My Vegan Journey - Jason King - From Hunter to Animal-People Rights Champion, Part 1 of 2

On today’s show, we meet Jason King, a prominent animal-people liberation activist from Ontario, Canada. He is the owner of Plant Power Solutions, an exclusive vegan retail store, in London, Ontario, which provides the community with access to a variety of plant-based products. Being a vegan for over eight years, Mr. King chose the name Plant Power Solutions for his shop because it conveys an important message to customers. “And there're so many things that I was finding were being solved by simply using plant-based products as well as vegan products.”

Jason co-founded Animal Liberation Alliance London, a group that promotes the protection of animal-people through social justice and vegan advocacy.

At his shop, Jason continues to have great conversations with people. Besides introducing delicious and healthy plant-based products, he engages customers in discussions about animal-people ethics and gets them to reflect on their lifestyle choices. “You can do this, and you can do this easily. It’s just a matter of changing your conception of what you need to eat.”

Jason’s journey from hunter to animal-people rights activist is quite an inspiring story. It first began on a road trip to Cincinnati. At Loving Hut, Jason’s partner picked up flyers describing the animal-people livestock industry and was shocked to learn about its unspeakable cruelties. “But by the end of that trip home, she had convinced me that I should try being vegetarian. And I said, ‘OK, fine, I will.‘” Then something else happened that led Jason to transition to a vegan diet.

During the course of his relationship with the Sea Shepherd team, he received an important phone call from the coordinator of Toronto. “I thought I was doing the best I could being vegetarian, but here is this man who calls me up and explains to me that I'm still not there yet… And so, overnight - I woke up in the morning, didn't want to be a hypocrite, realized I still have work to do myself, and I just woke up vegan.” Jason became the first person in his family to go vegan and within a month, his partner and three daughters all became vegans as well.