Why Go Vegan?

Recent studies suggest veganism has skyrocketed in the last two years. More than 3.5 million (7%) of UK residents now identifying as vegan. But why go vegan?

A Lifestyle To Match Your Morals

An epiphany, a moment for many individuals where they realise their daily lifestyle no longer aligns with their morals. Some people act on it straight away, not able to live lying to themselves. Others are able to justify it, in their minds, and carry on without changing their lives. That’s okay, as long as we all realise the change that must happen eventually, for humanity’s sake.

The world is waking up to the drastic impact that single-use plastic is having on our environment, with companies as big as Wetherspoons now banning single-use plastic straws. My own encouragement to go vegan was the environmental impact of animal agriculture. After having been a vegetarian for 8 years, I watched ‘Cowspiracy’ on Netflix (I believe everyone should watch it) whilst eating a margarita pizza. Nearly 3 years on and that’s the last animal product I knowingly ate.

Farm To Fork

With animal agriculture, livestock and their by-products, farm to fork, being responsible for around 51% of greenhouse gas emissions. That’s vastly out doing the 13% for all world transport combined, more so, we can’t ignore the damage our selfishness to satisfy our taste buds are doing to the planet we live on.

Environmentalists will tell you to, “walk to work”, arguing, “turn the tap off while brushing your teeth”, and to, “buy local produce”. I try and do as much of this as possible, but I also know that my veganism is the best thing I’ve done for the environment, as well as my health and the animals. With animal agriculture being accountable for 80-90% of US water consumption, it is reported that it takes 1,000 litres of water to produce 1 litre of cow’s milk and it takes over 10,000 litres of water to produce 1lb of beef, there is no doubt that consuming and exploiting animals is the biggest reason for the deterioration of our beautiful planet.

Animal agriculture is the leading reason behind species extinction, ocean dead zones, water pollution and habitat destruction. So yes, do turn the tap off while brushing your teeth, do choose to walk over driving where you can, but please go vegan.

Why Go Vegan?

My own mum and brother both chose to go vegan last year after watching a documentary called ‘What The Health’ where it’s explained that bacon and sausages have now been classified as carcinogenic to humans. As many as 1 in 3 Americans will have Diabetes in the next 25 years. With one serving of processed meat per day increases your chances of developing Diabetes by 51%. We need to open our eyes and comprehend the benefits of a plant-based lifestyle. It’s not just meat that’s detrimental to our health.

Eating 1 egg per day is reported to be as bad as smoking 5 cigarettes a day for life expectancy. Most people in the world are lactose intolerant (which makes total sense as we are the only animal that drinks milk after infancy and the only one that drinks it from another animal) and dairy is the leading source of fat in diets. There is no justification of the exploitation of female mothers and their babies in the dairy industry. If those points aren’t enough for you to reconsider your diet then how about the facts and that dairy is linked to many types of cancer and osteoporosis and is obviously full of hormones, pus, antibiotics, blood and even traces of faeces. Yum. So it makes sense when you ask yourself, why go vegan?

Animal Lovers

Many people claim to be animal lovers whilst eating them, their food and their babies. Literally eating those they claim to love. Speciesism is drilled into us from a young age. Dogs are your friend, pigs are for bacon. Doves are a thing of class and beauty, chickens are for nuggets. Cats are your companion and live amongst us, cows are to have their reproductive systems exploited, their babies were stolen from them and their throats slit. You don’t do that to someone you love. With more than 1 billion land animals being slaughtered for meat, dairy and eggs every year in the UK alone (not including fish and aquatic animals) we are a nation of exploitation and abuse to animals.

Justifying The Industry

Pigs are highly intelligent, sociable, sentient beings who feel pain every bit as much as we do. They are abused and slaughtered in their masses to simply feed humans. With there being no legal definition of “free-range” pigs retailers can label pork products as free-range without having to adhere to any standards or guidelines. Farmers perform mutilation on piglets. Often by amputating pigs tails and clipping their teeth without anaesthetic or painkillers, causing these babies immense pain. If piglets are not growing fast enough or seem ill or injured they are killed, due to being unprofitable to the industry. They do this in the most cost-effective way, most likely to be slamming them against walls or floors or being hit with metal poles. How anyone can justify this behaviour and still support this industry is beyond me.

Can You Kill and Be Humane?

Humane killing is not a reality. You can’t kill someone humanely who doesn’t want to die. Pigs are often killed in gas chambers, cows with bolt electrocution and throat slitting, chickens with bath electrocution, throat slitting and boiling water baths. A lot have their throats slit whilst still conscious due to the workers not stunning the beings properly. Nothing is humane about this, at all.

The Trend of Veganism: So Why Go Vegan

Veganism is growing and the readily available food is booming. I’ve noticed a drastic difference in the last 3 years of veganism, let alone the last 11 of vegetarianism. It’s inexcusable to be consuming animal products and thankfully people are waking up in their masses and times are changing. If your heart lies in compassion for animals, fear of the damage we’re doing to our planet or the destruction you’re doing to your own health and life expectancy, please investigate a plant-based diet and align your lifestyle with your morals. For me, ‘Why go vegan?’ can simply be answered.