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Rob Zombie has said big chain restaurants are getting on board with vegan diets because “the meat industry has an unsustainable future”.
The 56-year-old musician went vegetarian when he was 18 years old, but nine years ago he changed his diet and lifestyle even more when he became a vegan.
Speaking to GQ, Zombie said he had given up eating meat because he didn’t like the taste and a movie he watched gave him more insight into the process of getting meat from farms to our tables. “Whenever I was served pork chops or something it would just taste awful to me,” he said.
“We’re all brainwashed from the moment we’re born that all the cows are happy and the pigs are happy and everybody’s so happy and it’s all ‘Old McDonald Had a Farm’. And then I saw a movie that was the first time I really saw how brutal and disgusting factory farming was. That’s when I was, like, ‘I’m done.’”
He went on to say that, although there were challenges to the diet, the options for vegans and vegetarians were getting better. “Vegetarian is easier because you can still have scrambled eggs or pizza. Once I went vegan, it was, like…now there’s nothing to eat. Every day it gets easier, and every day the food gets better. Veggie burgers used to be like tasteless hockey pucks, and now they’re so delicious.
“It’s transitional. Your tastes change and what you consider healthy changes. But it is a process, and if someone tries to go hardcore instantly they might fail. It’s like if you’ve never worked out before and you go, ‘I’m gonna work out three hours every day!’ Why don’t we just start with two? See if you can survive that. Ease into it, friend.”
He continued to compare veganism to punk’s anti-establishment ethos and said part of why not eating meat was becoming more accessible is because big chain restaurants are now adding meat-free meals to their menus.
“So much of punk rock was about fighting the establishment, fighting the norms, fighting the path that’s been laid out for you by corporate America telling you how you’re supposed to think and how you’re supposed to be,” Zombie explained.
“Veganism is … anti-establishment [but] it’s becoming more of an established thing — every day some new chain like McDonald’s or Burger King starts working a sandwich into their repertoire because they can see the meat industry has an unsustainable future.”
The musician is set to drop his seventh album ‘The Lunar Injection Kool-Aid Eclipse Conspiracy’ next month (March 12). Last month, he shared the latest track from it in ‘The Eternal Struggles Of The Howling Man’.
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