Being vegan is more than just a diet.
- It's about avoiding exploitation of animals - obviously...
- It's about environmental issues and climate change...
- It's about reduce, re-use, repair, re-purpose...
Let's look at these in more detail...
Animal Exploitation:
Animals are used for multiple reasons from food and clothing to entertainment, workforce and experimenting on.
FOOD
Billions of animals are killed every year to provide meat. But before that happens, they have used a huge amout of natural and manufactured resource - they don't all just live in a field and eat grass. There is undoubtably a lot of animals that suffer before being killed, all because of profit margins.
CLOTHING
Animals are also exploited for their wool, leather, fur and other materials. Without the sale of these 'by-products' animals farming would not be as profitable. There are alternatives - I have been wearing them the last 2 decades.
EXPERIMENTATION
Although there has been some progress regarding animals in experiments - for example cosmetics testing is banned in UK and EU countries, it is a small step in what is a huge industry carried out by pharmaceutical companies, medical schools, universities and the military.
COMPANION ANIMALS
Lots of families have 'pets'. Most of these will have been specifically bred for sale - there is a lot of money in designer dogs. Purchasing an animal from a pet shop or dealer is different to homing a rescue animal from organisations such as the Cats Protection League or Blue Cross where the animal's welfare is paramount.
ENTERTAINMENT
Circuses, bullfights, hunting, shooting, fishing - these are all situations where animals are used as some form of entertainment and often the animals will suffer as a result of confinement or death.
WORKER ANIMALS
This is a more difficult area as some will argue the necessity of animals in crime fighting or as assistance animals.
Environment:
Animal farming has a measurable impact on our environment and climate.
LAND
The billions of animals that are killed every year to provide meat need somewhere to live. The more human population grows, the more land will be needed for animals and growing animal foodstuff unless a change in human diet is forthcoming.
WATER
As well as emitting massive amounts of greenhouse gases, animal farming has a huge impact on the water resources we rely on. Agricultural runoff carries pollutants like manure, fertilizers, ammonia, pesticides, livestock waste, all too evident in our streams and rivers.
The other issue is the amount of water consumption used in animal farming, whether it's water used to grow crops for animal feeds or used in slaughterhouses to clean the facilities. Some numbers for water use with different foods in litres of water per Kg of food products... (figures approximate)
- Bovine meat - 15,000 litres
- Pig meat - 6,000 litres
- Cereals - 1,600 litres
- Fruit - 1000 litres
- Vegetables- 320 litres
This is a huge topic to cover here, more research needed as information varies depending on the source. However as population grows, more water will be consumed if we try to feed that population on animal products. A switch to a sustainable vegan diet is the best way forwards.
POLLUTION
Intensive animal agriculture is a cause of harmful particulate matter pollution in the atmosphere. Air pollutants from factory farming have caused acute physical symptoms, such as respiratory illnesses, increased breath rate, and irritation of the eyes and nose.
The IPCC Sixth Assessment Report in 2022 stated that: "Diets high in plant protein and low in meat and dairy are associated with lower Greenhouse Gas emissions"
CLIMATE CHANGE
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ENERGY
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