Veganism is NOT just a diet

"People eat meat and think they will become as strong as an ox, forgetting the ox eats grass." - Pino Caruso

When people usually hear the word VEGANISM, they shudder away and think of people breaking into farms to rescue animals, or that they're "dirty hippies", or that they have a "holier than thou" complex. But that's not true for the majority of us.

Animals and their rights are harmed in many ways other than just killing them for meat or rearing them for milk and eggs. Animals not only have the right to live but also to live without pain. So food, even vegetarian food that is obtained with the assistance of animals such as animal-based agriculture, is to be eschewed. To take the philosophy a step further, veganism is also a personal commitment to non-violence in daily aspects of one's life, in a way that creates the least harmful impact on one's natural environment.

It’s a whole lifestyle, relating to what a person wears, what personal care products he uses (testing on animals, use of animal products in the ingredients, etc.), the hobbies that he indulges in, and the sort of job that the person has. Since ethical veganism ideally pervades every facet of a person's life, it also colours one's relationships, political beliefs and social attitudes. People who eat no dairy or honey are simply vegetarians and not vegans and true veganism goes beyond just this. Our entire civilization at present is based on the exploitation of animals, in much the same way that past civilizations were based on the exploitation of other human beings in the form of slavery, bonded labour, and so on.

We don’t have to hurt others to survive. Human beings have proved that through centuries of living on this earth; the fact that we still exist despite the innumerable ways in which we could destroy each other is proof positive of our destiny to live peaceably.

"People are the only animals that drink the milk of the mother of another species. All the other animals stop drinking milk altogether after weaning. It is unnatural for a dog to nurse from a giraffe; it is just as unnatural for a human being to drink the milk of a cow."- Michael Klaper  

Despite political and social divisiveness, we’re still a social species. Humanity has only survived because of our ability to care for one another, whether that means staying awake at night to make sure a predator doesn’t ravage our village or shouting a warning to a stranger who’s about to step in front of a moving car.

This doesn't mean, however, that we should just not harm our fellow humans. We also have to realize that harming animals and the environment leaves just as obvious a stain.

We’re also wired to bond with other animals. We domesticated dogs before any other creature, and for centuries, we’ve worked alongside canines in mutually beneficial relationships. Dogs enjoy working with humans, just as horses and many cats do because we care for each other.

The problem, though, is that many people pick and choose. If you embrace the belief that you should not harm another sentient creature, it's impossible to separate dogs and cats from cows and chickens and fish.

The Vegan Society’s definition of veganism is “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 humans, animals and the environment. In dietary terms, it denotes the practice of dispensing with all products derived wholly or partly from animals”. So what about when you’re beginning on your vegan journey and you try to seek advice online in different Facebook chat groups, or other online forums? More likely than not, unless you’re in a specific beginners group you’ll be met with the “Vegan Police” who instead of helping and educating you, will berate you for not being “vegan enough”. All you have to do is read the back of the product you are buying.

COSMETICS

There are a shocking number of animal products in most cosmetics including makeup, shampoo, body washes, soaps – there’s even pork fat in a well-known brand of toothpaste in the US – and animal testing is still widely used.

Look out for the leaping bunny sign on the packaging to indicate the product is cruelty-free. If a product has the V symbol on it, it's vegan.

Some common animal products found in cosmetics to look out for include:

• Squalene: This is derived from shark liver.
• Tallow: This is another name for animal fat.
• Caprylic acid/caprylic triglyceride: Made from cow and goat milk.
• Hyaluronic acid: Derived from rooster combs (the bit on top of their heads)
• Beeswax, honey, propolis, and royal jelly: often found in lip balms, so watch out.
• Keratin: It's found naturally in your hair and nails, but in cosmetics, it comes from hooves, quills and animal hair.
• Silk powder: Silkworms get dissolved in boiling water to create silk fibres.

CLOTHING

I'm sure everyone has gone shopping at some point and saw a pair of shoes or a jacket, or top they the fell in love with, and before beginning your vegan journey you didn’t think too much about what materials were used to make them.

Some common materials to look out for include:

• Leather: Usually made from the hides of cows.
• Suede: Usually made from the underside of the skin from lambs, calves, goats, and sometimes deer.
• Silk: Made from boiling silkworms until they dissolve to create fibres.
• Wool: Once again, it's an animal product so it's not vegan.
• Feathers: You may think that birds lose their feathers regularly, but most are plucked bare for their feathers.
• Cashmere: Usually made from the soft undercoat of cashmere goats.
• Shearling: Not the same as wool, it's a sheep's skin tanned with the wool attached. Shearling refers to a sheep that has been shorn just once, so usually a lamb at one-year-old.
• Angora: Have you ever Googled an angora rabbit? You might want to. These beautiful creatures are skinned – usually alive – for their wool.
• Fur: Fur is the animal's coat still attached to their skin. Some common furs include bears, beavers, cats, foxes, chinchillas, minks, rabbits, raccoons, even dogs among others.
• Glue: Yep, you may not have thought of this one, but what about the glue that holds your shoes together? Glues derived from animal products are most commonly used.

JEWELLERY

Ever seen a pair of earrings, a necklace, or a purse that you just had to have? Have you looked at what its made from though? Animal products have found their way into every part of our lives.

Some common things to look out for include:

• Pearls: natural pearls are made by oysters, mussels, or clams when an irritant, usually a piece of dirt, gets trapped inside their shell. They cover it with a fluid which hardens. Commercially, the irritant is put inside the crustacean forcibly, and then they are cracked open when the pearl is ready.
• Exotic skins: Snake, alligators, crocodiles, kangaroos, even cats, and dogs are all killed for their "exotic"-looking skins and made into handbags, shoes and other items.
• Down duvets, pillows, blankets: These items are filled with the soft down feathers of ducks and geese. These feathers are the ones that are found under their breast bones and don't fall out.

When we hear about the horrors of industrial livestock farming, the pollution, the waste, the miserable lives of billions of animals, it is hard not to feel a twinge of guilt and conclude that we should eat less meat.

Yet most of us probably won't. Instead, we will mumble something about meat being tasty, that "everyone" eats it, and that we only buy "grass-fed" beef.

Over the next year, more than 50 billion land animals will be raised and slaughtered for food around the world. Most of them will be reared in conditions that cause them to suffer unnecessarily while also harming people and the environment in significant ways. Consuming no or less animal-based products can help with some of the major climate related issues faced by our planet today.

Lesser Greenhouse Gas Emissions

The impact of animal agriculture on greenhouse gas emissions goes a lot further than just cows producing methane gas. Meat production requires vast amounts of energy. Not only do you have to grow the crops to feed the animals, but fossil fuels are also burnt in the raising, slaughtering and transportation of animals. Livestock and their by-products account for 51% of annual worldwide greenhouse gas emissions. So if you choose to eat meat, your greenhouse emissions can be twice that of someone on a plant-based diet.

Alongside this, we need to remember that livestock consumes much more protein, water and calories than they produce, as most of the energy taken in by animals is used for their bodily functions and not converted to meat, eggs or milk. As Cornell University found, producing one calorie of food energy from beef requires 40 calories of fossil fuel energy, whilst producing one calorie of human-edible grain takes only 2.2 calories of fossil fuel energy!

Preserving Habitats and Species

Eating animals is the largest contributing factor in habitat loss and extinction. First, producing meat requires large amounts of land to raise animals. Every second, an area of rainforest equivalent to a football field is cleared to rear and graze animals! It is estimated that 1lb of beef is equivalent to 200 square feet of destroyed rainforest. And overall, it's estimated that eating meat requires three times more land than is needed for a vegan diet.

Second, poorly managed animal waste products from the meat industry are polluting our environment and destroying habitats. Many pollutant waste products get washed into our water systems, the nitrogen and phosphorus found in this waste cause algae to grow on the water and starves the fish of oxygen. This process leads to the creation of ‘dead zones', places where few species can survive. As of 2011, 530 marine areas were identified as dead zones.

Meat production is highly inefficient, this is particularly true when it comes to red meat. To produce one kilogram of beef requires 25 kilograms of grain to feed the animal and roughly 15,000 litres of water. Pork is a little less intensive and chicken-less still. The scale of the problem can also be seen in land use: around 30% of the earth's land surface is currently used for livestock farming. Since food, water and land are scarce in many parts of the world, this represents an inefficient use of resources.

Conserving Water

Whilst it may seem that water is plentiful, especially on very rainy days, fresh water is a very scarce resource. Only 2.5% of all water on our planet is freshwater, and only 30% of that is available to us and not frozen as ice. Water scarcity is a very real issue, with over a billion people living without sufficient access to clean water.

Food choices can have a big impact on water demand. Unlike the majority of plant-based foods, raising animals requires vast amounts of water. This is because animals need water to drink, wash, clean their living spaces and cool themselves during hot periods. A study comparing the water footprint of different foods found that whilst a soy burger has a water footprint of 158 litres, a beef burger has a water footprint of 2,350 litres, which is over 14 times as big! This situation begs the question: if so many people are living in areas without access to freshwater, why are we wasting so much of it producing animal products when we can get all the nutrients we need from plant-based foods?

Helping the global poor

A lot of the food that's grown in the world isn't being eaten by humans. Globally, 83% of farmland is set aside to raise animals. It's estimated that 700 million tons of food that could be consumed by humans goes to livestock each year.

While meat is more calorically dense than plants, more aggregate calories (and more diverse nutrient profiles) could be produced if that land was dedicated to various plants.  

Plus, all the deforestation, overfishing and pollution caused by meat and fish industries limit the overall capacity of the Earth to produce food.

If more farmland was used to grow crops for humans, then more people could be fed at less of an expense to the planet. 

This understanding is becoming more urgent as the global population is expected to hit or surpass 9.1 billion by 2050. There's simply not enough land on the planet to raise enough meat to feed everyone the average American diet. Nor can Earth cope with the pollution this would cause.

Feeding grain to livestock increases global demand and drives up grain prices, making it harder for the world’s poor to feed themselves. Grain could instead be used to feed people, and water used to irrigate crops.

If all grain were fed to humans instead of animals, we could feed an extra 3.5 billion people. In short, industrial livestock farming is not only inefficient but also not equitable.

The production of plant-based foods is a more efficient use of our resources, as it requires less energy from fossil fuels as well as less land and water. By removing animal products from our diet we can play our part in reducing humanity’s damaging impact on our environment. We’re alive during the most critical moment in the history of humanity, and it’s our responsibility to stop irreversible damage being done to our planet. We cannot afford to wait for politicians or industries to save us, we must act urgently.

As you can see, veganism is so much more than just a diet, it's a lifestyle dedicated to trying to cause as little harm as possible to animals and the planet. Hopefully, this little guide will help you on your vegan journey and give you the motivation and understanding you need to continue.

"If slaughterhouses had glass walls, we'd all be vegetarians."- Paul McCartney