Interview Questions for Vegans
Posted by Andrew_TA on Apr 26, 2009 · Member since Feb 2009 · 16 posts
Ok, so for a class assignment I have to interview a vegan (myself..) I'm having trouble coming up with good questions.
A little help?
So far:
1. When did you become vegan and what triggered the change?
2. Do you not eat meat because you think it is unfair to animals or it is bad for your health?
3. Do you think eating meat is a very brutal thing?
4. What do you think of your friends that like to eat meat a lot?
5. Do you think you get enough nutrition?
6. Do you want your child to be vegan like you?
7. Do you exclude honey from your diet?
thanks :)>>>
you can also include environmental impact as one of the reasons. factory farming (and transporting animals & meat) is a huge polluter.
Those are pretty good questions, the only one that doesn't really make sense to me is number 3 - it's closed so the possible answers are "yes" or "no", maybe rephrasing to invite more of an explanation or opinion would be clearer?
Good luck on your assignment :)
Yeah, I dunno about number 3 haha, my Chinese partner came up with some of these and I didn't know how to word that one.
also - you can ask how they broke the news to their families about their choice and what their reaction was.. and how it's evolved since then.
another one could be to ask if they have inspired anyone else to go vegan or change their habits since they've gone vegan and what it was that they did to inspire them.
it might be interesting to ask them what kinds of foods they used to cook before they were vegan and then find out what they cook now.
eta:
ask how its affected their social life with their friends and if they find it difficult to be in social situations - restaurants.. new friends homes.. new love interests
ask if they'd only consider dating vegans.
if they have kids ask if they trust non-vegan caregivers & grandparents to not give their vegan child unvegan food.
Questions/comments I get a lot:
- What do vegans eat?
- What don't vegans eat?
- How hard it is to be vegan?
- Do you feed your cat a vegan diet? (Back when I had a cat.)
- You still drive, which uses animal-based resources. Isn't that hypocritical? (my response is that veganism is about doing the least amount of harm)
- Being vegan is too expensive for most people.
- What's in it for people other than bleeding heart liberals?
- People need meat.
Thanks heaps!
Keep it coming guys..!
Here's a practical one:
How do you integrate a vegan lifestyle into eating out with friends?
I wanted to echo what BP said - you might get better responses if the questions were more open-ended, but I'm not sure if that is ok for your assignment or not.
Some questions people have asked me:
- where do you get your protein? (ugh)
- what can you eat?
- why don't you eat dairy/eggs, if cows and chickens don't have to be killed to provide these things? (even though we do kill them, most people just don't know about it)
Another interesting thing I find is when other people try to justify their diet, if it includes animals or animal products. (I am using the word justify because alot of people do this without any prompting from me!) Many people I talk to just randomly say "well, I like pigs, but I like the taste of bacon too much." or, "if that life is all they've ever known, the animals don't know the difference" or "the way I see it, there's something wrong with pretty much everything you buy, so I don't worry about it" (those last 2 really anger me and aren't really logical reasons to keep eating animal products, but they came from good friends or family members of mine, so I tried not to be too...angry with them. I like civil constructive discussions.)
Uh...my point there was, would a question about that fit into your project? Or does it seem too much like a finger-pointing topic? Also, I'm envious of you being able to do an assignment about this!
here is a question that i like:
Is the concept of "being vegan" something that defines you as a person (i.e. "I am a vegan") or is it more of a lifestyle choice - defining instead - how you choose to interact w/the world (i.e. "i try to follow a vegan diet")?
Ok, thanks so much for all your help guys. Here are the updated questions:
1. How long have you been vegan?
2. Why are you vegan?
3. What can’t you eat?
4. Does your friends and family’s diet affect how you relate to them?
5. Are you concerned about your nutrition?
6. If you were raising a child, would you raise him or her vegan? Why or why not?
7. Do you eat honey?" "Why/why not?
8. What reaction did your family have when you told them of your decision?
9. Do you have any pets and would/do you feed them a vegan diet?
10. What were your favourite foods before you went vegan, and now that you are vegan?
11. What is your diet most made up of?
12. How does it affect you in social situations, like going to a restaurant or a friend’s house?
13. Would you only date a vegan?
14. Isn’t being vegan expensive?
15. Why should I go vegan? I’m not a bleeding heart liberal!
16. People need meat to survive?
I'll be doing a podcast and need peoples feedback, if anyone wants to help me out send me an email ( eval(unescape('%64%6f%63%75%6d%65%6e%74%2e%77%72%69%74%65%28%27%3c%61%20%68%72%65%66%3d%22%6d%61%69%6c%74%6f%3a%61%6e%64%72%65%77%74%61%69%73%63%6f%6f%6c%40%67%6d%61%69%6c%2e%63%6f%6d%22%3e%61%6e%64%72%65%77%74%61%69%73%63%6f%6f%6c%40%67%6d%61%69%6c%2e%63%6f%6d%3c%2f%61%3e%27%29%3b')) ) and when I've done the podcast i'll send you a link and a file with evaluation question etc.
More feedback too, please!!!
Andrew
#3 - for most vegans (the ones without allergies anyway) it's not a matter of what they can't eat, but what they choose not to eat. i could eat paint chips if i wanted to, but i choose not to. maybe change it to, "as a vegan, what items to you choose to exclude from your diet/lifestyle?"
#14 - maybe reword it to something like "since becoming vegan do you find that you spend more or less money on groceries/eating at restaurants?"
there is worth noting that some veggies have more protein in them per calorie than meat-- that's neat! i think spirulina (a sea plant/algae) has the height % of protein of any food. might want to check that, but that could be cool.
Yes! Even broccoli has more protein per calorie than a steak does. A good reference for this is China Study, if you want to use that info.