Should you be Vegan ?

 

This world vegan day (November 1st) let’s try to understand from a vegan’s perspective.

We often referred to as alarmists, extremists, rebellion, preachy, pushy, opinionated, saints, moral police etc., but in my we view we are realists.

What is vegan anyway? It is reducing or minimising unnecessary suffering caused to any living being which has feelings, central nervous system and capacity to suffer. 

It is about choosing alternatives in what we eat, what we wear, what we shop, what we pay for entertainment etc., Animals are being exploited for food, fast fashion including cosmetics, entertainment, testing of drugs etc., We humans give ourselves moral authority as someone capable at the top of food chain and consider some animals as incapable, can be controlled and used for our needs as commodities, something most commonly referred as speciesism. 

We humans have innate nature to love animals and can’t see them suffer in pain in front of our eyes but we somehow distance ourselves and create a separation to treat some animals as “someone”, our pets and yet others as “something” to eat, wear or entertain. We see it as product, commodity distancing ourselves from whole process and paying for it so that someone can do the dirty job to end a life of a being against its will. We visits farms and show our kids happy cows grazing, cute little piggies, chickens and ducks playing and yet eating a hotdog, ham burger, beef burger at the same time without telling our kids on how our food is coming to our plate and those are same animals that become our food. We are not open in telling the truth and let them decide but forcing our opinions and normalising that it is okay to kill and eat some animals selectively.

It was okay in those days when animal food was a necessity to survive but in 21st century we have alternatives, and it is no longer necessity but only convenience and to satisfy our taste buds. There are 80 billion land animals raised and killed every year in factory farming 10 times more than human population. Fish are measured only in tons as they are extracted in trillions emptying oceans and spoiling ocean ecosystems with bottom trawling etc., This intensive animal agriculture which is more than 80-90% of available animal food in the market today is leading cause of Amazon deforestation, species extinction, loss of biodiversity, land degradation, ocean acidification, fresh water and land pollution, major source of land and water usage. We are clearing our forests, utilising land, water by growing mono crops like soy and corn destroying soil health with heavy dose of pesticides and chemicals to feed these animals but not directly humans. 

While there are more than a billion people suffering with obesity due to the animal products and fast food on the other hand a billion others are suffering with no food, malnutrition mostly from poor countries due to land and other resources taken away from them. Leading causes for diseases and death due to cancer, heart attacks have been attributed to animal food consumption and lifestyle choices killing millions of people every year. 

According to scientific evidence, animal agriculture is one of leading causes of climate change with its need for extraction of resources, deforestation, methane from cows etc., There are millions of people suffering every day due to extreme climatic events becoming refugees and one thing that can change the situation very quickly is food as we have 3 conscious choices to make every day! 

We look for efficiency at everything to get more things done with less resource, but this animal agriculture is most inefficient and unsustainable in terms of its usage of natural resources to produce a kg of animal food or calories provided. When we consider the subsidies given to these meat, dairy and egg industries it is causing a lot of taxpayer money to make them available at low cost. Majority of the pandemics and zoonotic diseases like swine flu, bird flu, Ebola etc., caused due to the way we are treating these animals in unhygienic conditions at factory farms transmitting very quickly and causing lot of strain on our health care systems. It is strange that we maintained 2-meter distance during covid to avoid spread and yet we pay for these factory farms where thousands of birds and animals are crammed in very small spaces climbing on one another suffocating and forming real breeding ground for next pandemic. 

After being vegetarian for 36 years of my life, when I researched on how I am getting my milk from Dairy farms, I was left in shock & terror on how these sentient beings are treated with the abuse and cruelty. Cows in normal lifetime lives for around 25 years but for the greed of the industry they were artificially inseminated to get pregnant year after year so that they can produce more milk. Calves are separated from their mothers with in first 24 to 72 hours, Male calves are sent to slaughterhouses for veal, and female calves are kept in solitary confinements up to 6 months where they are given same treatment as their mothers. With this vicious cycle continuing she will give up in 4 to 6 years and sent to slaughterhouse just living quarter of her life span in stressful conditions. I felt the pain and suffering she has undergone, and I decided I won’t support this industry anymore and became vegan in 2020. Besides, majority of dairy cows are going into meat industry which I don’t want to support either. 

So when people ask why I am a vegan, I say firstly for the sake of animals to reduce their suffering from cruelty and abuse, but also for my own health, health of humanity, economic benefits to the countries with efficient use of resource, environmental reasons with clean air, water and soil reducing global warming, equality and social justice for the people suffering in global south and more importantly what legacy I want to leave it to my younger generations! And after knowing all those facts I would also ask why not everyone is vegan ? 

Some might call this as preaching but from vegans’ perspective we are trying to hold a mirror and telling the inconvenient truth, there is a reason I said we are realists. The change is coming Cadbury and nestles are realising it, Burger King is opening 100% vegan stores, you like it or not eventually it will change due to the unsustainable ways of living with consumerism and commodification which wouldn’t last long in this deciding decade with climate change and global warming. 

We really need to think about our relationship with nature including all sentient beings to live in harmony conserving resources by using what is needed and giving it back without over exploitation. What could be best occasion than World's Vegan day to have a think about it and appreciate a different perspective empathising with sufferers and preservers? 

As our friend, author and vegan activist Ed Winter says, is it taste or life of an animal what’s more important and as Philip Wollen says we suffer as equals and, in our capacity, to suffer a dog is a pig is a bear is a boy! 

 Please also listen in to the Ted talk from Moby on Why I’m A Vegan !