The most pressing reason is that being vegan opposes harming and killing animals.
Many billions of animals are killed every year. The environment, possible health benefits, and efficiency in food production are all good reasons too, but the effects on such a large number of feeling creatures is both immediate and on an ENORMOUS scale – billions of animals every year is enormous whatever language you speak.
Vegan symbol from etnies.com
Before you dismiss that as just another pinko/hippie/greenie/wacko/left/way out or lentilly alternative idea, remember that we’re also animals. We feel pain, other animals feel pain. We have a will to live just like other animals. By our understanding of intelligence, we may consider ourselves more intelligent than other animals, but that has nothing to do with whether it’s ok to use them for amusement, or to make money, or to chop them, cook them and eat them.
While the idea that animals aren’t made for our use may seem foreign, even odd or aggravating, it isn’t that different to how people regarded slaves in the past. In a book published in 1860, Chancellor Harper, discussing slaves in America, declared they ‘are not rational beings.’ In North Carolina, in 1829, the state maintained that ‘cruel and unreasonable battery’ wasn’t indictable, and that a ‘slave, to remain a slave, must be made sensible [aware], that there is no appeal from his master.’ (Both quotes appear in Introduction to Animal Rights – Your Child or the Dog?, Gary Francione, Temple University Press, Philadelphia, 2007 reprint: pages 87-88.)
So, not only did Chancellor Harper hold a view that’s discredited today – ie that slaves aren’t rational – but the pain of slaves was dismissed as secondary to a slave owner’s legal right to use them. Today, do we cling to our views of animals in a similar way? We dismiss the pain of animals in much the same way we dismissed the pain of slaves.
They feel things like us, they feel pain. So in this day of abundant food in countries like Australia, why do we insist on using them, commonly abusing them, then taking their lives so we can eat flesh, drink milk or eat eggs? (And for those who don’t think animals die in producing milk and eggs, once their production falls, they’re killed. Not to mention the calves and chicks also killed in the process.)
‘Well, we kill them because animal food is essential for health.’ No it’s not. The American Dietetic Association tells us that we can get by at every stage of life without animal food.
‘Ah, come on, you can’t be healthy on just plant food. At the very least, if you’re a man, you can’t build any muscle.’ Says who? Take a look at this guy, Joel Kirkilis, from Melbourne:
He’s not a pro bodybuilder – he does it as a hobby!
What does he say about eating animal products?
I have eaten animal products in the past but ever since I cut them out of my diet I have felt more energetic and also feel better morally… Having trained and competed for four years now, people often ask about my diet which provides me with the opportunity to tell them that they do not need to eat animal products to grow and build muscles.
‘Well, ok, but vegan food doesn’t taste as good, right?’ So does that mean we’d be prepared to use animals and kill them by the billion just because they taste good? What happened to the idea that life is sacred? Is there anything you want to eat that badly?
In any case, there are things you can make, as well as products you can buy, that are similar if not hard to tell apart from animal products. There are all kind of plant milks, which provide a range much wider than cow milk: soy milk, almond milk, oat milk, rice milk and so on, all with very different tastes, even different tastes within a given type. For instance, there are many different commercial soy milks ranging from ones that don’t try to copy the taste of milk, to those that are like it.
People can prepare things like ‘meat’ pies and sausage rolls without animal ingredients with no one being the wiser. Justin, in Brisbane, sells vegan hot dogs that animal eaters lap up. In the freezer section at Woolworths you can buy Fry’s burgers (as well as sausages and other products) which are vegan, but frighteningly like the real thing.
At the moment, although you can make these types of things at home, the price to buy ready made items is a little more expensive than animal products. But what does that say? That animals, living, feeling creatures like you and me, are worth less than the plant ingredients that go into making animal product analogues? Yet analogues are potentially far cheaper to make, just manufacturers at present don’t produce them on as large a scale as animal products, since the demand isn’t there.
But the potential is. The potential to produce products that really taste like animal foods – for those in transition or who want these things. After all, if we can build long bridges that handle car traffic day in day out, send ships into space, and put people back together after they’ve broken bones and worse, surely we can make a few decent analogues in place of killing billions of animals each year!
In America, the land of the vegan grill (yes, really!), even chain restaurants that serve animal products are offering vegan alternatives. One of these places, the Yard House, uses a vegan chicken analogue made by gardein. Partner and executive chef there, Carlito Jackson, says that ‘We first needed to find a meat alternative that didn’t compromise taste or quality; we’re thrilled that gardein passed every taste test with flying colors.’ Here’s their gardein ‘Chicken’ & Rice Bowl:
Aside from the issue of killing animals purely for taste, there’s a whole world of vegan food out there, and it can taste great! As an example, consider Chloe Cascarelli, the vegan chef, who won a competition for the best panini against contestants using animal products. A fluke, right? Then she does it all over again with cupcakes:
In summary, we don’t need to eat animal products to be healthy… to build muscle… or to make food that tastes good…
So if you’re not already vegan, what are you waiting for?