Vegan Matters

This year’s Blog Action Day topic is food. You’d think that being a vegan, with a vegan blog, participating in this event and writing about this topic would be something of a no-brainer… but I’m not a foodie. It’s not been much of a secret, honestly, but I feel a bit out of place. Don’t get me wrong, I love a great meal – but I love it more when someone is cooking it for me and I get to just enjoy it. Nonetheless, I wanted to participate. Onward!

So why are we talking about food?

This year Blog Action Day coincides with  World Food Day, a time that focuses the world’s attention on food,  something we all have in common.

There is so much to say about food.

We use food to mark times of celebration and sorrow. Lack of access to food causes devastating famines, whilst too much is causing a generation of new health problems.  It can cost the world, or be too cheap for farmers to make a living.

The way we companies produce  food and drinks can provide  important jobs for communities or be completely  destructive to habitats and local food producers.  Food can  give us energy to get through the day or contain ingredients that gives us allergic reactions.

Food can cooked by highly skilled chefs with inventive flair, or mass produced and delivered with speed at the side of road. It can be incredibly healthy or complete junk and bad for your health. It can taste delicious or be a locals only delicacy.

Food is important to our culture, identity and daily sustenance and the team at Blog Action invite you to join us to talk about food.

Everything comes down to food: our health, our ethics, our survival. It’s something we partake in on average three times daily. We center meetings around it. We spent hours shopping for it. We buy books about new and interesting ways to cook it.

If we’re so involved with food, why are people so oblivious to it? Just because it’s there doesn’t mean we’re really thinking about it. It’s easy to forget about or ignore:

• the amount of food waste after each meal
• the number of people we share our world with that go to bed hungry – both on other continents, and in our own backyards
• where our food comes from and how it is produced – geographical location, GMOs, pesticides, contamination
• ethical concerns: animal products and human rights

That’s just the start.

As a vegan, though, I’m most concerned about the last item on that list – ethical concerns.

Unfortunately, people mistakenly believe that vegans have no interest in human rights and are betraying their own species to speak up for non-human animals. While it’s understandable how this miscommunication arises, it’s simply not the case. Yes, the direct intended effect of living a vegan lifestyle is to reduce and work toward eliminating the suffering and exploitation of non-human animals.

A common “argument” is we should be thankful to have food, and to be “choosy” about what we eat (as in, not eat animals or animal products) is inappropriate. But it comes down to simple facts – by eating only plant-based food, we’re actually allowing there to be more food available to feed the world.

It takes up to 16 pounds of grain to produce just 1 pound of edible animal flesh. According to the USDA and the United Nations, using an acre of land to raise cattle for slaughter yields 20 pounds of usable protein. That same acre would yield 356 pounds of protein if soybeans were grown instead – more than 17 times as much! (read more)

The amount of grains that go into feeding an animal that is being raised for food is disproportionate to the amount of energy gained when eating that animal – we’re losing calories in the process. Why should there be a middle-man (or middle-cow/middle-pig, etc)? Shouldn’t we be feeding vegetables and grains directly to those humans in need of food, instead of feeding it to animals that only the wealthy will consume?

The answer, of course, is yes! Going vegan has seemingly limitless benefits – not only are we addressing the issue of animal exploitation and reducing their suffering, as mentioned we also have the potential to greatly reduce world hunger. Add in the environmental and personal health benefits, and there just isn’t any logical argument against veganism. So, what’s your excuse? (Hint: If your answer is “I like cheese/steak/bacon too much,” you need to reevaluate your priorities and consider being a contributing member of Earth.)

Of course, there is so much more to food than ethics. So this World Food Day, I ask you to think about food – where it comes from. How it does (or does not) nourish you. How much you waste. How it’s produced. What harm it does to the environment. Most importantly, I ask you to consider the most influential decision of all – going vegan.