Any ordinary person wouldn´t expect to find passion in the aisles of a supermarket. But Francisco Warmling, a vegan at Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina (UFSC), will tell you different.
Wearing a political t-shirt that says, ´´Não vote´´, which means ´´don´t vote´´, and large ear peircings the size of a quarter, Francisco´s persistence, friendliness and passion would make anyone think twice about their daily meals.
´´I cannot tell you what this ingredient is in English,´´ Francisco said at Comper, a supermarket down the street from the university. ´´But it´s not vegan. It´s already hard to be vegan in Florianópolis, but I can´t even imagine how hard it is when you don´t know the language.´´
For vegans traveling from the United States, eating out may be a bit difficult at first. One may get a bit tired of ordering ´´batatas fritas´´, or french fries, for every meal.
´´Back home where I come from there are a lot of vegans and vegetarians, but here on Floripa, there aren´t too many,´´ said Francisco, who is originally from Blumeanau, a small city that is 200 kilometers from Florianópolis.
Vegans possess a stricter diet than vegetarians in that they choose not to eat any animal by-products like milk, honey and gelatin, which is made from animal bones.
´´But we are trying to change the [number of vegetarians] with protests, passing out leaflets and making people aware.´´
ANIMAL RIGHTS ACTIVISM
What Francisco is alluding to is an animal rights group that he has been participating in since he moved to Florianopolis two months ago to study architecture— Grupo Anti-Especismo (GAE).
´´Speciesism´´, he explains, is like racism but for animals instead of for people with different skin colors.
´´We respect everything, even the cats and dogs,´´ said Pedro Rinaldio, another student at UFSC and member of GAE. ´´If we can do it, why not? We are all connected—the plants, animals and humans.´´
GAE, however, isn´t composed only of UFSC students, but also by residents of Florianopolis and other university students from the four other universities in Floripa.
´´The group isn´t related to UFSC mainly because they would never support a group that is against vivisection,´´ Francisco said. Vivisection is the practice of dissecting of animals for scientific purposes.
The group normally meets on Fridays but keeps the meetings times very lax. At the meetings the members usually discuss protests, leafletting and the exhibition of videos pertaining to animal rights.
In fact, the group is organizing a week-long vegetarian festival on the UFSC campus starting July 16. At the festival, the group plans to have bands perform, to hold workshops about vegetarian cooking with food samples and to exhibit animal rights film screenings.
HARD TO BE VEGAN
In a culture that is meat-obssessed, with meat-only churrascarias as a cultural tradition, vegetarianism and especially veganism can be a largely radical notion in Brazil. But if one takes a little time to look hard enough, there are a variety of choices that aren´t limited to just batatas fritas.
On the UFSC campus, a salad bar offers beans, rice and vegan pasta; at the mall down the street from UFSC, a shopper can order tofu yaki soba at Palacio China or a soy hamburger at the restaurant across from it.
Pedro, Francisco and Francisco´s girlfriend, Franciele Favero, however, love to have lunch at Restaurante dos Servidores, a restaurant down the street from the university that offers a vegetarian buffet for 11 reais a kilo (about US $5 for a kilo).
´´But I stopped eating there for a while because I just ate too much,´´ Francisco said while rubbing his stomach and laughing.
ALTERNATIVE LIFESTYLE
For these individuals, being vegan in Brazil makes a statement—is about having an alternative lifestyle and showing that they are in solidarity with the environment. It isn´t just about loving animals.
´´It is extremely hard beind a vegan in our country. People just never heard about it and think that is not possible to live without causing damage to other species, mainly when we talk about food,´´ Franciele said.
´´People cannot understand how we are still alive not eating meat, and the moment they find out we don't eat anything that was produced from animals they think we are going to be sick, bald, without teeth, and finally dead.´´
Francisco agreed and further specified that to him, being vegetarian is not enough.
´´Here they call people that don´t eat meat and still eat other animal products ´vegetarian´,´´ said Francisco, who went vegan two years ago after being vegetarian for three months. ´´But I think that a vegetarian is someone that doesn´t consume animal products and is involved with the political issue too.´´
The group also plans to sell vegan foods such as Not-dogs, or soy hot dogs, and cakes at Festa Juniha today, an celebration taking place at the university.
´´It´s a great opportunity to eat vegan junk food!,´´ joked Francisco.