No, Veganism Is Not Just About Stopping Eating Meat

Bill Gates, a convinced vegan, has it clear. “Unless the entire world population becomes vegan in a few years, life as we know it will end. The production of milk and meat causes more suffering and environmental damage than all wars in history combined. Veganism is not a choice, it is our only option. And he is right. This life option that proposes not to consume any product of animal origin is part of the solutions we need.

It’s not just not eating meat. Food occupies a predominant place within veganism (a diet based 100% on plant foods, without meat, fish, eggs or dairy), but it does not end there. We humans dress, use personal hygiene, beauty and cosmetic products, and take medications to improve health. We also need to clean our home. And we have another series of less essential needs: filling our leisure time, traveling and doing entertainment and personal development activities.

A feasible alternative. The objective is not to use anything whose manufacture has involved animal exploitation for its manufacture, whether it is a food (meat of the animal itself) or its derivatives (dairy, eggs …), cosmetics that have been tested on animals, textiles such as skins, feathers and wool, leisure activities where animals deprived of their freedom are used and exhibited (bulls, circuses, dolphinariums, aquariums, zoos, hatcheries), nor domestic hygiene products tested on animals.

Health benefits. A vegan not only gets rid of making animals suffer, but also takes advantage of the health benefits of eating local produce (vegetables, fruits, legumes, mushrooms, seeds, cereals, nuts … .). You also benefit from beauty products that provide a vitality that cosmetics manufactured through synthetic processes do not have. These are the majority of those that are distributed in commercial surfaces and of which we do not know their manufacturing process and many of its ingredients. If we knew them, we would discard them from the shopping cart due to a question of ethics, quality and health.

Above all, for empathy. Although the benefits of going vegan are clear and multiple, the fundamental reason for this personal decision is empathy, respect, defense and concern for the welfare of animals.

The numbers of cruelty. Every second in the world approximately 2,000 land animals die, about 63,000 million a year, and twice as many fish, according to statistics from the FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations).

More fair and clean. Veganism not only prevents animal suffering. They also decrease hunger, child slavery, deforestation, water pollution, the greenhouse effect … All these social and environmental scourges have a direct or indirect relationship with the increasing consumption of meat, as well as with massive food industrialization .

The planet is on the edge. The activity of industrial farms generates contamination by nitrates in the soil and waste of the most precious good on the planet: water. The use of fertilizers and pesticides, the digestive activity of ruminants and manure generate a large amount of methane, one of the gases responsible for warming the atmosphere and changing the climate. A joint study by the Australian National University and the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom highlights that livestock activity generates a fifth of total greenhouse gas emissions, without neglecting deforestation to convert forests into pastures for livestock and the shortage of drinking water.

An awkward question. While children starve, poorer countries sell grain to rich nations and they use it to feed their livestock. “Every bite of meat is a slap in the face of a hungry child.” These are the words of Philip Wollen, former vice president of Citibank and today a prominent environmental and animal rights activist.