Veganism
I think it's mind numbing how animals can be treated by people. And how oblivious most people are to it all either mindfully or simply due to not being aware of the consequences of their decisions. Like buying some dead animal's meat have.
Watching Earthlings made me go pescatarian instantly after watching. I limit number of fish I eat too. Think Earthlings or Dominion should be a mandatory watch for everyone. As it should be enough to at least make you reconsider what food you eat. Thankfully whole food plant based diet is genuinely a healthier diet too and there's so many fruits, vegetables and beans that you can choose to eat whilst making it tasty too. I often love eating blueberries, avocados, walnuts and almonds together with making delicious smoothies. I also love making various recipes and generally love exploring non meat or dairy cuisine around the globe as I travel.
I hope more people wake up to this issue and it changes soon. Because animals should not be treated like that and especially at such scales. It's sad.
I personally believe the idea of reincarnation, only your memory does get wiped after you die. Existence never stops though and you will continue to exist as some other conscious being. And I truly want to minimize my chances of being born into a pig that lives it's entire life in a slaughterhouse, just counting its days until the end.
That's why it's so essential everyone acts nicely to each other. Because in some way, everyone is actually you too. To me this is the most plausible scenario of what happens when you die.
Notes
- If everyone in the world went to mostly plant-based (like the Okinawan traditional diet), it would be a MUCH better world. The positive impact would be huge. The impact on your health of having animal products only on special occasions would be minimal. I will tell you though, I've done that and when I've had beef after a long vegan run, it makes me sick to my stomach and I'm certain it's not merely psychological.
- Animal protein is not healthy in any way, shape or form.
- Veganism should be the moral baseline. If you can live without animals being directly killed or exploited, why wouldn’t you?
- The vegan diet, and veganism in general, is a plant-based diet, and an avoidance of all commodities made from animal products. Its focus is on cruelty to animals. WFPB is another plant-based diet, but with stricter recommendations, that you eat the healthiest of foods, and avoid processed and animal derived foods. I am vegan because I believe cruelty to the animals should be avoided, and I adhere to WFPB because I want to promote my health. Two different motivations that produce similar results with a lot of overlap.
- Most consumers don't even know what conditions are like for dairy animals. In Europe, consumers smugly assume we have high welfare standards (maybe we do relative to other countries), but I was shocked to learned that some farms still tie and tether cows in small cramped indoor spaces. In fact, most dairy cows will spend the majority of their life indoors rather than outside grazing on pasture. This is the price of cheap, industrial-scale agriculture.
- I think these are attacks by a population that's starving to death, surrounded by deafening noise (and remember, their primary sense is hearing) and poisoned by heavy metals accumulating in the food chain. I think they understand that humans and boats are responsible for the stress they're experiencing, and are attacking smaller boats that they think they can sink in desperation or anger.
- Cows only give milk after they’ve given birth. They would only produce about a gallon a day if they were feeding their calf, and only for one year. Industrial dairy production requires a bit more: Cows are bred to produce 7x normal milk. Cows are artificially impregnated, have a calf, calf is taken away, three months later they are impregnated again, and again. After three years or so of having calves and producing unnatural amounts of milk, their milk production drops from the average high of 7.5 gallons. They are then shipped off to be culled for beef. Cows are treated like milk producing machines. They are tied up, fed and milked. I imagine having their calf taken away must be traumatic for both. The more I thought about it the more it saddened me. I used to love milk. Now I have yogurt or cheese a couple of times a month but no straight milk. I think if I lived on a farm and knew the cow was humanely treated I wouldn’t mind having a little milk for coffee or baking. But that’s probably it. Also, knowing the terrible toll animal agriculture is taking on the environment is sort of the final straw.
Links
- Tips for New Vegans
- Is 100% vegan the way to go?
- What's the difference between a plant-based and a vegan diet?
- Fish Are Sentient and Emotional Beings and Clearly Feel Pain
- Jack Norris RD Blog
- Why I'm A Vegan
- Why doctors don't recommend veganism: Dr Michael Greger
- Why Meat is the Best Worst Thing in the World
- Should we go vegan?
- Ending Heart Disease: Cardiologist Kim Williams, M.D.
- Great Reddit thread about benefits of going vegan
- HN: Animals are no less emotional than we are (2019)
- Is Meat Bad for You? Is Meat Unhealthy? (2019)
- Eat less meat: UN climate change report calls for change to human diet (2019) (HN)
- Mosa Meat - Produce real meat for the world’s growing population that is delicious, healthier, better for the environment, and kind to animals.
- The Barrett Family are Converting Their Poultry Barns into a Mushroom Farm (2020)
- Eclipse Foods - Plant-based dairy products that require no sacrifice, ever.
- Impossible Foods - Cruelty free alternative to meat.
- Cheat sheet on various tropes against vegan discourse
- Disregard for creature welfare is often central to disease. But politicians won’t dare make the connection
- 5 Modern Diseases on the Rise Because of Factory Farming
- Animals killed since opening this page (HN)
- Vegan: Healthy, Sustainable, Compassionate Living
- Tips for going vegan
- Jerome Flynn interview talking about HOGWOOD: a modern horror story (2020)
- Peter Singer: Suffering in Humans, Animals, and AI (2020)
- What if everyone in the world went vegan? (2020)
- Awesome Veganism - Curated list of awesome resources, pointers, and tips to make veganism easy and accessible to everyone.
- How to lower the price of plant-based meat (HN)
- Vegan Bootcamp - Going vegan has never been easier.
- Plant-based diet would reduce agricultural land use from 4 to 1B hectares (2021) (HN)
- Vegan Fitness Reddit - Place to come and discuss vegan fitness, bodybuilding, and health.
- Labriculture Now (2021) - Time to disrupt the toxic animal agriculture industry with bioreactor-brewed meat.
- Lab-made dairy products are now a reality (2021) (HN)
- Alternative Milks (2021) (HN)
- Consider Veganism - Straightforward arguments for veganism. (Code)
- Lab-grown meat may never be cost-competitive enough to displace traditional meat (2021) (HN)
- Веганство - это единственная справедливая позиция по отношению к животным
- «Животные страдают, а я не могу один день поголодать?» (2021) (Tweet)
- Low budget, vegan meals
- Vegan Hacktivists - Compassion, Creativity, Code!
- Is-Vegan - Helps you to find out which food ingredients are vegan / non-vegan.
- Keeping up with the plant-based food product industry (2021)
- Beginner's guide to veganism » how to go vegan
- Plant based diets
- Challenges of producing cultivated meat at scale (HN)
- How to be vegan (if you’re me) (2022)
- Ethical animal farming of any type does not exist
- Your unpopular vegan opinion?
- How sustainable are fake meats? (2022)
- Beyond Meat is struggling, and the plant-based meat industry worries (2022) (HN)
- Growing muscles on vegan diet
- Plant Protein vs Animal Protein
- My kid doesn't want to be vegan any more
- Great Vegan cook books (2023)