Veganism is the ethical perspective that humans shouldn't use animals for anything; no horrific animal testing, no enslaving or murdering, nothing aggressive at all; in other words, veganism is simply the position that we should just leave animals alone, which isn't hard to do, it's a non-action.
Yet people are bombarded with anti-vegan nonsense on a daily basis that deceives them into thinking that being non-abusive to animals, simply leaving animals alone, is actually the nonsense thing, as a search-engine auto-complete-your-thoughts-for-you shows:
(The major institutions of the world do indeed follow a chain of command and dependency with evil/satanic/pro-abuse people at the top of the pyramid.)
Eating organic plant foods and leaving animals alone isn't a NWO/WHO agenda, GMOs are, as well as morally corrupting populations; to ignore all the healthy vegan athletes as if the don't exist is idiotic. It's a deception to associate veganism with abusive control-freaks, abusive-control freaks is actually how animals see humans that abuse them, humans that won't leave them alone even though they *can,* if they actually try, get all their nutrition elsewhere.
Most people resist veganism for the same handful of reasons they've been indoctrinated to believe; it makes sense to address those reasons directly in order to be effective activists and educators on the animal's behalf, and so that's what I'm doing in this post.
Is your hesitancy to being vegan explained in this list below?
1) “I won't be able to get enough protein or Vitamin B12.”
Even a sub-par vegan diet lacking varied organic whole plant foods will provide enough protein, there's absolutely no issue of protein-deficiency among vegans who are not malnourished.
Vitamin B12 comes from bacteria, bacteria that does not solely exist on the dead flesh of animals; mainly because of modern industrialized society vegans and non-vegans alike may become low in B12 and need to take a supplement for it.
2) “Vegan food is not filling or tasty enough.”
This view is due solely to lack of experimentation, vegan meals can be very filling and very tasty, try going to a well-reviewed vegan restaurant or get a good vegan cookbook from the bookstore or library, and try as many vegan meal options as possible that are available at the grocery store (e.g., try all the different vegan burgers and frozen meals).
3) “We need livestock to maintain the soil.”
This is completely false, livestock grazing is in fact the leading cause of desertification, and veganic fertilizers can be the absolute best fertilizers.
4) “God put animals here for us to use, and Jesus ate fish, so it's not bad.”
First of all, read this excellent article:
Vitamin B12 comes from bacteria, bacteria that does not solely exist on the dead flesh of animals; mainly because of modern industrialized society vegans and non-vegans alike may become low in B12 and need to take a supplement for it.
2) “Vegan food is not filling or tasty enough.”
This view is due solely to lack of experimentation, vegan meals can be very filling and very tasty, try going to a well-reviewed vegan restaurant or get a good vegan cookbook from the bookstore or library, and try as many vegan meal options as possible that are available at the grocery store (e.g., try all the different vegan burgers and frozen meals).
3) “We need livestock to maintain the soil.”
This is completely false, livestock grazing is in fact the leading cause of desertification, and veganic fertilizers can be the absolute best fertilizers.
4) “God put animals here for us to use, and Jesus ate fish, so it's not bad.”
First of all, read this excellent article:
Secondly, the Greek word opsarion translated into English as "fish," is actually a word used in Greek often to refer to plant foods, not fish or other animal flesh. Jesus, being perfectly loving, who said to "Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful,"who told us to he wanted "mercy, not sacrifice," who told us to "love others" (and it makes sense that animals would be included in the category of others since they have emotions, feel pain, and want to live, like humans do), was most likely a vegan, who not only didn't eat fish, but didn't multiply fish either (it was just bread that he multiplied). Why would God or Jesus want us to inflict unnecessary suffering, enslavement and violence on sentient beings that feel pain, have emotions, and want to live? It's a ridiculous notion, even blasphemous, making God out to be uncaring, which He of course is not. Daniel succeeded on a vegan diet (Daniel 10:3), countless vegan athletes do today, and so can you. For more information on Christianity and veganism see the book The Lost Religion of Jesus by Keith Akers and these websites and articles:
Similar to this religious reason/excuse, many people say "Eating animals is natural," which completely ignores all the herbivores on the planet, and the design of the human body, which most closely matches an herbivore preference by the Designer; if you're fixated on your tiny canine teeth as "proof" that God wants you to try and bite through animal hide, remember that the biggest canine teeth belong to hippos, and they’re herbivores; the fact of the matter is that our bodies most closely fit herbivore physiology compared with omnivore or carnivore physiology, and children have a natural instinct to eat fruit and pet bunny rabbits, not to murder animals and eat roadkill. Countless millions of people have lived healthy lives on a vegan diet, we definitely don't need to eat animal flesh or drink animal milk to be healthy, it's in fact not natural for us, and it's immoral (violating the Commandment to "love others," and no, plants don't count as others because they are not sentient; animals do have emotions, feel pain, and want to live, like humans do, and so therefore we should just leave them alone (i.e., not abuse them).
5) “We should respect different cultures and heritages that use animals.”
This is the “culture = sound morality” argument, which of course is false; just because something is a tradition does not make it good. What's universally good is rejecting aggression, stealing and deception. Being aggressive toward animals is a tradition that can be found in cultures around the world, and it is not anything that adds to the uniqueness or awesomeness of any culture, e.g., “veganizing” traditional recipes maintains the tradition while leaving behind the cruelty, an obvious good choice.
So in conclusion, veganism is the correct ethical position for humans to take concerning animals; the mass-murder and enslavement of billions of animals every year is extremely destructive on many levels, and again, it is not necessary for optimum human health.
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My more complete post on veganism, addressing additional common objections:
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A quality video playlist on veganism:
