Why I’m Vegan…
I get asked this a lot…
- Ethics – Supporting the killing of animals for our own gain is just pure selfishness, whichever way you cut it. I don’t see how it can be justified, and this is reason enough for me.
Over 90% of eggs are produced from factory farming, that means spending as little as possible – mainly on space – to produce the highest yield possible, welfare does not come in to the equation. Free-range is not much better, because laws are not clearly defined on what the term actually means. Either way, only female chicks are useful to the farmers, male chicks are disposed of through, gassing, grinding or simply bagged and discarded.
The situation with dairy production is not much better, only female cows can produce milk, the males will either be sold to the veal industry or be disposed of. When a cow has stopped producing milk they will be forcefully impregnated, normally around 4 and half months after giving birth, then having their young separated from them, usually after only after a single day. This process is repeated until she’s too old or too weak to have another baby.
tl;dr: It’s simply not an industry I’m willing to support.
- Health – I’m not going to go in to how animals proteins are harmful, simply because I’ve never read anything conclusive, I’ve never read The China Study, and I doubt I will any time soon. I can say that I’ve started eating a lot healthier, I’m now eating more fruit and vegetables simply because having somewhat limited options means I have I’m considering what I’m eating. So in a completely indirect way, it’s helped.
- The Environment – Supposedly, the combined emissions of CO2 from the rearing of animals is larger than every car, bus, truck, bus, plane and boat on the planet combined. I’m not going to pretend I have any idea about the numbers, but when you consider that the average american consumes around 80kg of meat per year, it wouldn’t be surprising. Not to mention that thousands of acres of Amazonian rainforest are destroyed each year for the rearing of animals (and oh, look at that, more CO2).
Anyway, if you were interested enough to read all of that, please take the time to watch Earthlings. A cut, ~40 minute version which focuses on food production can be found at WatchEarthlings.com.
