuum of Awareness.And I had no idea it would take two specific moments, twenty years ago in rural New Zealand, to move me forward.

We Never Know Where Someone Is On Their Journey

After decades working with vegans and animal advocates, here’s what I know to be true:

People can rarely point to a single moment and say, “That’s when everything changed”.

Instead, they look back and see a series of moments. Seeds planted by different people at different times, that eventually grew into the awareness that demanded change.

Some go vegan overnight after one documentary. Others take years — reducing meat, going vegetarian, eliminating dairy, finally removing all animal products.

There is no single path. There is only the continuum.

And our job is to meet people where they are and move them forward — even if just one step at a time.

My Thirty-Year Pause

For three decades, I believed I had done my part. After all, I didn’t eat meat, I cared about animals and stood my ground when others laughed at me in the 1980s.

But I didn’t truly know what happened inside the dairy and egg industries. I didn’t understand that my vegetarianism was woefully inadequate if I genuinely wanted to protect animals from exploitation.

As vegans, we know that the information is hidden — not by accident, but by design. These industries work deliberately to keep their practices invisible. Language like “humane slaughter” and images of happy cows in green pastures.

I thought I knew. But actually I didn’t.

Two Moments That Changed Everything

Living off-grid in New Zealand’s South Island, my partner and I were woken one night by the terrible howling of dogs — many of them crying out in agony.

They were pig-hunting dogs who had just returned from a hunt. They had been thrown back into cages, wounded and bleeding in sub-zero temperatures.

We called the SPCA and all the animals were removed. We thought we’d solved it.

A week later, the prison cages were cleaned up and every animal returned.

This wasn’t an exception. This was a firmly embedded cultural habit.

Then, a few weeks later, we woke to mother cows bellowing on a neighbouring property. Not occasional mooing — desperate, anguished crying that continued for thirty hours without stopping.

And then sudden silence.

That silence was more disturbing than the crying.

We investigated and learned what I somehow hadn’t known in thirty years of vegetarianism: this is the normal process of the dairy industry. Mother cows have their babies taken from them so humans can put milk in their lattes.

The crying was grief. The same deep grief any mother would feel.

We asked ourselves, “How don’t we not know this?”

When the Student Is Ready, the Teacher Appears

Back in Australia, my partner researched what we’d witnessed. He found the documentaries that hadn’t yet reached us — Earthlings, Meet Your Meat, Dairy is Scary, Crimes of Silence.

He insisted that we watch these and in watching these, although I had been a psychologist for over twenty-five years at the time, I didn’t believe I could hurt that much.

We couldn’t un-see it. On the spot, we stopped consuming eggs and dairy.

It was less than a month later that someone told me: “Clare, there’s a name for what you’re doing. It’s called vegan.”

The Seeds Others Planted

Looking back, I can see the continuum clearly.

Nearly fifty years ago, someone wrote about a cow going to slaughter. Seed planted.

Twenty years ago, pig-hunting dogs howled in the night. Seed planted.

Twenty years ago, dairy farmers separated calves from their mothers — as they do every single day. Seed planted.

Twenty years ago, filmmakers created Earthlings and other documentaries. Seeds planted in millions of people.

It took nearly fifty years and countless seeds planted by people who had no idea I existed.

Your Job as a Vegan: Keep Planting

Each of us must play our part in speaking out for the ethical imperative of animal liberation and veganism. For example,

That conversation with your coworker about plant-based eating? Seed planted.
That social media post about dairy? Seed planted.
That moment you stayed calm when your uncle made a bacon joke and asked a genuine question instead of getting defensive? Seed planted.

You will likely never know which seed takes root. You will likely never see the moment they change.

But that doesn’t mean it didn’t happen.

This Is Why Communication Skills Matter

Facts alone don’t change people (although they should) — otherwise everyone would already be vegan.

It’s about planting seeds that may not sprout for years.

If we come across as judgmental, we harden the soil.

If we lecture instead of listen, we plant seeds in concrete.

But if we meet people with curiosity, empathy, and genuine care — if we fan the flame of their existing compassion instead of shaming them for not being further along — we create the conditions for growth.

We become the rain that helps someone else’s seed finally sprout.

Keep Going

To every advocate reading this: keep planting.

Your words, your example, your patience, your persistence — all of it matters.

You may never know whose life you change. You may never know which conversation becomes the turning point.

But when the student is ready, the teacher appears.

And you — right now, in this moment — might be exactly the teacher someone needs.

Even if neither of you knows it yet.

Keep planting. The harvest will come and together we will collectively create a kinder vegan world.

Next Steps

Want to discover more of how my Vystopia Transformation Framework can help you navigate vystopia and help you become a calmer, more confident and influential communicator? BOOK a free call with me to discuss this and discover how I might be able to help you embolden your voice and get not-yet vegans to say, “That’s interesting. Tell me more!” https://veganpsychologist.com/conversation