Right: Conflict zone: TV chef Matthew Evans believes veganism should be debated in a way in which condemnation, aggression and intolerance should play no part
 Found a word you're not familiar with? Double-click that word to bring up a dictionary reference to it. The dictionary page includes an audio sound file with which to actually hear the word said. |
Arguments in favour of veganism
1. A vegan diet reduces animal cruelty
Opponents of human beings relying on animal products as a food source argue that an animal-based diet inevitably results in cruelty to the animals that are exploited for this purpose. In addition to the fact that most animal-based foods come from the death of the animal involved, it is also noted that animals are reared in cruel conditions before being slaughtered.
The extraordinarily large number of animals slaughtered for human food consumption has been condemned as a violation of animal rights as sentient beings. The Humane Society International has estimated that over 80.3 billion land animals alone are slaughtered annually for human food consumption.
It is further claimed that many of these animals are killed under inhumane conditions. The animal rights group, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), has complained about the manner in which animals are transported to slaughter yards. It has stated, 'Cattle...are crammed onto trucks where they typically go without food, water, or rest for the duration of the journey, which can sometimes be days. Many cows collapse in hot weather... By the time the exhausted cows reach the slaughterhouse, many are too sick or injured to walk. These cows, known to the meat and dairy industries as "downers," often have ropes or chains tied around their legs so that they can be dragged off the trucks..."Uncooperative animals are beaten, they have prods poked in their faces and up their rectums," says a former USDA inspector.' The slaughter practices themselves have also been condemned as cruel. PETA has observed, 'After they are unloaded, cows are forced through a chute and shot in the head with a captive-bolt gun meant to stun them. But because the lines move so quickly and many workers are poorly trained, the technique often fails to render the animals insensible to pain.' Martin Fuentes, a slaughterhouse worker interviewed by the Washington Post has stated that many animals are still alive and conscious for as long as seven minutes after their throats have been cut. Fuentes explained, 'The line is never stopped simply because an animal is alive.'
It has also been noted that animals are often reared in conditions that involve ongoing cruelty. This claim is made in particular regarding animals that are reared on factory farms. The animal rights group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) has stated, 'Factory farming strives to produce the most meat, milk, and eggs as quickly and cheaply as possible and in the smallest amount of space possible, resulting in abusive conditions for animals. Cows, calves, pigs, chickens, turkeys, ducks, geese, rabbits, and other animals are kept in small cages or stalls, where they are often unable to turn around. They are deprived of exercise so that all their energy goes toward producing flesh, eggs, or milk for human consumption. They are fed drugs that fatten them more quickly, and they are genetically manipulated to grow faster or produce much more milk or eggs than they would naturally.'
It has been estimated that around two-thirds of all farm animals are factory farmed worldwide every year. This is nearly 50 billion animals.
The Australian animal welfare group Voiceless has noted, 'According to scientific research, farmed animals are sentient, emotionally complex, intelligent and have rich experiences of the world. On factory farms, animals experience numerous impacts on their welfare, including permanent confinement in cages or in sheds in such large numbers that they struggle to find space to move or reach their food. [They are also subject to] mutilation of sensitive areas without pain relief - the tails, teeth and genitalia of piglets and the beaks of chicks are clipped, as well as the horns, tails, and testicles of calves - because it is practical, cheap and, alarmingly, lawful to do so.'
The British animal rights group Compassion in World Farming, has noted, 'Factory farming systems demand fast-growing or high-yielding animals. They achieve this through selective breeding and the use of concentrated feed. This puts the animals at risk of developing often-painful physiological problems. Lameness, weakened, or broken bones, infections and organ failure are common health problems for factory farmed animals. Antibiotics or other growth-promoting treatments are used in some countries to encourage even higher yields.'
It has been claimed that factory farmed meat chickens grow so fast that 25 percent suffer from painful lameness. It has further been noted that though the use of antibiotics to promote farm animal growth is outlawed in the European Union, it is legal in a number of countries. In the United States, around 80 percent of all antibiotics are believed to be used on farm animals.
Compassion in World Farming has also noted, 'To save space, factory-farmed animals are crammed together in barren pens, crates or cages, preventing normal behaviours such as nesting or foraging. This often causes the animals to inflict injuries on each other out of sheer boredom, frustration and stress. To reduce these injuries, mutilation has become commonplace.
Compassion in World Farming has observed (as the Australian animal welfare group, Voiceless, also noted), 'Animals have their teeth clipped, tails docked, and beaks trimmed - all usually carried out without pain relief. The European Food Safety Authority reported that over 90 percent of Europe's pigs are tail-docked despite [this procedure] being illegal to perform routinely.'
2. A vegan diet draws on fewer natural resources
Opponents of the use of animals as a food source claim that rearing animals for this purpose uses huge quantities of natural resources and relying on plant products for food would be less wasteful.
The animal rights group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) have claimed 'Raising animals for food requires massive amounts of land, food, energy, and water... As the world's appetite for meat increases, countries across the globe are bulldozing huge swaths of land to make more room for animals as well as crops to feed them... According to scientists at the Smithsonian Institution, seven football fields' worth of land is bulldozed every minute to create more room for farmed animals and the crops that feed them.'
PETA have further claimed, 'Of all the agricultural land in the U.S., 80 percent is used to raise animals for food and grow grain to feed them-that's almost half the total land mass of the lower 48 states. In the "finishing" phase alone, in which pigs grow from 100 pounds to 240 pounds, each hog consumes more than 500 pounds of grain, corn, and soybeans; this means that across the U.S., pigs eat tens of millions of tons of feed every year.'
PETA have supplied additional statistics demonstrating the manner in which rearing livestock draws on huge quantities of natural resources. PETA have noted, 'Chickens, pigs, cattle, and other animals raised for food are the primary consumers of water in the U.S.: a single pig consumes 21 gallons of drinking water per day, while a cow on a dairy farm drinks as much as 50 gallons daily. It takes more than 2,400 gallons of water to produce 1 pound of cow flesh, whereas it takes about 180 gallons of water to make 1 pound of whole wheat flour.'
Mood Foods, a food manufacturer which stresses environmentally sound means of producing food, has noted the enormous pressure which currently exists on human water sources. They have stated, 'Only 2.5 percent of all water on our planet is fresh water, and only 30 percent of that is available to us and not frozen as ice. Water scarcity is a very real issue, with over a billion people living without sufficient access to clean water.' Mood Foods goes on to explain how much more water is used in the production of animal-based food than it is in the production of food based on plant products. They state, 'Unlike the majority of plant-based foods, raising animals requires vast amounts of water. This is because animals need water to drink, wash, clean their living spaces and cool themselves during hot periods1. In fact, a study comparing the water footprint of different foods found that whilst a soy burger has a water footprint of 158 litres, a beef burger has a water footprint of 2,350 litres, which is over 14 times as big.'
The Vegan Society has similarly noted, 'Meat-heavy, Westernised diets are a waste of resources we desperately need to conserve. This is because farmed animals consume much more protein, water and calories than they "produce". Most of the protein from vegetable feed is used for the animal's bodily functions and not "converted" to meat, eggs or milk.'
It has also been noted that a diet based on animal products requires far more land. The British Vegetarian Society has noted, 'More agricultural land is used to raise cattle than all other domesticated animals and crops combined. A vegetarian diet requires two-and-a-half times less the amount of land needed to grow food, compared to a meat-based diet.'
The veganism promotion website, I Love Vegan, has stated, '60 percent of worldwide deforestation results from land being converted for use as agricultural land, much of which is used for grazing cattle. An estimated 14 percent of the world's population (over 850,000,000 people) suffer from undernourishment while we continue to waste valuable agricultural land and resources to produce animal products, therefore obtaining only a fraction of the potential caloric value.'
Many conservationists claim that the growing number of human beings occupying the planet demands that we find means of feeding ourselves that are as resource efficient as possible. The Vegan Society has noted, 'Quite simply, we do not have enough land to feed a growing population an animal-based diet. While 800 million people do not have enough food, we continue to waste valuable agricultural land by obtaining only a small fraction of its potential calorific value.'
Richard Waite, an associate with the World Resource Institute's food program, has explained, 'It takes more land or more water, or causes more greenhouse gas emissions to grow [animal-based] food...Animal-based foods are usually more resource-intensive than plant-based foods. Generally, diets that contain more dairy, meat, eggs and fish will have a higher environmental impact than diets centered on plant-based foods such as fruits and vegetables. That's basically because animals first need to eat plants to grow. So, you're introducing inefficiency into the system.'
In 2010, the United Nations released a report encouraging a global move away from animal products. The report states, 'Impacts from agriculture are expected to increase substantially due to population growth increasing consumption of animal products. Unlike fossil fuels, it is difficult to look for alternatives: people have to eat. A substantial reduction of impacts would only be possible with a substantial worldwide diet change, away from animal products.'
3. A vegan diet is less ecologically damaging
Proponents of vegan diets often argue that diets based on animal products cause far more ecological damage than the vegan alternative.
Critics of animal-based agriculture argue that it has an enormously deleterious effect on the ecosystems of the planet and the creatures and plant life that attempt to co-exist within them. A recent United Nations environmental report found that around one million species are at risk of extinction and that much of the blame can be placed on animal agriculture. The report stated that the meat industry has a 'particularly heavy impact'. Of all the major causes of biodiversity loss listed by the report (such as destruction of forests and wetlands, overfishing, climate change and pollution), animal agriculture is the primary cause of the deterioration.
The same report also found that livestock production (grazing and feedstock) is the single largest driver of habitat loss; that farmed animals now account for over 90 percent of all large land animals; and that the demand for grain-fed meat is one of the main drivers of global biodiversity loss.
It has also been noted that the fishing industry is having a disastrous impact upon the world's oceans. Pachamama Alliance, a global lobby group campaigning for sustainability, has noted, 'For every pound of fish caught, 5 pounds of unintended marine species are caught and discarded as by-kill. On top of this, over 70 percent of the world's fish species are either fully exploited or depleted. Not only are species that the industry is actively producing suffering, but unintended species are being killed each day at an alarming rate. Some estimates show that we could see fishless oceans by 2048.'
In an article published in The Conversation on April 26, 2017, Francis Vergunst, Postdoctoral Fellow in Developmental Public Health, Université de Montréal and Julian Savulescu, Visiting Professor in Biomedical Ethics, Murdoch Children's Research Institute, stated, 'Livestock farming has a vast environmental footprint. It contributes to land and water degradation, biodiversity loss, acid rain, coral reef degeneration and deforestation.
Nowhere is this impact more apparent than climate change - livestock farming contributes 18 percent of human produced greenhouse gas emissions worldwide. This is more than all emissions from ships, planes, trucks, cars and all other transport put together.'
The British animal welfare group Compassion in World Farming has explained in detail some of the ways in which intensive animal farming practices contribute to greenhouse gas emissions. The group states, 'Factory farming produces greenhouse gases throughout the "supply chain". For example, forest clearance to grow the crops and rear the animals reduces vital carbon "sinks" and releases gases previously stored in the soil and vegetation.'
Compassion in World Farming has also noted the extent which factory farms are energy-intense enterprises, releasing large amounts of carbon dioxide via the petrol and coal driven engines upon which they rely. The group states, 'Factory farming also requires large amounts of energy in order to function. This isn't just to rear the animals, but also to grow the vast amounts of feed they need. According to a study published by The Royal Society, feed is the dominant energy user, taking around 75 percent of the total energy required. The rest is needed for factors such as heating, lighting and ventilation.'
Compassion in World Farming has further observed, 'It's not just carbon dioxide that's the problem: gases including methane and nitrous oxide, also produced in significant quantities, are released through various sources including animal waste and fertiliser use. Livestock farming produces 37 percent and 65 percent of our global methane and nitrous oxide emissions respectively. Both gases are much more potent than carbon dioxide.'
Conservation groups are consistently warning that meat-eating trends have to be reversed in developed countries if the planet's ecology is to be preserved. A comment published by the conservation group Down to Earth stated, 'Global production of meat has increased dramatically from 130 million tons in the late 1970s to 230 million tons in the year 2000. Meat is now the single largest source of animal protein in all affluent nations and demand for animal flesh is expected to more than double by the year 2050. In order to meet this growing appetite, animals will no doubt be reared more intensively and cheaply with factory farming and aquaculture (fish farming) causing further pollution, water demand and land usage. If nothing is done, the environmental impact of meat production can only increase.'
4. A vegan diet is beneficial to human health
Those who support a vegan diet as opposed to one substantially based on animal products argue that a vegan diet is better for human health.
An article published in Medical Health Today noted that one of the primary reasons for the health benefits of a vegan diet is that it allows consumers to avoid animal fats. The article noted, 'Animal fats have been linked to a range of illnesses and conditions, including diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis, hypertension, heart disease, and various cancers. Animal sources are likely to account for 13 of the top 15 sources of cholesterol-raising fats in the United States.
By cutting these from the diet, the risk of many health issues can be greatly reduced. Animal fats may also transfer industrial cancer-linked chemicals and toxins from their environment. Healthy, plant-based oils and fats, such as olive oil, provide necessary fatty acids without raising levels of low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol.'
It has further been suggested that a plant-based diet can help protect against genetic propensities toward certain diseases. An article published in Medical Health Today stated, 'Plant-based diets can counteract an individual's genetic likelihood of developing a chronic disease, such as type 2 diabetes.
A 2008 study explains that bioactive compounds in plant foods can control biological factors that may work against the genetic factors linked to some chronic diseases. The researchers maintain that the antioxidants in plant-based foods can combat free radical cells that cause cell damage and inflammation.
Other plant compounds can help to control different genes linked to cardiovascular disease, arterial plaque, and tumor growth.'
It has been noted that meat-based diets are harmful not merely because of the composition of the food but also because of the manner in which the animals have been reared. In an article published in The Conversation on April 26, 2017, Francis Vergunst, Postdoctoral Fellow in Developmental Public Health, Université de Montréal and Julian Savulescu, Visiting Professor in Biomedical Ethics, Murdoch Children's Research Institute, stated, 'At the production level, industrial livestock farming relies heavily on antibiotic use to accelerate weight gain and control infection - in the United States, 80 percent of all antibiotics are consumed by the livestock industry.
This contributes to the growing public health problem of antibiotic resistance. Already, more than 23,000 people are estimated to die every year in the United States alone from resistant bacteria. As this figure continues to rise, it becomes hard to overstate the threat of this emerging crisis.'
Further it has been claimed that some of the deficiencies that might occur in a purely plant-based diet can be readily overcome by thoughtful food selection or by taking supplements. One of the queries often raised about vegan diets is that plant-based protein sources do not supply all the necessary amino acids necessary for human beings to synthesise proteins for growth and cell repair. Jan Deckers' wide-ranging 2016 study of the suitability of plant-based diets states, 'Peas, lentils, and beans are good sources of protein that are readily available and relatively easy to grow in many parts of the world. It is important that vegans consume protein foods that contain the full range of essential amino acids overall; although there is no need for the full range of essential amino acids to be part of every meal.'
Deckers' study also defends vegan diets against concerns that it may not supply sufficient calcium to maintain healthy bones or might prevent sufficient calcium from being absorbed. Deckers states, 'Green leafy vegetables that are low in oxalate, including broccoli, kale, spring greens, and cabbage, tend to be high in calcium, as well as in vitamin K, another important contributor to bone health.'
Finally, Deckers also notes that though the essential vitamin B12 is not contained in plant food sources it can be readily acquired by taking supplements or eating fortified plant foodstuffs such as fortified cereals.
5. A vegan diet is not too expensive to maintain
Those who favour a vegan diet dispute the claims sometimes made that it is prohibitively expensive to buy the range of plantstuffs needed to live healthily on an exclusively vegan regimen.
The vegan lifestyle promotion site, I Love Vegan, states, 'Veganism can easily be tailored to fit into most people's lives, regardless of income. It's a myth that eating a vegan diet is expensive by nature. In fact, vegan diets in particular are very accommodating to budget living and eating. Many of the foods considered to be staples in a typical, healthy vegan diet are very affordable - grains, beans, seeds, and legumes are all good examples. You can make a lot of delicious vegan food on a budget!'
Vegan Australia has examined the cost of maintaining a vegan diet from an Australian perspective. Their Internet site states, 'Australians, on average, spend around $15 per person per day on their food and drink. Almost half of the world's humans live on less than US$2.50 a day, and more than three quarters on less than US$10 a day. If you are one of the more than 2.5 million people in this country living below the poverty line, or even if you're experiencing the squeeze of the modern cost of everything, you're likely to identify more with the latter group, and the need to find nourishing food that is cheap is a very real and pressing issue...
In an average Australian supermarket, 5kg of brown rice will set you back $13.50, 4kg of potatoes $8, 1kg of polenta $5.60, 500g of tofu $3.45, 375g of lentils $2.30 and 100g of borlotti beans $2.69. There are, of course, many other starches available, including in combinations like soup mixes. These alone would fill someone up for many days and, providing you were supplementing your vitamin B12, would keep you in good health, although we would recommend also including as much green leafy and other vegetables, seasonal fruit, mushrooms and seeds as you could afford, and monitoring/supplementing your vitamin D levels.'
It has further been claimed that plants are actually a cheaper source of protein than meat sources. The United States based website, No Meat at the Table, has noted, 'Meat is one of the more expensive items in the grocery store. There's usually some waste associated with that as well. Replacing it pound-for-pound with beans (just a simple example, but not too different from what many new vegetarians do) would result in significant savings.'
Defenders of the affordability of a vegan diet note that claims about excessive expense usually come from those referring to recently developed synthetic meat substitutes. The first cultured meat burger famously cost $280,000 to produce. Though costs have come down significantly since, price remains a challenge. The major production expense in cultured meat is the growth medium, which can cost around $400 a litre with it sometimes requiring up to 600 litres to produce a kilogram of meat.
Defenders of the cost of vegan diets note two things. Firstly, these expensive meat-substitutes are not the current emphasis in vegan diets. Those following a vegan diet are looking to substute plant-based foods for meat products, not to have plant-based foods replicate meat products in taste and appearance.
Secondly, it has been noted that even for those who may want to consume plant-based synthetic meats the cost is declining. A number of synthetic meat manufacturers are refining their processes and this togther with increasing demand and economies of scale is hoped to make the cost of synthetic meat comparable to that of the conventional product. The Israel-based startup Future Meat Technologies aims to cut the cost to about $2.30 to $4.50 a pound by 2020.