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The 5 Reasons People Go Vegan


One Green Planet / April 14, 2011 / 15 Comments


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REASONS TO GO VEGAN

There are numerous paths that can lead a person to veganism, and it largely depends on their life experiences, interests, outlook on the world and the timing of when certain issues are brought to their attention. You can ask 10 different vegans and although you may find similarities in their stories, going vegan is a very personal decision and therefore all attempts to make sweeping generalizations are destined to fail. Everyone (non-vegans included) think that they know why people go vegan and what vegans are supposed to be like. Further, there’s no shortage of stereotypes about vegans, but the truth is, we’re a diverse bunch and we all have our own reasons why we decide to take the step to change our lifestyle, no matter how challenging it may have seemed at the time. Here are 5 common reasons people go vegan:

1. Health and Nutrition

Many people who turn vegan are first drawn to it because they hear or read about the tremendous long-term health benefits of eliminating artery clogging and disease-accelerating animal products from their lives. Some specifically turn to a plant-based diet to improve their health and well-being and eventually adopt the vegan lifestyle because of the numerous negative impacts of animal agriculture on animals and the planet. In recent years, the health argument for veganism has gained tremendous traction, as several scientific studies have confirmed what vegans have been saying for years – you don’t need to consume animal products to live a healthy life; in fact, consuming a diet of plant-based whole foods is undoubtedly the healthier choice.

2. Environmental Protection

If you haven’t noticed the mainstream rise of the green movement in recent years, you must be living under a rock! As the impacts of accelerating climate change have become more widely known, the need for us to take steps to curb the destruction of our precious planet has become abundantly clear. Industrialized animal farming is a huge factor that is contributing to environmental degradation and the facts are so compelling that anyone seeking to live a more sustainable or eco-friendly lifestyle cannot help but question the impact of their food choices on the environment. Similar to those drawn in by the health argument for veganism, once people learn about industrialized animal farming and the horrific treatment of animals in factory farms, embracing the animal-free lifestyle beyond their plate becomes a logical next step.

3. Morality

Long before the health and environmental benefits were brought to the forefront of the argument in support of adopting a vegan lifestyle, people have been going vegan solely for moral reasons. Anyone who admires or adores animals has probably (at some point in their lives) questioned whether there is any difference between the animals they care for and protect and those that we breed and kill for food. Some of us find a way to justify this clear disconnect, citing physiological, historical, cultural and other reasons why we are meant to eat and use animals. While others realize that these amount to nothing but excuses and that the only sensible first step that anyone who loves animals can take is to not eat them. This easily transitions into the broader realization that no form of animal use is morally justifiable and that we shouldn’t be wearing them or using them when animal-free alternatives exist.

4. Social Justice

Anyone who is opposed to injustice in the world, should pause and think about the fact that we breed and kill billions of animals on an annual basis, just so that we can eat them. People who passionately believe that the world would be a much better place if we all learned to look past our differences and embrace the common ties that bind us will eventually have to confront the injustice we inflict on animals for our pleasure, convenience and entertainment. If you oppose racism, sexism and other forms of discrimination based on class, sexual orientation, physical appearances or abilities, then veganism can be looked upon as a natural extension of the belief in equality. This doesn’t mean that humans and animals are the same in every way and animals need to enjoy the same rights as human beings. What this means is recognizing that animals do not exist solely for us to use them as a means to an end.

5. Logic

We don’t mean to imply that all the other paths to veganism are not logical ones. However, many people turn to veganism because of a combination of all the above factors. They turn to this lifestyle choice as the most meaningful step one can take against institutionalized systems of exploitation of living beings, to do something positive for their health, the environment and to live in a manner that reflects their ethics. Veganism is a logical choice because it is good for us, for animals and the planet. If you respect life, you should not directly or indirectly participate in the exploitation of life; if you respect nature, you cannot support industries that contribute to the destruction of our natural world, and lastly, if you value your own existence, you wouldn’t want to consume products that can have a detrimental impact on your health. It’s that simple, and you don’t need elaborate theories, complicated moral reasoning and a billion scientific facts to help you arrive at veganism as the solution.

Ultimately, the path you choose to get to veganism does not matter; what truly matters is you begin the journey and stay the course!

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15 Responses to “The 5 Reasons People Go Vegan”

  1. avatar maria says:
    December 9, 2011 at 1:21 PM

    I don’t mind that people are vegan, what I mind is the self righteous attitude that comes with the majority of them. I am not, nor will I ever be vegan, I live in ru,ral America, I was raised on a farm, I currently raise Alfalfa hay. I raise my own beef, milk and eggs , come from the neighbors, I have a garden, although I don’t eat many fruits or vegetables because they give me a stomach ache. I’m allergic to gluten, otherwise I’m perfectly healthy, my arteries are not clogged, I don’t get sick. I just wanted to let people see the other side of the story, again, if you’re vegan, that’s great, please stop trying to shove it down the throats of those of us who are not(i.e. some comments here), and no, I don’t hunt deer because I don’t like deer meat.

    Reply
    • avatar Mitch says:
      December 15, 2011 at 11:19 PM

      Pushy? STHU! I am not pushy! Nearly everyday people would harass me for being a vegetarian by pushy can’t mind there busy meat-eaters. And I didn’t go around announcing it to everyone. And so what if I did? Freedom of speech. Comes as no surprise when most vegetarians finally do stand up; usually after getting annoyed with such bull crap; and they’re usually branded as pushy, nuts, hippie, etc.

      Another surprise to some: I know where to get protein, amino acids, iron, fat, and other nutrients. So STHU; it’s in nearly plant/seed you can eat. Here’s another concept unlike popular stereotypes: I don’t eat soy/tofu. Big shocker – not really!

      However speaking of which, my diet hasn’t made me fat or dramatically increased my risk of cancer and heart-disease; and my skin looks better than ever (as my dermatologist credited to my vegan diet)

      And although I’ve received the stupid lines like your ancestors weren’t vegetarian; so what? I simply don’t care. And for those Bible-belt red-necks; (trying re-reading the Bible wasn’t until after the flood God /permitted/ meat) Also how people’s ancestors used lead in medicine and thought the earth was flat, should we? Just putting that out there.

      Many might also be surprised to learn that many of the First Nations people thrived of many vegetarian-friendly foods. In my area (South-Essex county, in Southern Ontario) First Nation people have longed used foods as acorns, american chestnuts, berries (blackberries, blueberries, elderberry strawberries, mulberries, raspberries, etc.,) evergreen needles (see how save peoples lives when they dying from scurvy), beans, birch syrup, prickly pear cactus nopal, maize (think of: hominy, tortillas, enchildeas, oksusu-cha tea, popcorn, corn oil, corn beer), maple syrup, spricebush, squash/pumpkin (and it’s seeds), sunflower seeds, tubers, and various types of herbs and “wild” honey, onions, grapes, grasses, rice to name a just a few. Allot it was dried and smoked and used during the winter months. Branding vegetarians as pushy is very ironic too say the least.

      Reply
  2. avatar Brittney says:
    December 1, 2011 at 1:10 PM

    @ Brian- I will answer your questions for you.

    In 1972, there were 10,742 deer-car collisions. Last year there were about 70,000. Gee, according to you, hunters were hunting to reduce deer-car collisions?

    Here is a detailed explanation about sex-biased hunting. If we didn’t have sex-biased hunting, there would be an even ratio of male deer to female deer. So, if someone took a sample group of 10 deer—anywhere—there would be five males and five females. The five males would impregnate the five females who would then give birth to five offspring. However, after decades of killing big bucks for their large racks, we now have ratios of 7-to-3, 8-to-2, or 9-to-1 FEMALE to male. Let’s take the 7-to-3 ratio. We now have three males impregnating seven females (we know males can impregnate as many females as they come in contact with). Then seven females give birth to seven offspring which means there are a minimum of two EXTRA babies per sample group of 10 deer because of sex-bias hunting. But, let’s go further. Wildlife biologists have confirmed that when deer, and other animals, including humans during war times, feel their population is being decimated, as is the case after hunting season ends, the majority of all the females give birth to twins or triplets. So, let’s take the twin scenario. Seven females are now giving birth to 14 babies instead of the original five (if our society didn’t hunt) thereby having 9 EXTRA babies per sample group of 10 deer. When you multiply the extra babies over the entire Michigan herd, you have an “extra” 500,000 to 700,000 deer every year. And guess how many hunting licenses they issue every year? You guessed it, between 500,000 and 700,000. Plus, that’s how the Michigan herd grew from 500,000 in the 70s to nearly 2 million nowadays. This scenario works in every state with the numbers only varying slightly. (provided by Gary Yourofsky)

    As for what is going to happen to all the animals that humans aren’t going to eat….. Well, to simply put it, it is supply and demand. Our world is not and NEVER WILL go vegan over night, but slowly, there will be more people adopting this change. As less people buy beef, chicken, and pork, less animals will be impregnated to create more supply of meat. The animals will dwindle out, starting with maybe 3/4 of the animals on the farms, then 1/2, then 1/4, then hopefully, none at all. Im sorry but a farmer is not going to continue reproducing animals if not as many people are buying them. Because you are right, the farmer is not going to want to pay to feed the animal if they are not going to get a profit in return.

    Any other excuses you want to come up with to deny vegan isn’t the way to go? :)

    Reply
  3. avatar Charles Danten says:
    October 8, 2011 at 6:09 AM

    Sometimes it’s cruel to be kind

    Most vegans I know all have pets they are proud of having saved from one of those exploitive pounds euphemistically called shelters. Most don’t seem to be able to make the link between the use of animals for affection and entertainment and the other uses of animals. Although they are very good at spotting hard types of cruelty, they are completely blind to the softer types that operate under the mask of compassion. No mask is more dangerous than the one of virtue.

    The problem here is in the very concept of pet.

    Every species has an essence, a telos, an innate core that includes a compulsion to engage in a series of intrinsic activities and to meet specific needs that were formed over millions of years of evolution. No animal in captivity can incarnate its essence. Although they have lived by man’s side for thousands of years, today’s pets carry with them many of the instincts of their wild predecessors; however, in the interest of survival under domestication, these must be kept in check. The dog will always be a denatured wolf deprived of satisfying its pack instincts; the domestic cat will always be a carnivorous predator in a permanent state of inhibition; the bird in a cage, like the others, will remain a creature deprived of its most fundamental prerogatives: to come and go freely, to explore its territory, to socialize with others of its kind, to reproduce, to eat the right foods.
    An animal constrained to life in an environment that is not its own is subjected to an almost constant disequilibrium. Impoverished by captivity, bored by inactivity, it necessarily develops a host of neurotic behaviors due to the emotional ties of total dependence and to the lack of factors that it needs to incarnate its true nature. Says psychiatrist Hubert Montagner in a speech given in 1998 at the French Information Center on Pets:

    “Man does not hesitate to control every aspect of his animals’ existence. He tampers with his appearance. He confines it to spaces under his control, imposing exclusive or near-exclusive proximity. He limits his communication with others like it. He selects for behaviors that meet his expectations and conditions his animal to follow rituals. He imposes his whims and self-serving decisions. He encloses it within his own emotions and projections.”

    Such violation of any being’s essence is the negation of true love and empathy.

    And various shows of affection, such as adopting from a shelter, hiring a professional dog-walker, getting your pet vaccinated each year, having it treated for cancer, putting boots and a coat on it, decorating it with jewels or a 1000 $ wig, dressing it up with feel good words such as love, companion, compassion, guardian, adoption, and child, defending it, giving it rights, lifting it onto the podium of humanity whether he likes it or not, do not make things right. Professor Yi-Fu Tuan of Yale University shows in his book Dominance and Affection: The Making of Pets how affection, a latent form of violence, is used as an instrument of power:

    “Love is not what makes the world go around. […] There remains affection. However, affection is not the opposite of dominance: rather it is dominance’s anodyne – it is dominance with a human face. Dominance may be cruel and exploitative, with no hint of affection in it. What it produces is the victim. On the other hand, dominance may be combined with affection, and what it produces is the pet. […] Affection mitigates domination, making it softer and more acceptable, but affection itself is possible only in relationships of inequality. It is the warm and superior feeling one has towards things that one can care for and patronize. The word care so exudes humaneness that we tend to forget its almost inevitable tainting by patronage and condescension.”

    What children are most likely to learn through a pet and through zootherapy in general are self-centeredness and a deep disrespect for animals.

    These traits of character will become the ground rules for all of their future relationships. More or less, we interact the same way with other animals as we do with human animals – and not always in accordance with safeguards like laws, rules, and principles. According to several sociologists, the animal condition is essentially a reflection of the human condition, “the duplicate in positive and negative of our relationships with our own kind, ” says French sociologist Jean Pierre Diggard. Thus, we treat our own children, spouses, employees, friends, citizens, and on a larger scale, nations, and the environment, like animals, and that is precisely the problem.

    The damaging nature of our relationship with pets stays out of focus simply because there is no other behavioral point of reference with which to compare it.

    Zootherapy-The making of pets
    http://charles-danten.blog4ever.com/blog/lire-article-511128-2767962-the_making_of_pets.html

    Zootherapy-Contraband and the illegal wildlife trade
    http://charles-danten.blog4ever.com/blog/lire-article-511128-2674564-zootherapy_contraband_and_the_illegal_wildlife_tra.html

    Reply
  4. avatar Suzanne Williams says:
    May 1, 2011 at 3:01 PM

    I became vegetarian b/c my grandfather and my dog (who was my best friend) died in a few months of one another due to lung cancer. I started wondering why so many people, including children, are getting such horrible illnesses. It seems to be more and more as time moves on. I started researching and found that most or our issues seems to come from the lack of standards in our meat, dairy, etc. I then started realizing how much better it is for the world as well. I am a huge animal lover and after all of the things I’ve read, it breaks my heart to even consider eating another piece of meat.
    Great post, thank you!
    Suzanne Willimas

    Reply
  5. avatar Christina says:
    April 24, 2011 at 3:34 AM

    I’ll keep my response simple. I eat a vegan diet for health reasons. It keeps my weight healthily maintained and gives me lots of energy! I was vegan for years and then after getting married slowly went away from it…gained weight, felt tired too often, started having low blood sugar problems…changed back to a completely vegan diet and all of those problems have reversed. I do care about the environmental and moral issues of it and feel good that I can absolve myself personally of these but really…I remind myself daily that just because I approach life from a certain standpoint doesn’t mean that everyone has to agree with that because I am convinced it’s right. Variety is the spice of life…people have never been completely the same or chosen the same paths to our physical or proven knowledge and they never will be. The best way to promote the goodness of what you do is to simply set an example for what you believe in and if others see a benefit then they will follow along. Just my little “two cents.”

    Reply
  6. avatar Lori says:
    April 24, 2011 at 3:16 AM

    Just to let you know Brian, 99% of meat eaten in the US comes from factory farms! Maybe it is time for you to watch a video of a factory farming operation to see how badly these animals are treated.

    Reply
  7. avatar Brian says:
    April 15, 2011 at 6:19 PM

    One more thing Peter, As for livestock you did not answer the basic question. assuming livestock are no longer bread for food consumption and are simply left to live out their lives two statements.
    1. Once again, newborn cattle will have a lifespan of years before dying if left alone to die of natural causes. Who is going to pay for the hay they consume orthe labor to take care of said animals while waiting for them to die out after living their lives.
    2. By not breeding them out and letting them die off are not humans “PLAYING GOD” with certain animals by letting farm animals die off into extinction and letting Deer populaiton explode from hunting being banned or the desire to hunt go away. You stated in your origional post that humans have no right to decide which life is to live or die.

    Reply
  8. avatar Peter says:
    April 15, 2011 at 6:46 AM

    Brian — Livestock that is left will live out their lives and die — and we won’t breed more of them. As for deer, who says you are your girlfriend’s lives are more important than those of wild animals? And you care about animal starvation, but support hunting. REALLY?? Who gives a shit about the “treatment” of animals in factory farms or your backyard. The animals that end up on your plate have to die to get there. The question is use, not treatment. Who are you or I or anyone else to decide the value of that life? Don’t comment about things you know nothing about.

    Reply
    • avatar Brian says:
      April 15, 2011 at 2:38 PM

      Peter,
      You just said that my or g/f life is not as important as some wild animal. then you state that no one has the right to decide what life is more important then any other form of life. First that is a contradiction on your part. cant have it both ways. Secondly are you going to tell me that IF your child or future grandchild is in a car accident with a collision with a deer and is dying in the wreckage that you will do nothing to try and save them b/c some deer may have died in the same collision? Btw i know many people who have hit deer in their cars and they or first responders will always try and save or help the injured humans while doing nothing for the deer. So dont tell me no one has the right to decide the value of a life. btw my cousin’s son hit a deer last month and the Law Enforcement officer who filed the report for the insurance company shot the living deer on the spot of the accident. It happens evry day in the rural areas of America.

      Reply
  9. avatar Brian says:
    April 14, 2011 at 2:13 PM

    Lets assume that all of a sudden all people become vegan and stop eating animals for food.
    1. What happens to all the livestock on farms. Do you think farmers are going to spend their lives and money feeding thousands of livestock like houshold pets with no return on money & vet bills on caring for the livestock herds?
    2. If hunting is banned or demand to hunt stops due to lack of desire to hunt Deer or other animals, who is going to pay for the massive increase in Deer/car accidents and take care of animal starvation when wild game population gets too large to find food suplies?

    Reply
    • avatar Shannon says:
      April 14, 2011 at 7:35 PM

      @Brian:

      Instead, lets keep polluting the environment and taking advantage of defenseless fellow earthlings. Why stop sweatshops, who will make all our clothes? Where will all those underprivileged find employment? Many people try using this “logic” as an excuse….clearly no one is under the impression that everyone would go vegan in a day, humans created this mess over hundreds of years, it’ll take that long to undo this shit too. In the meantime I see nothing wrong with fighting for animal protection laws on factory farms and elsewhere. Meat eaters should be most concerned with the quality of livestock since they’re shoveling that meat down their throats.

      Reply
      • avatar Brian says:
        April 15, 2011 at 12:06 AM

        Shannon,
        NOT all animals are produced on factory farms and only a small fraction of farmers are abusive to their animals. But they are the ones that get all the press coverage. Like the military a handfull of bad apple soldiers get the attention while the silent 95% majority of soldiers do their job best they can and go home. But thats the way society is. Anyway the majority of farmers dont abuse livestock b/c they know abused animals dont produce as well or cost more in vet bills and in general make less money then healthy animals. So simple logic its stupid to abuse animals when you need them for profit. But back to my origional question. You never stated what society is going to do with all the uneaten livestock once people turn into veggans even if it takes 100 years. Or deal with the raging deer population if the demand for hunting disappears. Even if its 100 years from now. My g/f has totalled 2 cars in 4 years from car/deer collisions and its going to be far worse if hunting goes away. I have never heard those issues addressed by the veggan people. Even if people go veggan someday there are still going to be deer or livestock to be dealt with like it or not.

        Reply
    • avatar GV says:
      April 17, 2011 at 12:58 AM

      Hey Brian.

      From the get-go, that’s an extremely unlikely situation–everyone in the world going vegan!? What’s the point of even asking about something that literally will never happen. Even the most optimistic and passionate herbivore would laugh that idea off as something that won’t ever happen.

      A more realistic possibility is that the percentage of the population gives up meat will grow gradually. 2% of the population now, 5% in a few more years, 10% a few more years after that and so on. And that number probably won’t get extremely high until deeper into the future, probably past our lifetimes. Why is that? Growing animals for foods is incredibly inefficient and unsustainable, whether it’s on a factory farm or on the best, most environmentally-friendly family farm. Because the bottom line is that to grow animals for slaughter, even with all the growth hormones and steroids that we inject into them, the amount of plant-based food that gets fed to animals to fatten them up (both in terms of calories and mass) results in correspondingly smaller amount of meat that humans eat. In other words–it takes anywhere from 3 to 15 (or more) pounds of edible plant food just to grow 1 pound of meat. That low 3 number is the ratio for growing chickens. That’s the best ratio that exists in terms of efficiency. And this is just food efficiency. Think about the huge amounts of water and fossil fuels that go into the process just for that 1 pound of meat. And all the waste the animals and the process creates.

      That’s why vegetarians are so confused at people who say they care about the environment who aren’t vegetarians themselves. The livestock industry is so massive and the impact it has on the environment is as big as any other cause, if not the biggest cause. I’m not sure when, but we will eventually get to a point in time where we can’t afford to waste all the resources it takes to grow meat.

      And if, along the way, livestock factories one by one shut down their operations, I highly doubt the operator of the factory is going to raise his 10,000 animals as pets. He will sell them off to someone who can afford them, probably to slaughter them. The better option is that more farm animal refuges, and things like petting zoos, open up and take as many animals as possible.

      2. Hunting is a whole other issue. If deer population control to prevent accidents and starvation is an issue, I don’t think it’s an impossible challenge for people to figure out how to manage deer populations without shooting them. Off the top of my head, we could do what we do with dogs and cats to control their populations and cut off their ability to reproduce. As soon as a researcher comes up with an effective dart that you can painlessly shoot into deers to sterilize them, there you go.

      Right now, there are very, very few people thinking and testing alternatives because the demand for hunting is still strong. People who care about animals and might be the ones who would come up with solutions are less focused on deer these days and are becoming more and more focused at the whole livestock issue now that evidence is mounting against them. After all, the total number of animals killed–in experimentation, hunting, kill shelters, or livestock–livestock makes up 99% of them.

      Reply

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