Opinions are my own.
- Table of Contents
- What is veganism?
- What about vegetarianism? Dairy and eggs don't rely on killing animals, right?
- Isn't vegetarianism better than nothing?
- I work out a lot. How do I get enough calories/protein?
- Won't I become B12 deficient?
- If everyone stops eating meat and dairy, won't farmers lose jobs?
- Isn't it expensive to be vegan?
- Isn't this the fault of factory farms? We should be holding companies accountable instead of blaming individuals.
- I'm just one person. How can my purchasing habits influence change?
- Doesn't plant agriculture kill animals still?
- Isn't going vegan hard?
- I heard soy gives you man boobs
- Isn't eating meat natural?
- What about lab-grown meat?
- What about people in food deserts? They can't go vegan.
- My prescription drug has animal products in it. How can I be vegan?
- What about hunting? Isn't hunting better than buying meat at the grocery store?
- I want to take the red pill. Can you show me what actually happens on animal farms?
- I want to go vegan. What resources can you recommend to help?
- I want to contribute to this page. How do I do that?
According to the vegan society,
Veganism is a philosophy and way of living which seeks to exclude—as far as is possible and practicable—all forms of exploitation of, and cruelty to, animals for food, clothing or any other purpose; and by extension, promotes the development and use of animal-free alternatives for the benefit of animals, humans and the environment. In dietary terms it denotes the practice of dispensing with all products derived wholly or partly from animals.
Veganism is not just a diet. It is a way of life that seeks to eschew all animal exploitation. This also includes avoiding clothing, accessories, make-up, any other products that rely on animals or animal testing, and avoiding forms of entertainment, such as zoos or aquariums, that inherently exploit animals.
Unfortunately, the dairy and egg industry are no less cruel and callous than their meat counterparts. In fact, one might argue that the dairy and beef industry are just two sides of the same coin, as are the egg and chicken industries and the wool and lamb/mutton industries.
Like all mammals, cows produce milk to feed their young, so milk production is stimulated by pregnancy and birth. In order to create milk, female cows are forcefully inseminated. Like many other creatures, cows want to bond with their young. Unfortunately, when they give birth, their calf is torn away from them. If the calf is a female, she will likely become another dairy cow. If he's a male, he will most-likely be killed or sold for veal. The mother is then made pregnant again. This cycle continues until her body is "used up" and no longer profitable, at which point she will be killed for beef as well.
Likewise, male chickens have little "value" in the egg industry. They aren't large enough to be used as "boilers" (chickens killed for their meat) and they don't produce eggs. As a result, the egg industry resorts to culling of male chicks (usually chickens that are less than a day old) by throwing them in a large macerator (basically a big blender) or gas chamber.
In some ways, yes. Vegetarianism generally results in less animal death than the typical Western diet. However, as mentioned above, it still generally involves supporting the egg and dairy industries, which still inflict unimaginable amounts of animal suffering.
Most people overestimate how much protein they actually need. I recommend reading this article by No Meat Athlete. In short, whether you're an athlete or not, it's fairly easy to get enough protein (and calories) on a vegan diet. If Patrik Baboumian can do it, so can you :)
Many people are not aware that Vitamin B12 actually originates from microbes in soil, and is not a natural component of animal flesh or secretions. Since we clean our produce so thoroughly, we don't consume soil that might contain B12. When animals were naturally grazing, they would consume plants (and soil), the B12 would accumulate in their bodies, and then it would get passed on to anyone who consumes them. However, the vast majority of livestock animals in animal farming are not left to naturally graze and live on feedlots, consuming grains like soy and corn. As a result, these animals now receive mass B12 supplementation. Why not skip the middleman? B12 supplementation is a perfect way to get your daily B12 requirement. While you can certainly swallow a normal B12 pill or take B12 sublingual lozenges, the most convenient way is probably using B12 toothpaste.
That's definitely a possibility; however, this kind of transition won't happen overnight. Less demand for meat and dairy will mean more demand for plant-based alternatives, which means meat and dairy farmers will have more opportunity to transition to farming crops that contribute to the supply chains for those products. Some plant-based food producers are even doing what they can to help with this transition, such as Miyoko's Creamery, who has partnered with Farm Sanctuary to help transition dairy farmers to farming plants. Milk consumption continutes to decline while demand for plant-based milk grows. One could make the argument that moving to other industries is simply a shrewd business decision at this point.
No, but that also depends on your tastes and preferences. Plant-based meat and dairy replacements are not generally regarded as cheap. That isn't necessarily a bad thing though. Many plant-based products are sold by companies that are also meat producers, or engage in other unethical business practices, so care needs to be taken when purchasing these products if your goal is to avoid supporting such companies. Many plant-based products are created/acquired by these companies with no ethical compass and only profit as their goal. While I would argue they're still more healthy than their meat and dairy counterparts, they're also often heavily processed, so they should probably be seen as a luxury. That being said, even if you eat these products every week, you might be surprised by their cost when compared to traditional meat and dairy products.
In general, healthy whole foods, such as fruits and vegetables, legumes, tofu, and whole grains, are very affordable. By eating simple, healthy foods, you can easily keep your vegan food budget to $200-250/month/person.
Isn't this the fault of factory farms? We should be holding companies accountable instead of blaming individuals.
That is true, but that kind of black-and-white thinking isn't productive -- we can do both. In our capitalist system, buying a product is akin to voting with your dollar. The current system doesn't inherently reward ethical practices. I'd encourage you to vote for politicians who care about animal equality and incentivizing ethical business practices so we can change the system. In the meantime, the best way to influence change is to stop purchasing these products.
Just as voting in political elections can decide the future, so can voting with your dollar. Veganism is ultimately a movement -- the more people that adhere to a vegan lifestyle the more change we'll see.
A lot of human activity results in unintended animal deaths. Cars and planes inadvertently kill animals. Are you going to stop driving or traveling as a result?
The number of animal deaths due to plant agriculture pales in comparison to the number of animals killed for the production of animal products. This also ignores the fact that, as previously stated, most farm animals live on feedlots and are fed grains (as a side note, this might be a contributor to more food-borne illness). Raising animals for food is an inefficient process: the percentage of calories output from meat production is a small percentage of the amount of calories put into it. Given this fact, if we care about the animals that die from harvesting plants, we should still stop consuming animal products because that would result in less plant harvesting. This video does a very good job explaining this topic.
In any case, growing plants doesn't inherently require animals to suffer and die. Ideally with technological advances in agriculture, we'll be able to reduce the damage done to natural ecosystems by plant growing/harvesting.
No, but that's obviously a matter of perspective. If you live in a food desert or culture where vegan products are unavailable or you have certain food allergies, then it may be more difficult. Sticking to whole foods makes it easier as they're generally more available (for example Beyond Meat may not be available but tofu or beans probably are, assuming you have access to a grocery or convenience store of some kind). Many vegans are motivated by the horrors they've learned about when researching what happens on industrial farms. Knowing the suffering and pain that the animals endure is usually enough motivation.
Speaking personally, there are more than enough plant-based alternatives now to satisfy my own cravings for tasty food. The hardest part about being vegan is not abstaining from animal products. It's having to live in a world where animal suffering is normalized by society at large -- a world where you're constantly faced with the knowledge of this suffering, and most of the people you interact with regularly not only go along with it, but may be actively hostile towards you for not doing so yourself. This is the true reason vegans are at higher risk for depression and all vegans know this.
This is a myth. Soy contains compounds called phytoestrogens, also known as dietary estrogen, plant estrogen, or isoflavones. There is currently no strong evidence that phytoestrogens affect humans adversely. On the contrary, there is evidence that a certain amount of soy is beneficial to human health.
Dairy, on the other hand, contains actual estrogen, along with many other hormones, including progesterone, testosterone, prolactin, and insulin-like growth factor-1. This makes sense when you think about it. Cows milk is meant for baby cows, who may need access to these hormones for proper development, much like human milk for baby humans. Why would adult human beings need to consume another animal's secretions for proper sustenance? Consider that 65% of the world's population is lactose intolerant.
Consuming dairy products as an adult human being, along with the naturally occurring hormones they contain, could have serious health implications. Some examples:
- Milk and Acne
- Milk and prostate cancer
Perhaps, but does natural equate to ethical from a human's perspective? And does natural always equate to healthy, or nutritionally necessary?
We could discuss the likely diets of early humans. Just as we make the argument that it's natural for baby cows to consume cows' milk, we could argue that because early humans killed a certain amount of animals and ate a certain amount of meat, that it's natural for us to do so.
However, this argument is mostly irrelevant in our current age. In the wake of technology, a large human population, and the resulting economic scale coupled with an attitude that maximizes profits with no regard for sentient life, we've scaled meat production to levels that treat animals as mere commodities. There is simply nothing natural about the current way animals are bred, raised, and killed for our consumption. The processes of going to the grocery store and purchasing packaged meat or ordering a burger at a restaurant have no resemblance to the process of an ancient human hunter killing and consuming an animal for sustenance. Many animals raised for consumption may never see the light of day or feel the earth beneath their feet. They may not even be able to turn around. Is that natural?
On the other hand, in the wake of new technology, eating meat simply isn't necessary, regardless of whether or not it's natural. We now have perfectly good plant-based alternatives that provide nutrition and good taste.
Lab-grown meat is an interesting prospect, and some say they'll wait for it's general availability before they stop consuming traditional meat. Who knows when that will happen though -- or if it will ever happen. In either case, lab grown meat still relies on an animal to be produced. They need a small amount of animal cells to grow the meat. Right now they're growing meat in small quantities, so it's easy for them to show the animals they get the cells from as happy cows or chickens grazing. They apply some mild anesthetic and gently scrape some cells off a cow or whatever. However, as we've seen, any product that uses some part of an animal (or their secretions) as an input to production will ultimately become unethical when scaled up. My pessimistic side can envision a future where animals are kept in cages their whole life and their cells are scraped off all day until they die.
We shouldn't expect someone in a food desert to go vegan. However, what about someone who lives in a food desert and wants to go vegan? Is someone who can go vegan and deliberately choosing not to helping that person? If anything, the existence of a food desert is reason for those of us who can go vegan to do so. By going vegan, we create demand for vegan and/or plant-based products, which should in theory create more choices for people in food deserts.
Is it fair to use a marginalized group you don't belong to as a crutch for your own inaction? Do you think a member of that group would appreciate it, especially someone who wants to take said action and isn't able to?
Referring to the definition of veganism above, it uses the terms "possible and practicable." If you abstain from all other animal products, but (as an example) you must take a pill that's made of gelatin for your health, then I think that still counts as "possible and practicable."
Please check out this video by Earthling Ed where he addresses Joe Rogan's arguments for hunting.
Otherwise, here is a summary of some of the issues:
By killing a wild animal, you're not only creating an extra, unnecessary death, but you're also depriving a natural predator from food. Natural predators will also kill the weak, sick animals, but in contrary, hunters tend to kill the strongest, most impressive animals. This behavior creates an ecological imbalance in the evolution of animal species. For example, there are now fewer Asian elephants with tusks, and the horns of Big Horn sheep are becoming smaller. Hunters are effectively creating a transgression in the development of animals. Also, when an animal dies, its body becomes part of a metabolic cycle and will be consumed by scavengers and natural decomposition processes and become part of the soil. By killing an animal and removing it, hunters are disrupting that metabolic cycle.
Society has often looked down on people who kill animals for sport and don't eat the animal -- for example, someone who kills a wild lion, bear, or elephant, and takes a picture of them smiling next to its dead body, only to remove the tusks or some other part of the animal as a trophy. But from the animal's perspective, does it matter? They're dead, so what does it matter from their point of view what's done with their body? Hunting for sport or hunting for meat are the same -- unnecessary killing done out of desire, not necessity.
With the world's human population, hunting is also not possible for everyone and is unsustainable. If everyone hunted for food, all the animals of the world would be decimated.
If you're interested in hunting, why not try wildlife photography? It's essentially the same activity except you're shooting a camera instead of a weapon, and it celebrates animals and puts them in the spotlight instead of causing suffering and death.
What about animal overpopulation though? Overpopulation is not a natural phenomenon and is caused by two primary things: 1) the number of natural predators being decimated by hunters and human activity and 2) destruction of the natural world, both of which are significantly caused by the animal agriculture industry. About 50% of the contiguous US has been altered to make way for animal farming, which means about half of the country's natural landscape has been destroyed by animal agriculture. Farmers also kill predators to protect their livestock. The USDA (which is funded by taxpayers) actually places cyanide bombs throughout rural America to kill wild animals and protect farmer's interests.
Instead of hunting, the proper solution is to either use contraception or reintroduce natural predators to create ecological balance.
Please don’t refuse with your eyes what the animals endure with their bodies. -Shaun Monson
- The Post Punk Kitchen
- Cilantro and Citronella
- The Full Helping
- Simple Veganista
- Avante Garde Vegan
- The Edgy Veg
- Connoisseurus Veg
- School Night Vegan
- Vegan Richa
Awesome! The source for this page is hosted on GitHub and is written in Markdown. If you aren't familiar with Git or GitHub, once you create a GitHub account, it's fairly easy to edit this page through the GitHub website. Click here to edit this page. Once your edits are complete, choose Create a new branch for this commit and start a pull request, and then Propose changes. You can also check out the issues section or create a new issue with suggestions for changes.