essay about being vegan

BEING VEGAN: A personal essay about veganism

I wear a necklace that spells out the word vegan. People peer at it and ask me, “Are you vegan?” It seems like an odd question, but people find vegans odd. When I respond that I indeed am a vegan, the comeback reply I dread most is when the person lists the animal products they eat, and how they couldn’t live without chicken or cheese.

In the cut and thrust of talk about food, I’ll then respond that the chicken is the body of an animal who wanted to live. That cheese is made from milk, a nutritious sustenance meant for a mother to give her newborn calf. If the baby cow was male, he was slaughtered for veal.

The slaughtering of baby animals is a good way to end what could escalate into an uncomfortable conversation neither of us really wanted to have.

Few of us are born vegan, and those who choose to become vegan usually do so following a personal epiphany, perhaps in the wake of a health crisis, or after meeting and befriending a farm animal whom one might formerly have considered food. That was my route. I was 40 before I understood that I was living a lie, claiming to love animals on the one hand, and eating them on the other. Today, veganism brings me peace of mind and a nice circle of friends.

I find it regrettable that vegans are so widely disliked in the mainstream media, but I’m not surprised. Our insistence that animals are neither objects nor ingredients is a perspective that people find challenging and even subversive. Our choice not to eat or wear animals challenges people to think about their own relationship to animals.  Most people love animals. Most people don’t want to think about animals being gruesomely treated and slaughtered. Faced with a vegan, the non-vegan has to think about that. Or else thrust such thinking into the depths of the psyche, and quick.

Toronto Mayor Rob Ford, on a weight-loss campaign to shed some of his 300 pounds, hurriedly dismissed two PETA-sponsored vegans who brought him a basket of vegan treats during one of his weekly weigh-ins. He wouldn’t even look them in the face. He abruptly dismissed a question from a reporter about veganism and retreated into his office.  He skipped a subsequent weigh-in.

His Honour could have relaxed a little. Veganism is a way of life that is not forced on anyone. We don’t come to your house with flyers or make robo-calls. We’re not funded by some giant corporation. We’re people who care deeply about animals, and about the people who have nothing to eat because so much of the corn and grain grown in North America goes to feed livestock, not hungry children.

Vegans mean it when they say they love all animals. A recent vegan advertising campaign showed a dog or cat facing a pig or chick, and underneath was the caption: “Why love one but eat the other?”

The questions we raise bother people. One commenter on a social media forum wrote:

“Those who don’t eat meat, I can empathize with you but you also need to get off your soapboxes.”

I relish the irony of being told to get off my soapbox from someone who is firmly planted on theirs. Non-vegans have been doing more than their fair share of “preaching” for centuries. In our day, McDonalds and Burger King push their beliefs and products on me dozens of times a day through TV and newspaper ads, and coupon flyers stuffed into my mailbox.

The Canadian government forces me to subsidize the meat and dairy industries through taxation. Non-vegans have preached and promoted their point of view on such a large scale that they have successfully hidden the cruelty of the meat and dairy industries from public view.

When I’m responding to an item in the newspaper about the subject of veganism, someone in the next comment box will inevitably ask me why I bother with animals when there is so much human suffering in the world. I love that question because it allows me to explain that I see animal liberation and human liberation as being intertwined.

The great physicist Albert Einstein famously said: “Nothing will benefit human health and increase the chances for survival of life on Earth as much as the evolution to a vegetarian diet.” He also held the view that not eating animals would have a physical effect on the human temperament that would benefit the lot of humankind.

The vegans I know care about injustice, enslavement, and oppression, no matter what the race, ethnicity, or species of the victim. When someone argues with me that human problems take precedence, I have to turn the argument on its head and ask not only what that person is personally doing to alleviate the suffering of human beings, but why they feel the heartless exploitation of other animals should continue even so. Humans are hurting, so kindness to animals must therefore be abandoned?

The most ridiculous argument that I hear is that plants have feelings too. To which I quote the answer provided by vegan food writer Colleen Patrick-Goudreau, who asks, in an episode of her podcast devoted to what she calls excuse-itarians—“ Really? Really?”

Animals are sentient and plants are not. Sentient beings have minds; they have preferences and show a desire to live by running away from those who would harm them, or by crying out in pain. Plants respond to sunlight and other stimuli, and apparently they like it when Prince Charles talks to them, but they are not sentient; they don’t have a mind, they don’t think about or fear death, they aren’t aware and conscious.

Finally, there’s the argument of last resort: that eating flesh is a personal choice. If it were my personal choice to kick and beat you, would you say to me “that’s your personal choice”? Being slaughtered for food is not the personal choice of the billions of animals that just want to live their portion of time on Earth.

Being vegan has changed not only what I eat and wear, but how I cope with the anger, outrage, dismissal and verbal abuse of others.

I’m learning, as I go, to let it all go. I speak out where I feel my words will do the most good, and if all else fails, I’ll simply smile and say, “Don’t hate me because I’m vegan.”

[su_panel background=”#f2f2f2″ color=”#000000″ border=”0px none #ffffff” shadow=”0px 0px 0px #ffffff”]Bonnie Shulman is a writer and editor working in Toronto. She earned her Master of Arts degree at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Alberta. You can follow her on Twitter at @veganbonnie .

image:  rian_bean (Creative Commons BY-NC-SA)

The biggest issue for me in the whole politics of eating is the divide that’s created among people solely based on their choice of diet. To be vegan or non-vegan shouldn’t matter. Like any labels I wish they didn’t even exist. But of all the unnecessary labels, to have to use the word vegan is pretty sad. What one chooses to eat is a personal choice that doesn’t hurt anyone else, yet some people blow it up into such a big issue.

I wish people didn’t get so annoyed at vegans because it just contributes even more discord to this world. The only upside I see is that when people single out vegans and get defensive it at least causes them to think and talk about veganism.

Hi Breathe:

I agree that discord between people isn’t pleasant. Yet that is the end result of being an advocate for animals. I want to put a stop to the wholesale torture of animals on factory farms. To do that, I have to take a stand. I have to stand up and declare myself for animals. I have to campaign about the abuse, so that more people know what goes on behind those walls where pigs and chickens never see the light of day their entire lives. Speaking up for animals makes some people uneasy, and they get angry. On the other hand, some people, meat eaters included!, appreciate the stance I take. I say meat eaters too because even good people who eat meat don’t want animals to suffer as they do in the current conditions on factory farms. Watch any video by Mercy For Animals and you’ll see what I mean. It’s horrifying.

Thanks for your response. Take care.

First, I appreciate that you’re willing to stand up for animals. It takes courage and it’s a thankless job, which is why so few do it.

As I mentioned, I see the benefit to standing up for animals and I don’t discourage that. What I was getting at is how can we advocate while maintaining peace? How can we raise our communication to a higher level?

Saying the V-word pisses people off. It always has… maybe always will because people just don’t like to think that they’re in the wrong. Defensiveness is one of the ego’s most potent tricks. It has the power to disprove even the most solid logic. And so, enemies are built. The point is not even to build “allies” because that too is separation. We’re all humans doing the best we can with the resources we have at work. So the question is how do we advocate for animals by overcoming this ego battle? For me, that just means loving them, being in nature, connecting to them and sharing my love for them. Now I don’t believe that this is making a world of difference or anything. The whole issue of animal rights is no easy situation to deal with and I’d just like to think of different ways of doing things.

Breathe, you ask the million dollar question. And you hit the nail on the head: advocacy can lead to icky feelings between people! I once passed by a demonstration against wind farms, and I asked someone with a picket sign why she was against wind farms, and she kind of spat in my face with disgust at my question. Naturally, I am ALL FOR windfarms now (haha – I actually was before the incident).

May I recommend a great book? It’s my advocacy bible and I have a review on Amazon.com about it. I think it really addresses what you talk about – we have to change the world for animals without alienating people. I am not perfect, I admit, but I hand out vegan food at work and leave easy vegan recipes in the servery. That helps! Food is good! I’ve even got some people to try out Meatless Mondays, without even asking them to do so. They just thought it was cool to give vegan food a try. They love it now.

Here’s the book:

The Animal Activist’s Handbook: Maximizing Our Positive Impact in Today’s World by Matt Ball and Bruce Friedrich. These are the top advocates that I know of, and I respect them so much. They are brilliant people who understand that we must not lose touch with people in our animal advocacy. Again, they are the masters. I bow to their wisdom!

Thanks for writing!

Breathe, When you are in a non vegan diet what one chooses to it hurt innocent animals. It took me a while to connect the dots. I was not always a vegan, but becoming a vegan was a moment of brilliance that it is one of the best things that has ever happen to me. I can not keep exploiting animals.

I don’t hate anyone because they are vegan. But the vegans hate me because I insist that eating meat is natural for humans. Being vegan is a choice. Eating meat is a choice.I respect yours but do you respect mine? Your article is again full of accusations. Up to today I never got an answer to the questions: How does a vegan think about a Lion eating a Zebra? How does a vegan think about a cat eating a mouse or a bird? And why do they think different about a human eating a cow or a chicken? Humans are omnivores since millions of years. And please spare me the – how did you cal it “The most ridiculous argument ” that our bodies, our teeth etc are not made for meat. We eat it since millions of years for heavens sake! When do people accept that eating meat is our natural food? Yes we can chose to not eat meat. Yes I do accept that. But it is a choice! And if you want to tell me that I hurt animals by killing them then you have to accuse a Lion as well. And by the way, dairy is not our natural food. I agree with you on this. Not because we steal it from the mothers but because it is not natural and that’s why so many people are dairy intolerant. It is natural to be weaned off dairy products. But we do not have a great number of people who are meat intolerant. Because it is part of our natural diet.

Dear Peter:

When a lion eats a zebra I am distressed at the images of the kill, but I let it go because that is the way of the lion world. They cannot grow plants and raise crops. I am not angry at the lion for having its dinner. I find it pretty ridiculous that you would even think that. Also, people are not lions, so why do you even bring that up as an argument?

What do I think about a cat eating a mouse or bird? if it is a domestic cat I’m infuriated, because there so many farm animals are being slaughtered already, the by-products of which go into animal food readily available at stores. The decrease in the number of North American songbirds has been attributed largely to household cats.

If meat is a natural part of our diet, why do so many people thrive the minute they give it up? Also, why are so many of our hospitals stuffed to the gills with people requiring heart surgery? Only a minor percentage were born with heart defects. Among the rest, many gorged on such meat products as steaks, bacon, sausages and chicken fingers, as well as high-fat dairy, until their bodies rebelled.

I see my article has made you very angry. If this doesn’t prove my point then I don’t know what does. Thank you for writing, PeterNZ.

Question for you – would you be able to go right now, pounce on a cow, pig, etc.’s back, chomp through their hide/skin with your teeth to their muscle and eat it without cooking it? If your answer is NO (which it should be if you are human), well then there is your answer. Next, just because something has been done for millions of years, does not mean that it is right. Humans have done MANY things for millions of years that have been considered atrocities (sadistic Roman gladiator games, slavery, etc.). Were those things okay? These are just excuses. Believe me, I understand, as I made excuses my whole life…Done with that!

Bella I am a completely normal human being and i would be more than happy to go to my local supermarket and eat food that they provide, as this is what is normal for our culture. let me just quote History.com, one of the most reliable sources possible “In a paper published today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, an international team announces the discovery of burned plants and bones from 1 million years ago. Their findings suggest that Homo erectus?not Homo sapiens or Neanderthals?became the first hominin to master flames, possibly in order to cook their food.” as my ancestors have done I would happily cook the meat so that the food becomes safe for my consumption, I agree with you in the concept that no human would go and pounce on a wild animal and sink their teeth into them as this is not what a normal human would do. I personally if it was down to survival would light a fire and cook the meat so that I could enjoy the delicacy that has been provided to me by nature. just this weekend i have enjoyed one of my favourite meals that does meat in it. i would suggest some of the recipes from this site as i have found them the best http://www.foodnetwork.ca/everyday-cooking/photos/most-popular-beef-recipes/

In your responses try to not be so aggressive as your way of life is far from the main stream and preferred way of living 🙂

also note to the author of this post, don’t try and act like your not trying to bring attention to your self, your twitter name is legitimately “veganbonnie”.

We vegans don?t hate u guys but we just wish non vegans to understand how the animals have to suffer and have to end their precious life just for the food u eat. and don?t compare humans with loins we humans can think rationally and we have can grow crops .. we have many options but the lions don?t have any options.. we respect your choice to eat meat but animals do not exist for humans and our uses. Animals also have moral rights to live in this world as much as human have.

Human beings have a variety of options when it comes to getting protein into their bodies – rice paired with lentils, chickpeas or any kind of bean forms a perfect protein. There is also tofu, and a lot of soy products are viable alternatives for those who are not allergic to soy. We cannot educate a wild animal such as a lion, to grow, harvest and ferment soybeans. Or chickpeas. This argument is silly. Lions hunt based on instinct. Human beings are more advanced (arguably) and therefore, we can use our more advanced brains to make food choices that do not cause harm to other living things. We have many instincts that we can overcome, and that we have overcome in order to be able to live in “civilized” societies.

Eating the flesh of a living thing is a personal choice that kills an innocent creature. There is nothing inherently wrong with your choice. But don’t get defensive when someone points out this fact.

Fact: You choose to place your tastebuds and your personal enjoyment over the life of another living creature, because you view yourself as more advanced and therefore entitled to consume flesh.

You do not need to feel guilty about your choice. Just be honest about it, and accept the moral consequences. That’s all. Meat may have been eaten by humans since the dawn of time… but historical precedent is not, in my mind, a valid excuse by which to continue justifying a behaviour.

In a similar vein, women have been treated as property since the dawn of time as well. Men are more powerful and indeed women did not always hold legal personhood status throughout history. So we should continue in the same vein, no? But this argument doesn’t fly today. Why? Because we know better, so we can act better. The same goes for the meat argument.

Your dietary implications may not be clean and pretty, but if you’re going to stand firm in your position, stick to it 100%. Do not waver, and do not speak about naturally being an omnivore. Just because you CAN eat it, enjoy it and thrive on it, doesn’t mean you SHOULD continue to do so. If we are enlightened beings, as we all like to claim to be, we should be held to a higher moral standard. If we do not want to hold ourselves up to that standard, that is fine.

P.S. Before you begin to assume things about me I will tell you that no, I am not a vegan. Why? Because I love eating fish, and cheese on occasion. But I don’t apologize for it. I know I can live without it, and I know that I am making a personal, selfish choice in the face of cruelty and suffering.

Laura, your reply is so beautifully heartfelt, and I read it with great interest. I love your honesty. Part of my animal advocacy is just asking people to be honest with themselves about the choices they make.

I also think you make a critically important statement that really hits the nail on the head. I’ll repeat it here:

Just because you CAN eat it, enjoy it and thrive on it, doesn’t mean you SHOULD continue to do so.

Thank you for contributing such wise words to the conversation, and all the best.

http://www.amif.org/blog/eating-meat-is-ethical/

This is so inspiring! I am a loyal vegetarian and have been for almost 9 years, I really feel deeply moved by it! I’ve thought about becoming Vegan but on a strict competitive national training programme it could be difficult, but you’ve definitely persuaded me to give it a go! Thank you for your thoughtful insight!

I just wanted to voice my support and appreciation for this article. With your stance and mine, putting the word “vegan” out in the world is going to make people angry. Anything different makes people angry. But if that anger ever leads to them making sure they understand the implications of their actions, it is worth it. It is worth it if they think.

I have had a close friend of mine tell me that he honestly believes in mind over matter. He also said he couldn’t ever stop eating meat. That self-limitation is stopping the human race from doing great things. WE must think through our actions, because we are the only species who can. Do what is right, because we are able.

Can people really be okay with eating a being that loved its mother? I always hypothesize a world were people could speak to animals and I ask the meat eater “Tell that animal to its face that it was born for the purpose of dying and feeding you, only for a single day, before you eat its children.”

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Essays About Veganism: Top 5 Examples and 10 Prompts

Veganism is on the rise. See below for our great examples of essays about veganism and helpful writing prompts to get started. 

Veganism is the practice of abstaining from animal-based foods and products. The movement originated from the philosophies against using animals as commodities and for capitalist gains. Now a booming industry, veganism promises better health benefits, a more humane world for animals, and an effective solution to global warming. 

Here is our round-up of essays examples about veganism:

1. A Brief History of Veganism by Claire Suddath

2. animal testing on plant-based ingredients divides vegan community by jill ettinger, 3. as vegan activism grows, politicians aim to protect agri-business, restaurateurs by alexia renard, 4. bezos, gates back fake meat and dairy made from fungus as next big alt-protein by bob woods, 5. going vegan: can switching to a plant-based diet really save the planet by sarah marsh, 1. health pros and cons of veganism, 2. veganism vs. vegetarianism, 3. the vegan society, 4. making a vegan diet plan, 5. profitability of vegan restaurants, 6. public personalities who are vegan, 7. the rise of different vegan products, 8. is vegan better for athletes, 9. vegans in your community, 10. most popular vegan activists.

“Veganism is an extreme form of vegetarianism, and though the term was coined in 1944, the concept of flesh-avoidance can be traced back to ancient Indian and eastern Mediterranean societies.”

Suddath maps out the historical roots of veganism and the global routes of its influences. She also laid down its evolution in various countries where vegan food choices became more flexible in considering animal-derived products critical to health. 

“Along with eschewing animal products at mealtime, vegans don’t support other practices that harm animals, including animal testing. But it’s a process rampant in both the food and drug industries.”

Ettinger follows the case of two vegan-founded startups that ironically conducts animal testing to evaluate the safety of their vegan ingredients for human consumption. The essay brings to light the conflicts between the need to launch more vegan products and ensuring the safety of consumers through FDA-required animal tests. 

“Indeed, at a time when the supply of vegan products is increasing, activists sometimes fear the reduction of veganism to a depoliticized way of life that has been taken over by the food industry.”

The author reflects on a series of recent vegan and animal rights activist movements and implies disappointment over the government’s response to protect public safety rather than support the protests’ cause. The essay differentiates the many ways one promotes and fights for veganism and animal rights but emphasizes the effectiveness of collective action in shaping better societies. 

“Beyond fungus, Nature’s Fynd also is representative of the food sustainability movement, whose mission is to reduce the carbon footprint of global food systems, which generate 34% of greenhouse emissions linked to climate change.”

The essay features a company that produces alternative meat products and has the backing of Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates, and Al Gore. The essay divulges the company’s investments and plans to expand in the vegan market while providing a picture of the burgeoning alternative foods sector. 

“Experts say changing the way we eat is necessary for the future of the planet but that government policy is needed alongside this. If politicians are serious about wanting dietary changes, they also need to incentivise it, scientists and writers add.”

The article conveys the insights and recommendations of environmental and agriculture experts on how to turn more individuals into vegans. The experts emphasize the need for a whole-of-society approach in shifting more diets to vegan instead of putting the onus for change on an individual. 

10 Writing Prompts on Essays About Veganism

Here is our round-up of the best prompts to create interesting essays about veganism: 

While veganism has been a top choice for those desiring to lose weight and have a healthier lifestyle, some studies have also shown its detrimental effects on health due to deficiencies in specific vitamins. First, find out what existing research and experts say about this. Then, lay down the advantages and disadvantages of going vegan, explain each, and wrap up your essay with your insights.

Differentiate veganism from vegetarianism. Tackle the foods vegans and vegetarians consume and do not consume and cite the different effects they have on your health and the environment. You may also expand this prompt to discuss the other dietary choices that spawned from veganism. 

The Vegan Society is a UK-based non-profit organization aimed at educating the public on the ways of veganism and promoting this as a way of life to as many people. Expound on its history, key organizational pillars, and recent and future campaigns. You may also broaden this prompt by listing down vegan organizations around the world. Then discuss each one’s objectives and campaigns. 

Write down the healthiest foods you recommend your readers to include in a vegan diet plan. Contrary to myths, vegan foods can be very flavorful depending on how they are cooked and prepared. You may expand this prompt to add recommendations for the most flavorful spices and sauces to take any vegan recipe a notch higher. 

Vegan restaurants were originally a niche market. But with the rise of vegan food products and several multinational firms’ foray into the market, the momentum for vegan restaurants was launched into an upward trajectory—research on how profitable vegan restaurants are against restos offering meat on the menu. You may also recommend innovative business strategies for a starting vegan restaurant to thrive and stay competitive in the market. 

From J.Lo to Bill Gates, there is an increasing number of famous personalities who are riding the vegan trend with good reason. So first, list a few celebrities, influencers, and public figures who are known advocates of veganism. Then, research and write about stories that compelled them to change their dietary preference.

The market for vegan-based non-food products is rising, from makeup to leather bags and clothes. First, create a list of vegan brands that are growing in popularity. Then, research the materials they use and the processes they employ to preserve the vegan principles. This may prompt may also turn into a list of the best gift ideas for vegans.

Many believe that a high-protein diet is a must for athletes. However, several athletes have dispelled the myth that vegan diets lack the protein levels for rigorous training and demanding competition. First, delve deeper into the vegan foods that serve as meat alternatives regarding protein intake. Then, cite other health benefits a vegan diet can offer to athletes. You may also add research on what vegan athletes say about how a vegan diet gives them energy. 

Interview people in your community who are vegan. Write about how they made the decision and how they transitioned to this lifestyle. What were the initial challenges in their journey, and how did they overcome these? Also, ask them for tips they would recommend to those who are struggling to uphold their veganism.

Make a list of the most popular vegan activists. You may narrow your list to personalities in digital media who are speaking loud and proud about their lifestyle choice and trying to inspire others to convert. Narrate the ways they have made and are making an impact in their communities. 

To enhance your essay, read our guide explaining what is persuasive writing . 

If you’d like to learn more, check out our guide on how to write an argumentative essay .

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Why go vegan?

You are here, explore why veganism is kinder to animals, to people and to our planet's future .

For the animals

Preventing the exploitation of animals is not the only reason for becoming vegan, but for many it remains the key factor in their decision to go vegan and stay vegan. Having emotional attachments with animals may form part of that reason, while many believe that all sentient creatures have a right to life and freedom. Specifics aside, avoiding animal products is one of the most obvious ways you can take a stand against animal cruelty and animal exploitation everywhere. Read a detailed overview on why being vegan demonstrates true compassion for animals . 

Find out more about going vegan for the animals.

For your health

Well-planned vegan diets follow healthy eating guidelines, and contain all the nutrients that our bodies need. Both the British Dietetic Association and the American Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics recognise that they are suitable for every age and stage of life. Some research has linked that there are certain health benefits to vegan diets with lower blood pressure and cholesterol, and lower rates of heart disease, type 2 diabetes and some types of cancer.

Going vegan is a great opportunity to learn more about nutrition and cooking, and improve your diet. Getting your nutrients from plant foods allows more room in your diet for health-promoting options like whole grains, fruit, nuts, seeds and vegetables, which are packed full of beneficial fibre, vitamins and minerals.

Find out more about going vegan for your health.

For the environment

From recycling our household rubbish to cycling to work, we're all aware of ways to live a greener life. One of the most effective things an individual can do to lower their carbon footprint is to avoid all animal products. This goes way beyond the problem of cow flatulence and air pollution!

Why is meat and dairy so bad for the environment?

The production of meat and other animal derived products places a heavy burden on the environment. The vast amount of grain feed required for meat production is a significant contributor to deforestation, habitat loss and species extinction. In Brazil alone, the equivalent of 5.6 million acres of land is used to grow soya beans for animals in Europe. This land contributes to developing world malnutrition by driving impoverished populations to grow cash crops for animal feed, rather than food for themselves. On the other hand, considerably lower quantities of crops and water are required to sustain a vegan diet, making the switch to veganism one of the easiest, most enjoyable and most effective ways to reduce our impact on the environment. For more on how veganism is the way forward for the environment, see our environment section .

Find out more about going vegan for the environment.

Just like veganism is the sustainable option when it comes to looking after our planet, plant-based living is also a more sustainable way of feeding the human family. A plant-based diet requires only one third of the land needed to support a meat and dairy diet. With rising global food and water insecurity due to a myriad of environmental and socio-economic problems, there's never been a better time to adopt a more sustainable way of living. Avoiding animal products is not just one of the simplest ways an individual can reduce the strain on food as well as other resources, it's the simplest way to take a stand against inefficient food systems which disproportionately affect the poorest people all over the world. Read more about  how vegan diets can help people .

Start your vegan journey today by downloading our VeGuide app . You can also join The Vegan Society  by completing our quick and simple online form. As a registered charity we rely on our members, and we are so grateful to everyone who supports us. For just £2 a month, your membership will go towards helping us to spread the word of veganism and create a world where animals are free to exist in their own right. In return you’ll receive access to over one hundred vegan discounts, our quarterly magazine, exclusive competitions and more!

 Why vegetarian isn't enough

The suffering caused by the dairy and egg industry is possibly less well publicised than the plight of factory farmed animals. The production of dairy products necessitates the death of countless male calves that are of no use to the dairy farmer, as well as the premature death of cows slaughtered when their milk production decreases. Similarly, in egg production, even 'ethical' or 'free range' eggs involve the killing of the 'unnecessary' male chicks when just a day old.

Ethical meat?

It's tempting to want to believe that the meat we eat is ethical, that our 'food animals' have lived full, happy lives and that they have experienced no pain or fear at the slaughterhouse. Yet the sad truth is that all living creatures  fear death, just as we do. No matter how they are treated when alive, whether they are raised on a factory farm, or labelled as 'free range' or 'organic', they all experience the same fear when it comes to slaughter.

The good news

The good news is there IS something we can do about it. Every time we shop or order food in a restaurant - every time we eat - we can choose to help these animals. Every time we make the switch from an animal product to a vegan alternative we are standing up for farmed animals everywhere. Going vegan is easier than ever before with veganism becoming increasingly mainstream as more and more people from all walks of life discover the benefits of living this way.   

It's  time to ask ourselves: if it is now possible to live a life that involves delicious food and drink, delivers better health, leaves a smaller carbon footprint and avoids killing other creatures - then why don't we?

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Vegan Ethics: An Overview of Moral Arguments for Veganism

Updated on November 8, 2023 Reviewed and fact-checked Found a mistake? Let us know!

Why be vegan? And specifically, what are the ethical reasons to be vegan? As someone who has been vegan for over 14 years, been a vegan activist, and talked to many people about vegan ethics, I can help lay out the common arguments for you.

Here are the 13 common ethical arguments for veganism I’ll be covering:

• Animal welfare .
• Animal rights .
• Exploitation .
• Intersectional anti-oppression .
• The environment .
• World hunger .
• Treatment of workers .
• The sanctity of life .
• Speciesism and anti-speciesism .
• Sentience (and why it’s okay to kill plants) .
• Expanding the circle of moral concern .
• Nonviolence .

Many of these are related, and you could expand them out into a much longer list. But covering these should give you a good introduction.

As a disclaimer, let me say: This is not an academic paper. This is a practical overview from someone who has been around the vegan movement for a long time. I’ll mention some philosophers, but I’ll try to put their arguments into clear, simple language.

1. Animal Welfare Arguments for Veganism

This may be the most common type of ethical argument made about going vegan.

The argument is that factory farms are extremely cruel to animals, fur farms treat animals abusively, animal research labs treat animals cruelly, and so forth—and going vegan is the best way to protest this cruelty.

If you’re not familiar with the details of modern industrial animal agriculture, I’ll cover some basics here: • The animals are often kept in extremely small cages. Some of them can’t even physically turn around in the crates that hold them. • Animals raised for meat are fed growth hormones and a caloric surplus, so they grow as fast as possible. This can cause all kinds of suffering because their bodies were not evolutionarily prepared for that kind of growth. Some chickens on factory farms can’t walk because they grow too fast for their legs to support them. • The animals may be kicked, beaten, and abused by workers who are also exploited and abused (more about workers’ rights below ). Here is an undercover video of dairy farm workers punching, kicking, and abusing cows . • The animals undergo painful operations like tail docking, dehorning, debeaking, castrating, and branding without any anesthetic.

Due to the capitalist drive to maximize profits, farmers are incentivized to pack more animals into less space. To remain competitive in the marketplace, they need to cut as many costs as possible.

This situation ends in factory farms that cut as many corners as possible when it comes to what is comfortable, healthy, or safe for the animals. And the result is mass suffering for farmed animals.

Veganism as a Solution to Animal Cruelty

This is the most common line of argument pursued by animal welfare organizations such as PETA, Vegan Outreach, and Mercy for Animals. These organizations promote veganism as one of the best ways to reduce suffering for other animals

(Some organizations and activists also focus on cruel practices in animal testing/vivisection, fur farming, leather production, animal abuse in circuses, and elsewhere. But agriculture tends to be the biggest focus because the number of numbers killed for food is much higher.)

The Philosophy Behind Animal Welfare Arguments for Veganism

You don’t really need a philosophical reference to say that hurting animals is bad. But if you want one, the go-to source would be Peter Singer’s classic book Animal Liberation .

Peter Singer’s arguments for animal liberation are based on a type of ethics called utilitarianism . If you’re taking a serious look into animal welfare arguments for veganism, you should start by taking a look at utilitarianism as a theory of ethics.

Understanding Utilitarianism

Utilitarianism is the philosophy that says that actions are ethically “good” or “bad” due to the amount of happiness or suffering that they cause.

So, according to utilitarianism, you can sort of calculate whether an action is good or bad by asking if it causes more happiness than suffering.

In practice, these ethical calculations can get pretty sloppy because how can you even quantify happiness or suffering? But the philosophy at least gives you a formula of what to aim toward— more happiness, less suffering.

It’s kind of like the Golden Rule: Assuming what we all want is happiness and what we all don’t want is suffering, something is “good” if it helps individuals experience more of what they want and less of what they don’t.

So at the core, utilitarianism is based on the fact that we all have preferences . We all care what happens. And an event is good if more people prefer that it would happen.

Applying Utilitarianism to Veganism

Peter Singer applied this utilitarian philosophy to our treatment of nonhuman animals. And the reasoning is quite simple: Nonhuman animals seem to have similar preferences as we have. Specifically, animals prefer to avoid pain.

Basically, Singer says, “If it’s wrong to needlessly hurt other people, then why wouldn’t it be wrong to needlessly hurt animals?”

In this way, you can look at animal welfare (and really, most of vegan ethics) as being about “expanding the circle” of our moral concern to other species. We’re taking the kind of moral considerations we already make for other humans, and we apply it to animals.

To only care about human pain would be speciesist , according to many vegans. Shouldn’t we care about the pain experienced by nonhuman animals, too? It’s still pain.

And if we do consider nonhuman animal pain as ethically relevant, then things like the confinement and killing of animals becomes at least questionable.

What’s most definitely wrong from a utilitarian vegan perspective is the cruel treatment of animals on modern-day factory farms. The horrific abuses on factory farms are intolerable from a utilitarian perspective because they cause so much suffering.

But do utilitarian ethics take you all the way to veganism?

Does Utilitarianism Lead to Veganism?

An interesting point is that you can hypothetically kill animals without causing them any pain. And if you achieved that, it would be okay according to a utilitarian ethic.

Utilitarianism doesn’t actually say there’s anything wrong with killing. It just says we shouldn’t cause suffering.

Now, most forms of killing will cause suffering. The animal will be scared and confused before they’re killed. Maybe their family will suffer due to seeing them be killed and not having their family member around anymore, and so on.

But if you somehow killed animals without causing pain, it would be okay according to Peter Singer’s utilitarianism. So not all vegans agree with this position.

Many vegans feel there is a more fundamental ethical reason not to kill animals—and I’ll cover that below. But let’s really get the implications of this point here first.

The Gap Between “Reducing Suffering” and Going Vegan

When you hear arguments about how you need to go vegan to reduce animal suffering… that’s not actually an air-tight argument .

Of course, going vegan is one way to help fight the cruel meat industry. Arguably, it is the best way. But you could also plausibly reduce suffering by raising backyard chickens and killing them “humanely” instead. (Just to give one example.)

So if you really want to make an air-tight argument for veganism, animal welfare arguments are probably not the path to take. They can potentially be resolved by reforms that just create more “humane” treatment in the process of confining and killing animals.

That said, if reducing suffering is genuinely the main reason you’re vegan, then by all means, speak your truth.

2. Vegan Arguments for Animal Rights

Many vegans believe nonhuman animals have a fundamental right to life, autonomy, and freedom. That is, they believe in animal rights.

Some vegans specifically want to abolish the legal property status of nonhuman animals, and to acknowledge them as “nonhuman persons.”

You’ll notice that these views are at least subtly different from Singer’s view ( above ), which simply argues that animals shouldn’t be made to suffer. These views argue something more fundamental: Animals have rights .

“Animal rights” can mean a lot of things, and I’m not well-read on every philosopher in this field. That said, I’ll outline a few of the main threads and the most influential authors.

Gary Francione and the Abolitionist Approach

Gary Francione is a thought leader among a group of vegans called abolitionists. Francione is a lawyer, and he argues for abolishing the property status of animals.

Gary Francione is actually opposed to any activist campaigns toward more humane treatment of animals being exploited. He argues only for the abolition of these industries.

Why would a vegan activist be opposed to “humane treatment” reforms?

Abolitionists argue that bigger cages would not at all make it okay for those animals to be caged in the first place. Furthermore, some consumers will be comforted to know that their meat and eggs are “humane” now.

So in that way, reforms can lead people to be more okay with the exploitation and confinement that’s still occurring.

Last I checked, Francione seems to spend a lot of time trying to convince animal welfarists to become abolitionist vegans. He posts many critiques of animal welfarists on his website .

Taking Anti-Speciesism Seriously

To Francione’s credit, he seems to take the idea of speciesism (explained more below ) very seriously. Take the following example:

Would we be okay with campaigns today asking for bigger cages for human slaves? No. Such a campaign would be offensive because it would simply not be asking enough. Asking for bigger cages for slaves would seem to be condoning the fact that slavery is happening in the first place.

So we shouldn’t be okay with campaigns for bigger cages for animals, according to Francione. The only acceptable change is to abolish the system of animal use by humans.

In alignment with this view, Francione promotes the idea of veganism as a “moral imperative.” It is a moral baseline. It’s not too much to ask of people—it’s the only reasonable thing to ask.

For more on this perspective, check out Francione’s book Animal Rights: The Abolitionist Approach or check out his website at abolitionistapproach.com .

The Movement to Recognize Nonhuman Persons

There has slowly been growing recognition for the idea that certain species qualify as “ nonhuman persons .” Usually, the species is dolphins or other cetaceans.

SeaWorld has struggled in recent years as a business in large part due to this growing recognition that orcas and dolphins deserve more rights and should not be confined.

In late 2015, India actually declared dolphins to be nonhuman persons, outlawing the captivity of dolphins in India for entertainment purposes.

But these steps are not fully vegan wins—because the reasons cited for dolphin personhood are typically based on intelligence, self-awareness, and specific rational capabilities.

Those reasons won’t necessarily apply to all farmed animals equally.

A truly vegan step would be saying that dolphins should be protected because they are sentient or because they have preferences. That would be a characteristic that applies more broadly to more animal species.

But still. The expanding rights for cetaceans may be the first step toward a much broader acknowledgment of nonhuman persons and animal rights for many different species.

Tom Regan on The Case for Animal Rights

Tom Regan is another famous animal rights philosopher who may fall into this broad category of “animal rights” rather than “animal welfare.”

Regan argues that nonhuman animals have moral rights because they, like us, are “subjects-of-a-life.” Their lives therefore have inherent value, they deserve respect, and they should not be used as a means to someone else’s ends.

Regan’s view of moral rights resembles that of famous philosopher Immanuel Kant—but Regan simply applies these rights beyond our own species. (See “Expanding the Circle” below .)

Learn more about this perspective in Regan’s classic book The Case for Animal Rights .

3. Vegan Arguments About Consent

Many vegan arguments are focused on the idea that it’s wrong to use animals without their consent. And due to communication barriers, the quality of consent we can receive from nonhuman animals is never very good. So, vegans argue, we just shouldn’t use them.

Humans can enter into agreements with each other about an exchange they want to make: “If you do this job, I’ll pay you $50.” But we can never get this kind of explicit consent from other animals.

Even in situations where an animal seems grateful and willing to enter into an exchange with us (like pets), there can never be full, informed consent because the higher levels of communication are not possible.

This line of argument has an obvious parallel to sexual consent between humans. So it’s a line of argument that’s often pursued by intersectional vegans (who I’ll cover below ).

But this line of argument is also made by libertarian and anarchist vegans.

Libertarians and anarchists oppose how the government uses the threat of physical force to make citizens follow laws and pay taxes. Libertarians value the freedom to choose what relationships and contracts you enter into. They believe in voluntary exchange with consent.

Why would the principle of voluntary exchange and the importance of consent not be carried over to nonhuman animals?

Notice that, even when you take good care of an animal—you’re giving them food and shelter— you’re making decisions on their behalf. The animal is not expressly consenting to anything. You have the control as the owner.

So this line of argument takes us very naturally to veganism: We shouldn’t use animals because it’s impossible to get clear consent from them to use them, and it’s wrong to use any sentient individual without their consent. So just let them be free.

See also: Would “consensual cannibalism” be vegan?

Pet Ownership and Vegan Arguments About Consent

Vegans who focus on the issue of consent will often feel discomfort about pet ownership. You can never actually have clear consent from your dog to be the steward over their life .

It’d be ideal if your pet was able to come and go by their own choice. But if you’re locking them inside your home or in your yard, it’s less clear that they’re really consenting to that situation.

Pretty much all vegans just accept that this is a compromise and that it’s worth rescuing pets from other, worse situations. Many vegans are pet lovers and have multiple cats and dogs.

But there are definitely some vegans out there who say that a true vegan world would not include pet ownership.

I’ve heard it argued that there should be a movement toward more animal sanctuaries, where the animals are guaranteed greater freedom of movement than in most pet situations.

4. Vegan Arguments About Exploitation

Exploitation is a term often used in labor relations. It refers to treating workers unfairly in order to benefit from their labor, and it is made possible by the power imbalance between workers and their bosses.

But many uses of animals can also be viewed as labor.

The term “exploitation” is used by vegans frequently when talking about dairy and eggs. To say that dairy cows are “exploited for their milk” is to say that the cows are treated like machines or resources—things—in order to extract a commodity (milk) from their bodies.

So anti-exploitation arguments are maybe similar to Tom Regan’s view ( above ) of animals having moral rights because they are “subjects-of-a-life.” Exploitation is wrong because it denies animals that status of being subjects-of-a-life . Instead, it treats them as things.

Vegans also argue that animals are exploited in circuses, as they’re forced to perform labor like sitting up on two legs or balancing a ball on their head.

Animals are exploited in scientific research, as well, because they’re being used as tools to generate knowledge instead of being respected for just existing and given a right to live their life how they would want to.

Exploitation is whenever we treat animals as a resource we can freely extract value from—when we’re not respecting them as individuals with their own lives and right to bodily autonomy.

A Striking Example of Animal Exploitation

I was watching the documentary Dominion , which is uploaded free on Youtube, and I was so moved by the description of what happens to mother sows on pork farms. Even after 13 years of being vegan, it shook me.

After showing several minutes of the gross and cruel conditions that pigs on pork farms live in, the narrator explained the full life cycle of these mother pigs.

Mother sows go through four cycles of pregnancy and nursing over two years. Their bodies are used to create four litters of new pigs. These mothers go through all the mistreatment and abuse of factory farm life for those two years, and then… what happens next?

They’re killed. Then it’s just over.

These pigs are brought into existence to be used as birthing machines. They’re shown no respect, treated like garbage for two years, they produce four litters of piglets to be taken away and grown to become pork—that is, they produce profit for the pork industry—and then they’re killed.

It just really illustrates how useless the animal agriculture industry views these pigs to be outside of producing profit for them.

Because from a profit standpoint, of course, the mother pigs are killed afterward. Of course. When it’s no longer profitable to keep these pigs, why would you keep feeding and housing them?

But they are living, feeling creatures. They have a life. They care about their life. Couldn’t you at least give a decent life to the animals who are creating all this profit for you?

But on modern factory farms, their entire life is horror—and then, even that existence is taken away from them.

Pigs on factory farms live, suffer, and die solely to make a profit for the owners of the pork companies. Their life is reduced to just that. It’s the clearest example of exploitation I can think of.

5. Intersectional Veganism and Anti-Oppression Veganism

Intersectional vegans (or pro-intersectional vegans) focus on veganism as a parallel and partner to social justice movements like feminism, anti-racism, anti-colonialism, gay and trans liberation, anti-capitalism, and other anti-oppression efforts.

In a basic sense, most ethical vegans feel that veganism is a parallel to movements like feminism. But intersectional vegans put this fact up front and center.

The ethics of intersectional veganism are informed by intersectional anti-oppression politics in the human sphere. Principles about power, privilege, hierarchy, ideology, exploitation, and consent are applied over to human/nonhuman relationships.

What Is Intersectionality?

The word “intersectional” was originally applied to feminism.

Certain prominent, early feminists focused mainly on the liberation of middle-class housewives. But black feminists like bell hooks pointed out that women of color are already in the workforce in greater numbers, being exploited, and they face a different set of struggles.

Intersectionality demands that you pay attention to the intersections of different systems of oppression. Yes, all women face certain struggles—but black women and white women face very different struggles.

When applied to veganism, intersectionality means paying attention to how class inequality, for example, affects who has access to healthy vegan food. So intersectional vegans will talk more than most vegans about the issue of food deserts and overall food justice.

Intersectional veganism means paying attention to the fact that Latino workers are often horribly exploited as factory farm workers, and not only talking about the animals being abused.

So it’s about trying to respect all the issues and how they come together, interact, and overlap with one another. At its best, intersectionality allows us to take a nuanced view of what is really going wrong in our society.

Comparisons Between Nonhuman Oppression and Human Oppression

Intersectional vegans sometimes make comparisons between the oppression of nonhuman animals and the oppression of specific human groups.

This is the whole basis of the influential book on vegan ethics, The Dreaded Comparison: Human and Animal Slavery by Marjorie Spiegel.

Intersectional vegans also sometimes draw comparisons between the exploitation of dairy cows and the exploitation of women. These activists will argue that reproductive justice is important both for human women and nonhuman animals like cows.

But these comparisons can be very contentious.

Although intersectional vegans are dedicated feminists and anti-racists, they still receive pushback from non-vegan feminists and anti-racists at times for comparing the oppression of women or people of color to the oppression of animals.

Indeed, PETA (which is not a particularly “intersectional” group) is often called out for its crude comparisons between human and animal oppression, referring to animal agriculture as slavery, rape, or a holocaust. I remember an old blog called Vegans Against PETA , which was a whole catalog of problematic campaigns from PETA.

Arguably the biggest problem with PETA’s comparisons between factory farms and the holocaust, though, is that PETA isn’t actually fighting antisemitism at all. They’re just using this graphic comparison to antisemitism in order to promote veganism.

That’s the difference between intersectional vegans and PETA when they make these comparisons: Intersectional vegans are dedicated to fighting racism and sexism today, and a good chunk of their focus is actually directly on that. PETA, on the other hand, just uses the comparison to promote veganism.

Fighting Racism and Sexism Within the Vegan Movement

Intersectional vegans also focus a lot on fighting racism, sexism, and other -isms within the vegan movement. Part of their agenda is to make the vegan movement more of a broadly leftist and socially progressive movement.

Intersectional vegans will criticize the “whiteness” of certain vegan spaces in hopes of creating a more diverse vegan movement. And they call attention to capitalism as a root problem behind the abuses in factory farms.

In many cases, it can seem like intersectional vegans—in a similar way as Francione and the abolitionists ( above )—spend more time criticizing the rest of the vegan movement than criticizing the animal agriculture industry itself.

To some vegans, this can seem annoying or counter-productive. But hopefully, in making their critiques, intersectional vegans make the movement a better place for all.

For more of the intersectional anti-oppression perspective, check out Sistah Vegan , the Vegan Vanguard podcast , A privileged vegan , and the Vegan Princess Warriors Attack podcast .

6. Environmental Arguments for Veganism

Going vegan is said to help with a whole plethora of environmental problems.

• Deforestation, particularly in the Amazon rainforest, is largely being carried out to make room for cattle ranching and, from what I’ve heard, large-scale planting of soybeans to be used as animal feed.

• Climate Change. Methane gas emissions from cattle farming, i.e. cow farts, are causing the greenhouse effect and accelerating climate change. In fact, methane is 29 times more powerful than CO2 as a greenhouse gas. It’s often said that the #1 action you can take to reduce your carbon footprint is to go vegan.

• Ocean acidification. The methane gas produced by animal agriculture also contributes to the acidification of our oceans.

• Water use. So many gallons of water go into producing a single hamburger. If we just eat plants, it’s much less resource-intensive.

This section could be a lot longer, but it’s not an area that I’ve personally focused on in my vegan journey.

For more of the common environmental arguments for a vegan diet, check out the documentary Cowspiracy .

7. Arguments About How Veganism Can End World Hunger

Claims that veganism can help end world hunger may strike you as simply misinformed or unrealistic. The problem with world hunger isn’t simply a lack of food —it’s a matter of distributing the food to the people who need it.

That said, it’s worth looking at how worldwide veganism (or anything closer to it) could help free up resources to make hunger alleviation easier.

As covered in the previous section, animal agriculture is not very efficient with regard to the use of water and land. When you feed 100 calories of grains to an animal, you don’t get 100 calories of meat. You get much less!

So it’s long been argued by vegans that we should just feed the grain to the humans that need it. Unfortunately, that’s not how capitalism works. Someone needs to be able to pay for the grain in order for anyone to want to grow it in the first place. In capitalism, there’s not much incentive for farmers to grow food for people who don’t have money.

But still, is there an argument here? Could worldwide veganism help?

The following video from Mic the Vegan makes a pretty thorough argument into how a widespread vegan diet could still help alleviate hunger—even without taking us all the way to “ending world hunger.”

8. The Treatment of Farmworkers and Slaughterhouse Employees

Another reason to boycott meat, dairy, and eggs could actually be the treatment of human workers caught up in the system.

Workers are often injured in slaughterhouses due especially to the speed at which animals are killed. The line moves fast to keep production high and labor expenses low.

One slaughterhouse worker had this to say: “The line is so fast, there is no time to sharpen the knife. The knife gets dull and you have to cut harder. That’s when it really starts to hurt, and that’s when you cut yourself” ( source ).

Slaughterhouse workers also suffer psychological harm and desensitization from repeatedly killing animals and seeing them in states of fear and pain. Here’s a quote from a former kill floor manager:

“The worst thing, worse than the physical danger, is the emotional toll… Pigs down on the kill floor have come up and nuzzled me like a puppy. Two minutes later I had to kill them—beat them to death with a pipe. I can’t care.” ( source )

As dramatized in the movies Fast Food Nation , slaughterhouses often employ illegal immigrants, which they can then abuse more freely since the workers have to stay “under the radar” to not be deported.

Some vegan organizations don’t focus much on the abuses of human workers at slaughterhouses, but others do include it as a central argument for why you should oppose the animal agriculture industry. Food Empowerment Project is one of these orgs that fight for human rights along with animal rights.

You can learn more about the abuse of factory farm workers here and slaughterhouse workers here .

9. Veganism and the Sanctity of Life

In my post about how vegans view abortion , I explained how it really depends on your underlying philosophical beliefs. One pro-life view that some vegans share is that life is sacred.

The writer at vegblogger.com, for example, has written , “Veganism is about respecting and protecting life. Abortion is about taking life. End of story.”

Now, this is a very different view from that held by Peter Singer, whose utilitarian ethics I covered above. Singer cares about reducing suffering . He doesn’t care at all about “life” in and of itself.

But I think most vegans intuitively just find something wrong about killing other animals . For some of those vegans, it may come back to the sanctity of life as described by various religions .

Western religion tends to view the “sanctity of life” only applying to human life, but some Eastern religions have a view of the sanctity of life for all sentient beings, including nonhuman animals. Many Buddhists are vegetarians for this reason.

10. Speciesism and Anti-Speciesism

Speciesism is, of course, an equivalent term to racism, sexism, and other forms of discrimination and oppression between human groups.

Calling attention to speciesism is a central part of what vegan activists seek to do. There are many things our society does to nonhuman animals which, if done to humans, would be universally condemned.

For example: No reasonable person would argue that it’s okay to buy a human from someone else, chain her up, impregnate her without her consent, then take away her baby and hook her up to milking machines each day, and kill her baby to sell it as meat after about 4 months of it living in a small crate!

The fact that our society is okay with that happening to cows in the dairy industry is, therefore, speciesist.

What Anti-Speciesism Really Means

Humans and nonhuman animals are not the same—and many of our differences are significant in ways that are morally relevant.

Certain things that may cause suffering to a human may not bother a nonhuman animal. So that needs to be factored in when talking about speciesism.

But usually, what vegans are arguing is the following: Many of the things we do to cows, pigs, and chickens clearly cause them pain and distress —and that pain and distress cannot be considered morally irrelevant due to the species of animal experiencing it.

11. The Importance of Sentience (And Why It’s Okay to Kill Plants)

Many vegan arguments hinge on the distinction that animals are sentient and plants are not. It matters what we do to other animals because they are sentient—because they feel and experience sensations.

By this same logic, vegans are typically okay with killing plants because the general consensus is that plants are not sentient.

Sometimes, you do run into people saying that plants are sentient based on some research… But most of us have an intuitive sense that plants do not have a central nervous system that resembles our own at all. They likely do not suffer in a way that is at all comparable.

12. “Expanding the Circle” of Moral Concern

“Expanding the circle” is a visual metaphor used by many animal rights activists and theorists, which refers to adding more and more groups of individuals into our circle of moral concern.

The explanation may go like this: When we’re acting most selfishly, we only care about ourselves. Then the next level of concern for others is usually focused on your family. Then maybe your broader “tribe” after that. Then maybe your country, your race, or your gender. Then we care about the rights of all humans. And what’s next after that?

Next, you expand the circle to include nonhuman animals!

Tom Regan’s philosophy takes an established idea of “moral rights” and expands it to include moral rights for other animals. Intersectional vegans take an established idea of intersectional anti-oppression and expand it to include the human/nonhuman relationship.

We should “expand the circle” of our moral concern to include nonhuman animals, whichever ethical model we’re using. Or that’s what vegans argue anyway!

Peter Singer even has a whole book about ethics called The Expanding Circle .

What About Being Human Gives Us Moral Rights?

A common line of argument in the philosophy of Peter Singer, as well as that of Tom Regan and other animal rights philosophers, is that it’s very difficult to draw any logically consistent line between all humans and all nonhuman animals ethically.

If you say that humans deserve to be respected and treated well because of intelligence or rational thinking , well, not all humans can think rationally. And we still care about how we treat the severely mentally impaired, for example.

So, we have to think more deeply than just “Humans matter, animals don’t.” We have to specifically ask, What about being human gives us moral rights ? And is it actually something that doesn’t apply to nonhuman animals?

Peter Singer says what really matters is that we suffer, we experience happiness, and we have preferences. Tom Regan says what matters is that we are the “subject-of-a-life” and we care what happens to us.

And both of those apply to nonhuman animals, too.

13. Veganism and Nonviolence

Many vegans understand their position as one of nonviolence . “Nonviolence” could mean different things to different people, though.

A common-sense understanding of nonviolence might be that violence is wrong and should be avoided if at all possible. And the implication when saying that veganism is nonviolence is that meat and other animal use are forms of violence.

Gary Francione has this to say: “If the principle of nonviolence means anything , it means that you cannot justify any killing or suffering for transparently frivolous reasons such as pleasure, amusement, or convenience” ( source ).

Francione seems to be saying that it is violent to use animals in these ways—so being nonviolent requires no longer supporting those practices. Being nonviolent requires veganism.

For Some Vegans, There Is No Philosophy: It’s Just a Gut Feeling

The following video I’m going to link to is not bloody or graphic. But even so, it’s one of the most emotional videos of animals in our food system—because it tells a story.

Watch this video of two cows waiting in line to be slaughtered at the slaughterhouse. And just see how it makes you feel. It’s just 3 minutes.

Now, when you watch this footage, do you feel that it’s a good thing? Is your gut reaction that this is fine?

Or does it feel sad? Does it feel like a pretty bad thing? Do you feel like it’d be better if cows didn’t have to experience this? For some vegans, it’s simply a gut feeling like that.

So I’ll end the post with that. My personal vegan ethics are, as much as anything, based on this emotional reaction.

Causing fear, pain, and death for other animals just doesn’t feel like a great thing to do. If we can be healthy and happy without killing other animals, that just seems like the preferable way to live.

Two More Recommendations for Your Plant-Based Journey

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If you found this post helpful and don’t want to lose it, consider saving the Pin below to your Pinterest “Veganism” or “Vegan Ethics” boards!

I’m Tyler McFarland, the editor and main author here. When I first went vegan 13 years ago, convenience products like veggie burgers and soy milk were a lot harder to find. Now they’re everywhere!

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Pros and Cons of a Vegan Diet

Verywell / Alexandra Shytsman

A vegan diet is a vegetarian eating style, but it's completely devoid of animal products, including eggs , honey, and dairy products. Some vegans choose the diet for health reasons, but others prefer it for ethical reasons, such as avoiding animal cruelty and consuming more sustainable foods.

While there are documented health benefits of a vegan diet, some find the lifestyle challenging to maintain. Consider each of the pros and cons of a vegan diet before you decide if it is the right program for you.

Evidence-based health benefits

Encourages mindful eating

Wider variety of foods

May lead to weight loss

Reduced food costs

Healthier for the environment

No animal impact

Limited food choices

Possible nutrient deficiencies

Requires diligence

Difficulty dining out

Unrealistic expectations

Social isolation

The reason (or reasons) that you choose a vegan eating plan will determine the benefits that are most relevant for you. But advantages to this lifestyle are substantial, regardless of whether you are choosing it for health, environmental, or ethical reasons.

Health Benefits

Since a vegan diet is plant-based , it's easier to load up on healthy whole grains , legumes, fruits, and vegetables that many people on regular diets lack. Studies comparing different types of diets have found that vegan eating ranks highest for nutritional quality. A vegan diet is generally high in fiber, vitamin C , magnesium, iron, and folate and lower in calories and saturated fats.​

The nutritional quality of a vegan diet leads to more significant health benefits. Eating a diet rich in plant-based foods has been associated with a decreased risk of many chronic diseases. A large cohort study evaluated vegetarian and vegan diets. Researchers found that both groups experienced a reduced risk of cardiovascular diseases, cardiometabolic risk factors, some cancers, and total mortality. Those who were vegan enjoyed those benefits along with a reduced risk of obesity, hypertension, type-2 diabetes, and cardiovascular mortality.

Other studies have confirmed those findings and have also found that plant-based eating may be helpful in the treatment and management of high blood pressure, diverticular disease, and eye cataracts.

Mindful Eating

Mindful eating is a practice that involves paying more attention to our food and increasing sensual awareness and experience of a meal. It requires the eater to be focused intentionally on eating behavior to enjoy the process of eating rather than any specific nutritional outcome ( calories , protein, fat, carbohydrates). Mindful eating practices are associated with a healthier relationship with food and have been used in some weight-loss interventions.

Vegan eating and mindful eating are different. But because vegan eaters—unlike omnivores—choose to eliminate certain categories of food from their diet, they need to be more selective and conscious about their food choices. In many cases, certain mindful eating practices are built into their meal planning .

For example, if you consume a traditional American diet, it is easy to grab a meal on the go at a fast-food restaurant, convenience mart, or coffee shop. It is easy to consume the meal without being fully aware of the eating process (i.e.chewing, tasting, and feeling a sense of fullness). But on a vegan diet, you may have to plan meals in advance to find foods that you enjoy and that are compliant on the eating plan. Or you may have to make careful selections in the moment. The choosing and planning process requires consideration, focus, and thoughtfulness about your food choices—critical components of mindful eating.

Wider Food Variety

An omnivore diet eliminates no foods. The standard American diet is an omnivore diet. But most people who consume a traditional diet eat a relatively limited number of foods or types of food. For instance, many traditional American dinners include meat, starch (potato or rice), and maybe a vegetable. Dairy products are often used as ingredients, side dishes, or toppings.

On a vegan diet, however, many traditional foods are not compliant. Therefore, when you begin this diet, you may have to get creative and experiment with foods that are not familiar.

But there is a caveat to this benefit. Many food manufacturers are creating plant-based versions of traditional favorites. For instance, most grocery stores carry vegan-friendly meatless burgers, processed chicken or turkey alternatives, and dairy substitutes that are made from soy or other ingredients. Sometimes, these products are no healthier than their meat/dairy alternative, and relying on them can lead to the same limited food palate like a traditional American diet.

Possible Weight Loss

Studies have shown that you may lose weight on a vegan diet. Of course, just choosing to go vegan does not cause weight loss to occur. But when you adopt this lifestyle, you eliminate many foods that are high in fat and calories.

Plant-based eating is often associated with losing weight. In 2018, a limited 16-week clinical trial found that a vegan diet proved to be superior to a control diet (that included animal protein) in improving body weight and fat mass. And a broad evidence review published in 2017 found that plant-based diets are an effective tool in the management and prevention of overweight and obesity.

Even if you have problems staying on a weight loss plan, a vegan lifestyle might be the best choice. Studies have also shown that a vegan eating plan may be more effective for weight loss , even if you don't completely stick to the program.

Reduced Food Costs

Choosing a vegan diet may help you to reduce your food costs. But whether or not you gain this benefit depends on what you eat before adopting this eating style and what you choose to eat after.

There is no doubt that meat, seafood, and dairy products are expensive. Some convenience foods can also be pricey. When you remove these foods from your diet, you eliminate the substantial food costs that are associated with them.

Vegan-friendly-grains and legumes are usually budget-friendly. And even though fresh produce and vegan-friendly convenience foods can be expensive, they are likely to cost less overall than a diet rich in animal-based products.

Better for the Environment

Some people choose a vegan diet because they feel it is better for the planet. There is increased concern in the environmental community about the impact of livestock and livestock farming practices on the earth.

By comparison, the farming of vegan-friendly plants requires fewer resources (land and water) than the production of typical western foods such as meat, poultry, and dairy. And cows produce more greenhouses gasses (methane) than plants do, which leads some to believe that eating vegan helps to reduce the risk of global warming.

Several research studies have even suggested that a vegan diet is better for the planet than other diets, including the popular Mediterranean diet .

No Animal Impact

Because no animals are harmed or killed to produce vegan-friendly foods, many choose this diet because of concerns about animal cruelty.

One study showed that the most popular reason for choosing a vegan diet is to support the more humane treatment of animals.   These vegans may also avoid clothing or other products that are made from animals, poultry, fish, or bees.

Interestingly, another research  study  published in the journal  Appetite  found that people who chose a vegan diet for ethical reasons were likely to stick to the diet longer than those who follow the program for other reasons.   

Even though a vegan diet may be healthier for you and the planet, this program doesn't work for everyone. Consider these drawbacks.

Limited Food Choices

The vegan diet is often referred to as the most restrictive version of a plant-based diet. Certainly, if you adopt this eating plan, and you currently eat a standard American diet, you can expect to eliminate most foods from your typical weekly menu. For some people, that level of restriction is too severe.

To get a greater sense of the scope of the restriction, remember that not only are animal products eliminated, but any food or product that contains an animal by-product is eliminated. Many traditional home recipes, groceries, and restaurant foods contain at least one animal by-product.

Of course, many vegans will tell you that there is a wealth of food variety in this diet. But because it varies substantially from what you might be used to eating, you may find it to be limiting at first.

Possible Nutritional Deficiencies

A vegan diet can be healthy, but there are a few potential nutritional deficiencies that need to be addressed. Researchers have found that vegan diets are generally lacking in calcium, required for bone formation, muscle contraction, and other essential functions. Vegans can increase their intake by eating calcium-rich foods such as green leafy vegetables, pulses, sesame seeds, some dried fruits, and calcium-fortified foods such as plant milks, non-milk yogurt, or cereal with calcium added. Similarly, they can supplement their diet with multivitamins .

Vitamin B-12 , or cobalamin, is another nutrient that may be lacking because it's found primarily in foods of animal origin. Vitamin B-12 is needed for healthy nerve function and blood cell production. A deficiency can lead to a condition called pernicious anemia . Although some seaweed, mushrooms, and fermented foods can be a useful source of this essential B-complex vitamin, researchers have found that vitamin B-12 supplementation may be needed for people who follow a vegetarian or vegan diet.

Protein can be another issue, but it's one that is easily solved. Proteins are made up of building blocks called amino acids that your body needs to maintain organs and muscles and important functions. Essential amino acids are those that your body does not make so you need to get them from the foods you eat. Many vegans also take creatine supplements .

While animal proteins contain all of the essential amino acids, plant proteins are usually missing one or more of those amino acids. So, it's crucial to eat a variety of protein sources to ensure you get all those amino acids you need.

Vegan diets can also be low in vitamin D , though to be fair, so are other diets since most of your vitamin D comes from exposure to sunlight. Two potentially good vegan sources of vitamin D include maitake mushrooms and portobello mushrooms that have been exposed to UV light. Fortified nut milks can also help you get vitamin D during the winter months. In some cases, however, a vitamin D supplement may be needed.

A vegan diet is also deficient in two omega-3 fatty acids called eicosapentaenoic acid and docosahexaenoic acid that your body needs for a healthy heart and eyes and brain function. Eating foods such as walnuts, soy, pumpkin, flax, or chia seeds , will help increase your intake of an omega-3 fatty acid called alpha-linolenic acid, which your body converts to the other two forms. Still, supplementing with a product such as a micro algae supplement may be needed. Also, if you're pregnant, however, it is important to talk to your healthcare provider to make sure you get enough omega-3s during your pregnancy.

Lastly, iron is a nutrient of concern in vegan diets. According to the Vegan Society, good plant sources of iron include lentils, chickpeas, beans, tofu, cashew nuts, chia seeds, ground linseed, hemp seeds, pumpkin seeds, kale, dried apricots and figs, raisins, quinoa and fortified breakfast cereal.

Requires Diligence

Those who follow a vegan diet will need to become accustomed to carefully reading nutrition labels and ingredient lists, especially if they choose to consume processed foods . Foods that you might assume to be free from animal by-products may contain gelatin, whey, casein, honey, or other foods that are non-compliant on a vegan diet.

You'll also need to carefully read nutrition labels to stay healthy on a vegan diet. It is important to choose foods that contain important vitamins and minerals to avoid nutritional deficiencies.

Difficulty Dining Out

When shopping for vegan-friendly food, consumers can read product information. But if you eat at someone's home or in a restaurant, you don't have access to an ingredient list. For this reason, dining out can be a challenge for those who choose a vegan diet.

A few restaurants make a note of vegan or vegetarian foods on their menus, but not many. You may be able to create a vegan meal from the salads or side dishes that they already serve. However, you'll need to ask to be sure that no animal products are used in the preparation.

And sometimes, even asking about food isn't helpful. It is not uncommon for well-meaning restaurant staff (or well-intentioned friends and family) to assume that plant-based foods are vegan if they don't contain dairy. But that isn't always the case. Vegetable soup, for example, might be made with broth that used an animal bone for flavoring.

Many vegan experts recommend that when dining at someone's home, bring a recipe that you can enjoy and that you can share with others. And choose restaurants that you know to be vegan-savvy.

Unrealistic Expectations

While consuming a vegan diet is likely to produce health benefits and a healthier weight, it is not a guarantee. For example, if you are trying to slim down, you still need to be mindful of the foods you choose and the amount you eat.

There is an increasing number of heavily processed vegan foods. Many times, these foods are just as unhealthy—containing more fat and calories—as their traditional counterparts.

And health benefits are not a slam dunk either. A study published in the  Journal of the American College of Cardiology compared a large number of women who ate a healthy vegan diet (including whole grains, fruits, vegetables, nuts, legumes, oils, tea and coffee) to those who ate a less healthy vegan food (including juices, sweetened beverages, refined grains, potatoes, fries, and sweets). Researchers concluded that the healthier vegan diet resulted in a substantially lower risk for heart disease, whereas the less healthy vegan diet was associated with a higher risk.   

Social Isolation

People's food choices can come under scrutiny from friends, family, coworkers, and other acquaintances. While veganism is more normalized these days and plant-based foods are more widely available, you might still find that you are questioned and challenged about your reasons for choosing this lifestyle. Additionally, those who don't know how to accommodate your diet may exclude you from social gatherings. Or worse, they may invite you and encourage you to eat foods that are not vegan-friendly.

Some vegan blogs address these issues and provide guidance for those adapting to the eating style. Experts advise that you reach out to other vegans in your community and build a network, while also being patient with those who don't understand your choices.

Clarys P, Deliens T, Huybrechts I, et al. Comparison of nutritional quality of the vegan, vegetarian, semi-vegetarian, pesco-vegetarian and omnivorous diet.   Nutrients . 2014;6(3):1318–1332. doi:10.3390/nu6031318

Le, L., & Sabaté, J. (2014). Beyond Meatless, the Health Effects of Vegan Diets: Findings from the Adventist Cohorts . Nutrients, 6(6), 2131–2147. doi:10.3390/nu6062131

Mantzios M. Editorial: Mindfulness and Eating Behavior .  Front Psychol . 2018;9:1986. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2018.01986

Turner-McGrievy G, Mandes T, Crimarco A. A plant-based diet for overweight and obesity prevention and treatment.   J Geriatr Cardiol . 2017;14(5):369–374. doi:10.11909/j.issn.1671-5411.2017.05.002

Moore W, McGrievy M, Turner-McGrievy G.   Dietary adherence and acceptability of five different diets, including vegan and vegetarian diets, for weight loss : The New DIETs study.  Eating Behaviors . 2015;19:33-38.

Castañé, S., & Antón, A. (2017). Assessment of the nutritional quality and environmental impact of two food diets: A Mediterranean and a vegan diet . Journal of Cleaner Production, 167, 929–937. doi:10.1016/j.jclepro.2017.04.121

Janssen, M., Busch, C., Rödiger, M., & Hamm, U. (2016). Motives of consumers following a vegan diet and their attitudes towards animal agriculture . Appetite, 105, 643–651. doi:10.1016/j.appet.2016.06.039

Radnitz, C., Beezhold, B., & DiMatteo, J. (2015). Investigation of lifestyle choices of individuals following a vegan diet for health and ethical reasons . Appetite, 90, 31–36. doi:10.1016/j.appet.2015.02.026

Rizzo G, Laganà AS, Rapisarda AM, et al. Vitamin B12 among Vegetarians: Status, Assessment and Supplementation .  Nutrients . 2016;8(12):767. doi:10.3390/nu8120767

Sakkas H, Bozidis P, Touzios C, et al. Nutritional status and the influence of the vegan diet on the gut microbiota and human mealth .  Medicina (Kaunas) . 2020;56(2):88. doi:10.3390/medicina56020088

Iron . The Vegan Society.

Satija A, Bhupathiraju S. et al.   Healthful and Unhealthful Plant-Based Diets and the Risk of Coronary Heart Disease in U.S. Adults .  Journal of the American College of Cardiology . 2017;70(4):411-422. doi:10.1016/j.jacc.2017.05.047

Alexander S, Ostfeld RJ, Allen K, Williams KA. A plant-based diet and hypertension .  J Geriatr Cardiol . 2017;14(5):327–330. doi:10.11909/j.issn.1671-5411.2017.05.014

Clarys P, Deliens T, Huybrechts I, et al. Comparison of nutritional quality of the vegan, vegetarian, semi-vegetarian, pesco-vegetarian and omnivorous diet.   Nutrients . 2014;6(3):1318–1332. Published 2014 Mar 24. doi:10.3390/nu6031318

Harvard Women's Health Watch. " Becoming a Vegetarian ."

Kahleova H, Fleeman R, Hlozkova A, Holubkov R, Barnard ND. A plant-based diet in overweight individuals in a 16-week randomized clinical trial: metabolic benefits of plant protein.   Nutr Diabetes . 2018;8(1):58. Published 2018 Nov 2. doi:10.1038/s41387-018-0067-4

Mantzios M. Editorial: Mindfulness and Eating Behavior .  Front Psychol . 2018;9:1986. Published 2018 Oct 12. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2018.01986

Moore W, McGrievy M, Turner-McGrievy G.  Dietary adherence and acceptability of five different diets, including vegan and vegetarian diets, for weight loss : The New DIETs study.  Eating Behaviors . 2015;19:33-38.

Satija A, Bhupathiraju S. et al.  Healthful and Unhealthful Plant-Based Diets and the Risk of Coronary Heart Disease in U.S. Adults .  Journal of the American College of Cardiology . 2017;70(4):411-422. doi:10.1016/j.jacc.2017.05.047

• Craig WJ. " Health Effects of Vegan Diets ."  Am J Clin Nutr . 2009 May;89(5):1627S-1633S.

By Shereen Lehman, MS Shereen Lehman, MS, is a former writer for Verywell Fit and Reuters Health. She's a healthcare journalist who writes about healthy eating and offers evidence-based advice for regular people.

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Last updated May 29, 2023

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Blog > Common App , Essay Advice > How to Write a Great College Essay About Veganism

How to Write a Great College Essay About Veganism

Admissions officer reviewed by Ben Bousquet, M.Ed Former Vanderbilt University

Written by Kylie Kistner, MA Former Willamette University Admissions

Key Takeaway

People become vegan for a number of reasons. For some, it’s a deeply held personal choice, while for others it’s simply a matter of taste.

If you’re vegan, chances are that it’s a topic that’s important to you. You may even be wondering if veganism is something you should write about for your college essay.

Your college essay should be about something you are most passionate about, and veganism can allow you to talk about a core part of your values.

But veganism is also a fairly common topic that can at times be difficult to extract an original and meaningful message from.

Like any common topic, there are pros and cons to writing a personal statement about veganism. The topic isn’t off the table, but some approaches are more effective than others.

Where College Essays About Veganism Can Go Wrong

To achieve the goals of a personal statement, a college essay about veganism has to be about more than just your veganism.

After all, you are vegan for a reason. Something about the practice resonates with you at a deeper level. That significance is what you should focus on.

Two of the most common approaches to writing a college essay about veganism miss this mark because they rely too much on generalities instead of your deeply-held and identity-based reasons for being vegan.

“Why I became vegan”

The first ineffective approach is the surface-level “why I became vegan” or “how veganism changed my life” framework.

If veganism is something important to your lived experience, then it’s only logical that you’d want to write your college essay about what led you to be vegan or the specific ways being vegan has improved your life.

That is valuable. But too often essays that follow this approach give only common-knowledge reasons for being vegan. In doing so, they fail to address something truly meaningful about the writer.

A 2018 poll found that 3% of American adults identified as vegan, up from 2% in 2012. Your admissions officer is very likely familiar with the most common reasons behind veganism, so sharing this kind of surface-level answer is inadequate.

Unless you truly interrogate how veganism connects to a broader part of who you are, then your essay will leave an admissions committee wanting.

“Why you should be vegan”

The second common trope to avoid is the simple persuasive approach to “why you/everyone should be vegan.”

Maybe you do think everyone should be vegan. Maybe it’s even the belief that has sparked your interest in studying environmental science or food studies.

Because this topic carries a lot of weight, writing about why people should act a certain way takes a lot of time and care that is typically not possible in a personal statement.

A persuasive essay about veganism also says too much about others and not enough about who you are, so it’s best to find another approach.

Overall, college essays about veganism can go wrong when they make an admissions committee say, “That’s great! But now what?”

If you only write about your veganism, you leave the admissions committee with more questions than answers about who you are and why they should admit you.

Before you begin your college essay about veganism, you should consider asking yourself two questions:

How does my veganism relate to a larger part of who I am?

• And what do I want admissions officers to do with that information?

Using these questions as a guiding framework, let’s discuss two ways to go about writing your essay.

Effective ways to approach your college essay about veganism

Background and identity.

One way to make an essay about veganism stand out is by connecting your veganism to another significant part of your background or identity.

Instead of writing generally about why you became vegan, allow veganism to be only part of your more complex story.

Drawing these connections for the admissions committee will give them more genuine insight into who you are and what motivates you.

Consider the “how” and “why” behind your veganism to identify the value or motivation that is most central to you.

Did you go vegan after watching Food, Inc.?

Or maybe you grew up on a farm and your veganism is because of (or in spite of) your upbringing.

Or perhaps you simply have a dairy allergy and don’t like the taste of meat.

In all of these cases, the compelling story is not that you are vegan. Your veganism is compelling because it developed in a context that is specific to you.

Let’s plug the Food, Inc. example into our questions:

I went vegan after watching Food, Inc. > I watched Food, Inc. in health class. > I cried during the documentary because I felt bad for the animals that were being treated poorly. > I love my veganism because I can actively live out my compassion for animals.

And there it is! A compelling, motivating part of your identity: your compassion.

And what do I want admissions officers to do with this information?

I want admissions officers to know that I am deeply compassionate towards animals. > This compassion is a guiding principle for how I move throughout the world.

With these two questions answered, you have a seedling for your essay. If you find that your answers to the questions actually aren’t that compelling, then you might consider a different topic.

Related Interests

The second effective way to approach your essay about veganism is to relate it to a specific academic or co-curricular interest.

Your veganism can then be a vehicle through which you talk about another topic related to your goals and passions.

This approach is effective because it allows you to discuss something you’re personally passionate about (veganism) and connect it to another part of yourself (your interest or accomplishment) that gives the admissions officers more reason to admit you.

Probably the most popular connections are wanting to study environmental science or biology or being a climate or animal rights activist.

Let’s try the questions again:

I’m vegan. > I’ve joined and now lead an online community of vegans. > I’ve developed an academic interest in niche communities and am interested in learning more about them.

I have an extracurricular accomplishment managing an online community of 5,000+ members. > My veganism has led to a budding interest in the psychology and sociology of online groups.

Again, you’ve found the seed. You can use your newfound connections as the foundation of your college essay.

Key Takeaways

Veganism is deeply important to many people. If you’re one of them, it’s okay to write your college essay about it.

While some approaches are better than others, essays about veganism are still fairly common.

So if you choose to write one, make sure that you root your essay in genuine and specific examples that clearly illustrate how your veganism connects to a core part of you.

In the end, your college essay about veganism should showcase another value, belief, or interest that you hold deeply. Once you’ve determined what that looks like for you, check out our other resources for writing a college essay and creating a cohesive application narrative .

Liked that? Try this next.

The Incredible Power of a Cohesive College Application

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The Ethics of Veganism: Ethical Reasons to Go Vegan

Ethics is in origin the art of recommending to others the sacrifices required for cooperation with oneself.    -Bertrand Russell

Main Reasons for Going Vegan

On a basic level, there are generally three main reasons people cite for going vegan:

• Health Reasons for Veganism – A vegan diet, rich in fruit and veg, seeds, nuts and pulses, is seen by many as healthier than most omnivorous diets. This view is supported by plenty of scientific research.
• Environmental Reasons for Veganism – There have been numerous scientific studies that suggest a vegan diet has far less of a negative impact on the environment than one which includes meat (including fish), eggs and/or dairy.
• Ethical Reasons for Veganism – There is little doubt breeding, caging and slaughtering animals for food and other products causes those animals suffering. For many people this is not acceptable from a moral perspective.

In reality, the motivational factors that cause a person to follow a vegan lifestyle are nuanced and based on various personal convictions; but the three main reasons mentioned above, in whatever combination, play a significant role. Here we shall tackle the third of these and delve into the sometimes esoteric world of ethics.

We’ll start with a brief summary of the ethical case for veganism, and follow that with a basic explanation about what the term “ethics” refers to; but don’t worry, this isn’t going to be a long-winded philosophical treatise assessing the work of every great moral philosopher from Socrates, Plato and Artistotle to Thomas Aquinas, Immanuel Kant and John Stuart Mill (though you could do worse than read their pearls of wisdom on the subject)!

Instead, we will focus here on applied ethics in relation to veganism and the use of animals. We’ll also take a glance at the ethics of suffering, personhood, and environmental ethics with the aim of expanding on the summary of the moral case for veganism.

The Ethical Case for Veganism

The whole point of veganism is to minimise the exploitation of and cruelty to animals. Everyone gets that. But why? What is it about animals in particular, as opposed to trees or even lampposts, for example, that makes vegans so keen to protect them?

On a basic level, it is the ability of animals to suffer, to have the capacity to experience physical and – many would argue – psychological pain, which makes them worthy of our protection in the eyes of vegans, and many non-vegans for that matter.

There are a number of reasons within the ethical realm that motivate people to go vegan, including:

The abovementioned negatives of eating/farming meat must be weighed against the positives (as perceived by meat eaters); namely, meat can taste nice, it can be convenient, it can provide protein and other nutrients, it can be traditional (e.g. turkey at Christmas). So, the moral equation people should ask is: do the positives of eating meat outweigh the negatives? For vegans, the answer is no.

Here we’ll expand on some of the points introduced above, looking at suffering in more detail and glancing at other ethical issues relating to veganism. We will also take a look at some common arguments against veganism.

Veganism & the Ethics of Suffering

As English philosopher, Jeremy Bentham, stated in relation to animals in his 1789 book The Principles of Morals and Legislation , “the question is not, Can they reason? nor, can they talk? but, Can they suffer?” The implication being that if animals can indeed suffer, then it is wrong to cause them to suffer when there is an alternative (like eating a cauliflower steak, instead of a cow steak).

There have been several scientific studies over the years that have shown that animals do indeed possess the capacity to feel pain. And, there have been studies that also indicate some animals are capable of feeling empathy – a subject covered in some depth in the 1997 book by Lesley J Rogers, Minds of Their Own: Thinking and Awareness in Animals .

Given that many governments, including the UK, have laws to protect the welfare to some degree, it is safe to say that it has become accepted as fact that animals can suffer pain. Otherwise, why bother protecting them in law at all (albeit to a level which falls well short of what most vegans would hope for)? It is also telling that animals are used to assess the effectiveness of pain killers and other such medications, something else that would seemingly be pointless if they were unable to experience (and exhibit signs of experiencing) pain.

Are Animals Aware of Pain?

All animals are equal, but should some animals be more equal than others? There is disagreement amongst scientists about how many species of animals are capable of being consciously aware of pain when they experience it – indeed, whether or not they “experience” it at all. Clearly if a human stubs a toe, assuming they possess a fully working nervous system, they are going to know about it. But according to various research sources, there is a distinction between conscious pain and “pain” that is merely an unconscious detection of potentially damaging stimuli, known as nociception.

In a review of studies that claim to show that fish feel pain entitled Can fish really feel pain? (Rose et al, 2012), it is noted that cartilaginous fish (such as sharks and rays) do not possess the type of nociceptors (C fiber nociceptors or C type trauma receptors) found in humans and other mammals that are related to experiencing pain on a conscious level, and they also do not possess the cortical regions in the brain that are known to be related to feeling pain in humans.

While it is widely accepted that mammals are able to experience pain in a similar way to humans, there is a widely held belief that some animals, such as insects, nematodes, molluscs and other invertebrates, are incapable of feeling pain. With some exceptions, such as the fruit fly, most insects do not possess nociceptors at all, suggesting that they may well not possess the capacity to feel any pain, let alone be conscious of it.

It seems highly likely that different animals suffer pain to a greater or lesser degree; it would therefore follow that people might want to adjust their assessment of the necessary rights and protections of certain animals based on whether or not, and to what degree, they are able to experience pain. Which explains why “ostrovegans” exist – no, they don’t eat ostriches, they follow a mainly vegan diet but also consume bivalves, such as oysters and mussels on the basis that they believe they do not feel pain.

However, if humans accept that even most other animals are capable of suffering pain to some degree, many people would then conclude that wilfully causing such suffering is morally indefensible. When that suffering is instigated on a massive, industrialised scale, it is understandable when some vegans use terms such as “genocide” in relation to our treatment of animals.

Is An Animal a Person?

This might seem like a ludicrous question if you read the word “person” as “human”. But a person is not necessarily a human; and to many philosophers, a human is not necessarily a person. Confused yet? Australian moral philosopher, Peter Singer, has argued that in order to be classified as a person, an animal (and that includes human animals) must possess “rationality, autonomy, and self-consciousness”. Many dog owners would certainly argue their prized pooch possesses those characteristics, and many scientists who have studied primates, dolphins and even livestock, contend that is the case in these animals too.

If an animal can feel physical pain and experience it in a similar way to humans (that is, pain really flipping hurts!), that is one thing. But if an animal is also capable of anticipating pain, of comprehending their own existence and of wanting to prolong their existence, then the moral case against hauling animals to a slaughterhouse is surely strengthened.

There is plenty of anecdotal evidence suggesting animals (both farmed and pets) appear to “know” they are about to die. But without an effective means to communicate with animals, our grasp of their phenomenological experiences are limited at best. Still, given that this is even a possibility, vegans would argue it is better to play things safe rather than to expose animals to such psychological trauma.

Pleasure Versus Pain

It is extremely difficult to measure subjective experiences, such as pleasure and pain, especially in non-human animals who are unable to simply tell researches how much pain they are in. But, ethically speaking, the justification for eating an animal can be made if the pleasure gained by the eater outweighs the suffering caused to the eaten.

But there is another dimension to consider: the pleasure that would have been experienced by the animal in the remainder of its life had it not been slaughtered. Of course, if it was kept in cramped conditions that actually caused suffering, the animal might not have experienced much pleasure in the rest of its days.

But, what if a cow that was on the way to slaughter was instead taken to a sanctuary to live out its days in relative comfort and freedom? (As was the case when farmers in Derbyshire gave their herd of beef cows to an animal sanctuary instead of to slaughter, as detailed in the documentary, 73 Cows ). In this case, the animal would have a lot to lose by being slaughtered in its prime, thus tipping the balance further towards the side of the scale that points towards not eating the cow.

Also, when assessing the pleasure someone gains from eating meat, it should be compared to the pleasure gained from eating an available, non-meat alternative. So, does the extra pleasure gained from eating a burger made from beef compared to one made from beans, soya, mushrooms or any other non-meat product justify inflicting suffering on the cow? Vegans – and many others – would argue not, especially those people who have tried some of our top vegan burger recipes !

Ethical Arguments Against Veganism

Here we look as some of examples of ethical arguments that have been put forward against veganism.

Animals Are Slaughtered Quickly & Humanely

Humane slaughter is surely a contradiction in terms if by “humane” people mean “showing compassion” or similar, and by “slaughter” they mean “kills for food or other products”. Call us old-fashioned, but we like our compassion to come without the need to have our lives cut short, however quick the process is!

With the possibility that animals are able to understand they are going to be killed when rounded up, transported in cramped conditions in trucks and them potentially seeing and hearing their fellow animals being killed before them, the word “humane” is certainly not a great choice.

Animals Die When Crops Are Harvested

Another argument against veganism is that it would increase the amount of arable farming that would be required and that this would cause the death of animals (such as field mice) who might be nesting in the fields when they are harvested. The suggestion is that vegans can’t really care for animals if they are willing to let all these poor defenceless mice die or that it is unethical to cause these deaths!

This is a logical fallacy, of course. Taking account simply of the extra number of animals that would be likely to die as a result of an increase in arable farming; then comparing this to the number of animals lives that would be saved by reducing meat farming and it becomes clear that more lives would be saved than lost. Also the mice, or other animals, in question would have at least lived out their lives in the wild, free to roam where they chose, rather than being in captivity, which would, ethically speaking, appear likely to give them more pleasure.

What Would Happen to Farm Animals?

The question here, really, is what would we do with the farm animals if we didn’t kill them for food? If the whole world stopped eating meat on a given day, however unlikely that would be, there would be obvious implications for farmers and the animals that would therefore not need to be slaughtered. If this were ever the case, there is a strong moral case for subsidising farmers (or others) to care for the remaining animals for them rest of their natural days, and not encouraging any further breeding, thus eventually reducing the environmental effects.

It could be argued that restricting the breeding of former farm animals might be unethical on one level, but there could be a “greater good” argument (relating to the salvation of the planet!) that could counter this.

What Is Ethics?

Here, for those interested, we will give a brief explanation of the term ethics itself. Ethics is defined by Merriam-Webster as:

• “the discipline dealing with what is good and bad and with moral duty and obligation”
• “a set of moral principles : a theory or system of moral values”
• “the principles of conduct governing an individual or a group”

These interrelated definitions all revolve around the concept of morality, essentially the distinction between things that can be classified as “right” or “wrong”. Without wanting to fall into a semantic or linguistic rabbit hole, on a general level, most people are familiar with this concept in everyday life, and while one person’s moral code or ethics can differ greatly from that of another person, the idea that people will often make a conscious decision about their personal ethics is well understood.

Three Branches of Ethics

In academic terms, the study of ethics can be split into three main branches:

• Meta-Ethics – Looking at the nature of ethical stances or propositions, for example, addressing such questions as, “What does it mean to be ‘good’ or ‘bad’?”
• Normative Ethics – Examines how to discern a course of action based on morals, for examples asking, “What should one do?” in a given situation based on ethical principles.
• Applied Ethics – Revolves around the practical application of ethics in the “real world”, for example, whether euthanasia or abortion should be permitted in a given society.

When examining the ethics of veganism, as we haven’t the time to work towards a doctorate in the subject any time this decade, we have avoided venturing into the head-spinning realm of meta-ethics. But both normative and applied ethics have a place at the table when it comes to forming an ethical argument for veganism.

Normative Ethics & Veganism

One branch of normative ethics is particularly pertinent, in our eyes: consequentialism; that is the consequences – or probable consequences – of one’s actions (or inactions). This contrasts with deontological ethics, which is related more with the intentions of the actor rather than the actual consequences.

The two are not mutually exclusive, of course, as good intentions can often result in “good” consequences, but this is not always the case. Sometimes, often even, the consequences could be both good and bad, depending on a person’s standpoint. For example, if a parent has the good intention of ensuring their child is well-nourished by feeding them beef for dinner, the good consequences for the child might be a satiated appetite, a boost in protein, iron and energy; the bad consequences for the cow in question are obvious.

Under the umbrella of consequentialism, reside a number of complementary or conflicting philosophies. For example, ethical egoism relates to the promotion of net pleasure (pleasure minus pain) for the individual; this is similar to but contrasts with utilitarianism, which Jeremy Bentham claimed should aim for the “greatest happiness for the greatest number”. To put it another way, to paraphrase Bentham, the aim of utilitarianism is to maximise the “utility” (worth or value) and minimise pain and suffering for the greatest number of people.

Utilitarianism & Veganism

Taking utilitarianism as our framework within which we can assess the arguments for veganism from an ethical point of view, whether the promotion of happiness relates to humans only or is expanded to non-human animals, there are ethical arguments to support veganism, as detailed above.

Even if people are not concerned with animal welfare per se, the environmental benefits to the planet and hence humanity as a whole are well documented. Even the ethical egoist has reasons to go vegan, depending on his/her calculation of the health benefits of a vegan diet when weighed against the pleasure gained from eating meat above that gained from eating non-meat alternatives.

In summary, despite there being plenty of sound ethical arguments in favour of veganism, people’s moral compasses vary enormously, and while some people are unaware of many of the facts about how meat is produced, and how animals are treated, others are well aware but choose to turn a blind eye.

This is something people do with many potentially troubling issues in the world, from the destruction of the environment to homeless people living on the streets in some of the richest cities in the world. For some people, it is just easier to live that way.

But as veganism grows in popularity around the world, there is the distinct possibility that the compassion vegan ethics promotes in relation to animals might produce benefits for humanity and the planet as a whole. We live in hope.

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Arguments For and Against Veganism

For veganism.

• ANIMAL WELFARE: Eating meat requires the death of a living being. Eating dairy usually involves animals being separated from their children, causing distress to both mother and calf. Dairy cattle frequently develop bovine mastitis (a painful infection and inflammation of the udders), and factory farmed animals are kept in cramped conditions and pumped full of antibiotics and growth hormones in order to maximise profit. Unlike wild animals, humans do not require meat to survive (and definitely not dairy products from other animals). Eating meat is a choice and, as moral actors, the correct choice is surely to give up meat and dairy.
• ENVIRONMENT: When cows eat grass, microbes in their gut break down their meal and produce methane. This methane (a greenhouse gas) is released into the atmosphere via the magic of cow burps and farts, making livestock farming one of the biggest contributors to global warming. Factor in deforestation from land clearance, biodiversity loss, and air and water pollution, and animal agriculture is terrible for the environment.
• HEALTH: Vegan diets tend to be rich in foods that have proven health benefits: fresh fruit, vegetables, seeds, nuts, beans and pulses. A vegan diet is typically higher in fibre, and  lower  in cholesterol, protein, calcium and salt compared to a non-vegan diet. Research suggests that vegans may have a lower risk of heart disease than non-vegans. It is true that vegans need to supplement their diets with B12, but this is easy to do (e.g. via yeast extracts such as Marmite).

AGAINST Veganism

• NATURE: Humans (and our ancestors) have eaten meat for an estimated  2.6 million years . In fact, scientists argue that animal protein was vital for helping early hominids develop larger brains, meaning that humans likely wouldn’t even exist if it weren’t for eating meat. We evolved to have meat as part of our diets. Animals eat meat and it would be cruel to prevent them from doing so. Well, guess what? Humans are animals too, and meat is a natural part of our diets.
• CULTURE: Food is a central part of all human cultures. And, around the world, people celebrate their cultures by cooking meat dishes. If the world went vegan, we would lose iconic cultural traditions such as bolognese sauce, tandoori chicken, sashimi, currywurst, and Peking duck.
• HEALTH: A balanced diet is a healthy diet. Eating moderate amounts of fish, meat, and dairy alongside fruit, vegetables and pulses gives us all the vitamins, minerals, fatty acids, and other things we need to stay healthy. Research does suggest that vegans have a lower risk of heart disease, but that same research also indicates they have a higher risk of strokes (possibly due to B12 deficiency), and it’s unclear whether the supposed health benefits of veganism are anyway less about diet and more about broader lifestyle (e.g. vegans tend to exercise more, be non-smokers, not drink to excess, be more moderate in what they consume, etc.).

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• PMC10027313

The Impact of a Vegan Diet on Many Aspects of Health: The Overlooked Side of Veganism

1 Internal Medicine / Nephrology, Geisinger Health System, Wilkes-Barre, USA

2 Medicine, Geisinger Commonwealth School of Medicine, Scranton, USA

3 Medicine, Geisinger Medical Center, Danville, USA

4 Internal Medicine, Geisinger Health System, Wilkes-Barre, USA

Vegetarianism in any of its various forms, particularly veganism, has been increasing in popularity over the past few years, especially among the young population in the United States. While several studies have shown that a vegan diet (VD) decreases the risk of cardiometabolic diseases, such as cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes mellitus, obesity, and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, veganism has been associated with adverse health outcomes, namely, nervous, skeletal, and immune system impairments, hematological disorders, as well as mental health problems due to the potential for micro and macronutrient deficits. The goal of this review article is to discuss the current literature on the impact and long-term consequences of veganism on vulnerable populations, including children, adolescents, pregnant and breastfeeding women, and fetal outcomes in strict vegan mothers. It also focuses on the many deficiencies of the vegan diet, especially vitamin B12, and the related increased risk of malignancies.

Introduction and background

Vegetarianism in various forms has gained widespread popularity in recent years. These types include vegans, who adhere to the most stringent dietary restrictions, omitting all animal-source foods and their by-products from the diet. Others include lactovegetarians (no meat, fish, or eggs but do consume dairy goods), ovo-vegetarians (no meat, fish, or dairy products but do consume eggs), lacto-ovo-vegetarians (no meat but do consume eggs and dairy products), and pescatarians (no meat except fish and shellfish) [ 1 , 2 ]. There has been growing interest in dietary habits given the worsening obesity epidemic and obesity-related health concerns [ 3 , 4 ]. Obesity is an established risk factor for diabetes mellitus, which, in turn, is an independent risk factor for coronary artery disease [ 5 ]. While studies have shown that a vegan diet (VD) may be associated with improved health outcomes [ 6 , 7 ], the negative health repercussions of these food preferences, on the other hand, are rarely highlighted, and veganism may be associated with negative health effects due to nutritional deficiencies.

Additionally, vegans have a greater prevalence of mental health problems, which may lead to a poorer quality of life. An optimal diet should be balanced, consisting of lean meat, nuts, fresh fruits and vegetables, and olive oil (Figure ​ (Figure1) 1 ) [ 8 , 9 ]. A wholesome diet is essential in maintaining a healthy gut flora, which in turn is pivotal in avoiding inflammatory disorders [ 10 - 13 ]. The primary aim of this review will be to draw attention to the current literature associated with veganism, including the side effects of practicing a VD and long-term consequences for a variety of populations, including adults, adolescents, pregnant and lactating women, and the fetal outcomes of vegan mothers.‬‬‬‬‬‬

A recent systematic study examined the intake and adequacy of the VD in terms of macro and micronutrient intake in the adult European population. The study found that vegans consumed the least total protein compared to other diet groups, confirming concerns that VD may include insufficient protein, particularly in instances where legume, seed, and nut consumption is limited [ 14 ]. Vegans consume fewer essential amino acids than non-vegans [ 15 ]. Plant proteins are less digestible (50-70%) than animal proteins, and food processing methods like heating may further reduce digestibility. According to the WHO, animal proteins are considered complete proteins and have higher biological value, protein efficiency ratio, net protein utilization, and, ultimately, have a higher Protein Digestibility Corrected Amino Acid Score (PDCAAS) compared to plant proteins [ 16 , 17 ]. By and large, soy proteins constitute a significant protein source for most vegans [ 18 ].

Vitamin B12

Low vitamin B12 intake is a significant problem in vegan diets due to the exclusion of vitamin B12-rich foods such as meat, poultry, and eggs. A lack of vitamin B12 has been linked to neurologic and hematologic problems [ 19 ]. Low vitamin B12 intake has serious clinical consequences, although deficient symptoms appear gradually over time. High folate levels may also partly and temporarily obscure some of the typical vitamin B12 hematological manifestations. To prevent vitamin B12 deficiency, vegans must get their levels checked regularly and meet their daily requirements via supplements or fortified foods.

A growing body of research indicates that inadequate B12 consumption may contribute to carcinogenesis. Vitamin B12 deficiency increases uracil misincorporation, impairing DNA synthesis and genomic instability. Global hypomethylation of DNA is a characteristic of early carcinogenesis. Thus, if not adequately replaced, VD may inadvertently lead to cancers [ 20 ]. Wu et al found that blood B12 levels were substantially lower in menopausal and postmenopausal breast cancer patients, and patients with the lowest B12 levels had an elevated risk of breast cancer [ 21 ]. Reduced B12 levels have also been linked to an increased risk of cervical and gastrointestinal tract malignancies [ 22 - 24 ]. As a result, B12 supplementation is imperative for vegans due to the extensive and irreversible detrimental effects of the deficiencies.

Other minerals and micronutrients

Vegans have greater iron needs than other diet patterns [ 25 ], mainly because non-heme iron from plant-based foods is less bioavailable, as absorption is hindered by whole grains, legumes, and nuts due to their phytic acid content [ 26 ]. Vegans also have a zinc deficit. While meat, dairy, and eggs contain zinc, some zinc-rich plant foods (e.g., nuts, seeds, and whole grains) have poor bioavailability owing to the presence of phytate, which inhibits absorption in the gut [ 16 ]. Inadequate zinc consumption may be associated with mental health problems (e.g., depression), dermatitis, diarrhea, and alopecia, all of which are more prevalent among vegans [ 27 , 28 ]. Selenium insufficiency has also been seen among vegetarians.

Vitamin D, calcium, bone mineral density, and risk of fractures

Numerous studies have shown that vegans consume insufficient calcium and vitamin D, not only owing to the absence of dairy products but also due to calcium bioavailability problems in plant-based diets [ 28 ]. Vitamin D insufficiency exacerbates calcium shortage further owing to impaired intestinal absorption. After adjusting for socioeconomic variables, lifestyle covariates, and body mass index (BMI), a recent study reported that as compared to meat-eaters, there was an increased risk of hip fractures observed in vegetarians (HR 1.25; CI 1.04-1.50), vegans (2.31; 1.66-3.22), and fish eaters (1.26; 1.02-1.54) [ 29 ]. Vegans also had a greater incidence of overall fracture (1.43; 1.20-1.70), leg fractures (2.05; 1.23-3.41), and fractures in other major sites (1.59; 1.02-2.50). The higher risk of fractures may be related to vegans' significantly lower calcium intake, reduced dietary protein intake, and lower BMI [ 30 - 32 ].

Mental health

The most recent systematic review [ 33 ], which included eighteen studies, compared meat abstainers versus meat eaters in terms of mental health. The research included 160,257 individuals (85,843 females and 73,232 men) from various geographic areas, including 149,559 meat eaters and 8584 meat abstainers (aged 11 to 96 years). Eleven of the 18 studies found that meat-free diets were linked with worse psychological health, four were inconclusive, and three found that meat-free diets resulted in improved results. The most thorough research found that meat-avoiders (i.e., "full vegetarians") had a 7.4%, 24.1 %, and 35.2% 1-month, 12-month, and lifetime prevalence of unipolar depressive disorders, respectively. In contrast, meat consumers had a much lower prevalence: 6.3%, 11.9%, and 19.1%. Similarly, the 1-month, 12-month, and lifetime prevalence of anxiety disorders for meat abstainers were much higher at 20.4%, 31.5%, 31.5%, and 10.7%, 17.0%, and 18.4% in the meat eaters respectively. The study highlights the high incidence of mental health problems among vegans, emphasizing the vital need of increasing awareness of these illnesses to facilitate early intervention. Women notably appeared to be adversely impacted by mental disorders such as stress [ 34 - 36 ].

Orthorexia nervosa (ON) is defined as a fixation on health-conscious eating behavior [ 37 ]. It involves obsessive (compulsive) food decisions, self-imposed anxiety, self-punishment, and increasingly extreme limitations. As a result of diet-related concerns, individuals develop dietary restrictions, lack of food pleasure, inflexible and rigid eating behaviors, and ritual activities surrounding food preparations. Vegetarian, and vegan, women are more prone than males to have disordered eating attitudes and practices [ 38 ].

Although some studies indicate a reduction in mortality associated with vegetarianism and VD, the larger body of evidence indicates that the health benefits associated with vegetarianism may be due to other “lifestyle” factors associated with socioeconomic statuses, such as adequate physical activity, low alcohol, and drug consumption, or avoidance of tobacco products. Recently, Johnston et al. argued that the evidence supporting public health recommendations to reduce or eliminate meat intake was based on questionable studies and "inappropriate analysis" [ 39 ]. This argument and the growing body of contrasting and conflicting findings create a conundrum for doctors and policymakers alike.

Effects on children and adolescents

Adolescents are also known to show a strong preference for VD. A balanced diet is critical for children and adolescents to meet their bodies' rising demands during the growth spurt, rendering the implications of VD in this vulnerable age more intriguing. A recent study examined the anthropometry, dietary intakes, and nutritional status of 149 vegetarians, 115 vegans, and 137 omnivore children and adolescents using a cross-sectional design (6-18 years old, mean age: 12.7 ± 3.9 years) [ 40 ]. Vegetarians and vegans consumed more carbohydrates than omnivores (p = 0.0002). Vegetarians (p = 0.02) had the lowest protein consumption, however, vitamin B2, D3, HDL-C, and triglyceride blood concentrations did not differ between diet groups. The authors concluded that there are no specific nutrient concerns among vegetarian, vegan children and adolescents compared to omnivores. The study's cross-sectional design and lack of representativity should be considered when interpreting the findings.

In contrast to the above study, subsequent cross-sectional studies showed that vegetarian and/or vegan children had a lower bone mineral density (BMD) [ 41 , 42 ]. Desmond et al. observed that vegetarians and vegans were shorter than omnivores (-0.32 and -0.57 height z scores, respectively), but the difference was non-significant in vegetarians [ 42 ]. The research showed that after controlling for body size, vegan children had substantially lower vitamin D levels and BMD than omnivores. It is suggested to maximize childhood BMD to promote peak BMD and therefore reduce the risk of osteoporosis and fracture in adulthood. The authors concluded that vegans had lower BMDs even when body and bone size were taken into consideration. It does not seem to be ideal to start puberty, a period when bone-specific nutrition requirements are greater, with an already established BMD deficiency. If such deficiencies continue throughout adolescence as a result of a diet, they may raise the likelihood of poor bone outcomes later in life. Prospective longitudinal studies are required to better understand the consequences of VD on children and adolescents.

Effects on pregnancy, fetal outcomes, and lactation

Optimal fetal growth requires balanced maternal nutrition during pregnancy. Mothers on rigorous VD are at risk of vitamin insufficiency, which can lead to poor fetal outcomes. A recent study included 273 women, including 112 omnivores, 37 fish eaters, 64 lacto-ovo-vegetarians, and 60 vegans, respectively [ 43 ]. In comparison to an omnivorous diet, the vegan diet was substantially linked with an elevated risk of small-for-gestational-age infants (RR = 5.9, 95 percent CI, 1.2-21.8). All the groups had a similar incidence of preterm births. Birthweight in vegans was lower compared to lacto-ovo-vegetarians (3015 ± 420 g vs. 3285 ± 482 g, P = 0.004) and to omnivores (3328 ± 495 g, P < 0.001) but not to fish-eaters. Vegans also had a lower mean gestational weight gain compared only to omnivores (11.6 ± 4.2 kg vs. 14.3 ± 4.6 kg, P = 0.001). A review of 13 low and middle-income nations found low docosahexaenoic acid levels in breast milk in mothers on plant-based diets but greater in the fish-eating population [ 44 ].

Maternal B12 status influences their offspring’s B12 levels and is an independent risk factor for neural tube defects (NTD) [ 45 ]. Studies have shown an association between low B12, low birth weight, and pre-term delivery [ 46 ]. A Chinese study associated increased maternal pickled vegetable consumption with NTD due to excessive nitrate, nitrite, and N-nitroso compound content [ 47 ]. They found that eating pickled vegetables more frequently (>6 meals/week) increased the risk of NTD. The investigators also found that maternal consumption of meat, eggs, or milk (>1 meal/week) reduced the risk of NTD. Vegan mothers may have poor prenatal nutritional status, resulting in low maternal fat reserves for breastfeeding. The postpartum nutritional profile of vegetarian mothers declines without sufficient energy intake, thus maternal nutritional reserves are lost to promote infant normal development. 

Providers should evaluate a woman's nutrition and energy consumption frequently. Women on restrictive diets may need to take supplements or eat fortified foods to meet the required needs throughout pregnancy and breastfeeding. Plant-based diets during pregnancy and breastfeeding need a heightened awareness of the importance of consuming all necessary nutrients and vitamin supplements, as recommended by international guidelines [ 48 ].

Conclusions

While veganism has been shown to decrease the risk of cardiovascular and metabolic syndrome, it also carries the potential for micro- and macronutrient deficits. It should be noted that vegans often have better socioeconomic levels, live a healthier lifestyle with more physical exercise, and tend to smoke less compared to non-vegetarians, making it difficult to isolate the effects of veganism in observational research. Existing research is often skewed by selection bias, which is when the study sample is chosen based on prior eating patterns and such studies are often recruited in environments with a high level of health awareness. Our review focuses on the impact of veganism on vulnerable populations, including children, adolescents, pregnant and breastfeeding women, and fetal outcomes in strict vegan mothers. Vegans should be closely monitored and treated for nutritional deficiencies, in order to mitigate any long-term negative health outcomes. Given the growing interest in diets without animal protein intake in the general population, it is crucial, now more than ever, to have a clear understanding of both the risks and benefits of such diets among clinicians, policymakers, and the public.

The content published in Cureus is the result of clinical experience and/or research by independent individuals or organizations. Cureus is not responsible for the scientific accuracy or reliability of data or conclusions published herein. All content published within Cureus is intended only for educational, research and reference purposes. Additionally, articles published within Cureus should not be deemed a suitable substitute for the advice of a qualified health care professional. Do not disregard or avoid professional medical advice due to content published within Cureus.

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

• The Strongest Argument for Veganism

This collection of articles was first published on the website of Sentience Politics .

Strong arguments derive their (surprising, counter-intuitive and far-reaching) conclusions from modest premises that everybody accepts. Here’s one such premise:

(1) We shouldn’t be cruel to animals, i.e. we shouldn’t harm animals unnecessarily.

(2) The consumption of animal products harms animals.

This is quite obvious for meat, but it’s also true for milk and eggs . Animals often suffer terribly as a result of overbreeding, from dreadful conditions on farms, during transportation and in the slaughterhouse. Studies show that stunning fails regularly . The egg industry painfully gasses all male chicks right after they hatch. In short: The production of animal foods generally leads to lots of acts of violence against animals and large amounts of suffering. – Here’s a further premise:

(3) The consumption of animal products is unnecessary.

One might ask how this third premise could be uncontroversial, given that food production is a pretty necessary practice. The question, however, is not “Is food necessary?”, but “Is animal food necessary (here and now)?” – Or in other words: “Are there viable nutritional alternatives to animal products?” For one cannot plausibly argue that something is necessary in the presence of viable alternatives. So let’s take a look at the scientific facts: The Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics – the largest nutritional organisation in the world – has a position paper stating that “appropriately planned vegetarian diets, including total vegetarian or vegan diets, are healthful, nutritionally adequate, and may provide health benefits in the prevention and treatment of certain diseases.” Official health bodies around the globe support this view . And the existence of millions of healthy vegans and a growing number of vegan top athletes bears it out. Also, “appropriate planning” is very easy in today’s world – healthy and tasty vegan (or at least vegetarian) food is available everywhere.

To sum it up: If our own health depended on eating animals, then there could be an argument for violence against animals (serving nutritional purposes) being necessary. But that’s not the case. We’re not inflicting horrible suffering on animals in order to preserve our own health and thus prevent our own suffering. We’re inflicting suffering on billions of animals in order to get a little more culinary pleasure at most. And very likely not even that: In an experiment at the University of Bochum , 90% of the students didn’t notice that their “beef goulash” was vegan. The availability of vegan gourmet food is increasing rapidly too. Last but not least, it’s largely a matter of culinary socialization anyway: Nobody craves exotic foods (such as dog, dolphin or chimp meat) that don’t exist and are taboo in our society. The same would be true in a vegan society (providing plenty tasty cruelty-free meats) with regard to all meat that requires violence against any sentient animal.

The (rather trivial) premises (1) – (3) logically imply that the consumption of animal products harms animals unnecessarily and satisfies the definition of “cruelty to animals”, which leads to the conclusion:

To recap the Strongest Argument for Veganism:

(1) We shouldn’t be cruel to animals, i.e. we shouldn’t harm animals unnecessarily. (2) The consumption of animal products harms animals. (3) The consumption of animal products is unnecessary. (4) Therefore, we shouldn’t consume animal products.

At which point could one plausibly block this line of reasoning?

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54 Veganism Essay Topic Ideas & Examples

🏆 best veganism topic ideas & essay examples, ⭐ good research topics about veganism, ❓ veganism research questions.

• Vegan vs. Vegetarian Diets: Impacts on Health However, vegetarians have the option of consuming animal products like eggs and milk, but this option is not available to vegans; vegetarians tend to avoid the intake of all the animal proteins.
• The Impact of Vegan and Vegetarian Diets on Diabetes Vegetarian diets are popular for a variety of reasons; according to the National Health Interview Survey in the United States, about 2% of the population reported following a vegetarian dietary pattern for health reasons in […]
• Health 2 Go: Vegan Waffles for Everyone All fruits and berries are purchased daily from local suppliers and stored in a contaminant-free unit of the Health 2 Go.
• City’s Finest as a Vegan Ethical Shoe Brand The brand is focused on authenticity and transparency, producing the shoes locally and sourcing recycled and reclaimed materials that combine the principles of veganism and sustainability.
• Moral Status of Animals: Vegetarianism and Veganism The significance of acknowledging the concept of sentience in this context is the fact that vegetarians and vegans accept the idea that animals are like humans when they feel something.
• Vegan Parents’ Influence on Their Children’s Diet The first reason why a vegan diet should not be imposed on children is that every parent should pay close attention to the needs of their toddlers.
• Positive Reasons and Outcomes of Becoming Vegan Being vegan signifies a philosophy and manner of living that aims at excluding, as much as achievable, any kind of exploitation of, and cruelty against, animals for meat, clothing and other uses while promoting and […]
• Herb’aVors Vegan Drive-Thru Product Business Model As a result, the wide public will be able to receive the brand-new service with the excellent health promotion characteristics and traditional cultural implications of fast-food. The breakthrough of the offered concept is the vegan-based […]
• The Culture of Veganism Among the Middle Class According to Hooker, the culture of veganism has become so popular among the middle class that it is easy to associate it with the class. In this research, the focus will be to analyze the […]
• The Shattered Into Pieces: Veganism
• How Veganism Could Contribute to a Human’s Life
• Utilitarian Defense for Veganism
• The Myth Behind the Claim That Veganism Is a Healthy Balanced Diet
• The Definition, History, and Benefits of Veganism, a Lifestyle Choice
• The Ethical Argument for Veganism
• Veganism: Pro and Contra Arguments
• Vegetarianism and Veganism: Not Eating Meat
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• What Does Veganism Mean?
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• Veganism Might Save Us: From One Meat Lover to Another
• Why Is Veganism an Ethical Issue?
• Is Veganism Harmful to Health?
• Why Is Veganism a Social Issue?
• What Is the Main Idea of Veganism?
• How Does the Body Change While Following Veganism?
• What Percentage of the World Is Veganism?
• What Does Veganism Allow You to Eat?
• How Many Animals Are Saved by Veganism?
• Why Do People Stop Following Veganism?
• What Country Is Mostly Veganism?
• In Which Country Is It the Hardest to Stick To Veganism?
• How Long Can People Stick To Veganism?
• What Challenges Do Vegans Face?
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Home — Essay Samples — Life — Lifestyle & Interests — Vegan

Essays About Being a Vegan

The importance of writing an essay on veganism.

Writing an essay on veganism is important because it helps to raise awareness about the benefits of a plant-based lifestyle. Veganism is not just a dietary choice, but a way of living that has a positive impact on the environment, animal welfare, and personal health. By writing an essay on veganism, you can educate others about the ethical and environmental reasons for choosing a vegan lifestyle, and inspire them to make more conscious choices.

Here are some tips for writing an essay on veganism:

• Research the topic thoroughly to understand the key principles of veganism and its impact on different aspects of life.
• Include statistics and studies to support your points about the environmental and health benefits of veganism.
• Address common misconceptions about veganism and provide evidence to debunk them.
• Include personal stories or testimonials from vegans to add a human element to your essay.
• Consider the opposition and address counterarguments in a respectful and informative manner.
• End your essay with a call to action, encouraging readers to consider the positive impact of veganism on their lives and the world.

By writing an essay on veganism, you can contribute to the growing conversation about sustainability and ethical living. Your words have the power to spark change and inspire others to make more conscious decisions for a better world.

Best Vegan Essay Topics

Looking for inspiration for your vegan essay? Here are 20 unique and engaging Essay Topics that go beyond the ordinary:

• The impact of veganism on the environment
• The ethics of animal testing in the beauty industry
• The rise of plant-based meat alternatives
• Veganism and social justice
• The health benefits of a vegan diet
• The portrayal of veganism in the media
• Veganism and cultural appropriation
• The future of vegan fashion
• Veganism and food accessibility
• The intersection of veganism and feminism
• Veganism and spirituality
• The role of veganism in combating climate change
• Veganism and sustainable living
• The challenges of being a vegan athlete
• The impact of veganism on global food systems
• Veganism and mental health
• The cultural significance of vegan food
• The economics of the vegan industry
• Veganism and food deserts
• The psychology of veganism

Vegan Essay Topics Prompts

Looking for a creative spark for your vegan essay? Here are 5 engaging prompts to get you started:

• Imagine a world where veganism is the norm. How would society be different?
• Write a letter to a non-vegan friend, explaining why you chose a vegan lifestyle.
• Create a dialogue between two people with opposing views on veganism.
• If animals could talk, what would they say about veganism?
• Write a persuasive essay convincing someone to adopt a vegan diet.

With these thought-provoking Essay Topics and creative prompts, you'll be well on your way to writing a compelling and impactful essay on veganism. Happy writing!

The Positive Effects of Being in a Vegan Diet

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Veganism is the practice of abstaining from the use of animal products, particularly in diet, and an associated philosophy that rejects the commodity status of animals. An individual who follows the diet or philosophy is known as a vegan.

Vegetarianism can be traced to Indus Valley Civilization in 3300-1300 BCE in the Indian subcontinent, particularly in northern and western ancient India. Early vegetarians included Indian philosophers such as Parshavnatha, Mahavira, Acharya Kundakunda, Umaswati, Samantabhadra, and the Tamil poet Valluvar; the Indian emperors Chandragupta Maurya and Ashoka; Greek philosophers such as Empedocles, Theophrastus, Plutarch, Plotinus, and Porphyry; and the Roman poet Ovid and the playwright Seneca the Younger. The Greek sage Pythagoras may have advocated an early form of strict vegetarianism.

Ethical vegans” also avoid the use of animal products like skin (leather or fur), feathers, and other things that cause animal suffering during production. Approximately 5% of the US is vegetarian (close to 16 million people), and about half of those are vegan - meaning about 7.5 million Americans abstain from all animal products. Vegans get their protein from products like lentils, black beans, veggie burgers, tofu, nuts, peanut butter, and soy milk.

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Why we shouldn’t all be vegan

Visiting Research Fellow in Philosophy, University of Hertfordshire

Professor of Food Science and Biotechnology, Vrije Universiteit Brussel

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Martin Cohen has no formal conflicts of interests although in a wider sense he is a long-time campaigner on ecological issues and the author of a recent book advancing philosophical and sociological arguments for a more ethical and holistic approach to food.

Frédéric Leroy receives research funding from various foundations and councils, incuding the Research Foundation Flanders and his University's Research Council. He is affiliated pro-bono with both the Belgian Association of Meat Science and Technology, a non-funded academic organisation grouping various Belgian scientists, and the scientific committee of the Institute Danone Belgium.

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After decades in which the number of people choosing to cut out meat from their diet has steadily increased, 2019 is set to be the year the world changes the way that it eats. Or at least, that’s the ambitious aim of a major campaign under the umbrella of an organisation simply called EAT . The core message is to discourage meat and dairy, seen as part of an “over-consumption of protein” – and specifically to target consumption of beef.

The push comes at a time when consumer behaviour already seems to be shifting. In the three years following 2014, according to research firm GlobalData, there was a six-fold increase in people identifying as vegans in the US, a huge rise – albeit from a very low base. It’s a similar story in the UK, where the number of vegans has increased by 350%, compared to a decade ago, at least according to research commissioned by the Vegan Society.

And across Asia, many governments are promoting plant-based diets. New government dietary guidelines in China, for example, call on the nation’s 1.3 billion people to reduce their meat consumption by 50% . Flexitarianism, a mostly plant-based diet with the occasional inclusion of meat, is also on the rise .

‘Conquering the world’

Big food companies have noticed the shift and have jumped onto the vegan wagon, the most prominent ones tightly associated with EAT through its FReSH program . Unilever, for instance, is a very vocal partner. Recently, the multinational announced it was acquiring a meat-substitute company called “The Vegetarian Butcher”. It described the acquisition as part of a strategy to expand “into plant-based foods that are healthier and have a lower environmental impact”. Currently, Unilever sells just under 700 products under the “V-label” in Europe.

“The Vegetarian Butcher” was conceived in 2007 by farmer Jaap Kortweg, chef Paul Brom and marketer Niko Koffeman, a Dutch Seventh-Day Adventist who is vegetarian for religious and ideological reasons. Koffeman is also at the origin of the Partij voor de Dieren , a political party advocating for animal rights in The Netherlands. Like EAT, the Vegetarian Butcher seeks to “ conquer the world ”. Its mission is “to make plant-based ‘meat’ the standard” – and the alliance with Unilever paves the way.

The dietary shift would require a remarkable turn around in consumer habits. Of course, there is much that both can and should be done to improve the way that we eat, both in terms of consumer health and environmental impact. And yes, a key plank of the strategy will be shifting consumers away from beef. But the extreme vision of some of the campaign’s backers is somewhat startling. Former UN official Christiana Figueres, for example, thinks that anyone who wants a steak should be banished. “How about restaurants in ten to 15 years start treating carnivores the same way that smokers are treated?”, Figueres suggested during a recent conference. “If they want to eat meat, they can do it outside the restaurant.”

This statement is typical of what social scientists call “ bootlegger and Baptist ” coalitions, in which groups with very different ideas – and values – seek to rally under a common banner. And this is what worries us. The campaign to “conquer the world” can be rather simplistic and one-sided, and we think this has some dangerous implications.

A skewed view?

EAT, for example, describes itself as a science-based global platform for food system transformation . It has partnered with Oxford and Harvard universities, as well as with the medical journal The Lancet. But we have concerns that some of the science behind the campaign and the policy is partial and misleading.

It is long on things that we all know are bad, such as some excesses of factory farming and rainforest clearing to raise beef cattle. But it is mostly silent on such things as the nutritional assets of animal products, especially for children in rural African settings, and the sustainability benefits of livestock in areas as diverse as sub-Saharan Africa to traditional European upland valleys. And, if vegetarian diets show that traditional markers for heart disease, such as “total cholesterol”, are usually improved, this is not the case for the more predictive (and thus valuable) markers such as the triglyceride/HDL (or “good” cholesterol) ratio, which even tend to deteriorate .

More importantly, most nutritional “evidence” originates from epidemiology, which is not able to show causation but only statistical correlations. Not only are the associations weak , the research is generally confounded by lifestyle and other dietary factors . Not to mention that part of the epidemiological data, such as the PURE study , show that the consumption of meat and dairy can be associated with less – rather than more – chronic disease.

Not so simple

In any case, even if plant-based diets can in theory provide the nutrients people need, as long as they are supplemented with critical micronutrients (such as vitamin B12 and certain long-chain fatty acids), that is not to say that in practice shifting people towards them will not result in a great many people following poorly balanced diets and suffering ill health in consequence. And when a vegan diet fails, for instance due to poor supplementation, it may result in serious physical and cognitive impairment and failure to thrive .

The approach seems particularly risky during pregnancy and for the very young , as also documented by a long list of clinical case reports in medical literature. Animal products are exceptionally nutrient-dense dietary sources – removing them from the diet compromises metabolic robustness. Without sufficient insight in the complexities of nutrition and human metabolism, it is easy to overlook important issues as the proportion of nutrients that can be absorbed from the diet, nutrient interactions and protein quality.

The same debate needs to be had when it comes to consideration of the environmental question. Too fast or radical a shift towards “plant-based” diets risks losing realistic and achievable goals, such as increasing the benefits of natural grazing and embracing farming techniques that reduce the wasteful feeding of crops to animals, lower climate impact and enhance biodoversity.

A shift towards a radically plant-based planetary diet loses the many benefits of livestock – including its deployment on land that is not suitable for crop production, its contribution to livelihoods, and the many other benefits that animals provide. It mistakenly assumes that land use can be swiftly altered and ignores the potential of farming techniques that may even have mitigating effects .

Sustainable, ecological and harmonious animal production really should be part of the solution of the “world food problem”, considered from both the nutritional and environmental scenarios. The Earth is an extraordinarily complex ecosystem – any one-size-fits-all solution risks wreaking havoc with it.

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Introduction: Thinking Through Veganism

• First Online: 25 May 2018

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• Emelia Quinn 6 &
• Benjamin Westwood 7  

Part of the book series: Palgrave Studies in Animals and Literature ((PSAAL))

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This introduction outlines the social, environmental, and intellectual contexts shaping the emergence of vegan theory. It establishes an understanding of veganism’s messy, contradictory aspects, which runs counter to contemporary conceptualizations of it as a faddish diet or punitive set of proscriptions. Quinn and Westwood argue that veganism is situated between two opposing, but necessary poles: utopianism and insufficiency, aligned respectively with the work of Carol J. Adams and Jacques Derrida. The importance of these coordinates derives from their opposition: veganism as a confluence of utopian impulses, and the acknowledgement of their inevitable insufficiency. This introduction shows how thinking through veganism—as a heuristic lens and topic in its own right—opens out onto a wide variety of issues and questions explored in the following essays.

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The Ism in Veganism: The Case for a Minimal Practice-based Definition

Food, meaning, and the law: confessions of a vegan semiotician.

The Unknown Herbert Marcuse

Oxford English Dictionary , 3rd ed., s.v. “vegan, n.2 and adj.2. ”

See Robert McKay’s essay in this collection.

Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick, “Around the Performative: Periperformative Vicinities in Nineteenth-Century Narrative,” Touching Feeling: Affect, Pedagogy, Performativity (Durham, 2003), pp. 71–72.

See Richard Twine’s essay on the “intersectional disgust ” that he suggests has divorced the question of the animal from mainstream feminism (“Intersectional disgust ? Animals and (eco)feminism ,” Feminism & Psychology 20, no.3 (2010): 397–406). While we are reluctant to conflate homosexual oppression with the oppression of animals, we do not shy away from the recognition of important analogies that allow us to theorize human social and political structures in relation to the nonhuman. As Twine concludes “It would be a shame if disgust were to get in the way of conversation” (p. 402).

As made clear by Carol J. Adams in Sexual Politics of Meat  (London, 2015) and Annie Potts, “Exploring Vegansexuality: An Embodied Ethics of Intimacy” William Lynn: Ethics and Politics of Sustainability. 9 March 2008. http://www.williamlynn.net/exploring-vegansexuality-an-embodied-ethics-of-intimacy/

See, for example, José Esteban Muñoz , Cruising Utopia: The Then and There of Queer Futurity (New York, 2009) and Judith Halberstam , The Queer Art of Failure (Durham, 2011).

See Sara Salih’s essay in this collection.

J. M. Coetzee, The Lives of Animals (Princeton, 2001), p. 67.

See, for example, Martha Nussbaum, Hiding from Humanity: Disgust, Shame, and the Law (Princeton, 2004). Nussbaum condemns disgust as reliant on fears that are “typically unreasonable, embodying magical ideas of contamination, and impossible aspirations to purity, immortality, and nonanimality, that are just not in line with human life as we know it” (p. 23).

Matthew Calarco, “Deconstruction is not vegetarianism: Humanism, subjectivity, and animal ethics,” Continental Philosophy Review 37, no. 2 (2004): 194.

Ibid., pp. 195, emphasis added.

United Nations, “World population projected to reach 9.7 billion by 2050” UN.org , 29 July 2015. http://www.un.org/en/development/desa/news/population/2015-report.html

United Nations Environmental Programme, “Assessing the Environ-mental Impacts of Consumption and Production” UNEP.org , 2010. http://www.unep.fr/shared/publications/pdf/DTIx1262xPA-PriorityProductsAndMaterials_Report.pdf ; London Economic, “Vegan Food Sales up by 1500% in Past Year” The London Economic, November 2016. https://www.thelondoneconomic.com/food-drink/vegan-food-sales-up-by-1500-in-past-year/01/11/ ; Vegan Life, “Veganism Booms By 350%” VeganLife Magazine, 18 May 2016. http://www.veganlifemag.com/veganism-booms/

The UK National Health Service supports this, stating on its website that a well-planned vegan diet will provide all the nutrients the body needs. NHS, “The vegan diet,” nhs.uk. http://www.nhs.uk/Livewell/Vegetarianhealth/Pages/Vegandiets.aspx

Michael P. Branch and Scott Slovic, The ISLE Reader (Athens, 2003), p. xvi.

See, for example, Graham Huggan and Helen Tiffin , Postcolonial Ecocriticism (Abingdon, 2010), Carol J. Adams and Josephine Donovan, Animals and Women: Feminist Theoretical Explorations (Durham, 1995), and Val Plumwood , Feminism and the Mastery of Nature (London, 1993).

For more on Deep Ecology, see George Session, Deep Ecology for the Twenty-First Century (Boston, 1995).

Robert C. Jones, “Veganisms,” in Critical Perspectives on Veganism, eds. Jodey Castricano and Rasmus R. Simsonsen (London, 2016), pp. 15–39.

Kara Jesella, “Vegans exhibiting an ever wilder side for their cause,” nytimes.com , The New York Times, 27 March 2008. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/27/arts/27iht-vegan.1.11463224.html

Best et al., “Introducing Critical Animal Studies,” Journal for Critical Animal Studies 5, no.1 (2007).

Taylor and Twine, “Introduction. Locating the ‘Critical’ in Critical Animal Studies,” in The Rise of Critical Animal Studies, eds. Nik Taylor and Richard Twine (Abingdon, 2014), p. 2.

Ibid., p. 6.

Ibid., p. 12.

Pederson and Stanescu, “Future Directions for Critical Animal Studies,” in Critical Animal Studies, p. 262.

Wright, The Vegan Studies Project: Food, Animals, and Gender in the Age of Terror (Athens and London, 2015), p. 7.

Joshua Schuster, “The Vegan and the Sovereign,” in Critical Perspectives, pp. 216, 210.

Anat Pick, “Turning to Animals Between Love and Law,” New Formations: A Journal of Culture/Theory/Politics 76 (2012): 65–85.

For more comprehensive surveys of the development of animal studies, see Linda Kalof (ed.), The Oxford Handbook of Animal Studies (Oxford, 2017); Garry Marvin and Susan McHugh (eds.), Routledge Handbook of Human-Animal Studies (Abingdon, 2014); Derek Ryan, Animal Theory: A Critical Introduction (Edinburgh, 2015); and Kari Weil , Thinking Animals: Why Animal Studies Now? (New York, 2012).

The French edition was published in 1999, with an extended version released in 2006. The work itself is based largely on the text of a series of lectures given by Derrida at the 1997 Cerisy-la-Salle conference on “The Autobiographical Animal.”

Derrida, “‘Eating well’, or the Calculation of the Subject,” in Points… : Interviews, 1974–1994 , ed. Elisabeth Weber, trans. Peggy Kamuf (Stanford, 1995), p. 280.

Derrida, The Animal That Therefore I Am , ed. Marie-Louise Mallet, trans. David Wills (New York, 2008), p. 111.

Ibid., p. 28.

Adams, Sexual Politics of Meat , pp. xix; emphasis original.

Ibid., p. 63.

Ibid., p. 21.

Erica Fudge, Animal (London, 2002), p. 45.

Derrida, “Eating Well, ” p. 282.

Calarco, “Deconstruction is not vegetarianism,” p. 198.

Ibid., p. 194.

Gary Steiner, Animals and the Limits of Postmodernism (New York, 2013), p. 63.

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Quinn, E., Westwood, B. (2018). Introduction: Thinking Through Veganism. In: Quinn, E., Westwood, B. (eds) Thinking Veganism in Literature and Culture. Palgrave Studies in Animals and Literature. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-73380-7_1

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Veganism: A philosophy and way of living which seeks to exclude—as far as is possible and practicable—all forms of exploitation of, and cruelty to, animals for food, clothing or any other purpose; and by extension, promotes the development and use of animal-free alternatives for the benefit of animals, humans and the environment. In dietary terms it denotes the practice of dispensing with all products derived wholly or partly from animals.

College application essay discussing veganism?

So I'm working on my college application essays right now, and one of the essay topics is:

"Describe a setting in which you have collaborated or interacted with people whose experiences and/or beliefs differ from yours. Address your initial feelings, and how those feelings were or were not changed by this experience."

My first thought of what to write about was veganism, since it is something that separates my views from most peoples, and it wouldn't be hard to come up with a situation where I was interacting with someone who was not vegan.

However, I'm not sure how to approach this. Veganism already has a negative connotation in many outsiders minds, so I don't want the reader to think of me as the stereotypical vegan right off the bat. It probably doesn't help that I live in Texas, and one of the schools I'm applying to is Texas A&M, where the "A" stands for agricultural.

Also, I'm vegan mostly for environmental reasons if that helps at all.

Edit: I may refer to myself as a vegetarian because that's more understood and less controversial it seems.

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The Word ‘Vegan’ Is Still More Reviled Than ‘Plant-Based’ But…Why?

Why the word ‘vegan’ – and all it represents – turns consumers off.

Explainer • Food • Food Labeling

Words by Seth Millstein

Plant-based food has exploded in popularity over the last decade, but many people still view it unfavorably — at least, they do when you call it “vegan.” Study after study has shown that people respond negatively to the “vegan” label , but is this because they actually dislike plant-based food? Or do they just dislike the ideology the word “vegan” represents?

Although veganism rates have remained relatively steady over time, the vegan food industry has grown considerably in the last decade. Retail sales of plant-based foods in the U.S. more than doubled between 2017 and 2023, from $3.9 billion to $8.1 billion, and an analysis by Bloomberg Intelligence predicted that plant-based foods could make up 7.7 percent of the global protein market by 2030.

Despite impressive long-term growth, however, actual sales of plant-based foods have stagnated in recent years. The exact cause of this stagnation is unclear, but no matter the reason, ensuring the long-term health of our planet will require a significant reduction in global meat consumption over the next several decades, and negative reactions to the word “vegan” may be hindering these efforts.

Why is it that some people have a negative association with the word “vegan,” and what can be done to change that, so that the world can reduce meat consumption?

But First, a Brief History of the Word ‘Vegan’

The word “vegan” dates back to 1944, when several proto-vegans held a meeting to discuss and promote non-dairy vegetarianism. They recognized that they’d need to come up with a name for their nascent movement, and one of the attendees, British woodworker Donald Watson, suggested “vegan.” He created the word by combining the first and last few letters of “vegetarian,” and the rest is history.

Watson and his peers founded The Vegan Society, which is still active today. The Society defines veganism as follows:

“…a philosophy and way of living which seeks to exclude—as far as is possible and practicable—all forms of exploitation of, and cruelty to, animals for food, clothing or any other purpose; and by extension, promotes the development and use of animal-free alternatives for the benefit of humans, animals and the environment. In dietary terms it denotes the practice of dispensing with all products derived wholly or partly from animals.”

Nowadays, the definition is a bit more diffuse; some people use “vegan” to refer strictly to diets that exclude animal-derived ingredients, while others use it to refer to what one might call “the vegan lifestyle” — a forgoing of not only animal-based foods, but all animal-based products, from clothing to cosmetics to medicine.

Is Veganism Still Fringe?

Although polling on veganism is a bit murky, the totality of surveys suggest that the general rate of veganism worldwide is somewhere in the low-to-mid single digits. Women, Millennials and Gen Z, and people who make less than $50,000 are more likely to adopt vegan diets than other demographics.

Do People React Negatively to Vegan Food — or Just the Word ‘Vegan?’

Many studies have found that non-vegans react negatively to the word “vegan,” regardless of how they feel about vegan food itself.

In one such study, participants were asked to choose between two food gift baskets, one of which contained meat and dairy and one of which did not. When the plant-based basket was labeled “vegan,” only 20 percent of attendees chose it — but when the label was changed to “healthy” or “sustainable,” more than twice as many people selected it, even though the contents remained the same.

Another survey asked people to choose between “vegan” and “100% plant-based” in response to several questions about their food preferences, such as “which tastes better?” and “which is healthier?” Respondents chose “100% plant-based” over “vegan” by a huge margin — around 50 percent — in response to every question, even though a “100% plant-based” and a “vegan” are the same thing.

What’s more, research also shows that omnivores often hold negative attitudes towards vegans themselves. One study found that the only group of people viewed more negatively than vegans were people with addiction , and it’s plausible that this dislike of vegans themselves is contributing to negative associations with the word “vegan.”

Anti-vegan sentiment isn’t hard to come by. In 2018, the editor of a food magazine pitched a story about “ killing vegans one by one ” to a vegan journalist he was working with. The late celebrity chef Anthony Bourdain once called vegetarians “the enemy of everything good and decent in the human spirit,” and compared vegans to terrorists . There’s even a beef jerky company that decided to call itself “F*ck Vegans,” presumably because they believed this message would appeal to its meat-eating customers.

Why Do Vegans (and Vegan Food Labels) Turn People Off?

It certainly seems that many people are put off by the word “vegan.” The question is: why? There are a few theories.

The ‘I’m Not Part of a Movement’ Theory

One theory posits that when people see the word “vegan” on a food label, they associate it with a wider ideological movement — one that they don’t necessarily want to be a part of, even if they do happen to prefer plant-based foods.

It’s often assumed that people who adopt vegan diets do so out of an ethical opposition to eating animals. While this is true some of the time, it’s by no means the only reason people go vegan; one 2023 study found that 52 percent of Gen Z vegans adopted a plant-based diet for health reasons, while only 17 percent did so out of ethical concern for animals.

Nevertheless, many people still perceive veganism as “not only a description of a diet, [but] an activist statement,” Ann Kronrod, PhD, a professor at University of Massachusetts who specializes in marketing linguistics, tells Sentient.

The Negative Emphasis Theory

It’s also been suggested that people respond negatively to the word “vegan” because it emphasizes what’s not in the food, as opposed to what is.

In other words, if you’re browsing the aisles at the grocery store, being reminded that a food doesn’t include an ingredient you like isn’t going to make you want to buy it more, and might make you want it even less. If, on the other hand, you’re reminded of the delicious qualities of the ingredients the dish does include, it becomes much more appealing.

Real-world experiments support this theory. In the U.K., sales of a vegetarian sausage shot up by 76 percent when it was renamed from “meat-free sausage” to “ Cumberland-spiced veggie sausage, ” while Panera boosted sales of its vegetarian black bean soup by 13 percent by calling it “ Cuban black bean soup ” instead. A 2017 study found that participants chose vegetarian meals up to 25 percent more frequently when they were given indulgent names like “sweet sizzling green beans” and “dynamite beets.”

Kronrod took this thinking a step further, and ran a study to determine whether using metaphorical language to describe plant-based dishes would increase their appeal. In her study, steamed broccoli became “tree of life steamed broccoli,” collard greens became “green machine collard greens,” and sauteed squash became “summer sunset sauteed squash.” Not only did the dishes become more popular when they were given these creative names — they also were perceived as tasting better, too.

“It’s literally more pleasurable to listen to metaphorical language,” Kronrod explains. Processing metaphors requires “just one more step” in the language centers of our brains, and completing this step gives us a sense of satisfaction.

The ‘Don’t Remind Me of My Cognitive Dissonance’ Theory

Finally, it’s been argued that the mere existence of vegans creates cognitive dissonance in many meat-eaters’ minds, as it reminds them that their own dietary habits might not be in alignment with their own morals. In theory, most people really do care about the wellbeing of farm animals: In a 2022 poll, 80 percent of respondents said that preventing farm animal cruelty is a moral concern to them. Yet most people continue to consume animal products that were made in factory farms, despite the fact that factory farms — to put it lightly — do not promote the welfare of farm animals . Researchers have called this “the meat paradox:” people believe that it’s wrong to harm animals, but they continue to eat them. Social psychologist Hank Rothgerber studied the phenomenon , and identified no fewer than 15 defenses that meat-eaters use to “prevent and reduce the moral guilt associated with eating meat.” One such defense was to attack the person who made them feel guilty — and in many cases, that person is a vegan.

What Dislike of the Word ‘Vegan’ Means for Plant-Based Food Marketing

Whatever the reason, the word “vegan” just doesn’t jibe with some people. That’s probably why a growing number of vegan food companies are intentionally omitting the word “vegan” from their product labels, and are instead referring to them as “plant-based” food.

“I don’t even use the word ‘vegan’ because this instantly puts off loads of people,” Zack Bishti, CEO and co-founder of the plant-based chain Neat Burger, told Axios. “When you say ‘vegan,’ it’s like ‘no’ because they associate it with bean patties.”

It’s a sentiment that’s gaining steam. On the marketing website The Drum, one advertiser argued that the key to boosting sales of vegan food products is to focus on “what the product is going to add to consumers’ lives rather than what it’s missing” in order to appeal to customers who “aren’t interested in buying into a lifestyle.”

Will ‘Plant-Based’ Eventually Become As Reviled As ‘Vegan’?

Of course, this rebranding effort begs the question: isn’t there a risk that “plant-based” (or plant-forward or plant-rich) will eventually take on the same negative connotation that “vegan” has now?

Maybe. But maybe not. Unlike “vegan,” “plant-based” reminds consumers what’s in the food, not what’s omitted from it.

But more importantly, as Kronrod’s study and the Panera experiment show, there are plenty of phrases other than “plant-based” that can be used to effectively market vegan foods. All available evidence suggests that colorful, creative descriptions that are specific to the dish in question — as opposed to the generic phrase “plant-based” — are appealing to consumers.

Getting people to eat more plants and fewer animal products for the climate is no easy feat, and despite the increased availability of plant-based foods, many people do seem to be turned off by the word “vegan.” Thankfully, there’s plenty of other language available to describe plant-based foods, and studies show that people like this language.

Independent Journalism Needs You

Seth Millstein is a writer and musician living in the Bay Area. He has helped launch several early-stage journalism startups, including Bustle and Timeline, and his work has been published in Bustle, Huffington Post, The Daily Dot and elsewhere.

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