The hope of this site is to raise awareness of one of the kindest things you can do for the planet and yourself,
which is to adopt a more plant-based diet. But nobody likes being
told
what to do, and we don't like preaching,
so please only click what you care about:
Nobody likes a proselytizer, including us. But there are times when
speaking up against the status quo becomes necessary. For example, it's been necessary to oppose
slavery,
genocide(note),
cultures of sexual violence, and systemic
bullying.
Put simply, when there's abuse taking place for which we would speak up if it were happening to our own
family, friend, pet, or self, it becomes appropriate to speak up, regardless of who the victim is.
If you saw someone harming an animal for absolutely no legitimate reason, would you say something to try to get them to stop?
That's all this site is doing — saying something, in the hope that some people might stop.
When it comes to capacity for suffering, the animals we're eating are
just like
the dogs and cats we consider friends. Seeing what happens to them is hard, but it's the only way to really
understand:
When we consume animal products, we're telling someone somewhere, "do that again for me."
Rejecting such speciesism-based violence requires
that we start perceiving
farmed animals rightly, so that we reverse our
conditioned indifference to their suffering,
and reject misleading
food industry
marketing.
"There is no fundamental difference between man and animals in their [ability to] feel pleasure and pain, happiness and misery."
– Charles Darwin
Not until we fully understand what happens to "farmed" animals
are we likely to stop paying for it to happen. That's why bearing witness is so important.
When we just say "I can't watch those films", that's when we're most likely to keep playing the leading role in them.
Seeing the truth sets us free. All of us.
This first video provides a very quick overview of what we pay for whenever we consume milk, cheese, ice cream, or any other dairy-based product.
And if you have time, please explore any other links below that interest you:
According to the United Nations, animal agriculture creates more global warming than all cars+trucks+planes in the world
combined(source). And a
study by the University of Oxford
found that plant-based eating may be the "single biggest way" to reduce our environmental impact —
far bigger than buying an electric car or reducing air travel. Furthermore:
• Meat and dairy are leading causes of
deforestation worldwide,
with cattle production alone accounting for approximately 80% of
Amazon rainforest
(aka. "the lungs of Earth") destruction. Reminder: trees absorb carbon and produce our oxygen. ReferencesReferences: NYTimes,
CBS,
CNN,
Fox,
WorldBank.org
• Animal agriculture is extremely water intensive. For example, in California the meat and
dairy
industries use about 45% of the state's water,
while households use just 5%. Next time you've got drought, read this before shortening your showers. ReferencesReferences: Pacific Institute
and FFAC Publication
• Factory farmed animals produce 50× as much waste as all humans in the United States.
That waste gets sprayed into the atmosphere,
dumped untreated into rivers, and contributes to massive
ocean dead zones.
ReferencesReferences: FFACPublication
"A human being is a part of the whole called by us universe,
a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feeling as something separated from the rest,
a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal
desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening
our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the
whole of nature in its beauty."
– Albert Einstein
Next time media is drenching you with drought fears
followed by fast food commercials,
remember this:
Ebola, Swine Flu, Bird Flu, West Nile, Mad Cow, Zika, AIDS, SARS, MERS, and now COVID-19 ↓
Most new diseases originate in animals. And with the miserable conditions of modern factory farms
also producing pathogens with
antibiotic resistance,
it's just a matter of time before we're facing another serious pandemic.
Unless our food choices change, the only question is how bad the next pandemic will be, and how
screwed we will be.
Martin Luther King Jr.,
whose wife and son became vegan after his death, said that
freeing humanity
"from the morass of propaganda is one of the chief aims of education."
However, given the
educational and
governmental
reach of commercial propaganda today,
plant-based eating is now a topic we must educate ourselves on. Here are some thinking people through history to point us in the right direction.
"The animals of the world... were not made for humans any more than blacks were made for whites..."
– Alice Walker, author of "The Color Purple"
"There is no fundamental difference between man and animals in their [ability to] feel pleasure and pain, happiness and misery."
– Charles Darwin
"If a man aspires towards a righteous life, his first act of abstinence is from injury to animals."
– Albert Einstein
"Thou shalt not kill" does not only apply to murder of one's own kind, but to all living beings.
And this Commandment was inscribed in the human heart long before it was proclaimed from [the Holy Land]."
– Leo Tolstoy (Author of "War and Peace" and
"Death of Ivan Ilych")
"A person can [be] healthy without killing animals for food. Therefore, if one eats meat,
s/he participates in taking animal life merely for the sake of appetite... to act so is immoral."
– Leo Tolstoy
"The time will come when men such as I will look upon the murder of animals as they now look upon the murder of men."
– Leonardo da Vinci
"People often say that humans have always eaten animals...
According to this logic, we should not try to prevent people from murdering other people,
since this has also been done since the earliest of times."
– Isaac Bashevis Singer
"People who say they love animals sit down once or twice a day and enjoy the flesh of creatures who have been utterly
deprived of everything that could make their lives worth living...
who endured the awful suffering and terror of [factory farms]."
– Jane Goodall
"However scrupulously the slaughterhouse is concealed in the graceful distance of miles, there is complicity."
– Ralph Waldo Emerson
"Until we stop harming all other living beings, we are still savages."
– Thomas Edison
"As long as people massacre animals, they will kill each other.. those who sows the seed of murder and pain cannot reap joy and love."
– Pythagoras
"Those who exclude any of God's creatures from the shelter of compassion will deal likewise with their fellow man."
– St. Francis of Assisi
"As long as there are slaughterhouses, there will be battlefields."
– Leo Tolstoy
"Man's supremacy over lower animals means not that the former should prey upon the latter,
but that the higher should protect the lower."
– Mahatma Gandhi
"It is a matter of taking the side of the weak against the strong, something the best people have always done."
– Harriet Beecher Stowe,author "Uncle Tom's Cabin"
"I choose not to make a graveyard of my body for the rotting corpses of dead animals."
– George Bernard Shaw
"My body will not be a tomb for other creatures."
– Leonardo da Vinci
"I am in favor of animal rights as well as human rights. That is the way of a whole human being."
– Abraham Lincoln, U.S. President who abolished slavery
"We have enslaved the rest of animal creation, and have treated our distant cousins in fur and feathers
so badly that beyond doubt, if they were to formulate a religion, they would depict the Devil in human form."
– William Ralph Inge,Cambridge University Professor
"People must have renounced... all natural intelligence to dare to
advance that animals are but animated machines...
Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities."
– Voltaire
"Grandchildren will ask us one day: 'Where were you during the Holocaust of the animals?
What did you do against these horrifying crimes?' We won't be able to offer the same excuse for the second time:
that we didn't know."
– Dr. Helmut Kaplan
"When it comes to feelings like pain... a pig is a dog is a boy."
~ Ingrid Newkirk
"If slaughterhouses had glass walls, everyone would be a vegetarian. [And if modern dairy farms had livestreams, everyone would be vegan.]"
– Paul McCartney
"I have no doubt that it is a part of the destiny of the human race, in its gradual improvement,
to leave off eating animals, as surely as the savage tribes have left off eating each other."
– Henry David Thoreau
"A long habit
of not thinking a thing wrong, gives it a superficial appearance of being right."
– Thomas Paine, Common Sense
"What stone-blind custom, what overgrown error you behold, is there only by [your passivity].
– Ralph Waldo Emerson
"A human body in no way resembles those that were born carnivores; it has no hawk's beak, no sharp claws,
no rough teeth... If you will contend that you were born to [eat meat, then] kill what you eat.
But do it yourself, without the help of a knife, as wolves, bears, and lions do,
who kill and eat at once. [Kill a cow with your] teeth...
and eat it raw as they do."
– Plutarc , Greek Philosopher (about 2000 years ago)
"The human body has no more need for cows' milk than it does for dogs' milk, horses' milk, or giraffes' milk."
– Dr. Michael Klaper
"Drinking milk for the nutrients is like inhaling cigarette smoke for the oxygen."
– Dr. Milton Mills
"Put a baby in a crib with an apple and a rabbit. If it eats the rabbit and plays with the apple, I'll buy you a new car."
– Harvey Diamond
"The beef industry has contributed to more American deaths than all the wars of this century...
If beef is your idea of "real food for real people" you'd better live real close to a real good hospital."
– Dr. Neal Barnard
"Recognize meat for what it really is: the antibiotic and pesticide-laden corpse of a tortured animal."
– Ingrid Newkirk, founder of PETA
"People ask me how I look so young; I tell them I look my age. It is other people who look older.
What do you expect from people who eat corpses?"
– George Bernard Shaw
"Whether you are a world-class athlete, a weekend athlete, or simply a recreational exerciser,
we know that you can meet your performance objectives, and improve your health by eating a
plant-based diet that meets your energy needs."
– Dr. Benjamin Spock
"It is the position of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics that appropriately planned vegetarian,
including vegan, diets are healthful, nutritionally adequate, and may provide health benefits for the prevention
and treatment of certain diseases. These diets are appropriate for all stages of the life cycle, including pregnancy,
lactation, infancy, childhood, adolescence, older adulthood, and for athletes."
– Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics Source: National Library of Medicine
"Vegetarian diets can meet all the recommendations for nutrients. The key is to consume a variety of foods
and the right amount of foods to meet your calorie needs."
– USDA
"With a little planning a vegetarian diet can meet the needs of people of all ages, including children, teenagers,
and pregnant or breast-feeding women. The key is to be aware of your nutritional needs so that you plan a diet that meets them."
– The Mayo Clinic
"We are, quite literally, gambling with the future of our planet, for the sake of hamburgers."
– Peter Singer, Professor of Bioethics, Princeton University
"Nothing will benefit health and increase the chances for survival of life on Earth as the evolution to a
plant-based diet."
– Albert Einstein
"By eating meat we share the responsibility for climate change [and] the destruction of our [environment].
The simple act of becoming
[vegan]
will make a difference in the health of our planet."
– Thich Nhat Hanh (Buddhist monk and friend of MLK)
The poem below was written 1000 years ago by the blind Arab philosopher Al-Ma'arri,
who lived from 973 to 1058. Al-Ma'arri advocated for social justice and was vegan –
which was then called moral vegetarianism.
I No Longer Steal from Nature
You are diseased in your understanding and religion.
Come to me, that you may hear something of sound truth.
Do not unjustly eat fish the water has given up.
And do not desire as food the flesh of slaughtered animals;Nor the white milk of motherswho intended its pure draughtfor their young, not for rich ladies.
And do not grieve the unsuspecting birds by taking eggs;for injustice is the worst of crimes.
And spare the honey which the bees get industriouslyfrom the flowers of fragrant plants;For they did not store it that it might belong to others,Nor did they gather it for you to give as gifts.
I washed my hands of all this;and just wish that I hadperceived this way before my hair went gray!
The Kings, Gandhi, and Intersectionality
In 1959, Martin Luther King Jr. wrote that "Gandhi was the guiding light of our technique of non-violent social change"
and traveled to India "as a pilgrim" to see what Gandhi had accomplished there. During his month in India, one of Dr. King's most
memorable experiences was staying in Gandhi's Bombay home, where he wrote in the guestbook: "To have the opportunity of sleeping
in the house where [Gandhi] slept is really an experience I will never forget."
Mahatma Gandhi was a strict vegan.
In 1966, MLK Jr. met the Vietnamese Buddhist monk
Thich Nhat Hanh,
after first communicating with him the year before.
The two bonded over a vision described by Congressman John Lewis as "a nation and world society at peace with itself", and
it was because of their friendship that MLK Jr. began to publicly oppose the Vietnam War.
In 1967, Martin nominated Hanh for the Nobel Peace Prize, writing that "Thich Nhat Hanh is a holy man... humble and devout...
a scholar of immense intellectual capacity. His ideas for peace, if applied, would build a monument to [unity], to world
brotherhood, to humanity."
Thich Nhat Hanh was also a strict vegan.
In 1968, Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated, but the reasons for veganism would clearly have entered his awareness by that time.
In the late 1980's, MLK Jr.'s son Dexter first became vegetarian, then vegan, and remained vegan for the rest of his life.
According to an October 1995 issue of Vegetarian Times, he said that a vegan diet gave him the strength to further the goals
that his father worked for.
In 1995, MLK Jr.'s wife Coretta became vegan, saying that veganism was
"the next logical extension of Martin Luther King Jr.'s philosophy of non-violence."
Also in the 1990's, Rosa Parks became vegetarian. She said that,
"It was not hard at all for me to not eat meat" and that "[Becoming vegetarian] was something that I wanted to do."
According to the theory of Intersectionality, all
social justice
movements are ultimately connected. And if you're starting to see how injustice anywhere relates to injustice everywhere, please
look at what's needlessly happening to innocent beings in windowless buildings because of our food choices.
And if you notice any personal assumption that their suffering is less relevant than ours, please also look at what enables any other social injustice.
"The animals of the world... were not made for humans any more than blacks were made for whites..."
– Alice Walker, author of "The Color Purple"
"Those who exclude any of God's creatures from the shelter of compassion will deal likewise with their fellow man."
– St. Francis of Assisi
"As long as there are slaughterhouses, there will be battlefields."
– Leo Tolstoy, author of "War and Peace"
and "Death of Ivan Ilyich"
Please
"Be the change you want to see in the world."
– Mahatma Gandhi
"Realizing that animals feel... like we do…
I feel very deeply about [veganism]...
It was my dog Boycott who led me to question the right of humans to eat other sentient beings."
– Cesar Chavez,
co-founder United Farm Workers
The word "vegan" didn't exist until 1944, and use of the term "plant-based" is even more recent.
Einstein used the word "vegetarian" in his original quote below, but "vegan" or "plant-based"
would be the more accurate modern translations – given what's now know about modern dairy's impact on the planet and our health.
"Nothing will benefit health and increase the chances for survival of life on Earth as the evolution to a
[vegan] diet."
– Albert Einstein
Despite
industry-induced confusion,
there's massive global consensus about the fundamentals of a health promoting diet, and
nothing in medicine
comes close to what a plant-based diet can do for overall human health. The world's largest organization of nutrition and dietetics professionals
agrees
that plant-based eating is healthful, and the following are just some of the benefits:
Did someone tell you that plant-based diets lack nutrients?
Any nutrient that you're getting from eating farmed animals, those animals got from plants and/or supplements. If from plants, then you can get it directly from plants as well.
If from supplements,
you can supplement yourself better.
Moreover, plant-based diets tend to be richer in other nutrients.
• Common concerns for people new to plant-based eating are
protein,
calcium,
B12,
omega-3's, and
soy. But look into each, and you'll see that
none are a problem.
More nutrients
• Be aware that many "farmed" animals are fed
antibiotics
(which contributes to antibiotic resistance),
GMO
(if non-GMO is important to you),
and
who knows what.
• Wondering why you haven't heard all this before?
Watch What the Health (follow the money) and then watch
Game Changers (start following real leaders).
Forks Over Knives:TrailerWatch freeMore Roger Ebert called this "a film that could save your life."
PlantPure Nation:TrailerWatch freeAmzRecipes With the son of T. Colin Campbell, co-author of The China Study.
Diet for a New America:Watch free The insights of a billion dollar ice cream empire heir.
Eating You Alive:TrailerWatch freeAmzMore Manage or reverse many diseases with a plant-based diet.
YAWYE - A Twin Experiment:TrailerNetflix Identical twins change their diets for 8 weeks.
John Robbins is the son of Baskin-Robbins founder Irv Robbins, and nephew of co-founder Burt Baskin.
As a child, John was groomed to one day take over the billion dollar ice-cream empire. However, after seeing his uncle Burt die from
a heart attack at 54, as well as other family members (and his own body) suffering from ill health, he began to question
the links to what they were eating. Learning that the product they were selling was making people sick, John rejected both
his father's business and money, and instead lived a very simple life in a one-room log cabin with his wife for many years.
In 1987, John published the international bestseller "Diet For A New America: How Your Food Choices Affect Your Health, Happiness,
and the Future of Life on Earth." The book, which was very favorably reviewed by the American Journal of Cardiology,
would later help his father reverse severe diabetes, avoid amputation, discontinue insulin, and get off high blood pressure medication.
In other words, John's knowledge saved his father's life – which was arguably more important than his fortune.
In 1991, a PBS affiliate produced a documentary based on John's work called "Diet for a New America: Your Health, Your Planet".
You can watch that video below for free. The film itself is a bit dated, but the message is timeless. Alternatively, John has done a
more recent Google Talk that you can also watch for free.
Menkay is a former dairy business owner turned vegan. He's made numerous short videos to explain why:
Parkinson's Disease is the second most common neurodegenerative disease after Alzheimer's.
Studies show that consuming dairy products can increase our risk of developing the disease, with
one study showing that those who consumed the most dairy milk had a 70 percent greater risk(1).
On the bright side, another study showed that
a plant-based diet was able to lower the risk of developing Parkinson's Disease by 31 percent(2).
An explanation of the relationship between dairy and PD is beyond the scope of this website, but
you can find more information at the links below:
"It is the position of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics that appropriately planned vegetarian, including vegan [no dairy/meat/eggs],
diets are healthful, nutritionally adequate, and may provide health benefits for the prevention and treatment of certain diseases.
These diets are appropriate for all stages of the life cycle, including pregnancy, lactation, infancy, childhood, adolescence,
older adulthood, and for athletes."
No animal regularly drinks milk after infancy, certainly not from the nipple of another species, and you don't have to either.
↓
"The human body has no more need for cow's milk than it does for dog's milk, horse's milk, or giraffe's milk."
— Dr. Michael Klaper ↓ Beware of dairy marketing lies that still persist.
↓ Dairy may cause acne/pimples/allergies.
↓ Dairy may even weaken your bones.
Don't let this short list scare you. Remember that many people lack nutrients on meat/dairy diets, and those diets are
associated with higher rates of numerous diseases. Plus, much of the list above can be obtained from plant-milk and/or a single multivitamin.
Vitamin B12 is in many multivitamins, and often in plant-based milks.
Many animals are supplemented with B12, but we can supplement ourselves instead of eating supplemented animals.
EXPLANATION: Vitamin B12 comes from bacteria in soil.
Our ancestors would get B12 simply by eating unwashed plants.
More recently humans could get B12 by eating animals who ate unwashed plants.
However, with soils increasingly exposed to antibiotics and pesticides that kill bacteria, factory farmed animals are
often supplemented with B12. But we can supplement ourselves, bypassing the saturated fat and cholesterol found in flesh.
Your body can make Vitamin D naturally from sun exposure.
If you don't get much sun, Vitamin D is also in in many multivitamins.
Iodine is in many multivitamins.
You can also get it from iodized table salt (just 1/2 teaspoon per day in your food is enough).
Many animals are supplemented with iron today, but we can get iron from plant-foods and/or supplements without the artery-clogging cholesterol, etc.
Iron occurs naturally in spinach and other dark leafy greens, dark chocolate, quinoa, white mushrooms, green beans,
peas, nuts, pumpkin and sunflower seeds, lentils, and
many other plant-foods.
Just 100 calories of spinach has as much iron as 1700 calories of steak! Remember Popeye the Sailor Man? Strong to the
finich because he eats his spinach!
Iron is also in many multivitamins, but be aware:
Too much animal-derived iron (called "heme iron") is bad for you, which is why some multivitamins omit iron.
It's often mentioned that animal-derived iron absorbs more easily, which seems desirable, but the downside that's not always mentioned
is that too much of that animal-derived iron can eventually lead to liver disease, heart problems, diabetes, and certain cancers.
However, when getting iron from plant sources (called "non-heme iron"), you don't need to worry
about "too much" because the human body is able to naturally regulate how much iron it absorbs from plant sources. Nice!
And yes, you can get non-heme iron supplements (pills/capsules/etc).
Animals get their calcium from plants, and so can you.
An easy option is to swap your dairy milk for a plant-based milk that's fortified with calcium (e.g. Oatly, Ripple, and Good Karma Flax Milk).
Plant sources of calcium include broccoli, spinach, kale, bok choy, mustard greens, turnip greens, watercress, chickpeas, nuts especially almonds,
beans/peas/lentils/chickpeas, chia/flax seeds, and calcium-set tofu. Calcium is also very easy to find as a supplement.
Zinc is in many multivitamins.
It's also found in whole grains, tofu, beans/lentils, nuts, and seeds.
Many animals are supplemented with zinc, but we can supplement ourselves without eating them.
Riboflavin is in many multivitamins, or you can get it directly from almonds,
mushrooms, spinach, avocados, and more.
Many plant-milks are also fortified with riboflavin, such as Oatly oatmilk and Silk soymilk.
Omega-3 fatty acids (also called ALA's) are found in walnuts, soybeans,
flax, chia seeds, hemp seeds, leafy greens, and more. Here are some
sample recipes
that incorporte lots of omega-3's.
What about fish oil?
Many people associate omega-3's with fish and fish oil.
But actually, fish get their omega-3's from plants (algae)! This is yet another example of an animal product containing a nutrient we want only
because that animal consumed plants.
If you'd like to get omega 3's directly from the same source that fish do, do a search for "Algae Omega 3 supplement".
That way you can bypass the saturated fat, cholesterol, and bio-accumulated toxins like mercury found in fish these days.
What you're feeling is a completely normal reaction to seeing the reality of modern factory farms.
Unfortunately, without seeing that problem, we won't do anything to fix it.
On the other hand, if we let what we see overwhelm us, we may then turn away, and the problem will only grow.
So please take breaks from the heaviness by watching some happiness:
WARNING: This may not be easy at first. BUT: It will be worth it.
Going plant-based can initially be uncomfortable.
As was true with cigarettes in the 1900's, another ruthless industry's deceptive marketing has many of us programmed to
associate their harmful products with pleasure.
And going against those false mental associations can initially feel like it's gonna be a loss.
↳ But with a little effort, you'll soon discover new foods
that meat and dairy distracted you from. Once liberated from the consumer prison
of animal flesh at the center of every meal,
you'll start seeing how much more there is to enjoy.
• For those who care about animals, you'll also gain the integrity of knowing that two or three times
every day, you refrained from violence against animals. You chose
nonviolence
(aka. ahimsa).
• For those who care about health and vitality, you'll discover the benefits of getting your
nutrientsdirectly
from plants — without the
antibiotics,
cholesterol, animal fats and
feces (aka. poo).
• And for those who care about preserving this planet for
future generations, you'll be doing your part. You'll be doing
far more
than buying an electric car or reducing your air travel — a 2018 University of
Oxford study
found that going plant-based could be the "single biggest way" to
reduce our environmental impact. Thank you for being the change that yet-to-be-born generations need.
Top tips for starting your vegan journey:
#1. Just get started: MLK Jr. once said, "You don't need to see the whole staircase,
just take the first step"; and that advice definitely applies to going plant-based. Though daunting at first, every step
you take on this journey will get easier (and feel better) as you discover more great food options that
cause animal foods to lose their appeal.
2. Find a vegan friend:
For the same reason that it would be more difficult to
quit smoking when hanging out with smokers, you'll likely find the plant-based transition easier if you team up with a friend or two.
This also eases the "am I crazy" doubts of going against the crowd on your own. Of course, this is just a suggestion
— lots of people go vegan on their own, and finding vegan friends isn't always easy.
3. Keep trying new foods! While there are many plant-based meats/cheeses these days,
eating vegan often gets easier and healthier when we stop trying to simulate the taste of animal flesh and fluids
with plants. Keep experimenting with new foods, and you'll soon discover how much more there is for your taste buds to enjoy.
Of course, you won't like everything,
but just keep exploring. And definitely learn to make some simple vegan dishes yourself –
you may not like cooking now, but once you see that you can make something better than a professional chef, faster than getting fast food,
and cheaper than either, you may dislike it a little less.
4. Focus on WFPB (whole foods, plant based): Especially if you're going vegan for health,
try to limit highly processed and sugary products being marketed as "vegan" – there are tons of them now. Even if you're
doing this for animals more than health, there are animal-undermining downsides to over-supporting "junk food vegan" products.
E.g. It won't inspire friends to eat kindly if they see us getting fat/sick on such a vegan diet.
5. Aim for "as vegan as possible": Situations will likely arise when you eat
animal products by mistake, or where lack of plant-based options causes you to make exceptions. Don't let yourself see these
occasions as reasons to give up. Despite what anyone claims, the most we can ever be is
"as vegan as possible".
These podcasts are quite long, so we only recommend listening if you enjoy the host's "hey, what's up" style.
If she's not your cup of tea, don't worry, you'll find most of the same information elsewhere on this website.
"Man's supremacy over lower animals means not that the former should prey upon the latter, but that the higher should protect the lower."
"The more helpless the creature,the more entitled it is to protection by humansfrom the cruelty of humans."
"The most violent weapon on Earth is the table fork."
"I do feel that spiritual progress does demand at some stage that we should cease to kill our fellow creatures for the satisfaction of our bodily wants."
"It ill becomes us to invoke in our daily prayers... if we in turn will not practice elementary compassion toward our fellow creatures."
"The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated."
"Be the change you want to see in the world."
"Whatever you do may be insignificant,but it is very important that you do it."
"[A person] cannot for a moment live without consciously or unconsciously
committing himsa (violence). The very fact of living – eating, drinking and moving about – necessarily involves some
destruction of life, be it ever so minute. An adherent of ahimsa (nonviolence) therefore remains true if the source of all his/her
actions is compassion, if s/he shuns to the best of his ability the destruction of the tiniest creature...
but s/he can never become entirely free from outward himsa [violence]."
Quotes by Mahatma Gandhi(a strict vegan)
"[A person] cannot for a moment live without consciously or unconsciously
committing himsa (violence). The very fact of living – eating, drinking and moving about – necessarily involves some
destruction of life, be it ever so minute. An adherent of ahimsa (nonviolence) therefore remains true if the source of all his/her
actions is compassion, if s/he shuns to the best of his ability the destruction of the tiniest creature...
but s/he can never become entirely free from outward himsa [violence]."
"[Human] supremacy over lower animals means not that the former should prey upon the latter,
but that the higher should protect the lower."
"Be the change you want to see in the world."
"Whatever you do may be insignificant,but it is very important that you do it."
"We don't just inherit the Earth from our ancestors,
we also borrow it from our children."
–Indigenous saying
*The Iroquois People, whose system of participative democracy contributed to the formation of the
U.S. Constitution,
held the belief that all decisions we make today should be sustainable for seven generations into the future.
This Seventh Generation Principle reveals that true democracy should consider those beings who do not yet have a voice or vote.
Milk: The White Lies We've All Been Sold
The video below was created by
an Emmy-winning independent journalist and contributor to the New York Times.
He's not vegan, and even says he
loves milk. He never mentions the
environmental issues
associated with dairy, nor does he seem concerned about the
animal welfare issues or
human health issues.
However, he does a great job of explaining how the dairy industry has influenced U.S. government policy and convinced
Americans to consume enormous quantities of a nutritionally
unnecessary substance that's
full of saturated fat and cholesterol. If you have limited time, just watch the first and last.
*The journalist's full video included paid promotion for a
fitness program.
See his original video's
comments for details.
A study by Emory University(1) found
that 60% of conventionally produced milk contains antibiotic residue, and 60% contains at least one pesticide.
This actually isn't surprising –
what some cows eat is scary.
But even "clean" feed can have pesticide residue,
PCB's, and
dioxins.
Yes, you can limit your exposure to questionable contaminants by buying
organic dairy milk. Or you can simply get organic
plant milk and also avoid the pus, cholesterol, complicity in
animal cruelty, etc.
"Dioxins are of concern because of their highly toxic potential. Experiments have shown they affect a number of organs and systems.
Once dioxins enter the body, they last a long time because of their chemical stability and their ability to be absorbed by
fat tissue, where they are then stored in the body...
More than 90% of human exposure to dioxins is through the food supply, mainly meat and dairy products, fish and shellfish."
From the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine(3):
"... dioxins are other examples of contaminants found in milk. Dairy products
contribute to one-fourth to one-half of the dietary intake of total dioxins. All these toxins tend to build up in the body over time.
Eventually, this can harm the immune, reproductive, and nervous systems. Moreover, PCBs and dioxins have been linked to cancer.
Other contaminants that can make their way into milk include melamine (often found in plastics and harmful to the kidneys
and urinary tract) and cancer-causing toxins like aflatoxins."
Everyday Stories:TrailerWatch hereVimeo The stories of four very different people gone vegan.
POLITICS / ENVIRONMENT
MLK Jr. said that "to save man from the morass of propaganda
is one of the chief aims of education." But given the modern reach of dairy propaganda into education,
we must currently educate ourselves.
Cowspiracy:TrailerNetflixAmazonMore Exposes possibly the most destructive force facing our planet.
Due to ag-gag laws outlawing filming on factory farms, it's becoming
increasingly difficult to expose crimes against animals. Please raise your awareness of their suffering while you still can.
Largest U.S. Dairy:Watch hereThanks to: ARM Supplier to Fairlife, which is part of the Coca-Cola Company.
The Internet's Own Boy:TrailerWatch hereMore Aaron Swartz created the Creative Commons licensing system, under which this site's design and text are licensed.
When an ever-expanding economic system considers the health of the planet and its inhabitants to be irrelevant costs,
at some point that system begins to guarantee an uglier future for every future generation.
We've passed that point, and something needs to change... US.
Education influenced by commercial interests inevitably becomes mere thought control and indoctrination.
And that's exactly what's happening as corporations are increasingly allowed to influence
government agencies
(e.g. USDA/FDA) through lobbying and revolving door employment. We must demand better.
Unfortunately, this 1982 classic seems absent from major streaming services,
but you can still find the DVD on Amazon/eBay.
New Roots Institute sends skilled educators into high school
and college classrooms to inspire critical thinking about the connections between factory farming and important issues affecting us all –
animal welfare, worker welfare, the environment, and human health.
Although "protein" is a popular marketing buzz word,
protein deficiency is virtually nonexistent in the United States.
In fact, most Americans already get
twice as much protein as they need.
Even the average vegan gets
70% more than they need!
And it's important to understand that protein we don't need gets stored as fat —
very few people are looking for more of that.
↓
As for the protein that we do need, getting that from plant foods is no problem.
In fact, all protein
starts with plants,
and by getting your protein from plants, you can get it without the artery-clogging cholesterol
present in animal products.
↓
Easy example: soy milk is an excellent complete protein source. So are
quinoa,
chia,
hemp, and protein
shakes.
↓
However, ALL plant foods can combine
to form complete protein.
For example, beans and rice form a complete protein. So does peanut butter on whole wheat bread.
And you don't even have to eat the two plant foods in the same meal,
because our body can store amino acids.
↓
Since all plant foods contain all the essential amino acids (just in varying amounts), simply eating a variety of plant proteins should
provide all the aminos you ever need to make all the protein you ever need.
↓
For more info, check out Switch4Good's guide to plant-based proteins
or print their PDF for easy reference.
↓
P.S. While virtually no Americans suffer from protein deficiency (exceptions likely being those with eating disorders or on extreme diets),
virtually all Americans suffer from
fiber deficiency.
However, meat contains no fiber. Neither do dairy or eggs.
The best source of fiber is whole plant foods.
Many of us have family or friends who've died of diet-related diseases, such as heart disease and diabetes.
But do you know any American who's died of protein deficiency? Probably not
Just look around.
Even many very low-income people today are morbidly obese due to the high-animal-protein, low-nutrient-density of our
Modern American Diet
also known as the Standard American Diet.
Protein is made of amino acids, and there are 22 amino acids required to make it. Our body produces 13 of those amino acids on its own.
The other 9 are called "essential amino acids" because they're obtained through food.
A food is referred to as "complete" protein if it has all 9 essential amino acids in amounts the body needs.
Examples of plant-foods that provide "complete" protein include
quinoa,
chia,
hemp, and
shakes.
However, two or more so-called "incomplete" proteins can
combine to form complete protein.
And they don't even have to be eaten in the same meal – because our body can store amino acids.
In other words, we don't have to eat animals who made complete proteins from plants. And we don't have to steal
their baby's milk to get our protein either. Our bodies are equipped to make complete protein directly from plants, without the
unnecessary cholesterol, animal cruelty, etc.
Your body is equipped to create complete proteins from plant proteins. And you don't need to know how to do this — your body knows.
You just have to provide your body with a variety of plant foods.
Some plant-foods especially high in protein include almonds, walnuts, broccoli, lentils, black beans, brown rice, soy/tofu/tempeh*,
and much more. Check out Switch4Good's
guide to plant-based proteins and/or print
the PDF for easy reference.
*If eating soy/tofu/tempeh as a protein source, you may want to opt for organic or non-GMO soy,
as there are health concerns about genetically modified soy
(aka. GMO soy)
and highly-processed soy (e.g. soy protein isolate).
Quinoa has been eaten by humans for over 5,000 years. The Inca called it the "Mother of all Grains"
(though it's technically a seed).
And we now know it to be a near nutritionally perfect complete protein –
and it's low in fat, and high in fiber. Quinoa is an excellent replacement for rice (or mix into rice) in any dish.
Chia seeds have been eaten for thousands of years, and were a staple of the Aztecs and Mayans
("chia" means "strength" in Mayan).
Chia seeds include high quality complete protein, lots of fiber, omega-3 fatty acids, and various essential minerals and antioxidants.
Adult cows get their calcium from plants and/or supplements, and so can we.
We don't have to drink a
middlecow's
secretion to get the nutrients she got from plants and/or supplements.
Many plant-milks already include calcium. For example,
Oatly oatmilk has about the same amount of calcium as cow's milk, as do Silk's soymilks.
Vegetables that have more calcium than grass include broccoli, many green leafy vegetables (spinach, kale, bok choy, cabbage),
almonds, lentils, most tofus, chickpeas (hummus), chia seeds, and many more.
And calcium is very easy to find in tablets or capsules if you prefer.
*Note that
for your body to absorb calcium, it also needs magnesium. Magnesium is found in leafy greens like spinach,
as well as in dark chocolate, avocados, nuts (especially almonds and cashews), bananas, beans, whole grains like brown rice, etc.
Or you can simply get a cal+mag supplement.
P.S. If you were told that cow's milk helps build strong bones,
that wasn't true.
BUT: What about vitamin B12?
Many animals today are supplemented with vitamin B12, but we can supplement ourselves –
we don't have to consume a
middle-animal's
flesh or secretions to get the nutrients s/he was supplemented with.
Easy sources:
• B12 can now be found in many plant-based milks, such as Oatly oatmilk and
Silk soymilk. B12 is important, so choosing a plant-milk (something you consume regularly) that includes it is a good idea.
• If you cook, just one tablespoon of Bragg's Nutritional Yeast (available at any decent grocery store) has 315% DV of B12,
and is very easy to incorporate into pasta dishes, pizzas, dips, and
much more.
• Alternatively, B12 is also in many multivitamins.
B12 in the beginning:
Vitamin B12 comes from bacteria in soil.
Our prehistoric ancestors would get B12 simply by eating unwashed plants or drinking river water.
More recently, humans could get B12 by eating animals who ate unwashed plants.
However, with soils today increasingly exposed to antibiotics and pesticides that kill bacteria, factory farmed animals are
now often supplemented with B12. So at this point, it makes more sense to just supplement ourselves, bypassing the saturated
fat, cholesterol, etc found in milk and meat.
BUT: What about vitamin D?
Adult cows get their vitamin D from plants, sun exposure, and/or supplements, and so should you.
There's no need to consume a
middlecow's
cholesterol-laden secretion to get a nutrient that she got from plants, supplements, and/or sun exposure.
a) Like cows, the human body can make Vitamin D naturally from sun exposure. If you live in a sunny climate,
just
5-30 minutes
of mid-day sun exposure per day is enough for most people.
b) Alternatively, vitamin D is already in many plant-milks, such as Oatly oatmilk and Silk soymilk.
That way you don't have to worry about getting too much sun exposure.
c) And vitamin D is also in many multivitamins.
While virtually no Americans suffer from
protein deficiency (exceptions likely being those with eating disorders or on extreme diets),
virtually all Americans (97%) suffer from
fiber deficiency.
↓
However, dairy contains zero fiber. Neither do meat, eggs, or sugar.
↓
The best source of fiber is whole plant foods.
BUT: Meat tastes good!
1. Would you say it's moral to kill anyone who you like the taste of?
If you put your grandma in an oven, she'll taste good too. But is that justification for doing such a thing to her?
Would you be okay with your local market selling dog meat after they convince you that it tastes good?
BTW, it's gonna taste pretty much just like the other murdered animals they sell.
2. Taste is subjective, and too often unquestioned.
Many children eat their boogers and find them tasty.
And they may continue eating their boogers until a friend says, "Hey, that's gross."
Well friend, it's time to hear it:
Meat and dairy are gross.
↳ If a stranger offered you a glass of
pus infused milk from an infected breast
– even if she had boiled it – would you drink it?
That's milk.
↳ If she put the solidified secretion from her nipple on your toast, would you eat that? That's cheese.
↳ The average hamburger contains feces (yes, poo).
↳ Eggs come from a buttgina
(yes, it's what it sounds like).
We could go on, but the point is: meat, dairy, and eggs are gross. And completely
unnecessary.
No animal regularly drinks breast milk after infancy, certainly not from the nipple of another species,
and there's no good reason why we should do such a thing either.
"The human body has no more need for cow's milk than it does for dog's milk, horse's milk, or giraffe's milk." — Dr. Michael Klaper
Casomorphin is a morphine-like compound produced from the digestion of milk protein.
Essentially, dairy contains something similar to opiate molecules. They attach to the same brain receptors
that heroin does.(1)
Researchers believe the evolutionary reason for this is to keep baby cows emotionally attached to their mothers during infancy
(to increase their chances of survival).
But instead, dairy companies
kidnap
and kill
those babies so they can profit by selling us the "emotional comfort"
of nursing on a baby's milk. And casomorphin is especially high in
cheese –
which helps explain why food companies love adding cheese to everything. And to think that the
dairy industry
spends at least
$50 million advertising
their products to children in public schools – hooking us while we're young.
Would you be okay with companies adding microdoses of opioids to cholesterol-laden foods to keep your kids coming back for more?
That may have survival value for newborn animals in nature, but not for humans in a country where 2/3 of adults are now
medically obese or overweight, where obesity among children has quadrupled in the last 50 years, and where heart disease
is now our nation's #1 killer.
It's time we humans grow up, stop consuming dairy like
babies, and stop subjecting
other animals to lives of misery just so we can feel comforted by their murdered babies' milk.
If you experience withdrawal cravings while quitting dairy, try to remember the
enormous suffering you're sparing other beings by going through those temporary feelings.
Of course, some people with self-interest may
dispute dairy addiction.
But here's an expert to explain why dairy is so hard for humans to quit.
Even our government
is in on pushing casomorphin, in the form of government programs like
"checkoffs"
authorized by Congress to increase spending on dairy promotion.
This government involvement has, in turn, empowered dairy to
stretch the truth
about dairy's production conditions and purported health benefits in their promotional efforts.
As of 2023, they're even using our tax dollars to
criticize
alternative products that would be better for us and the planet.
Please, next time you're offered anything with dairy, Just Say No.
1. As a meat/milk consumer, when something
tasted bad,
did you give up on meat and dairy? Or did you keep trying new foods/recipes/restaurants
until you found something that tasted better?
Well, that same strategy works when eating plant-based. Keep experimenting, and it won't be long
before you once again have too many great-tasting food options to choose from.
2. It takes a little time to reverse desensitization:
If you give a non-smoker a filtered cigarette, they'll say it tastes powerful. If you give that
filtered cigarette to a filterless cigarette smoker, they'll say it's not satisfying. Likewise,
your taste buds are currently so desensitized by the taste of meat that nothing subtler seems to tastes good.
This is like a vampire who's no longer satisfied by anything but the taste of blood. However, after removing
meat and dairy from your diet, it won't be long before your taste buds are once again able
to appreciate the myriad tastes of kinder foods.
3. Related input (a personal opinion):
"I have a friend who says he hates water. It's not surprising, because he constantly drinks sodas –
so he never experiences true thirst. But ask a person who just ran a marathon what they want to drink 3 glasses of, and the answer
will be "water". Likewise, many people eat so nonstop these
days that they don't get truly hungry anymore. My friend is obese. If he ever allowed himself to feel true thirst,
he'd probably stop "hating" water, start enjoying something healthier than soda, and probably look a lot better.
And I think something very similar happens with true hunger and plant-based eating."
4. Related input (a personal opinion):
"Now that I'm vegan, I have a lot more foods (with a lot more ingredients) than ever.
Before going vegan, I was pretty much eating the same things for every meal. Chicken, pig, cow, chicken, pig, cow, over and over.
But with plant-foods, there's a plethora of new options. I know a lot of vegans at this point, and I never hear any
of them complaining about not having great stuff to eat. Actually the bigger problem now is that people are always
telling me about new vegan products/recipes/restaurants, but I already have too many favorite foods already!
I do agree that vegan gets a lot easier and healthier when you stop trying to imitate the taste of dead animals
using plants. Yes, cool new products are out there, lots of them, and yes it's great to support those
companies (transitional products have their place). But there's so much more available,
real foods, that actually taste even better in my opinion."
BUT: Vegan food is expensive.
1. Actually, it's meat consumption that's associated with wealth:
"Around the world, people have become richer, with the global average income
more than tripling in half a century. When we compare consumption across different countries we see that,
typically, the richer we are, the more meat we eat." – Source:
BBC
2. Plant-based staples are typically the
cheapest foods.
For example, rice and beans is one of the cheapest meals you can make, and that combination forms a complete protein.
Quinoa is a complete protein, and a giant bag at Costco is about 10 dollars. Peanut butter on wheat bread
is another complete protein, and we've never heard anyone complaining about the cost of PB&J. Of course, this quick
list sounds boring, but everything can be made delicious with recipes and experimentation.
3. It's the newer vegan innovations (making plants taste like dead animals) that are often more expensive.
For example, Beyond Chicken nuggets are still more expensive than flesh nuggets stolen from a chicken.
But that's just a matter of supply/demand. As more people buy them,
and they're produced in larger quantities by more companies, the prices will come down.
That's already happening with a lot of products. Vegan ice cream used to be more expensive than ice cream made with milk stolen from a cow,
but now you can find it for about the same price.
4. Meat and dairy are often subsidized by government (taxpayers). This
essentially creates an
unfair pricing advantage
over plant-based products. By supporting plant-based
meat and dairy alternatives, you help dis-empower animal exploiting corporations who've rigged the system to profit
from subsidies for their harmful products.
If anything, meat and dairy should be taxed liked cigarettes to offset the damage they do
to our health and environment. Imagine if rather than a tax on cigarettes, tobacco companies convinced the government to use our tax dollars
to both discount cigarettes and advertise them to our children.
That's essentially the situation with meat and dairy today.
BUT: I don't feel good without meat.
1. Many of us might similarly say that we only feel our best after we eat chocolate
cupcakes everyday. That's a temporary type of good. Likewise, as long as you're eating a variety of plant-foods, and
supplementing whatever you used to get from
supplemented animals,
then the discomfort of going plant-based is typically just a temporary
mental/emotional discomfort. An even better analogy would be the discomfort people feel when quitting cigarettes.
Abandoning the positive mental associations we have with meat/dairy can create a similar emotional discomfort,
but that quickly passes when we see that life without the harmful "products" can be far better
than it was with them.
2. Any diet change can take our body some time to adjust to. However,
rest assured that the overwhelming consensus among major medical authorities – including Mayo Clinic, USDA, and
American Dietetic Association – is that plant-based diets can be healthy for all
stages of human life. In fact, there's no longer any major medical authority saying otherwise.
So if someone tells you that eating plant-based didn't feel "right for their body type", keep in mind that
there's no science to support what they're saying. To let such comments keep you from trying plant-based
yourself would be like continuing to smoke because a friend told you that quitting made them feel lousy.
In the case of plant-based, the person may have failed to take in enough calories, or they weren't
eating a variety of plant foods/nutrients, who knows – it's hard to say what
someone else was doing or experiencing.
3.
It is true that an unhealthy vegan diet isn't healthy – we can't just eat potato chips and vegan cookies –
but the same is true of non-vegan diets. So yes, figuring out what a healthy vegan diet looks like does take some
research and effort. You'll need to explore and experiment to find what works well and tastes best to you. Stay motivated
by remembering that your efforts will ultimately lead to a reduced risk of extremely uncomfortable ill-health, and will immediately
reduce your contribution to the extreme suffering of animals and the environment.
"Vegetarian diets can meet all the recommendations for nutrients.
The key is to consume a variety of foods and the right amount of foods to meet your calorie needs."
– USDA
4. If you think you're missing the feeling of fullness that comes from eating animal fat,
maybe try some high-fat plant foods like avocados, dark chocolate, walnuts, chia pudding, plant-based brownies, etc.
5. Of course, if you're really concerned, consult with your doctor.
But if you're new to plant-based, any discomfort you're experiencing is most likely just temporary. One of the best ways
to stay motivated at such times is to remind yourself of the absolutely excruciating
physical suffering you're sparing other beings with your
heroic decision to keep going.
"Sentient beings" are beings who are able to experience sensations
like fear, physical pain and other suffering. For those who've never had pets, the videos
on this website should demonstrate that the animals we're needlessly
harming for their flesh, milk, and eggs are sentient.
"There is no fundamental difference between man and animals in their [ability to] feel pleasure and pain, happiness and misery."
– Charles Darwin
*Plants may have a form of "consciousness",
but they are not sentient.
People also describe feeling discomfort when quitting cigarettes. Abandoning the positive mental associations we have with
meat/dairy can create a similar discomfort. But that eventually passes when we see that life without these harmful "products"
can be far better than it was with them.
BUT: Our teeth are made for meat eating.
No, they're not... Meat↑eaters
Plant↓eaters
Have you ever looked inside a dog or cat's mouth and seen how sharp their teeth are?
Dogs, cats, sharks, and other carnivores can attack and kill prey with with their teeth.
But imagine trying to attack and kill a pig with your teeth. Human teeth aren't sharp or strong enough.
Aside from having non-carnivore teeth, the human jaw is also able to move side-to-side like
other non-carnivores. The jaw of actual carnivores (like tigers, wolves, sharks, dogs, and alligators) only moves up-and-down.
Furthermore, humans have the extremely long digestive systems of plant-eaters, whereas
carnivores have a short digestive system designed to quickly digest rotting flesh.
If you really believe you're a carnivore, you should eat all meat uncooked, like real carnivores do.
Eat all chicken raw, all beef raw, all pork raw, and all fish raw.
*IMPORTANT: Don't do that. You're not a carnivore.
Yes, our teeth are capable of chewing meat, but that's not what they're for. The meat
industry has been known to sometimes feed dead cows to other cows, and they can chew it.
But clearly that's not what their teeth are made for either.
Also, even if someone does possess a physical attribute that's capable of violence, does that mean they should
freely do violence with it? If someone has strong arms, is that justification for beating other people to death?
Finally, although our "canines" are nothing like a carnivore's,
here's why we have them.
One of our closest genetic relatives, the Great Ape, has much larger canine teeth than us,
and they're nearly 100% plant-eaters. Likewise, the hippopotamus has the largest canine teeth of any animal on the planet, and they're 100% plant-eaters.
BUT: Humans have always been been eating meat and drinking milk.
1. Humans have always done a lot of
things we no longer find acceptable. Should we really model our behaviors on ignorant ancestors?
Some cultures have practiced human sacrifice, cannibalism, and female genital mutilation, and they considered those behaviors normal.
The fact that some of our ancestors did bizarre things doesn't mean we need to keep doing those things forever.
2. Along the same lines, some of our recent ancestors chose to do some things differently than those before them.
Should we now assume that the older ways were more correct, and revert to those?
For example, our very recent ancestors struggled to put an end to slavery.
Should we assume that slavery was actually right because it's what those before them did?
Likewise, should we revert to not allowing women to vote because that's what those before them did?
3. Is it really safe to assume that we're the first generation that's doing everything right?
On the contrary, more and more people are beginning to recognize that the way we're mass breeding, exploiting, butchering, and consuming animals today is the most
backwards, barbaric, and destructive practice the world has ever seen. It's actually unlike anything our prehistoric ancestors did.
It's our generation's slavery — on an exponentially larger scale than Black slavery.
"The thinking person must oppose all cruel customs,
no matter how deeply rooted in tradition and surrounded by a halo."
– Albert Schweitzer, Nobel Laureate
4. And even if our ancestors did sometimes
eat wild animals to survive, the sedentary, antibiotic-and-pesticide-laden
meat we're consuming today isn't at all what they ate. So it's definitely time we evolve. Fortunately, we now have
year-round access to a wider variety of plant proteins than our ancestors ever did.
5. As for milk, humans only started drinking the milk of other animals about 10k years ago. And even then,
only a minority of humans did so. Given that humans have been walking the Earth for at least 200-300k years, consuming animal-milk is an extremely
new phenomenon.
And that minority of humans who started drinking milk 10k year ago only did so for survival reasons –
reasons that are no longer relevant today. Even today, only about 30% of humans have mutated to be able
to digest milk. The normal human digestive system stops being able to digest milk after infancy (because milk is for babies).
So in fact, nearly 70% of the world's population is still lactose intolerant.
BTW, if you're interested in drinking more of what our ancestors have always been drinking since
the beginning of humanity's time on Earth, that would be: water. Water is almost exclusively what every adult mammal drinks.
BUT: Meat helped humans evolve.
Do you think people eating McDonald's and Burger King today are helping the evolution of our species?
Sure, some of us might not be here today if a starving ancestor hadn't eaten an animal.
But you could likewise say that descendants of the Donner Party wouldn't be here if their ancestors hadn't eaten other humans.
It's true, but it doesn't mean that Donner descendants have to keep eating other humans today. Doing so is no longer necessary for their survival.
There are actually many things that may have contributed to human continuation in the past
that are no longer relevant to our moving forward – including cannibalism, rape, wisdom teeth, and so on.
Meat and dairy are now associated with many of the diseases that are mass-killing us today, including
cancer, heart disease, stroke, obesity, and more. They're also linked to many of the
environmental harms threatening our entire existence – global warming, deforestation, ocean dead zones, etc.
So regardless of what got us to where we are, it's pretty clear that the only way forward from here
is going to be plant-based.
And even if our ancestors did sometimes
eat wild animals, the sedentary, antibiotic-and-pesticide-laden
meat we're consuming today isn't at all what they ate. So it's definitely time we evolve further. Fortunately, we now have
year-round access to a wider variety of plant proteins than our ancestors ever did.
"Recognize meat [today] for what it really is:
the antibiotic and pesticide-laden corpse of a tortured animal."
— Ingrid Newkirk, Founder of PETA
When flowing into a river, there's a big difference between water that's passed through a plant, and water that's passed through a cow.
However, even if we overlook that fact, here are the other facts:
Source: BBC.com
Yes, almond milk requires a lot of water – but not as much as cow's milk. So in terms of water waste, even the worst
plant-based milk is better than cow's milk.
However, if you care about limiting your environmental impact, then the optimal choices are soy and oat milk.
BUT: Doesn't soy cause men to grow breasts?
1. The rumor that soy milk causes "man-breasts" arose because soy contains phytoestrogen —
and when some people hear "estrogen", they think "woman." But phytoestrogen is plant estrogen, not actual estrogen.
Ironically, this phytoestrogen actually
blocks real estrogen!
3. We know that some cultures have been consuming soy for thousands of years without men growing breasts, and medical
research
completely contradicts the rumor as well.
4. To avoid man-breasts, choose a diet associated with
lower obesity,
as excess body fat on men is what often looks like breasts.
5. If someone tells you that drinking soy-milk is un-manly, remind them that drinking dairy milk is literally
drinking breast milk specifically made for a baby.
P.S. If consuming soy, many people opt for non-GMO.
BUT: Soy production is bad for the environment, so eating and drinking soy is bad for the environment.
1. The first half of the statement above is correct. Soy is currently being cultivated on such enormous
levels that it's destroying habitats, such as rainforests. That deforestation is in turn releasing massive amounts carbon into the
atmosphere, and pesticides/fertilizers used in cultivation are then degrading water sources, etc.
2. However, 75-80% of the world's soybean crops are being fed to farm animals. Vegan and vegetarian
consumption only account for about 5%. And with rapidly increasing familiarity with other vegan protein
sources, direct human consumption of soybeans is unlikely to grow significantly in the future. HOWEVER, even if the entire human population were
to eat soy for protein rather than meat/dairy, the destruction of natural vegetation required to supply us with the same amount
of protein would decline by over 90%! That's because converting plant-protein calories into animal-protein calories is extremely inefficient. If you're interested,
here's more explanation.
But the bottom line is that
direct human consumption of soy in plant form is not bad for the environment.
3. According to the World Wildlife Fund (WWF),
"Limiting consumption of animal-based food products, particularly meat, is one thing people
can do to help end this devastating trend [of over-farming soy]." So again, if you're really concerned about the
havoc that soy production is wreaking on the environment, the solution is to stop eating meat and dairy (go vegan).
TIP: When consuming soy in plant form (rather than through animal flesh),
many people opt for non-GMO
(or organic, since all organic is also non-GMO).
BUT: Plants have feelings, so you vegans should stop murdering tomatoes!
1. Plants may have a form of "consciousness", but they don't have a central nervous system or pain receptors,
and they therefore don't experience physical pain like we (animals) do.
2. Answer these questions honestly to reveal what you truly believe:
↳ If your house were burning down, who would you save first:
your pets or your plants? Would you ask a firefighter to run through the flames to rescue your plants?
↳ If a plant suddenly appeared in the road,
would you intentionally swerve your car into a dog to avoid running over the plant?
↳
We've all boiled vegetables before – would you ever boil a screaming animal alive with the same indifference?
3. Even if you are the very rare person who has come to believe that harming plants is the same as harming
animals, the fact is that significantly more plants have to be consumed by a farm animal for conversion into meat calories than
a person would have to consume directly from plants to get the same amount of calories.
In other words, eating plants saves plants.
4. Also, animal "agriculture" is a leading cause of
deforestation today.
Once again, eating plants saves plants.
BUT: Growing plants for vegans kills bugs and critters during cultivation.
When tractors till farmland, animals underground get crushed.
If insecticides are used on crops, bugs die.
So adopting a plant-based diet doesn't completely eliminate one's harmful impact
on animals.
However, when a person gets their calories from plants, that person's sustenance
requires only a small fraction of the amount of plants that would have to be fed
to farm animals for conversion into an equivalent amount of meat calories.
In other words, by eating plant-based, we actually reduce crop
cultivation, which in turn reduces harmful impacts on wild animals and insects.
So for anyone concerned about the animals harmed during crop cultivation, adopting a plant-based diet
is still the best way to reduce the number of animals harmed.
And a reminder from Mahatma Gandhi, who was a strict vegan:
"[A person] cannot for a moment live without consciously or unconsciously
committing [violence]. The very fact of living – eating, drinking and moving about – necessarily involves some
destruction of life, be it ever so minute. An adherent of [nonviolence] therefore remains true if the source of all his actions is compassion,
if he shuns to the best of his ability the destruction of the tiniest creature...
but he can never become entirely free from outward [violence]."
BUT: Vegans are hypocrites – they're killing animals even if they don't know it.
1. Vegans are sometimes accused of being hypocrites because they do things like
"kill bugs with their cars while driving to buy vegetables."
However, nobody is claiming that going vegan completely eliminates one's harmful impact on other beings. It only reduces it.
Even just sitting here now, we're all breathing in and killing microscopic organisms.
Mahatma Gandhi (a strict vegan) explained it like this:
"[A person] cannot for a moment live without consciously or unconsciously
committing [violence]. The very fact of living – eating, drinking and moving about – necessarily involves some
destruction of life, be it ever so minute. An adherent of [nonviolence] therefore remains true if the source of all his actions is compassion,
if he shuns to the best of his ability the destruction of the tiniest creature...
but he can never become entirely free from outward [violence]."
Not harming a single insect during our day is probably impossible, or at the very least not practical. Adopting a
plant-based diet, on the other hand, is the lowest of low hanging fruit when it comes to kindness toward fellow beings today.
2. Does the fact that people and animals are sometimes killed by mistake justify
killing them on purpose? Of course not — there's a big difference between running over a dog by mistake, and driving around
looking for dogs to run over on purpose.
BUT: Vegans copy non-vegan foods, so that must be what they really want.
1. Reasons for going vegan are typically animals, health, and the environment.
Nobody's going vegan because they don't like the taste of the foods that their parents and culture habituated them to.
Because of this, many innovative companies are discovering that there's a market for plant-based
versions of the foods we grew up with. And those products offer new vegans (those not yet familiar with
plant-based cooking) a great way to more quickly transition away from violent foods.
2. The fact that many new vegan products come in the shape of
sausages and hamburgers is not a matter of copying meat products, but rather of those being
convenient shapes. Nobody's ever accused sausage makers of copying zucchinis, or
meatball makers of copying cherry tomatoes. They're simply convenient and common shapes.
BUT: Plants don't have udders / You can't milk an almond / Plant milk isn't real milk / It should be called plant-juice.
1. Check a recent dictionary, and you'll find that definitions of milk include
"any liquid resembling the milk of animals" and "a whitish, potable liquid made of ground nuts, legumes, seeds, or
grain blended with water". Language evolves.
2. Despite attempts by the dairy industry to block plant-milk producers from using the word "milk", the
FDA has rightly decided
that it's fair to call oat/soy/plant beverages types of "milk" because plant-milks
"do not pretend to be from dairy animals — and US consumers aren’t confused".
3. If labeling requirements required total accuracy, dairy milk would not be allowed to market itself just as
"milk", but would instead have to be labeled as something like:
• "Cow's milk"
• "Milk made by cows for their baby cows"
• "Milk designed for baby cows only"
BUT: It's impossible to be 100% vegan in today's world.
That's likely true – there are some products for which vegan alternatives are nearly impossible
to find. For example, the rubber in car tires usually contains animal products, as do many house paints. And
since such products aren't food, manufacturers aren't required to list ingredients.
Many medicines also contain animal components, are produced using animals, and/or are tested on animals.
Even some vegetables are sometimes coated with waxes that are derived from animals.
However, does not being able to completely eliminate our participation in animal suffering
mean that we shouldn't even try to reduce it?
Imagine this: A fireman runs into a burning building and sees there are 10 children about die. Unfortunately, he
can only carry 5 of them. Would it be rational for the fireman to say, "Well, I can't save all
of them, so I'm not going to save any of them" and then let all 10 of them burn?
Well then, what about 10 dogs, 10 cats, or 10 pigs?
Mahatma Gandhi (a strict vegan) explained it like this:
"[A person] cannot for a moment live without consciously or unconsciously
committing [violence]. The very fact of living – eating, drinking and moving about – necessarily involves some
destruction of life, be it ever so minute. An adherent of [nonviolence] therefore remains true if the source of all his actions is compassion,
if he shuns to the best of his ability the destruction of the tiniest creature...
but he can never become entirely free from outward [violence]."
Have you ever heard anyone say, "This can't be perfect world, so let's not even try to make it a better world"?
If we used unattainability of perfection as a reason to never try to make anything better, we would never have done
anything about Slavery, Nazism, Women's Suffrage, lynchings, etc.
In short, not being able to do everything doesn't mean we should do nothing. Veganism is about avoiding unnecessary
violence to animals and the environment as far as is possible and practicable.
The word "vegetarian" has been used for centuries to describe a diet that excludes animal flesh.
A common motivation for this diet is the immorality of killing another
being when doing so isn't necessary for our survival.
The word "vegan" originated in 1944, and describes a lifestyle that excludes animal flesh, milk, and eggs.
The increasing popularity of veganism is likely due to the growing awareness of
what's involved in dairy. For example, whereas meat involves the killing of an animal, dairy involves forced pregnancy,
kidnapping, infanticide, and lifetime enslavement, in addition to premature
killing. People living a vegan lifestyle
try to reduce animal suffering by avoiding all animal products as far as is possible and practical.
Prior to 1944, such such a practice was sometimes called
"moral vegetarianism"
"Plant-based" is more recently replacing the word "vegan" in popularity, which might be a good thing
since vegan sounds a bit like someone from another planet. However, plant-based eaters don't necessarily try to avoid harm to animals in choices beyond food.
For example, a person adhering to vegan lifestyle would avoid purchasing leather clothing, but someone who's just plant-based might not.
"Whole foods, plant-based" or "WFPB" is a plant-based diet that
aims to limit processed foods, including foods with lots of added sugar, oil, and/or salt.
WFPB instead emphasizes plant foods that are as close as possible to the state in which they're found in nature.
So this diet is basically at the opposite end of the spectrum from "junk food vegan". Note that this "whole"
has absolutely nothing to do with the store Whole Foods, which sells lots of non-whole foods, as well as
unwholesome/cruel foods.
BUT: I heard fish oil is healthy because it contains omega-3 fatty acids.
Before taking that bait, please take a look at where fish get their omega-3's from:
Fish get their omega-3's from plants! More precisely, they get them from algae. And so can you.
There are clear advantages to going directly to a nutrient's source rather than eating it via the flesh of a middlefish
who's also been eating mercury (a neurotoxin) and other toxins.
Do a search for "Algae Omega 3" and you'll find numerous purchase options.
—Franz Kafka (1883-1924), while viewing a fish in an aquarium.
BUT: What about eggs?
Aside from being a health risk (loaded with
cholesterol)
and gross (they come from a
buttgina),
eggs involve extreme animal suffering.
Just like cows in the dairy industry, the
suffering of females in the egg industry lasts their entire life. Their
macerated babies and butchered brothers are actually lucky by comparison.
And if you've been led to believe that backyard egg production is a humane alternative,
please take a closer look.
Why do vegans avoid honey? Isn't honey a byproduct?
Strict vegans do avoid honey because honey is not a byproduct. Bees produce and save honey in order to have
food to survive through the winter months.
When businesses raise bees for stealing their honey, those bees live a life of increased stress because they're
in more crowded conditions, their hive is often being "attacked", smoked, and transported; And since the bees
likely sense that they don't have enough honey to survive winter, they have to constantly work harder.
But despite their hard work, such bees are left with no honey for the winter months. Rather, they're given a
sugar-based substitute, which of course isn't as nutritionally appropriate for them.
So honey definitely isn't "vegan", and strict vegans will avoid it. But it's not
as problematic as meat, dairy and eggs.
BUT: What will the farmers do if we stop buying animal products?
1. Don't be duped — most factory farms today bare little resemblance to the idyllic
family farm images you see on milk cartons. Most animals are now "produced" in large corporate arrangements,
and it's rarely
Old MacDonald doing the work.
Small farmers are often
mistreated in these arrangements,
and you're unlikely to hear any workers
describe factory farm labor as their
dream job —
factory farm workers
have some of the highest rates of stress, depression, PTSD, alcoholism, drug addiction, and suicide in the world.
Just think of the violence they're witnessing and committing because of our current food choices.
Even many farmers and
workers have concerns about the violence inherent in
animal agriculture today. By choosing plant-based foods, you help create demand for new products they can produce.
It's simple: buying plant-based foods creates revenue for plant-food farmers. Why should
animal-farmers be considered more important than plant-food farmers? Especially if plant-foods are better for our health
and the planet, while animal-foods are harming us.
Actually, plant-based is a
huge opportunity
for farmers who care about the future of this planet.
Now is the time
for them to be the change our world needs.
Yes, there will be some who resist and ridicule that change,
as the dairy industry
is currently doing with plant-milk.
But the fact is that without change, humanity's chances of survival on this planet are being undermined.
2. Did you ever avoid watching Netflix/Youtube/etc because of what those new products would mean
for video stores like Blockbuster? No, because there were clear advantages. It's the same here.
A plant-based food system is an idea whose time has come.
Inflicting unnecessary disease on customers and destroying the only planet we have is not a sustainable business model.
3. Would you ever tell people to keep smoking cigarettes because not smoking creates hardship
for tobacco farmers? The fact is that animal agriculture is now responsible for far more human disease and environmental destruction
than cigarettes ever were.
4. "What about the slave owners, what will they do?" was a popular
sentiment for protecting the slave industry at one time. But while it may have been a popular sentiment, it was not a strong argument.
And there are very strong similarities between that historic situation and modern animal agriculture.
5. The inconveniences that some farmers may experience in the near future is unfortunate, but
should be viewed relative to 1) the excruciating suffering experienced by millions of factory farmed animals every day, 2) the diet-related
diseases people are experiencing because of animal foods, and 3) the environmental impacts being inflicted on unborn generations by animal agriculture.
BUT: You vegans have never even been on a factory farm.
1. In many cases, that's not true.
Many farmers become vegan,
and many vegans become factory farm investigators.
2. If you know what happens in a place, you don't necessarily have to go there in
order to know whether what happens there is wrong. Most of us have never been to a concentration camp or slave plantation,
but knowing essentially what happens in those places is enough to oppose their existence in the modern world.
3. In fact, there's abundant video footage that shows us exactly what happens on
factory farms, as well as numerous
farmers,
informants, and
investigators
exposing the truth.
4. If the average person were to visit a factory farm, they'd likely just be
turned away, arrested, or given the
amusement park tour.
BUT: Animals are bred for meat.
1. If breeding farm animals for slaughter makes their slaughter okay, then does
breeding dogs for dogfighting make dogfighting okay? Some people sexually abuse animals —
does breeding animals for that purpose make sexually abusing them okay?
2. Does breeding humans for slavery make slavery okay?
There have been times in history when that was seen as normal.
But for the most part we've come to understand that "breeding" any animal (human or
non-human) for exploitation doesn't change the fact that s/he is a sentient being
that feels pain and suffering just like our pet/child/self.
"The animals of the world exist for their own reasons.
They were not made for humans any more than black people were made for white, or women made for men."
– Alice Walker, author The Color Purple
BUT: Animals eat other animals.
1. Animals that eat other animals (carnivores) in nature do so because they have to
in order to survive. This isn't at all true for us humans. Health authorities such as
the USDA and Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics (American Dietetic Association) now fully acknowledge that humans can thrive on plant-based diets.
There's no longer any major health authority saying that we need to consume meat or dairy.
2. The way animals eat other animals in nature helps keep balance in ecosystems.
As for the way humans produce animals for consumption, it does the exact opposite. Animal "agriculture" is now a leading
cause of deforestation, river pollution, ocean dead zones, species extinction, climate change, etc.
3. Some carnivorous animals in nature are known to eat their young.
Should we really be modeling our standards of human behavior on those of wild animals?
BUT: Animals are stupid, so why not exploit them?
1. Actually, many animals have excellent
problem-solving abilities,
communication skills,
and extremely high
emotional intelligence.
The ironic problem with the above statement is that we humans
simply don't understand their intelligence.
2. Nevertheless, if we use intelligence level to determine whether or not a sentient being
should be used for food, then dogs and cats are both proven to be less intelligent than pigs. Are you okay with eating them?
Also, the average pig is just as intelligent as a 3 year old child, so would you say it's okay to breed,
butcher, and eat small children?
3. Would you be okay with a new law saying it's okay for smart people to harm
dumb people?
Hopefully not. But if we don't use low intelligence as reason to exploit, experiment on,
or kill humans, then why do so with animals that may be smarter than those humans?
4. Rather than being a reason to exploit nature, is it possible that our intellectual
superiority might be a reason to become kind stewards of nature? Given that we are nature, is it possible
that using our intelligence to do good for nature might be our actual place in nature?
"Man's supremacy over lower animals means not that the former should prey upon the latter, but that the higher should protect the lower."
– Mahatma Gandhi
5. But if you are going to continue using low intelligence as justification for exploiting/killing/consuming other beings,
then the lowest intelligence beings are plants. They literally don't have a single brain cell. And perhaps more importantly, they don't
have pain receptors.
BUT: Forcibly impregnating a cow is not the same as rape.
Due to
dehorning
and separation from (infanticide of)
bulls, cows are essentially defenseless animals. But just because a cow is
incapable of defending herself from a worker inserting his arm deep into her
anus, and a steel rod deep into her vagina, doesn't mean she's indifferent to it.
On the contrary, there are plenty of visual indications that cows don't like this.
And research into cows' cortisol levels proves that it causes them stress.
If a defenseless woman were unable to fight off a rapist, we wouldn't cease to call her rape a rape.
Likewise, the dairy industry is only raping cows because they've been rendered
easy to rape. If cows were able to
respond to an arm in their anus like a lion, tiger, or bear would, we wouldn't be drinking cow's milk
(and certainly not kidnapping their babies).
We also wouldn't cease to call the rape of a
less intelligent female rape just because of her low intelligence.
Otherwise, raping women with intellectual disabilities (or young children with still low IQ's) wouldn't be considered rape.
Note that the dairy industry itself coined the term
"rape rack"
to describe a device used to restrain cows during forced semen insertion. So clearly, even the dairy industry
understands the essence of what's taking place.
Most people would find the thought of forcibly
impregnating a young girl
on a "rape rack" and then killing her newborn baby just to be able to drink that girl's breast milk to be unthinkable.
But that's what we pay the dairy industry to do whenever we consume dairy products. It's time to question the assumptions we
passively accepted about
milk while growing up – it is NOT a wholesome, harmless or victimless product by any stretch of the imagination.
BUT: Eating animals is "survival of the fittest" in action.
1. The phrase "survival of the fittest" became popular when biologist Charles Darwin
used it to mean "better adapted for the environment." Unfortunately, the phrase was misused by non-scientists
to justify unrestrained business practices, including violence. It's for that reason that modern biologists no longer
use the term. The fact is that nature doesn't work without overwhelming cooperation —
just think of how your body works, or a family, or any community.
2. Animal "agriculture" is now associated with many of our country's leading
deadly diseases; it's a leading cause of climate change and environmental destruction worldwide; and it's a major reason our planet is now in
its largest mass extinction since the dinosaurs. "Survival of the fittest" is definitely not an appropriate
description of, or justification for, modern factory farming.
3. The assumption that our human ability to dominate and exploit other animals means
that we're meant to exploit them is purely learned, and very flawed. Do we exploit mentally challenged
people because we're more intelligent than them? No, just the opposite – in modern society we see our
dominance as giving us the responsibility to look out for those who need us.
"The more helpless a creature, the more entitled it is to protection by man"
– Mahatma Gandhi
Is it possible that you're here not to harm animals, but to protect them?
Is it possible that you're here not to destroy nature, but to be its kind steward? Remember: You are nature.
4. If someone taught you that humans are top of the food chain in nature,
watch some videos of man versus shark, lion, crocodile, etc. Modern weapons and slaughterhouse
machinery may make it appear that we're top of the food chain, but humans have only been using
such tools for a tiny fraction of our existence. And they're not at all natural.
5. Throughout human history, we see that all large scale atrocities,
such as genocides, are committed by people who believe that they're "the fittest". It's a very
dangerous false belief. Keeping that in mind, look at what animal "agriculture" is doing to us today,
as a result of the same false belief.
"The beef industry has contributed to more American deaths than all the wars of this century."
– Dr. Neal Barnard
"Those who exclude any of God's creatures from the shelter of compassion will deal likewise with their fellow man."
– St. Francis of Assisi
"As long as there are slaughterhouses, there will be battlefields."
– Leo Tolstoy
BUT: It's human instinct to consume animals.
1. When a squirrel runs in front of you, do you have an urge to chase it like a born-carnivore does?
When you see a deer in the forest, do you feel like pouncing on it?
2. If you were trapped in a room with a live chicken and an apple, which do you think you would eat first?
If it's human instinct to kill, then why doesn't the average person want to buy a live animal from the
grocery store to kill themselves? Why do we prefer it disguised in a pretty package?
3. And why are most people so averse to watching slaughterhouse footage? If we were really carnivores,
those videos should make us salivate.
Look closer at what you've come to assume is instinct, and you'll see that the way we're currently
eating is just taught/learned/programmed behavior.
"Put a baby in a crib with an apple and a rabbit. If it eats the rabbit and plays with the apple,
I'll buy you a new car."
— Harvey Diamond
BUT: Eating animals is the circle of life.
1. The "circle of life" means all that lives will one day die. That's true.
But just because an animal is going to die someday doesn't justify needlessly slaughtering it while still young,
any more than it would justify slaughtering a young person. Suppose someone was trying to
kill you right now. Would you accept it as okay if they reminded you that you're
going to die one day anyway? No, because killing you now wouldn't be the circle of life, it would be murder.
2. What takes place on modern factory farms has nothing to do with the circle of life.
It's the circle of raping into existence, a lifetime of enslavement/exploitation/suffering, and systematic mass extermination.
It looks nothing like what happens in nature.
"Realizing that animals feel afraid, cold, hungry and unhappy like we do…
I feel very deeply about vegetarianism...
It was my dog Boycott who led me to question the right of humans to eat other sentient beings."
— Cesar Chavez,
co-founder United Farm Workers
"Armies cannot stop an idea whose time has come." — Victor Hugo
Hugo was referring to universal Truths remembered during the French Revolution, such as liberty and equality.
Despite powerful opposition from a self-interested Establishment at the time, such values are now universal.
And today we're remembering that they don't just apply to one species.
"The Truth is a stubborn thing. It doesn't go away." — PlantPure Nation
Fish don't have vocal cords to scream like us humans because they live in water, and
they don't have the facial structure and muscles to frown like us. But it's not hard to see that a fish is
feeling pain
when hooked on a line, caught in a net, suffocating in the air, or being
skinned alive.
In fact, fish have nerve endings (pain receptors) that are physiologically identical to humans, and when morphine is
given to fish in pain, their symptoms and responses disappear,
exactly like us/humans.
In short, there is absolutely no doubt that fish feel pain.
BUT: I don't like animals.
You don't have to like animals to not want to hurt them.
It's just like with people — you probably don't like everyone, but that doesn't mean you have
to needlessly harm and kill those you don't like.
Likewise, you may prefer cats over dogs, and dogs over pigs.
But that doesn't mean you have to needlessly support violence against the ones you like less.
BUT: The video footage on this site seems extreme/exceptional.
We wish the videos on this site were rare occurrences,
but such things are happening every day.
What's rare is for cameras to make their way on to factory farms.
In an attempt to hide the truth from consumers, there's actually an effort to make the filming
of animal agriculture a crime. In other words, the animal ag is trying to make it a crime for people to expose their crimes.
Thankfully, some brave investigators are still managing to document the
atrocities taking place on factory farms. But ultimately, it's up to each of us to stop financing those atrocities with our food choices.
BUT: What about certified humane animal products?
1. The word "humane" is a misleading marketing term.
Using the word "humane" to sell items made from exploited animals is known as "humane-washing."
It's a way to get conscientious people to continue spending money on inherently cruel and violent products.
Look at this "Fairlife"
(a Coca-Cola company) dairy supplier. Even suppliers for
Whole Foods (which uses an
animal welfare certification gimmick) have been found to raise animals inhumanely. And Whole Foods has even
sued animal rights advocates
(yes, ironic).
2. If there were a humane meat/dairy supplier giving animals comfortable lives and painless
deaths, what would that look like? Suppose you killed a friend in their sleep without
any pain. Would a judge (or their mom, or their child) say it was okay because you killed them "humanely?"
Of course not. What if you said, "but I also ate him/her," would that make it okay? Of course not.
And of course, animals on factory farms are never killed so peacefully.
3. When discussing "humane", people often mention a seemingly
idyllic farm,
or perhaps
hunting and
fishing
for their own food. But with 99% of animal flesh and milk now coming from factory farms, the idea of "humane"
farming/hunting/fishing is irrelevant, and only serves to perpetuate an outdated culture of
exploiting animals.
4. In most cases, animals raised on so-called "humane" family farms are taken to the exact
same slaughterhouses as other factory-farmed animals.
Suppose the time had come to put your dog or cat to sleep. Would you consider having them put down
at a slaughterhouse, unsupervised, by the slaughterhouse workers, rather than a veterinarian? The only difference here is that most
of the animals whose slaughters we're paying for are still young, and none of their slaughters are compassionate.
5. Regarding "cage free": Every year in Yulin, China there's a festival where
thousands of dogs
are slaughtered in the streets. They're dogs exactly the same as the dogs we have as pets,
including Golden Retrievers, German Shepherds, Huskies, Labs, etc. Would you say that festival would be
okay if they just kept the dogs in larger cages?
6. If you think you're buying humane animal products, be sure to visit the "farm"
where those animals are being produced, and ask to witness at least one slaughter. Did it look like that slaughter was
consensual and humane? (Remember that humane means "having or showing compassion.")
After witnessing that slaughter, you'll always remember that any animal product being marketed as
"certified humane" is misleading, and only perpetuating harm to animals.
1. Some people enjoy hunting, and nobody wants to stop doing what they enjoy –
we all get that. Some people simply enjoy the outdoor aspect of hunting; others might enjoy the
camaraderie
of hunting with friends; others might get a feeling of security knowing they could survive in the wild
by hunting; others might reinforce a sense of manliness or toughness by hunting.
Trophy hunters might get an ego boost when taking a photo next to a beautiful animal they shot;
people dissatisfied with their lives might find something cathartic about taking others' lives –
our own life may feel temporarily fuller when we take another's.
Hurt beings hurt beings – because when we hurt others, it may feel good to
see someone else hurt.
It's important to look at exactly what you get from hunting.
And then ask yourself: Is killing the best way to get that? Is that real joy? And is it in alignment with who you really are?
2. One good thing about hunting is that it doesn't involve factory farming, and most of its victims
suffer only briefly. But the idea that hunting can be an alternative to factory farming is absurd.
In just the last 50 years, 50% of the wildlife
on Earth has disappeared, while human population has more than doubled during that same time. And that trend is not changing.
We won't waste time with the math here. A hunting-based food system for all is impossible.
3. Input from a visitor:
When I was a kid, my friends and I used to hunt small animals with airguns – birds, lizards, frogs, squirrels.
I never felt anything bad about it – no mercy, no guilt – it just felt fun. But one day we shot a bird, it fell to the ground,
and it was still breathing, eyes open. It was alive, just it's wing was torn. Someone took a can of spray paint,
sprayed the bird, and lit it on fire. At first I felt nothing as usual. But as I watched the bird flap around in agony,
convulsing, it occurred to me that the pain it was experiencing was exactly what I would feel if I was burning to death.
And not just the physical pain, but that animal may have had a nest and young. In its mind, everything that mattered
was being lost.
I was only 10 or 11 years old then, but that was the beginning of my realizing how dangerous it is to
perceive another's suffering as less real than our own. Twenty years later I see clearly how finding joy in the suffering
of others is based on a misperception. And when I look deeply, I see that it might be the most self-undermining
misperception in our world.
I don't usually tell that story, because the typical assumption is that I was a disturbed kid with disturbed friends.
But what's really disturbing is to know that for just about every meal, every day, those judgmental people
sit down and participate in something just as horrific as what was done to that bird.
Every day, the average person pays to put animals through not just a few minutes of
misery, but entire lifetimes of it. I'll never do that again. Today I'm 100% plant-based.
"People who say they love animals sit down once or twice a day and enjoy the flesh of creatures who have been utterly
deprived of everything that could make their lives worth living... who endured the awful suffering and terror of [factory farms]."
– Jane Goodall
BUT: What if I'm stranded on an island and only have a pig to eat?
Or what if I'm lost in the Alaskan wilderness and only have a moose to eat?
Truth is, in extreme situations, people will even eat other people. For example, in order to survive
a winter stranded in heavy snow, the Donner Party resorted to eating their human travel companions.
However, once the Donner Party got out of that extreme situation, they didn't keep eating other people.
Likewise, now that we have abundant and healthy plant-based food options, there's no legitimate reason for us
to keep eating other beings either.
So the more relevant question today is:
What if you had an abundance of nutrient-packed plant foods available to you 24/7.
Would you continue harming animals for no reason?
*The island/Alaska scenarios also don't involve the issue at hand,
which is modern factory farming, which inflicts a lifetime of unnatural suffering.
**If you're ever stranded on an island with a pig,
the smart thing to do would be to look at what the pig is eating in order to determine what's edible. And if
there's enough for both of you, then you'll have someone to keep you company.
BUT: If we don't keep killing/eating farm animals,
they'll overpopulate and overwhelm wildlife.
That's very unlikely:
On modern factory farms, most animals are produced through artificial insemination.
In fact, many have been bred so large that they aren't even able to mate naturally anymore.
And because there's a cost associated with breeding and raising farm animals,
production rates are now determined by demand. So as meat/milk/egg consumption slows, animal breeding by farmers will also slow.
And since the world is far from going vegan overnight, there's just about zero chance
that we have to worry about chickens, pigs, and cows crowding our roadways or overwhelming nature.
BUT: If we don't eat chickens, pigs, and cows, they'll go extinct.
Rest assured, that's not going to happen:
1. There are already many times more farm animals on Earth than there are humans.
At this point, 60%
of all mammal biomass on Earth is farm animals.
There's nearly twice as much farm animal mass on the planet now as there is human.
Meanwhile, wild animals are down to about 4% of Earth's biomass.
2. If extinction of species is a concern for you, keep in mind that our planet
is currently in the midst of its largest mass extinction in 65 million years – comparable to the extinction that wiped out the dinosaurs.
In just the last 50 years, over 50% of all wildlife on Earth has disappeared, with about 1000 species
still going extinct every year, and with that rate of extinction continuing to accelerate.
This mass extinction is largely due to our diet. Livestock production takes up nearly 80% of global agricultural land, and
is one of the leading causes of deforestation, habitat loss, river pollution, and ocean dead zones.
At this point, we humans are actually risking our own extinction for the sake of eating animals, their milk, and their eggs,
even though those foods account for less than 20% of the world's calories.
"We are, quite literally, gambling with the future of our planet, for the sake of hamburgers."
— Peter Singer, Professor of Bioethics, Princeton University
3. If chickens, pigs, and cows are ever at risk of going extinct and need to be protected in zoos,
it's unlikely that eating them will be the solution.
BUT: It's a free country, so I can eat and drink whatever I want.
1. Every country on Earth has the
"freedom"
to eat hamburgers and drink baby cow's milk. But the only reason anyone thinks that's freedom is because we've been
conditioned
to think that way.
↳ But is that conditioning really true? Would you ever say, "It's a free country, so I'll kidnap who I want,
rape who I want, and murder who I want"? No, that's not real freedom. Even if an industry or government passes
laws
allowing us to commit such violence with impunity, legality doesn't always equal morality.
↳ Throughout history there have been times when certain groups were considered
(by belief, culture, or law) inferior, and their suffering was therefore considered
less relevant
by those making the laws. But such attitudes have always had disastrous effects, and have always eventually been proven untrue.
"You must remember that some things legally right are not morally right."
– Abraham Lincoln (President who abolished slavery)
↳ We now know that the animals we've been conditioned to see as mere "products" are in fact
sentient beings
who feel pain and suffering just like us. They may not look like us or speak our language,
but what they're saying is
very clear.
And we now know that the longer we ignore their screams, the more disastrous the impacts on our
health and
planet will be.
2. The most significant fights for freedom in our nation's history include
the Revolutionary War (gaining freedom from England) and the Civil War (gaining freedom from Slavery for Black Americans).
And at this point in our history, the majority (not all, but the majority) of Americans would be more proud to learn that their
grandparents had fought for those freedoms than not.
↳ We're now confronted with a very similar situation ourselves.
Fellow sentient beings are being exploited on a scale never before seen on Earth, and the environment of future
generations is being destroyed at a rate also never before seen. Our choices and actions today are likely to be the most important
in our planet's history. So it's time to decide: How do you want to see yourself,
and how to you want your grandchildren to see you –
as a person who was passive to needless violence and environmental destruction,
or as someone who helped stop those injustices?
"I wish it need not have happened in my time," said Frodo. "So do I," said Gandalf,
"and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide.
All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us."
— J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring
"Grandchildren will ask one day: 'Where [was our family] during the
Holocaust of the animals?
What did we do against these horrifying crimes?' We won't be able to offer the same excuse for the second time:
that we didn't know."
—Dr. Helmut Kaplan
3. It's unlikely that anyone is going to lose their "freedom" to eat hamburgers and drink a baby cow's milk
any time soon. Again, there's no country on the planet that doesn't have those false freedoms.
The goal of this website is to simply remind you that there are better options available that you've been made blind to and/or averse to.
Industries have spent billions of dollars shaping you into a consumer who thinks that eating animals is necessary and fun.
But that's pure nonsense – there's no longer any major health authority saying people need to consume animal flesh or fluids to be healthy.
And we're pretty sure that if free-minded people had a choice between eating healthy and delicious plant-based
foods, or eating animals just like their own pets whose flesh/fluids are more likely to cause them disease and destroy their children's planet,
people who are really free would choose plant-based.
↳ Real freedom involves taking back your freedom to think for yourself, and to act in
alignment with who you really are — rather than in passivity to the profit-driven programming
that's been telling you since birth that you must harm your fellow
Earthlings
in order to be healthy and happy.
BUT: The law says it's okay to consume animal products.
Legal does not always mean moral. Please spend some time watching the factory farm
footage on this website.
As you watch, you'll start to sense a law beyond written law –
one that's inscribed within us.
"You must remember that some things legally right are not morally right."
– Abraham Lincoln (U.S. President who abolished slavery)
"Thou shalt not kill" does not only apply to murder of one's own kind, but to all living beings.
And this Commandment was inscribed in the human heart long before it was proclaimed from [the Holy Land]."
– Leo Tolstoy (Author of "War and Peace" and
"Death of Ivan Ilych")
"However scrupulously the slaughterhouse is concealed in the graceful distance of miles, there is complicity."
– Ralph Waldo Emerson
"Obedience is doing what you're
told
regardless of what's right.
Morality is doing what's right regardless of what you're told."
BUT: The world has bigger problems than factory farming.
What one considers big is relative. But with what we now know about animal agriculture's impact on the
environment and
our health, it's clear that the solution to many
of our planet's biggest problems hinges on solving this one.
"Nothing will benefit health and increase the chances for survival of life on Earth
as the evolution to a [vegan] diet."
– Albert Einstein
But even if you believe there is a bigger problem, that
doesn't mean
we can't solve this smaller one in the meantime. This problem has a simple solution that anyone can contribute to on a daily basis.
P.S. If your dog or cat was mistakenly sent to a slaughterhouse, would stopping the slaughter line become more important to you?
Do unto others.
BUT: The real environmental problem is human overpopulation.
1. Human population growth is definitely a concern.
50k years ago there weren't even a million people on this planet. 10K years ago there were about 2 million.
300 years ago, 1 billion. 50 years ago, 4 billion. And today, 8 billion. Yes, a doubling of human population
in just 50 years on a finite-resource planet is certainly an important issue to consider.
2. However, it's actually even more important to consider that there are now several times
more farm animals on our planet than humans. As of 2024, farm animals account for
60%
of all mammal biomass on Earth, while humans are about 35%, and wild
mammals are down to about 5%.
So there's nearly twice as much farm animal mass on the planet today as there is human animal mass.
And while human numbers are rising at roughly
1.2%
per year, livestock numbers are rising at around 2.4% a year. That may sound like a small number, but 1.2% means doubling
in 60 years, and 2.4% means doubling in just 30 years.
3. Also, factory farm animals in the United States generate over 10 times more sewage than all
people do, and much of that sewage goes untreated into the
atmosphere,
rivers and oceans, where it creates
ocean dead zones.
Moreover, raising farm animals is already using three-quarters of the world's agricultural land, and is already having more
global warming
impact than all cars, trucks, and planes combined.
4. So while having 8 billion humans (and still increasing fast) on this planet is very likely an overpopulation problem,
it's not actually
the #1
overpopulation problem. The #1 overpopulation problem is that of farm animals.
Fortunately, that's a problem we can all help solve on a daily basis simply by choosing a plant-based diet.
P.S. You're not limited to caring about one issue in this world.
You're allowed to care
about both population problems.
BUT: Human rights are more important than animal rights. Let's fix those problems first.
1. You're allowed to care
about more than one issue in this world. You can care about human rights and animal rights simultaneously.
2. However, you can't really care about human rights without caring about animal rights:
As St. Francis of Assisi said,
"Those who exclude any of God's creatures from the shelter of compassion will
deal likewise with their fellow man."
Which is why Leo Tolstoy (author of War and Peace) said, "As long as there are slaughterhouses, there will be battlefields."
And that's why Abraham Lincoln, the President who abolished slavery, said, "I am in favor of animal rights as well as human rights.
That is the way of a whole human being."
3. If you care about human rights, keep in mind that factory farm
workers have some of the
highest rates of anxiety, depression, alcoholism, drug addiction, and suicide in the world. Just imagine what we pay them
to do and see. Should we assume that industries that murder millions of docile animals daily are going to care deeply about
human wellbeing?
4.
While working to resolve important human rights issues like human trafficking, mass shootings, and child abuse, does it make sense
to financially support an industry based on rape, kidnapping, exploitation, and premature murder at genocide-levels?
5. But again, it's not necessary to argue about which is more important — human rights
or animal rights — we can support both.
BUT: I love animals, but choose to help them in other ways.
1. If we love someone, do we willfully pay for them to experience
lifelong suffering and brutal deaths? And if we do that, can we really say we love them?
At the very least, being a lover of someone means not intentionally harming and killing them.
2. If you've ever had a dog or cat you loved, imagine for a moment that
s/he had instead been born into a dog/cat farm in Korea, or into the body of a pig/cow in
our culture.
Would the knowledge that every meat/dairy product you ever consumed had the potential of coming from the animal you
love make you think differently about what you're consuming? Note: every animal product you ever consume has the potential
of coming from an animal you may have loved.
We must question the assumptions we were born into. It's very unlikely that we're the first generation doing everything right on this planet.
"People who say they love animals sit down once or twice a day and enjoy the flesh of creatures
who have been utterly deprived of everything that could make their lives worth living, and who
endured the awful suffering and terror of slaughterhouses – and the journey to get there."
– Jane Goodall
"Whatever overgrown error you behold, is there only by your passivity."
"However scrupulously the factory farm is concealed in the graceful distance of miles, there is complicity."
– Ralph Waldo Emerson
BUT: I've reduced the amount of meat/dairy/eggs that I eat.
1. It's great that a lot of people are now
"reducetarian" as a result of the growing
awareness of the health impacts associated with animal product consumption. But as for the impacts on animals, would we ever say:
• "I've reduced the amount of child abuse I engage in."
• "I don't kill as many people as I used to enjoy killing."
• "I no longer intentionally run over dogs on Mondays."
(No, we wouldn't say such things. Because if something is clearly morally wrong, then it's wrong in any amount.)
2. Imagine a time before Abolition of Slavery when there were undoubtedly some
slave owners saying "I'm whipping my slaves less often than I did before."
Less may seem better on the surface. But like animal exploitation today, Slavery was an activity
that, although technically "legal" at one time, was never actually moral in any amount.
3. Cutting down on meat/milk/egg consumption does show that one has gained awareness, and is taking
steps in the right direction. And in fact, that's probably how most of us start on the vegan journey. But please keep going!
Because as long as a behavior has an intentional victim, then the only way that behavior will ever really be okay is if it ends completely.
BUT: I'm vegetarian, and I feel that's enough.
1. Being vegetarian usually reflects love for animals and not wanting
them harmed for the mere sake of your taste buds. That's an awesome choice!
However, as awful as the meat industry is to animals, what happens to cows in the
dairy industry
is in many ways even worse. So while it's best to avoid both industries' products, if starting your vegan journey
by cutting out the cruelest one first, that would be dairy.
2. Do you know why cows produce milk? For their babies.
In the dairy industry, females are impregnated every year to induce lactation, and every year their
baby is taken
from them (aka. kidnapped) so that it doesn't drink "our"milk. Keeping in mind that the bond
between mother cow and calf is one of the strongest in nature, can you imagine having your baby kidnapped from you
every year of your life? And when female cows eventually dry up and can't produce as much milk, they're
often turned into hamburger. That's right, the dairy industry is also the meat industry. In other words,
supporting the dairy industry is also supporting the meat industry.
3. Since the dairy industry doesn't want calves drinking "our" milk, and since male
calves won't produce milk, what do you think happens to male babies in the dairy industry? Often they're
immediately slaughtered for their meat. Again we see that the dairy industry is the meat industry.
And in the case of dairy, the meat often involves
infanticide
4. In the egg industry, since male chickens can't produce eggs, what do you think happens to male chicks?
Often they're ground up
alive, or suffocated. Egg-producing chickens are a different breed that doesn't produce enough meat to be worth raising. But the murdered males
are actually the lucky ones – female chicks will have their beaks burnt off so that they don't stress-peck each other to death during
their entire lifetimes of confinement, where unnatural breeding forces them to lay up to 300 eggs per year.
P.S. Do you ever think it's strange that humans drink milk made for baby cows?
If not, think about it now. Would you ever drink dog's milk, cat's milk, or rat's milk?
Industries have chosen to exploit cows because they produce lots of milk. But you could equally get your dog pregnant,
kill her pups, and drink her milk. But would you ever do that, or would you consider trying oat milk first? If you wouldn't kill a baby
cow and then wrap your lips around its mother's udders, it's time to look at what a lifetime of exposure to dairy
industry marketing has you doing. It's sick.
"The human body has no more need for cows' milk than
it does for dogs' milk, horses' milk, or giraffes' milk."
— Dr. Michael Klaper
"Our laws are not always god's laws. Our laws are often written by people with very special self-interests."
"Morality is doing what's right regardless of what you're told. Obedience is doing what you're
told regardless of what's right."
BUT: If vegans are against killing animals, are they against abortion too?
Most vegans would be against getting an abortion every day, especially a full-term abortion every day.
And that's essentially what meat consumption is — paying for the abortion of a born, breathing,
feeling being every day. Yes, an animal being slaughtered for human consumption is already born.
And keep in mind that pigs are proven to be just as intelligent as 3 year old children.
And if asked whether we're against the killing of a child who's already born, absolutely.
If asked whether we'd be against the abortion of an unborn factory farmed fetus, keep in mind that that
particular fetus is virtually guaranteed a life of misery and pain, completely void of compassion.
But of course, the ideal would be for its mother's rape to have never occurred in the first place,
which is what veganism helps prevent. And that's what this site is about.
As for the vegan view on pre-birth human abortion, opinions likely vary among vegans, just as they do among non-vegans.
As explained in the previous faq,
opinions on pre-birth human fetus abortion likely vary among vegans, just as they do among non-vegans.
However, any who opposes abortion (aka. pro-life) should definitely be against
the slaughter of beings who are just as aware and intelligent as 3 year old children. In other words, anyone
who's pro-life should absolutely be eating a 100% plant-based diet.
BUT: What do vegans feel their pets?
Dogs are
omnivores and
cats are carnivores, so many vegans still feed their pets meat. And yes, there is a huge conflict in loving one animal when doing so causes the
breeding and suffering of many others who are
equally deserving
of love.
The good news is that plant-based alternatives are improving fast!
This is especially true with kibble, which is a processed
food that wouldn't be part of any animal's diet in nature anyway. If your pet eats a
mix of kibble and wet food, replacing the kibble portion with a plant-based alternative
is a great first step to take toward being kind to all animals.
Some examples are:
BramblePets.com ships fresh frozen vegan dog meals nationwide.
In a peer-reviewed study
published in the Journal of Animal Science, Bramble's plant protein was found to be just as digestible as
animal protein (80%), and its fat content even more digestible (over 90%). Dogs fed Bramble also had lower cholesterol and triglycerides,
a healthier microbiome, and all their blood markers remained within the most desirable, optimal range. Note that you don't have
to fully switch to any vegan dog food – it's perfectly okay to start by mixing a little Bramble in with your dog's current food.
The 2022 Study:
In a peer-reviewed study,
University of Winchester researcher Dr. Andrew Knight observed the
dietary health effects of over 2,500 dogs for one year. The dogs fed a vegan diet exhibited fewer health problems and required
less medication and trips to the vet than dogs fed a conventional meat-based diet.
In a follow-up two months later, Dr. Knight said, "There are now eight studies examining health outcomes in dogs maintained
on vegan or vegetarian diets... the weight-of-evidence assessment is currently quite clear: the healthiest and least hazardous diets
for dogs are nutritionally-sound vegan diets."
Also: JustFoodForDogs.com is another company that offers a fresh frozen
(tofu/quinoa) dog meal.
The company states in a Q&A that their tofu is non-GMO and organic – awesome.
Unfortunately, they also state in their Q&A that the recipe is only intended to be used as a
"special treat" (not regular feeding), and a review of their ingredients shows that the tofu is
"textured soy protein" (ie. processed soy, boo). Therefore, if you're looking for a fresh frozen food for your pup,
we recommend starting with Bramble (above) first.
"And the lion shall eat straw like the ox."
— Isaiah 65:25
BUT: I met a vegan who wasn't nice, and I don't want to be like that.
1. Just because you encountered an unfriendly vegan doesn't mean that all vegans
are unfriendly, or that you have to be unfriendly if you go vegan. If you encountered an unfriendly postal employee,
would you assume that all postal employees are unfriendly? Not all vegans have the same personality.
2. As for "not nice", please watch some footage
of what's happening to animals on factory farms today. The two versions of "not nice" are in no
way comparable. Pigs are getting boiled alive, cows are having their arms and legs sawed off while still conscious,
following lives of having their babies taken from them every single year.
These are animals that never did a single thing to deserve any harm coming to them.
If you wish to avoid being "not nice", that's what being vegan is about.
BUT: My vegan friend seems to have rejected me. That's not right.
1. Imagine going for a meal at a friend's house, and they're eating your dog
on plates. Would you be able to enjoy that time together, even if they gave you
a vegan meal? If you knew that was the plan, would you want to join again?
In some cases, some vegans will begin spending less time with non-vegan friends as an initial coping strategy.
This shouldn't be seen as a permanent rejection of the friendship, but rather as a necessary period of
self-care for your vegan friend while they find ways to cope.
2. One visitor put it like this: "I spent a lot of time watching
factory farm footage to educate myself about the truth behind meat and dairy, and to make sure that
I would never participate again. That worked for me. But afterwards I went through a period where all
I could see while eating with non-vegan friends were those animals and their suffering. It was like meeting for
a meal and discovering that it was my own dog being eaten by my friends. It's hard to enjoy watching
them enjoy that. I understand that they still know not what they do, but being okay in that environment takes time."
3. Another visitor explained: "Shared meals with family and friends
are supposed to be times of connection and joy. During the holidays especially, eating is part of the
celebration. But connection, joy, and celebrations of life shouldn't require killing animals. That's outdated,
and I just can't participate in perpetuating that unnecessary association anymore. As long as there are animals
on the plates in front of us, I can't see anything more important for us to be discussing. Sadly, most people don't want to hear
about the violence, ill-health, and environmental destruction inherent in their holiday meals. The way I've personally
dealt with this is to make dates for non-holiday "Vegan Holidays" with my family.
Screw the other holidays for now, I find no joy in them, so what's the point. I may find another way someday,
but this seems to be the only way that works for now."
"The thinking person must oppose all cruel customs,
no matter how deeply rooted in tradition and surrounded by a halo."
– Albert Schweitzer, Nobel Peace Prize recipient
BUT: Even Buddhists eat animal meat, milk, and eggs.
As with all religions, many people call themselves Buddhists, but don't actually follow their religion's teachings.
In fact, the very first precept of Buddhism prohibits the killing of any
sentient being, as is done for meat.
And consuming dairy today violates all
all five precepts of Buddhism.
The core teachings of Buddhism are about reducing suffering, not inflicting it.
Reducing suffering requires mindfulness of the consequences of all one's actions.
As Thich Nhat Hanh (a Buddhist monk and friend of MLK Jr.) said,
"We must look deeply. When we buy something or consume something, we may be participating in an act of killing."
Clearly, if we pay someone for an animal's meat, we are killing.
And since dairy is clearly not needed for human health,
consuming dairy also involves inflicting needless suffering and killing.
It's uncertain where the "harming is okay if you pay someone else to do it" idea came from,
but it certainly wasn't from any
genuine Buddhist text.
And while some so-called "Buddhists"
have tried to justify eating other sentient beings if someone else does the killing for them, the Buddha
himself clearly instructs in the Dhammika Sutta that "One should not kill a living being, nor cause it to be killed,
nor should one incite another to kill."
Remember that the Buddha was not a Buddhist – he was merely a teacher. And his teachings are what's most important.
In choosing plant-based, it's likely that you'll be acting in alignment with more of the Buddha's teachings
than most Buddhists are these days.
Buddha means "awakened one", and no awakened one would ever choose to put fellow sentient
beings through the absolute
hell of a modern factory farm.
"All meats eaten by living beings are of their own relatives."
– The Buddha
"All beings fear danger,
life is dear to all.
When a person considers this,
s/he does not kill or cause to kill."
– Dhammapada, 129
"For unnumerable reasons,the [person on the path to awakening],whose nature is compassion,is not to eat any meat."
– Lankavatara Sutra (Mahayana)
"Whenever there is the evolution of living beings,let people cherish the thought of kinship with them,and [loving them as if they were] an only child,let them refrain from eating meat."
– Lankavatara Sutra (Mahayana)
"[Those devoted to Buddhist practice] who do not wear silk, leather boots, furs, down, or consume milk, cream, or butter can truly transcend this world."
– Surangama Sutra
"Meat-eating I have not permitted to anyone,I do not permit, I will not permit. "
– Lankavatara Sutra (Mahayana)
Mis-Translations
*In the Jivaka Sutta (Theravadan Buddhism), the Buddha gives one example of an instance in which a person is permitted to eat meat.
The modern translation would be: If you're in a situation similar to the
Donner Party, and if you happen to find a dead
animal that you know was killed by accident (e.g. road kill), you can eat it. That some Theravadan Buddhists today
use this Sutta as justification for eating any animal that someone else killed is a
gross mis-translationand violation of Buddhist precepts.
Once we
wake up
to what we're paying for when we purchase factory-farmed
animal products, it can become difficult to attend meditation gatherings (aka. sanghas or satsangs)
where people are talking about topics such as compassion for all sentient beings while they're still
choosing to needlessly harm those same beings every day with their food choices. Even if we understand that
"they know not what they do", continuing to attend such sanghas
can increasingly lead to
cognitive dissonance,
which is likely the opposite of what drew us to sangha in the first place.
If you'd like to write a letter to your current sitting group to help them understand
what you're experiencing, here are some templates to get you started:
Cognitive dissonance is the mental turmoil that results from
holding two conflicting beliefs, values, or attitudes simultaneously. For example, when holding a belief that
needless violence against animals is wrong, to also believe that we must be accepting of those who still
choose to inflict needless violence on animals can create cognitive dissonance.
As for the Dalai Lama, yes, despite the Buddha's clear words, he still knowingly eats his own mother and children
on special occasions (while traveling). This is a good reminder that, no matter how many times you've strayed, the only leader
you can ever really trust is your own heart (inherent knowing).
"The heart is the only thing we can trust."
– Maya Angelou, American poet and civil rights activist
BUT: You shouldn't force your beliefs on people.
1. If you saw a dog being abused for no good reason,
would you say something to try to stop the abuser? Or would you walk away because
you don't believe in imposing your beliefs?
Veganism is not just a belief. It's more akin to being against child abuse, rape, murder, slavery, and environmental violence,
all wrapped into one. It's taking action to end a culturally-induced passivity to 100% needless violence against
animals and the environment.
Consuming animal products, on the other hand, is like paying abusers and saying, "do that again for me."
Similarly, when we sit at a table and silently watch the tail end of a crime being committed against an animal,
our silence makes us complicit in that violence. Silence condones violence.
"However scrupulously the slaughterhouse is concealed in the graceful distance of miles, there is complicity."
— Ralph Waldo Emerson
2. On the other hand, how many times have you gotten angry at the meat and dairy industries for
inflicting false beliefs
on you? American children, on average, see
three to five
fast food ads every day — ads that are often promoting the needless consumption of animal meat and milk.
And these ads eventually get us seeing animals as something other than the sentient beings they actually are.
Did those brainwashing efforts ever upset you? No.
The reason you never got upset is because those industries have been constantly forcing their harmful and false beliefs on you since birth.
They've literally spent billions of dollars to keep you convinced that using animals for food is necessary, healthy, and even fun.
They have children seeing happy cows and dancing pigs who can't wait to be killed and consumed.
These animal-exploitation industries have become experts at entertaining us into complicity in their crimes,
by making us blind to the actual pain on our plates.
And the only reason you've never gotten angry about what they're doing – never even questioned it – is because you were
born into it.
3. Much of what's right about our world today is owed to those before us who questioned the once passively accepted beliefs they were born into,
who instead listened to what that greater part of them knew, and who chose to do things differently than those before them. Imagine if none
had ever questioned once mainstream beliefs about slavery, or arranged marriage, or human sacrifice, or women's right to vote.
Lucky for us, some did question, and they encouraged others to question, and that's how some very harmful wrongs were eventually made right for us today.
Doing the same is our obligation to future generations now.
4. Once you find your way back to seeing things as they really are, you'll likely want to
help raise awareness of the injustices of modern factory farming as well. The challenge is that we don't have multi-million dollar budgets to pay for manipulative marketing campaigns.
Many of us don't even have good communications skills.
However, we do have something that's even more important in the long run – the truth. And although we may ruffle
some of our friends' feathers with that truth at times, in this case
that's what friends do.
BUT: Morality is subjective, so it's just your opinion that harming animals is wrong.
1. Subjective means "based on or influenced by personal opinions."
And legality is often subjective. For example, in the 1920's, enough people felt that drinking alcohol was immoral that it
was made illegal. But later, that consensus changed, and alcohol was made legal again. That was a
law based on subjective morality.
2. But while legality may be subjective, and while the line between moral and immoral
may shift a bit, there are certain behaviors that are always clearly immoral. This is always the case when there's
a direct victim of needless violence. For example, if someone you don't even know intentionally murders you for
no legitimate reason, would you say they're guilty of a wrong? Of course.
And it's exactly the same situation with animal violence today.
Given what we now know about nutrition (that meat/milk/egg consumption is completely
unnecessary),
animals on factory farms are being exploited and/or killed for absolutely no legitimate reason. These animals are direct, unnecessary, unwilling
victims of intentional violence. And when there's a direct, unnecessary, unwilling victim of
violence, that violence is immoral. This is not a gray area.
3. Determining whether such food choices are moral is as simple as watching
any of the factory farm footage on this website, and then asking yourself:
"Would I want that done to me for no reason?"
This is applying the Golden Rule – the principle of treating others as you would want to be treated.
"You must remember that some things legally right are not morally right."
– Abraham Lincoln
"I am in favor of animal rights as well as human rights. That is the way of a whole human being."
– Abraham Lincoln
BUT: Got said it's okay to use animals for food.
No major religion says it's okay to kill animals for food under normal circumstances.
Some religious "leaders" may avoid the issue for concern of losing followers and donations, or because they themselves
fail to follow their own religion's teaching. But really, why would a loving God create a world where we
would have to harm creatures that feel pain and suffer? Why would a loving God create a beautiful world for us that we would have
to pollute, deforest, and destroy in order to survive? That doesn't make any sense.
And of course, that's not
what God did:
"I have given you every plant... and every tree which has fruit... They will be yours for food."
– Holy Bible, Genesis 1:29-30 (in Eden, before Sin)
"He that killeth a cow is like one who kills a person."
– Holy Bible (Isaiah 66:3)
"Do unto others as you would have them do unto you."
– Holy Bible, Luke 6:31 (aka. The Golden Rule)
"Thou shalt not kill" does not apply only to one's own kind, but to all living beings.
And this Commandment was inscribed in the human heart long before it was proclaimed from [the Holy Land].
– Leo Tolstoy
*Some Christians will cite Noah being given permission to eat animals,
but that was immediately after The Flood, an unusual and
extreme circumstance.
Other Religions:
"All meats eaten by living beings are of their own relatives"
– The Buddha
"cruelty to an animal is as bad as cruelty to a human"
– Muhammad (Islam)
"Consciousness is when we feel the suffering of every creature in our own heart"
– Bhagavad Gita (Hindu)
"What is hateful to you, do not do to others. That is the whole Torah. The rest is commentary."
– Hillel (Jewish)
BUT: By breeding and killing animals, we're sending them to Heaven. Therefore, we're doing God's work by eating them.
Please watch the factory farm footage on this website.
Look how mothers and their young are torn apart, and how the animals' bodies are torn apart, millions per day,
without any anesthesia or mercy. Then ask yourself:
Does what you see happening on factory farms look like the work of Jesus and a benevolent God,
or more like the work of Satan? And given what marketing had you believing previously,
can you think of any greater
"deceiver of the whole world"?
Watching the footage may be difficult, but if religion is important to you, then it's important to
know who you're supporting when you purchase animal meat, milk, and eggs. Do you think that's what God intended?
Remember that the Garden of Eden was vegan.
"I have given you every plant...and every tree which has fruit...They will be yours for food."
– Holy Bible, Genesis 1:29-30 (in Eden, before Sin)
"Do unto others as you would have them do unto you."
– Holy Bible, Luke 6:31 (aka. The Golden Rule)
"Thou shalt not kill" does not apply only to one's own kind, but to all living beings.
And this Commandment was inscribed in the human heart long before it was proclaimed from [the Holy Land].
– Leo Tolstoy
"Animals run no risk of going to Hell. They are already there."
– Victor Hugo
"The animals of the world... were not made for humans any more than blacks were made for whites..."
– Alice Walker, author of "The Color Purple"
BUT: Breeding animals for eating is giving them the gift of life, so those animals should be grateful to us for eating them.
1. If a child was born into a home where they were neglected, abused, and eventually
murdered while still young, would you say the child should be grateful to its parents for giving him/her the gift of life?
Should we commend those parents for giving that brief gift of life?
2. If someone were breeding dogs for dogfighting, and keeping the dogs confined in cages without
any comfort or compassion, would you commend that breeder for at least giving those dogs the gift of life?
3. Can you imagine buying a dog from a dog breeder, and then immediately slaughtering it
while saying, "You should thank me for the time you had"?
Consuming animals with the assumption that doing so gives them the gift of life is equivalent to the above examples.
Note to vegans:
1. We all know from our own journeys that criticism is counterproductive.
And since non-vegans still "know not what they do", accusations typically just
create aversion to discussion. So when speaking to non-vegans, try to remember
that you once held the exact same perspective, and assumed it completely normal.
2. Also try to remember that it was never a single conversation
that righted your perspective. So rather than frustrate yourself by expecting anyone to immediately
see the reality you now see, see yourself as simply planting seeds of
awareness – ones that can't be forced to grow, but that subsequent conversations and
experiences will cultivate. And trust that whatever you're able to communicate calmly
will one day play a part in dislodging the splinters in your friends' minds.
BUT: Vegans act morally superior, and I don't want to be like that.
To gain awareness of the violence involved in animal products,
and to then see other people still consuming those products, can sometimes lead to
righteous
feelings and patronizing words.
Unfortunately, going vegan doesn't magically turn anyone into a master of human relations.
But if you look past the surface, you'll see that the reason for anyone's
vegan diet usually involves belief in equality, not superiority.
Actually, the most extreme example of an attitude of superiority is seen in
the belief that briefly satisfying one's taste buds justifies putting an "inferior" being
through an entire life of misery and brutal death.
But as for judgments on that, keep in mind that the vast majority of vegans were
once animal-eaters too. And whether well-spoken or not, what they're ultimately
judging is not you, but needless violence against animals.
BUT: Indians ate animals, are you gonna tell them doing so is wrong?
1. Native Americans of 200+ years ago were living in conditions where they sometimes
had to hunt and eat animals during certain times of the year in order to survive. We, on the other hand, have year-round access
to more plant-based foods than any Indigenous culture ever did.
2. The way Native Americans of 200+ years ago obtained food didn't look anything like
our system of industrial animal production today. Most native cultures had tremendous respect for Earth's other inhabitants.
The way we produce, treat, and slaughter animals today is as anything but respectful.
3. The ways of Native Americans 200+ years ago were in balance with nature. If they over-hunted, they'd
run out of food, and balance was maintained. The way we're producing animals today is overpopulating and destroying
the planet at an extremely rapid rate.
"All creatures exist for a purpose... Only human beings have come to a point where they no longer know why they exist...
They don't use the knowledge the spirit has put into every one of them... so they stumble along blindly on the road to nowhere...
I know where it leads to. I have seen it. I've been there in my vision, and it makes me shudder to think about it."
– Lame Deer, Lakota Holy Man
4. Unfortunately, returning to hunting and gathering is no longer an option. Think about
this: 50k years ago there weren't even a million people on the planet. 10K years ago there were about 2 million people.
300 years ago, 1 billion. 50 years ago, 4 billion. Today, 8 billion. As for wild animals, in just the last 50 years, 50%
of all wildlife on Earth has disappeared. Again, humans have doubled, and wild animals have halved, in just the last 50 years.
Within the next 30 years, the world's oceans are going to be depleted of wild fish. In short, hunting and gathering is
definitely not in our our future. If we humans are going to have a future, it's going to be plant-based.
BUT: Native Americans respected animals by using all of their body parts. We can do the same.
1. The manner in which animals
are "processed" today is the complete opposite of respectful. Nevertheless:
2. There's a flaw in seeing a being's worth as equivalent to the sum of their body parts.
If someone were to kill your child, your dog, or you, would you see
their actions as acceptable if they were to eat every ounce of your child, your dog,
or you? No. Because there's more to a sentient being than their body parts.
3. Modern animal "agriculture" is actually very efficient at using all of
an animal's body parts. If you've ever eaten hot dogs, you've likely eaten animal faces and butts.
If you've ever eaten an Altoid, a Starburst, Jell-O, Gummy Bears, Kraft Marshmallows,
or a Frosted Pop-Tart, you've eaten
this.
But that doesn't mean modern animal agriculture respects animals. It's just gotten very good at extracting profit.
BUT: Hitler was a vegetarian, and I don't want to be like him.
1. Yes, it's widely acknowledged that Adolph Hitler chose a vegetarian
(not vegan)
diet during his later years, and planned to ban slaughterhouses
after the war. Witnesses reported that Hitler would even try
to dissuade dinner guests from eating meat by vividly describing the gruesome suffering of animals in slaughterhouses.
He also opposed animal experimentation, and was known to give Eva Braun a hard time for wearing cosmetics tested on animals (as most cosmetics still are today).
However, aside from showing that even a person as evil as Hitler had begun to recognize that what's involved in consuming meat today is wrong
and stopped participating, Hitler's vegetarianism really
doesn't mean anything
for vegetarianism or veganism in general. Hitler also took showers, should we stop taking showers? And he was against smoking,
should we all start smoking?
2. Some people believe that
Hitler's vegetarianism
was exaggerated by his propaganda minister, Joseph Goebbels, as a scheme to compare Hitler to Mahatma Gandhi who was a strict vegan.
But again, whether or not we choose to respect and treat other beings kindly doesn't need to be based on what Hitler did
or didn't do.
BUT: Meat and dairy are part of my culture and family heritage.
Possibly the worst reason for continuing any cruel custom or family tradition is "because those before us did it."
Other behaviors that have been part of human culture include child sacrifice, cannibalism,
female genital mutilation, stoning, slavery, segregation, and so on.
Yes, there's a part of each of us that desires the comfort of conformity,
social acceptance, and maintaining the status quo. But there's also a greater part of you – a part that desires to
shed comfort's constraints and act in congruence with who you really are.
Much of what's right about our world today is owed to those ancestors who questioned assumptions,
who listened to what that greater part of them knew, and who did things differently than those before them. Imagine if none
had ever questioned cultural assumptions about slavery, or arranged marriage, or human sacrifice. If nobody had ever re-defined culture
before us, imagine the burdens we'd be facing today. But lucky for us, they did question,
and they did change. And paying it forward is our obligation to future generations now.
You define your culture.
"The thinking person must oppose all cruel customs,
no matter how deeply rooted in tradition and surrounded by a halo."
– Albert Schweitzer, Nobel Peace Prize recipient
BUT: My friends won't like me if I stop eating animal products with them.
1. If your friends criticize you for doing what you know in your
heart to be right, does that in itself feel right? If there's a problem, the problem might be your friends –
you might deserve some new ones. Make things easier on yourself (and animals) by finding a friend or two
who share your kind values. And perhaps steer your time with non-vegan friends toward activities that don't involve
meals. Life is too short to not follow your heart's path now. Plus, you're more likely to find friends who
are really right for you on that path.
2. If going plant-based is something you've determined to be the correct
decision for you (for morality/animals,
health, environment, etc), then aren't you doing your friends a favor by setting a good example?
Yes, being a first-mover is certainly less comfortable than being a follower. But if you've found a better path,
then being a true friend means taking that path anyway.
3. Yes, many social activities are centered around food —
we all encounter challenges there. But with veganism becoming more mainstream all the time, and with more
plant-based options appearing on restaurant menus all the time, it's going to become much less of an issue among your friends
very quickly. And by becoming another early adopter yourself, you'll be helping to normalize plant-based
eating even faster.
4. Another perspective from a visitor:
"I love my family and friends, and I love spending time with them.
However, my feelings about consuming animal products are so strong
at this point that I know sharing meals with some of them will only harms those relationships.
I know myself, and I know I can't numb myself to the violence
taking place during a meal made of animals. So for the sake of those relationships,
I now only share meals with other vegans. Activities with non-vegan
family and friends simply don't involve food. It's not a big deal –
we actually do more healthy activities together now."
BUT: It's my personal choice to consume animal-products, and you should respect my personal choice.
1. If you find a dog and brutally abuse it, is that a personal choice?
What if you beat a person to death, would you call that a personal choice?
2. The "it's my personal choice" argument is overlooking the fact that there's another
being –
a victim – involved in any choice to consume animal products. It may seem to be our personal
choice when we're eating a murdered being's flesh or drinking their kidnapped baby's milk, but it certainly wasn't the
choice of that being to be bred into a life of captivity and exploitation, nor to be slaughtered prior to
being sold to us.
3. It would be rational to say "I respect your personal choice to like rock music, and you should respect
my personal choice to like country music." There's no direct victim there. But to say "I respect your choice to not abuse children,
so you should respect my choice to abuse them" is a flawed justification for abusing children. There's a victim.
4. General rule: If there's a direct victim involved in anyone's choice of behavior, then
the "it's my personal choice" justification for the behavior doesn't apply.
It's never too late to stop harming animals and the Earth, and to start eating kindly.
This is especially true if you believe there might be more to this life than meets your eyes,
ears, nose, and taste buds.
Leo Tolstoy (vegan), the author of War and Peace, wrote another book called "The Death of Ivan Ilyich".
Near the end of that book, Ivan, who had lived an unquestioned life, is lying on his death bed and suddenly wonders,
"What if my whole life has been
wrong?"
If you have even one day left in this world, and if you sense that how we live here might matter at all, then this matters.
Every living being on this planet is on a
single family tree of life with you, and it's
never too late to start behaving accordingly.
"It would be justifiable to not stop consuming meat if meat was necessary and excusable for any valid reasons.
But this is not the case. It is purely a bad deed, for which there is no justification in this day and age."
– Tolstoy (1885)
BUT: I won't make a difference. One person doesn't matter.
1. If that were true, no social justice movement would have ever started.
MLK Jr wouldn't have fought for civil rights.
Rosa Parks would never have sat at the front of a bus.
We would've never heard the name Mahatma Gandhi.
One person can definitely make a difference, and they often do. In fact,
any social movement is always made up of individuals, and it's always ultimately individuals that bring change.
A few might stand out as leaders, but change wouldn't happen without those standing with them.
You definitely make a difference. It's simply up to you whether your life stands for or against what you value.
"My life is my message."
–Mahatma Gandhi
2. Would you ever say "our vote doesn't matter, so let's stop voting"?
Actually, in our current economy, how we spend is the most powerful vote.
Every dollar you spend at the grocery store today is a vote for or against how you want to treat the planet, fellow
Earthlings,
and your own health.
Every dollar is direct action for the kind of world you want to live in.
3. Our limited perspectives may not be able to see how our individual actions will fit in to changing the
world, but as MLK Jr said, "You don't need to see the whole staircase, just take the first step."
Even if we can't see it, every step that you take in the right direction helps us all move in the right direction.
"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world.
Indeed, it's the only thing that ever has."
–Margaret Mead
BUT: The world will never go vegan. And if there's no hope, then why try?
1. That first statement currently appears to be true. It seems very unlikely that
a significant percentage of our planet's population will go vegan before extinction. We're far more addicted
to animal flesh and milk than we ever were to cigarettes or any drug that's ever existed.
In this case, we're willing to harm not only ourselves, but animals who suffer just like our own pets would, and even our own
children's future planet.
2. However, what the rest of the world does is really secondary to what you do.
And what you do is 100% up to you. If the rest of the world were to descend into a chaos where rapists and murderers roamed free,
is that who you would choose to be? You're a human being, and human beings are unique in this world in that we are
"moral agents". That means we have the capacity to make decisions and take actions based on our inherent
sense of right and wrong.
↳ Given that you're in this world, and that you're of the rare being that was given such ability,
how likely do you think it is that you weren't supposed to use that ability?
Are you sure that your purpose here is to unquestioningly harm other beings when you don't have to?
Are you confident that following the crowd is the right choice in this case,
even when doing so is destroying the planet we all call home? Even if the rest of the ship does
go down, are you sure that right-action is no longer relevant to who you really are?
BUT: I don't care about animal welfare.
1. Do you not care, or have you been
programmed
to not care?
Our entire lives we're shown commercials, billboards, and textbooks telling us that eating burgers is fun, that milk does a body good,
and that the animals we're eating are happy. Industries have spent billions of dollars to keep us
convinced
that we should ignore our hearts, and harm our own health, planet, and
friends.
But suppose it was your own dog being exploited or slaughtered – would you care in that case? Even if you knew that just one of
every hundred animals you consumed the flesh or fluids of might have had the same potential for being your friend as your own pet, would you care then?
2. We've been trained to see chickens/pigs/cows as abusable/edible, but it's a completely arbitrary
distinction from cats/dogs/etc. In other cultures, cats and dogs are considered food, because that's what their culture
arbitrarily trains them to see.
3. Unless you enjoy harming all animals, you do not "not care" about harming
the animals you're eating. You've simply been conditioned to not care. But you can always return to who you are under that
conditioning. Now that you're conscious of what's been done to your mind, returning to who you really are underneath
is just a choice.
The more you know about carnism and it's kind alternative (veganism), the easier it is to
help animals, the environment, friends and family. If you'd like to further your vegan education (deprogramming
from the cult-ure of carnism), here are some suggestions:
All designs here were created with the
100% free and open source Inkscape software, with minimal skills.
Text-only designs are especially easy. There are many Youtube tutorials to help get your started, or check out our
signs video for an overview
starting at minute 5:20.
Learning what animal "agriculture" has had us doing to animals, to our health, and to our planet may
make you mad. And that's okay. Unfortunately, most companies
don't care
that you're mad. They only care what you're
paying for. And they'll keep doing what you're paying them to do.
"You never change things by fighting the existing reality.
To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete."
— Buckminster Fuller
The good news is that there's a better model available to us already:
the plant-based diet. Every time we choose plant foods, we help make outdated industries
obsolete
faster, and plant-based industries our reality sooner.
It may appear that a plant-based food system is a distant reality for humanity, but remember
that the benefits to you for choosing plant-based are immediate.
Paul McCartney once said: "If slaughterhouses had glass walls, we'd all be [vegan]."
Films such as
Dominion and
others have given us windows.
Please look.
It can be uncomfortable to see what we've been paying other people to do to animals.
But try to think of this discomfort as the discomfort a caterpillar feels
when shedding its cocoon — discomfort is good if it helps us become something something we'd rather be.
Also remind yourself that although there's enormous suffering on factory farms,
there's still good in this world, which you're now adding to.
Also, when speaking for voiceless animals, we may encounter reactive
criticism from
people who want to defend their financial-interests, their childhood conditioning,
and/or their ego's aversion to admitting their behavior is harmful.
And such criticism can take a toll on us. But look at it this way: The same has been experienced
by people throughout history who've stood for transformative ideas, progress, and making the world a
better place. That's now you.
Learning what animal "agriculture" has had us doing to animals, our own health, and our planet may
make you mad. And that's okay – emotional energy can help fuel change. Unfortunately, most companies
don't care
that you're mad. They only care what you're paying for. And they'll keep doing whatever you're paying them to do.
The good news is that every time we choose plant-based foods, we help make outdated industries
obsolete
faster, and plant-based industries our world's reality sooner.
Note to those who've already gone vegan:
1. We all know from our own journeys that criticism is often counterproductive.
Just recall a time when you were criticized for doing something that you didn't yet understand to be wrong.
Similarly, most non-vegans still "know not what they do", so accusations typically just
create defensiveness/reactivity and aversion to discussion (and possibly to you).
So when speaking on this issue, try to remember that you once held the exact same
perspective as the person you're speaking to, and at that time you assumed it completely normal as well.
Understand that criticism may not be the best way to help your friend, animals, or anyone.
2. Also try to remember that it was never a single conversation
that righted your perspective. So rather than frustrate yourself by expecting instant agreement from
everyone you speak to, see yourself as simply planting seeds of
awareness. Those seeds can't be forced to grow, but subsequent conversations and
experiences will continue to cultivate them. Simply trust that whatever you're able to communicate calmly and
respectfully today will one day play a part in freeing your friends' minds.
3. Ultimately there's a balance between speaking up (planting seeds) and backing off (allowing the seeds to grow)
that's most effective. But don't confuse the "backing off" with being accepting of needless violence. Usually
acceptance of what others do is a good thing (aka. "live and let live"), but that's not the case for behaviors that have needless
victims.
So while periods of not speaking up for victims may feel "comfortable"
(when we're not rocking the boat), remember that staying in that seeming comfort too long, when it's still time for changing course, will
actually just lead to more suffering.
Vystopia, as defined by psychologist
Clare Mann, is the existential crisis experienced by some people when they become aware of their
trance-like collusion with a world where needless violence against animals goes unquestioned.
Carnism, as defined by
Dr. Melanie Joy,
is the invisible belief system that conditions us to exploit/kill/eat certain animals, and to never question
why we do so to those animals while loving other animals. Fully waking up to the absurdity of the
needless violence we've been participating in can be very disturbing.
One visitor put it this way: "Imagine you suddenly wake up in Nazi Germany, and find that many of
your best friends are in concentration camps for no reason, while your family are all Nazis working
the gas chambers. And you suddenly realize that you've been goose-stepping your way through life without ever
thinking about this. That's how I feel."
Another visitor described her feelings as similar to the feelings that anti-Slavery Whites
must have felt in the 1850's South when all their friends and family still assumed Slavery to be completely normal.
You may or may not experience such intense feelings. But if you do, know that what you're experiencing
is a completely normal reaction to the truth of what's happening today.
Of course we wish such things weren't happening, so we wouldn't have to feel such feelings.
But when atrocities do come to light, it's important to remember that, throughout history, similar feelings have been
encountered by all who've chosen to stand for transformation, progress, and making the world a better place.
So please don't suppress those feelings. Instead, please be the change that those feelings are calling you to be.
"I wish it need not have happened in my time," said Frodo. "So do I," said Gandalf,
"and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide.
All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us."
– J.R.R. Tolkien, Fellowship of the Ring
While there are some flaws in
this vegan's criticism
of other vegans, it may be helpful to watch if you notice any "I'm better than non-vegans" feelings arising.
Those feelings can be counterproductive when trying to motivate others to eat kindly. Don't let veganism become
another source of the "me vs. you" and "othering" perspectives from which most our world's problems,
including animal agriculture, have arisen in the first place.
Yes, choosing vegan is
clearly the moral choice. But ultimately, we're all in an
evolution together here, and
occasionally remembering our real shared identity
(e.g.
Nature, or perhaps
Earthlings on a
single family tree)
can help manage polarizing attitudes that
interfere with motivating "others" to not needlessly
harm fellow beings.
Remember, the goal is not to "be vegan" or to be in the vegan club.
The goal is to end the needless
suffering being caused by modern factory farming. And you'll likely be more effective in that effort
long-term
by seeing yourself as much more than just "vegan", AND by seeing others as much more than just "non-vegans".
Try seeing yourself and everyone you're dealing with (farm animals and human animals) as
one in some way (e.g. on a single family tree of life).
Yes, to be vegan is to be on the right side of history — but having a future is what's most important.
And because most non-vegans still truly know not what they do; and because patronizing attitudes will turn them off and frustrate you; and because animals
and Earth need you to
not burn out,
a patronizing attitude isn't going to do much in the long-term for anyone.
"When I'm right, I'm angry."
-Unknown
"Even when we win an argument,we still lose if haven't inspired change." -Unknown
Finding an attitude that will allow you to persevere in kindly
educating fellow humans is what will make the most sense for most people. And for animals.
"Our challenge really is against stupidity."
— Vandana Shiva,
Indian Physicist
"All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed.
Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident." — Arthur Schopenhauer
Fifty years ago, vegans were ridiculed as fruit and nut
eating hippies. More recently, they've been
threatened,
attacked,
litigated,
and even imprisoned.
But now, with growing awareness of animal agriculture's impact on the planet, it's becoming evident that either truth will prevail on this issue,
or the planet will be moving on without us.
While still in stage 2, it's important to never be intimidated by threats in any form. If we
let fear stop us from changing, suffering is guaranteed to continue. It's similar to dealing with bullies
on a playground. If we reward their threats with our lunch money, we reinforce their bully behavior, and nothing changes.
"Never be afraid of deceitful, dishonest, brutal power.
That is true freedom."
— Vandana Shiva,
Indian Physicist
"Only human beings have come to a point where they no longer know why they exist...
They don't use the knowledge the spirit has put into every one of them; they are not even aware of this,
and so they stumble along blindly on the road to nowhere – a paved highway which they themselves bulldoze and make
smooth so that they can get faster to the big, empty hole which they'll find at the end, waiting to swallow them up.
It's a quick, comfortable super highway, but I know where it leads to.
I have seen it. I've been there in my vision and it makes me shudder to think about it."
With years of advertising
convincing
us that animal foods are fun to eat,
abandoning such foods may initially feel like a loss. But with a little effort, you'll soon
discover new foods that meat and dairy distracted you from. Once liberated from the
consumer prison
of animal flesh and fluids at the center of every meal, you'll start seeing how much more
there is to enjoy – tons of tasty foods that you've actually been missing out on until now!
#1. Recipe guide:
The best way to fully understand that you don't have to give up anything by choosing vegan is to learn how to make a couple dishes yourself.
You may not love cooking now, but once you see that you can make meals better than a pro chef, faster
than getting fast food, and cheaper and healthier than either, you may dislike it a little less.
This recipe guide has more recipes than you'll ever need,
but to get started you just need to find a couple easy ones that you like.
#2: Product guide:
Just about any animal product you've ever enjoyed consuming now has a plant-based version. Browse
this page to find your favorites – and probably much more.
#3. Restaurant guide:
If you live in an urban area, you should have no problem finding restaurants that offer vegan options.
The ideal is to find a 100% vegan restaurant, so that you don't have to hope their menu is clearly marked and/or hope their servers know what's vegan.
But don't worry if that's not yet a thing where you are — and remember that you can always revert to preparing
consistently delicious plant-based meals yourself. But to first see what's out there, we recommend
HappyCow.net.
#4. Fast food guide:
Big old corporations are often slow to change, especially in an industry where profits have been long-maximized
by selling government-subsidized animal corpses to long-time customers with long-established eating patterns.
But the good news is that there are already enough options to make a fast plant-based meal possible just about anywhere.
This fast food guide will point you in the right direction.
#5. Alcohols:
Last, but certainly not least for many of us, be aware that not all alcohols are vegan. For wine, you're typically safe with
organic brands – others may be strained through fish bladders. Most beers are vegan, but some contain ingredients like gelatin (very gross).
Make sure your beverage is worthy of your affection at Barnivore.com,
or try something new from
Food52's list.
Vegan options have been slow to appear at some fast food chains, and sometimes they don't last. For example,
McDonald's recently abandoned their "McPlant" menu plans.
But this probably isn't a reflection on the vegan offerings as much as it is on
the target demographic of those restaurants — on average, people in the habit of harming their own bodies with
fast food probably aren't going to be the first to switch to kinder, unsubsidized foods. Therefore, your vegan journey
will hopefully explore options beyond fast food. Nevertheless, here are some suggestions for
when convenience calls:
• Bold text = good
• Regular text = okay
• Light text = bad
You'll find three flavors of vegan ice cream at Basking-Robbins:
Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough, Chocolate Extreme, and Coffee Caramel Chunk.
Their Daiquiri Ice and Watermelon Splash sorbets are also vegan.
Cool history: In 1987, after refusing to participate in his father's unhealthy business,
the son of Baskin Robbins' founder wrote the revolutionary book "Diet for a New America ", promoting a plant-based diet.
Later in life, his father (BR's founder) suffered from severe diet-related disease, until his doctor handed him
his son's book.
Murder King
Burger Kind now offers the Impossible Whopper
(just get it without the mayo or cheese), and their fries are also vegan!
Unfortunately that's not true at McDonald's — their fries are flavored with cow juice.
Also vegan at Burger King are the hashbrowns, French Toast Sticks, Apple Pie,
and the garden salad (just ask for no cheese and a non-dairy dressing).
Carl's Jr. offers the Beyond Famous Star
(at Hardees, it's the Beyond Thickburger).
Actually, you can replace any of Carl's Jr's burger selections with a Beyond Burger patty.
Just be sure to ask for no cheese, no mayo, and no "special sauce" on anything.
Their Crisscut and Natural-Cut French Fries are both vegan, as is the
side salad if ordered without cheese. Carl's Jr also has Fried Zucchini. On their breakfast menu, the
Beyond Sausage Burrito (Hardee's Beyond Breakfast Sausage Biscuit)
can be ordered without egg and cheese. And the breakfast Hash Rounds are vegan.
The tacos, burritos and bowls can be ordered meatless by using
Fajita Veggies as your filling (in which case guacamole is added for free), or you can replace
meat with Sofritas (organic tofu). But then you'll pay a bit extra for guac. The white/brown rice are both vegan,
and you can choose between black or pinto beans (or ask for a mix of the two).
Unless you have an aversion, be sure to include fajita veggies, lettuce, and salsa to whatever you order.
If you're hungry, then rather than a taco or burrito, try: Veggie Bowl,
with a mix of black+pinto beans, fajita veggies, guac, mild salsa, lettuce, (optional: sofritas),
and add a side of chips for a nacho-style feast. By the way, Chipotle's non-GMO claims only
apply to their plant-based foods, not any animal products –
they got sued
for saying otherwise.
Guess who's taken a first (baby) step toward becoming the world's future
Non-Dairy Queen! Their Non-Dairy Dilly Bars are coconut milk-based
ice cream dipped in vegan chocolate. Yum. Their fries are also vegan, as are the Misty Slushes.
Unfortunately you can't yet make a vegan meal here.
Del Taco has been a trailblazer in plant-based fast-food.
On their menu you'll find Beyond Avocado Tacos and the Beyond Avocado Burrito,
which are both vegan. Also try the Avocado Veggie Bowl and/or Epic Beyond Burritos.
The "Beyond Vegetarian" offerings (e.g. Beyond 8 Layer Burrito or the Epic Beyond Cali Burrito)
can be made vegan by ordering them without cheese or sour cream. Or, since Del Taco's entire menu is
"made-to-order", you can get any other menu item with Beyond Meat as a replacement for animal flesh.
The crinkle-cut fries and hashbrown sticks at Del Taco are also vegan.
Denny's now offers the Beyond Burger,
topped with tomatoes, onions, lettuce, and pickles on a multigrain bun. Ask for no cheese
and no sauce (just add ketchup/mustard yourself). Alternatively, replace any of their burger offerings with a
veggie patty (which is a Dr. Praeger's or Amys veggie burger).
Also vegan at Denny's are the seasoned French fries, baked potatoes with vegetable toppings,
Veggie Skillet (if ordered with no egg or butter), English muffins, oatmeal, bagels, applesauce,
fresh fruit, vegetable plates, and garden salad with light Italian dressing.
Offers a Beyond Sausage Breakfast Sandwich.
This is a Beyond Sausage on an English muffin (yes, the English muffins are vegan).
But ask for no egg and no cheese. The hash browns are also vegan, and they've
even begun offering almond milk for their coffee drinks.
Offers the Impossible Burger with Daiya cheese!
Be sure to ask for the Daiya cheese, and no mayo. The Fat Fries, Skinny Fries, and Sweet Potato Fries are vegan,
and you can even get a vanilla or strawberry milkshake made with vegan ice cream!
In-N-Out used to be cool, but at this point it's pretty much Out.
Their only vegan menu item is fries. If you're desperate, you might try
ordering: "Hamburger, no patty, no sauce, mustard and ketchup instead,
both types of onions, chiles, pickles, and extra toasted buns". Hopefully In-N-Out
will start considering their conscientious-former-customers, the cows-that-made-em-rich
and the environment-of-future-generations soon. On these issues, old-school is not cool.
Emerging from it's Kentucky Fried Cruel past, KFC has recently launched
the Beyond Chicken Sandwich. However, it's fried, and it's fried in the same
fryers/oil as the chicken bodies. Not perfect, but much better than eating the full bodies.
KFC's corn on the cob and green beans make good vegan sides.
McDonald's
Unfortunately, McDonald's doesn't have much for people on a plant-based diet. They even recently
abandoned their 'McPlant' menu plans, with their U.S. President saying that McDonald's customers don't want fake meat
— which is of course saying more about the mentality of McDonald's customers (and/or leadership) than plant-based meat alternatives.
For now, McDonald's should be completely avoided. Not even McDonald's french fries are vegan (they have cow juice in them, yuck),
while Burger King's fries are vegan.
In addition to Eggplant Tofu, they now offer
Beyond Orange Chicken (nope, they discontinued it).
You can also get their chow mein or chow fun, and then mix in a side of Super Greens (that's a mix of broccoli, kale, and cabbage)
or add a side of Veggie Spring Rolls. FYI, both their brown and white rice are vegan
(this isn't always the case at restaurants – many add meat stocks).
Try their healthy Baja Grain Bowl or Mediterranean Grain Bowl
(order both without feta or yogurt). Other options include the Vegan Lentil Quinoa Broth Bowl and the
Soba Noodle Broth Bowl with Edamame.
Still no vegan cheese as of 2024, boo. But if you love their pizzas, you can do a
Garden Veggie or Gourmet Vegetarian pizza with all the veggies, hold the cheese and the herb/cheese shaker, and
swap out the white sauce for marinara / barbeque / or traditional red sauce, Then add your own
Miyoko's liquid mozzarella (available at many Walmarts, etc), Daiya, or Follow Your Heart cheese before/during baking.
As for crusts, Papa Murphy's original, thin, pan, and stuffed pizza crusts are all vegan. Their gluten-free crust is not.
Pizza options
• Blaze Pizza offers vegan cheese,
their regular dough and gluten-free doughs are both vegan, and you can get vegan spicy chorizo as a topping (and all the veggies).
• Pieology
also offers vegan cheese at select locations.
• If you know how to turn on an oven, grab a frozen Daiya Supreme or
Sweet Earth Veggie Lover.
Better yet, just grab a pizza crust and make your own pizza exactly the way you like it with Miyoko's liquid mozzarella (available at many Walmarts, etc).
• You can do vegan at other pizza chains,
but you'll have to go cheeseless (aka. "Italian style") or add your own vegan cheese. For example,
Domino's thin crust Pacific Veggie Pizza
(sans cheese) is vegan, Little Caesars
can do veggie-only toppings on a regular crust, and all crusts
at Papa John's are vegan.
Also, Pizza Hut has
started offering Beyond Meat as a topping.
The future of fast food is currently in California and Nevada, and hopefully spreading to more
locations soon! 100% plant-based burgers, fries, and shakes: Classic 'bacon cheeseburger', holy guacamole burger,
battered buffalo wings, chick'n nuggets, kaleslaw, raw tacos, chocolate cheezecake, Just Egg breakfast burrito, and more.
Starbucks offers a selection of dairy free milks
(almond, coconut, oat and soy). However, they charge significantly more for these options, and
we suggest avoiding Starbucks.
Some locations are now offering the Beyond Meatball Marinara sub,
and some offer falafel. However, Subway's Veggie Delite has long been a staple for vegans
who want something healthy+fresh, and all locations offer it. Try the Veggie Delite with no cheese, all the veggies,
and add avocado. Better yet, add double avocado! And you can ask for extra of any favorite veggies.
Vegan breads include the Hearty Italian, 9-Grain Wheat, Roasted Garlic, and Sourdough, as well as the spinach or
tomato basil wraps. Alternatively, order that Veggie Delite as a salad!
Note the Subway's veggie pattie is NOT vegan — it contains egg and milk.
You can make many items on Taco Bell's menu vegan by swapping beans for meat,
and by requesting "Fresco Style". Fresco omits the cheese and sour cream.
Add any salad/veggie items, and guacamole to make it more filling. For example, try a Bean Burrito,
fresco style, and add guacamole, jalapenos and extra onions. Or try swapping beans for meat in the
Crunchwrap Supreme or Mexican Pizza, and request no cheese or cream (again, just say "fresco style").
Taco Bell's website provides awesome
instructions for ordering vegan.
And for a little dessert, their Cinnamon Twists are vegan.
TGI Fridays now serves the vegan Beyond Burger.
Ask for no cheese and dairy-free sauce. Note that the Challah bun is vegan, the gluten-free bun is not.
Wendy's barely makes the cut, but you can get a baked potato with chives and salsa
if you're desperate – just be sure to hold the butter and sour cream. And their fries are also vegan, as is their side salad
if you hold the croutons. Vegan dressings: Light Balsamic Vinaigrette, Light Spicy Asian Chili Vinaigrette, and Pomegranate Vinaigrette.
They might also offer apples that you could add.
Their Impossible Sliders (mini burgers) are vegan if
ordered without cheese. Vegan sauces include the Smoky BBQ sauce, Nashville-Inspired Hot Sauce,
and Sweet Chili Sauce.
WTF
Arby's • Chick-Fil-A •
Fuddruckers • In-N-Out • Jack in the Box • McD's
Above chains have lousy vegan options, and should be avoided.
Plant-Based Recipes
You're about to see that you're not giving up anything by choosing plant-based!
Again, this is way more recipes than you'll ever need, but there's no need to look at them all —
just click on any that catch your eye, and bookmark any you like for easy access.
• Bold text = from recommended films
• Green text = health focus
• Blue text = ethnic focus
• Pink text = dessert focus
• Violet text = videos
CopyMeThat.com
Not a specifically vegan site, but search for "vegan + your desired dish" and
you can find just about any recipe veganized. For example:
vegan chocolate cake
Challenge22.com
Could you use some guidance from a real person? Challenge22 provides free online mentoring.
Cooking Tools:
Definitely not required, but two tools to maybe put on your radar for faster DIY vegan meals are
1) an Instant Pot pressure cooker, and 2) any air fryer.
The best vegan products on Earth grow directly out of the earth, and can be found in the produce department and bulk bins of any decent supermarket.
Also keep in mind that eating vegan typically gets easier and healthier when we stop trying to simulate the taste of dead animals with plants.
Nevertheless, transitional products are playing a very important role in the plant-based revolution,
and they've gotten amazingly good. Supporting plant-based alternatives also helps displace animal products from grocery store shelves.
And it can be a lot of fun trying them!
This site's design and all original text are licensed under
Creative Commons(2,3),
which means you can copy it in whole or in part. If you have an idea for a more effective website,
please use any parts you like. If you'd prefer to have a website that you can promote
as your own,
please copy the whole thing. If this website ever goes offline and you'd like to re-launch it, please do.
1. If you don't want your own website, but prefer to promote another domain (e.g. you want to put a custom
URL/message on a sign, sticker, t-shirt, etc), you can simply frame or point your domain to this site.
See sample landing pages
here.
2. While this site's design and text are licensed under Creative Commons, the film clips included in video compilations
are not – they're used under Fair Use
principles. Therefore, you should only use those video compilations if your website is 100% non-commercial
in nature, and your only motivation is to help animals, the planet, and/or human health by PROMOTING the included films. All clips must be kept fully
credited
and retain prominent links to the full versions and/or creators' websites.
4. If you're viewing this on an archiving website,
click here.
This website was designed to:
Provide you with an all-in-one information resource to direct people to when doing
outreach/advocacy.
If launching your own site, you can add/change any of the content.
Make it easy for you to promote the documentary films that are really helping people
understand the
problems with eating animal products. If launching your own site, you can add more films.
Allow you to simultaneously support vegan-friendly restaurants. The HappyCow link will automatically
direct your visitors to restaurants in their location. Or if launching a local site, you can also
create a popup with personal suggestions.
Of course, you're more than welcome to direct people to this website. But if there's anything you don't like about this site,
know that you also have the option of launching your own. Doing so gives you full control over the content you're directing people to.
If there's anything you want to add/change/improve, that's no problem on your own website.
One of the four factors
in determining Fair Use is "Effect Upon Potential Market." One objective of this website is to
PROMOTE films by including clips from them.
By keeping those clips short and credited, and by including links to the full films, the goal is
to increase the market for those films. Combined with compliance with the other
factors, it's unlikely that y/our Fair Use would be challenged.
*Of course, nothing on this website should be considered legal advice.
Just as it might be more difficult to quit smoking
if all your friends were still smoking,
you may find the plant-based transition easier if you team up with a plant-based friend or two.
If none of your friends are with you on this, check Meetup.com for
vegan-oriented groups in your area.
If no such groups exist where you are, you might consider starting one –
even if for just long enough to make a few like-minded connections.
You're also likely to encounter kind minds at events hosted by
these groups.
Of course, this is just a suggestion. Lots of people go vegan on their own.
Finding a web designer:
If any of your friends know HTML, they likely know enough to customize this website.
If there's a vegan group on your local Meetup.com, send them a message to see if any members can help.
Fast and professional help can be found on sites like Freelancer.com and Fiverr.com
You can check with us (email at bottom of page).
Your web designer will likely have a preferred web host. However, you can get the
process started by registering a domain name. Cheap options that include free privacy protection
(meaning they don't display your name publicly) are NameSilo.com and NameCheap.com
The #1 thing you can always do to help animals is to not eat them, and to talk about your reasons
for not doing so with everyone. And rather than frustrate yourself by expecting instant agreement from everyone,
see yourself as simply planting seeds of awareness, and trust that some will one day grow.
Other ideas for helping animals:
Animal Save Movement Attend a vigil outside a slaughterhouse. Just bearing witness is a powerful way to raise awareness
of what's happening inside.
Find a chapter
Anonymous for the Voiceless Show factory farm footage during street outreach to raise public awareness of what's happening in windowless buildings.
Find a cube
Challenge22 Provide personal guidance/mentoring to people transitioning to plant-based.
Become a mentor
Direct Action Everywhere Work to achieve social and political change for animals through nonviolent direct action.
Take action
Humane League Help with a variety of outreach actions, both in-person and online.
Take action
Meat the Victims Challenge unjust laws by peacefully entering factory farms where animals are being exploited.
Meet MTV
Mercy for Animals Help this international nonprofit replace our cruel food system with one that's kind to animals and the planet.
Help offline
or online
PETA You know them: People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals.
Become one |
Students
Vegan Hacktivists Got design or coding skills? Help with the online aspect of a plethora of animal-rights causes.
Code kindly
Vegan Justice League Imagine if cigarettes were subsidized by your taxes. Meat, milk, animal and environmental violence actually are.
Help end injustice
Vegan Outreach Empower people in your community with the facts about veganism, encourage restaurants to offer vegan options, etc.
Spread the truth |
At colleges
Vegan Society Founded in 1944, this is the world's oldest vegan organization.
Help them
Some awesome animal advocacy groups:
Animal Save Movement Attend a vigil outside a slaughterhouse. Simply bearing witness is a powerful way to raise awareness
of what's happening inside.
Find a chapter
Anonymous for the Voiceless Show factory farm footage during street outreach to raise public awareness of where our "food" comes from.
Find a cube
Direct Action Everywhere Work to achieve social and political change for animals through nonviolent direct action.
Take action
Mercy for Animals Help this international nonprofit replace our cruel food system with one that's kind to animals and the planet.
Help offline
or online
PETA You know them: People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals.
Become one |
Students
Vegan Hacktivists Got web design or coding skills? Help with the online aspect of a plethora of animal-rights causes.
Code kindly
Vegan Outreach Empower people in your community with the facts about veganism, encourage restaurants to offer vegan, etc.
Spread the truth |
At colleges
Handing someone a flyer makes it much more likely that they'll remember your URL and give
plant-based some thought. Here are two simple options to get started:
Print Flyers
Here's an example (PDF) Note that each page is 5.5×8" so they all fit on a single 2-sided 8.5x11"
sheet of paper that gets folded. Services like uPrinting.com can be used for printing in bulk.
Here's the source file (SVG) To add your URL and make other changes, you'll need to install
Inkscape (Free and Open Source Software).
The font being used is Liberation Serif, which you can download
here.
Don't have/want a website? Here's a PDF you can print without making any changes: Side 1 (back+front after folding) Side 2 (middle after folding)
Buy Booklets
Vegan Outreach publishes
booklets you can hand out.
You can't customize them, but at just 7 cents each, they're gonna be cheaper than printing yourself.
For general outreach, we recommend "Compassionate Choices" or "Why Vegan"
(or order a mix to see which you like).
If you want to mark the booklets with your website, use a rubber stamp. Example sources: 1,
2,
3
Some of the video compilations on this website include 3rd party "stock" videos and/or images.
As long as those items remain part of the existing video compilations, there's no need to purchase a
license to share them. However, if you were to modify any compilation that includes stock videos/images,
or if you were to extract any stock video/image for remixing in your own compilation, you'd need to
purchase a license from its creator. If that's something you'd like to do, you can find most of the video
stock we used at StoryBlocks.com and 123RF.com.
Although we tried to use public domain images whenever practical,
some of our sticker designs include 3rd party "stock" images.
As long as those images remain part of the existing designs, there's no need to purchase a
license to share them. However, if you were to modify those particular sticker designs that includes stock images
(e.g. to add your own website URL), you'd need to purchase a license from its creator. We recommend
first checking to see if you can find the desired image on a free site like PublicDomainVectors.org, FreeSVG.org, or
Pixabay.com. If it's not on any of those sites, we most likely purchased a license from 123RF.com, as you can too.
Please see the "Img credits" link
on this website's homepage for information about where background images were obtained.
Most the backgrounds are screenshots from recommended movies/videos, and
must remain credited with prominent links to the full source movie/video and/or creators' websites.
Images from WeAnimalsMedia.org were obtained for free for non-commercial animal-rights use
with attribution. However, you must obtain your own license from the WeAnimalsMedia.org website.
Photos by Joey Carbstrong were screenshotted from a video that he licensed under Creative Commons (thank you Joey!).
You're welcome to use the background image that we created from his video, but it must remain credited with a link
to his website and/or the
source video.
Drawings by Neta are being used on this site under the strict condition that they be used
for non-commercial, non-profit, animal-rights purposes only.
Do I have to share my website changes?
Yes, that's part of the Creative Commons "ShareAlike" license. Remember that
the goal of this website is to help animals + Earth + human health + etc, and any contribution you make to help other
advocates will in turn help accopmlish that.
If your primary objective is to create a unique business or brand,
then you'll probably want to start with a different framework.
Can one city have more than one website?
Absolutely. One of the challenges that many advocacy/outreach groups eventually face is
disagreements among members. But animals and Earth shouldn't suffer just because we humans don't always
get along. If there's anything you don't like about an existing local website/group/etc, an easy option is
to simply launch your own version. That gives fellow outreachers more choices as well.
How do I change the stickers to my URL?
NOTE: To avoid image licensing expenses,
we recommend that stickers be text-only (which is also the easiest to create/modify and often the most visible), or that you use
public domain images whenever practical.
Stickers can be designed/modified with any image-editing software.
However, because such changes could be tedious if it's your first time using a new software, you may want to 1) start with
just one or two sticker designs, 2) hire a freelancer to create/modify the designs for you, or 3) disable the sticker links
initially until you have time to learn to use the necessary software.
Also note that while stickers can be a good promo tool, selling them may create a perception of commercial motivation.
Therefore, if using stickers for promotion, we suggest offering them for free, by mail, upon request.
Did you find a spelling, HTML, JavaScript, or other error?
The Creative Commons license requires providing attribution (giving credit) to the websites from
which your website derived design/wording components. You can do that here. Providing a list of site with alternative
designs/wording is also a great resource for anyone launching a new outreach site. The more we help each other with ideas,
the more we help animals, the environment, human health, etc.
When viewing this website on an archiving service, many images and videos will
not display correctly. You can instead download a fully functional version of this site from:
https://archive.org/details/chooseplantbased-dot-org
Copying this site?
Change above link to a reliable backup of your site.
NOTE: The domain you linked here from is going to be retired soon.
Please don't use that URL for signs/t-shirts/etc.
Please consider supporting these awesome organizations:
DirectActionEverywhere.com
Fighting for the
Right to Rescue
sick and injured animals. Many of their volunteers have been arrested, but they keep taking
compassionate action.
PETA
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. Check out their 2024 Superbowl commercial.
Switch4Good
World-class athletes speaking up against the dairy industry.
We Animals Media
Bringing visibility to animals through photojournalism.
Others:
Plant Based News and Sentient Media
are helping to raise awareness of important issues that mainstream media often doesn't cover.
This site was created to
help you
to help
animals,
the Earth, still
unborn generations,
and anyone who doesn't yet understand how we're all being harmed by animal foods.
And if you have an idea for how this site might better help, please
tell us or
copy us.
Some ways to help spread this site's
(or your site's) message:
When speaking to friends, family, and others about the benefits of a plant-based eating,
you'll get all sorts of questions and buts regarding health,
environment, animal welfare, etc. Taking time to familiar with as much relevant information as possible will be helpful:
Turning the "screensaver" on will cause the homepage background image to periodically rotate. This could be useful
when leaving your computer on somewhere that other people see it.
To turn the screensaver off, just reload the page.
Dairy Milk in Schools
Many people assume that the decision to distribute cow's milk in public schools was made by a medical authority.
But that's not the case. It all began as a marketing scheme
over a century ago:
The truth is that children
don't need breast milk after infancy,
and they never need dog's, cat's, rat's, or
cow's milk. Moreover, it's now known that cow's milk makes many
children sick (now and
later),
and it's making their only planet sick.
If kids knew the truth about cow's milk, they wouldn't be choosing it.
However, kids rely on adults to tell the truth and choose what's best for them. So it's time we stop subjecting children to dairy's harmful
marketing schemes.
It's been over 100 years, and it's been well established that:
Unfortunately, getting Big Dairy to stop pushing their nutritionally
unnecessary products on children
would be difficult at this point.
But sharing the truth about the industry's harmful impacts on our health and planet, and telling kids to
just say no to milk at school,
is our constitutional right.
Please
share this page with teachers,
administrators, students, and anyone you know who has kids in public school. You can find contact info for teachers and administrators
on your school district's website.
Write to Your Elected Officials
While choosing a plant-based diet should be everyone's first step to helping end the nightmare of factory farming, really stopping this monster
will require that our government stop using our tax dollars to keep the monster alive. Please personalize and send the short email
below to your elected officials in Congress (where Federal laws are made) and State Legislature (where State policy is made).
Remember that any elected official's job is to represent you — and to do their job right, you must tell them what's important to you.
Dear [Senator / Representative] [Insert Last Name]:
My name is [Insert Your Name]
and I reside at [Insert your address to identify yourself as their constituent]
in [Your City, State].
I am writing to ask that you please take action to end government subsidies to the meat, dairy, and egg industries for the following reasons:
• Such subsidies stifle plant-food product innovation by putting plant-food producers at an unfair disadvantage.
• Those subsidies stifle crop diversity by locking farmers into a handful of feed-crops and/or subsidized crops.
• Meat, dairy, and egg production cause more environmental harm than production of plant-based alternatives.
• There's overwhelming evidence that these animal-products have significant harmful impacts on human health.
• Animal agriculture is doing a huge disservice to the health and planet of future generations.
• Subsidizing animal foods encourages unwitting consumer complicity in extensive and unnecessary animal cruelty.
Given what's now known, the meat, dairy, and egg instrustries should actually be taxed like the tobacco industry, not subsidized. But as a first step, the subsidies must stop.
I appreciate your help and ask that you please send me a response letting me know if you are able to help end subsidies for animal agriculture.
If this isn't something you're able to do because of any connection to these industries, that's also something I would appreciate knowing.
Thank you very much for your time.
Sincerely,
[Insert Your Name]
↓
Write to your local newspaper
While the meat, dairy, and egg instrustries can pay millions for their deceptive advertising campaigns, you actually don't need a penny
to get the truth published in your local newspaper. Newspapers are always looking for content, and animal agriculture is
currently a hot topic for "letters to the editor" and "opinion pieces".
Some topics you might write about:
An overview of reasons you chose to go plant-based.
Why taxpayer dollars shouldn't be subsidizing animal ag.
Environmental impacts of animal diets versus plant-based.
Dairy specific topics
The truth about strong bones and other dairy marketing.
Why kids shouldn't have milk pushed on them at school.
An overview of how dairy treats cows and calves.
A comparison/overview of different plant-milks.
Note that newspapers won't publish a letter that's already been published elsewhere, so
we're not providing a template here. But you can use anything you've learned on this website, or see the examples below for inspiration.
Just be sure to put anything you submit to a newspaper into your own words.
View examples
Sharing the problems of animal-based diet (and the benefits of plant-based eating) with
your larger group of friends is probably best done by sharing a website, video, story, article, or other information via social media.
However, you might have one or two friends who could really benefit from a personal and heartfelt letter or email from you.
For example, your close friends and/or
family members may appreciate an explanation of why this transition to plant-based eating is so important to you, and/or why you may be
spending a little less time at gatherings where animal foods are being served (if that's the case).
And while we all hope it's never the case, the time may come
when you have a friend or family member experiencing a health issue who could benefit from your knowledge about the power of a plant-based diet.
Keeping your advocacy efforts legal
While civil disobedience has played a
vital role(modern version)
in U.S. history, and while
some advocates intentionally break
unjust laws in order to get
important issues challenged in court, the goal of this website is to provide a legally safe way
for anyone to help change unjust cultural patterns using the power of constitutionally-protected Free Speech.
However, since Free Speech limits vary among states, counties, and cities, nothing on this
website should be considered legal advice for your location. Nevertheless, here are some general guidelines:
In general, it's legal everywhere in the United States to hand out leaflets or hold signs on public sidewalks,
as long as doing so doesn't endanger public safety. However, it's always illegal to block sidewalks or business entrances.
Therefore, never stand directly in front of entrances, and always let people pass on sidewalks.
Free speech activities are typically not allowed on private property without permission. However, some states may provide
exceptions for multi-tenant shopping areas, which are often the modern equivalent of public gathering areas.
For example, in California, free speech activities are protected in the common gathering areas of malls and strip malls
when those areas contain features designed for entertainment or relaxation, such as benches,
as long as those free speech activities do not interfere with normal business operations (e.g. no blocking business entrances).
Free speech is also protected in the outdoor plazas of public colleges and universities, subject to reasonable time/place/manner restrictions.
If you've observed free speech activities regularly taking place in any particular public area, that pattern
likely means you cannot be denied the right to engage in your free speech activities in that area.
Permits are typically required for large protests and marches, where managing traffic, safety, and competing-uses
of an area would be a concern. However, a permit generally cannot be denied based on the content of your speech. That would be what is called viewpoint
discrimination, which is unconstitutional.
Rules regarding door-to-door advocacy (e.g. leaving doorhangers or leaflets at homes),
leaving business cards on car windows, and posting flyers on poles, will vary by location – so be sure to check your local ordinances.
Libel, slander, obscenity,
threats of harm, and speech that incites imminent violence (including fighting words) or law-breaking are NOT protected free speech.
But general criticism is. So "f*ck Starbucks" is protected free speech, but "f*ck you" might not be.
The #1 thing we can always do to help animals is to not use them for food.
The #2 thing we can do is to share our reasons for not doing so with other people in a
motivating way.
But don't frustrate yourself by expecting everyone's instant agreement. Rather, see yourself
as planting seeds of awareness, and just trust that some of those seeds will eventually grow.
When doing advocacy with the public (e.g. speaking up for animals by handing out leaflets, posting flyers, holding signs, etc),
you'll likely find doing so regularly to be easier when you team up with other people who want to help animals.
Even a tiny group can help ease the "am I crazy" self-doubts that arise when speaking up against
the mainstream on your own.
If you don't yet have any friends who love animals
enough to speak up for them,
check meetup.com for
vegan groups in your area. You can then either post an outreach event, or direct-message
people who've attended similar events in the past.
If no such groups exist in your area, you might consider starting one –
even if for just long enough to make a few like-minded connections.
You're also likely to encounter kind minds at events hosted by
these groups.
"The thinking person must oppose all cruel customs,
no matter how deeply rooted in tradition and surrounded by a halo."
– Albert Schweitzer, Nobel Laureate
"Even when we win an argument about not doing harm,(and all of them are winnnable with truthful facts),we still lose if we haven't inspired reflection."
Determining whether animal-product consumption is moral today is as simple as
watching
what that consumption now pays for,
determining whether doing that is something that's
necessary for survival today,
and then asking yourself: Would I want that done to me if it wasn't necessary?
This is applying the Golden Rule – the principle of treating others as you would want to be treated
– regardless of whether a law or advertisement tells us that mistreating others is okay.
The meat, dairy, and egg industries have lobbied for a variety of unjust laws to protect their financial interests,
at the expense of voiceless animals, human health, and the environment. But once
questioned,
it's obvious why such laws must be challenged.
While not the subject of this website, organizations such as
DirectActionEverywhere.com
are risking
prison time to help make that happen.
"One has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws."
– Martin Luther King Jr. ↓
"These are not God's laws we're dealing with. These are laws written by people with very special self-interests."
– Unknown ↓
"You must remember that some things legally right are not morally right."
– Abraham Lincoln (U.S. President who abolished slavery) ↓
"I am in favor of animal rights as well as human rights. That is the way of a whole human being."
– Abraham Lincoln ↓
"Obedience is doing what you're
told
regardless of what's right.
Morality is doing what's right regardless of what you're told."
↓
"Thou shalt not kill" does not only apply to murder of one's own kind, but to all living beings.
And this Commandment was inscribed in the human heart long before it was proclaimed from [the Holy Land]."
– Leo Tolstoy ↓
"A person can [be] healthy without killing animals for food. Therefore, if one [uses animals for food],
s/he participates in taking animal life merely for the sake of his appetite... to act so is immoral."
– Leo Tolstoy ↓
"The time will come when men such as I will look upon the murder of animals as they now look upon the murder of men."
– Leonardo da Vinci ↓
"However scrupulously the slaughterhouse is concealed in the graceful distance of miles, there is complicity."
– Ralph Waldo Emerson ↓
"People often say that humans have always eaten animals, as if this is a justification for continuing the practice.
According to this logic, we should not try to prevent people from murdering, [raping or enslaving] other people,
since this has also been done since the earliest of times."
– Isaac Bashevis Singer ↓
"Man's supremacy over lower animals means not that the former should prey upon the latter,
but that the higher should protect the lower."
– Mahatma Gandhi ↓
"It is a matter of taking the side of the weak against the strong, something the best people have always done."
– Harriet Beecher Stowe, author "Uncle Tom's Cabin" ↓
"People must have renounced... all natural intelligence to dare to
advance that animals are but animated machines...
Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities."
– Voltaire ↓
"In their behavior toward creatures, all [people] are Nazis."
– Isaac Bashevis Singer, Nobel Laureate ↓
"I have no doubt that it is a part of the destiny of the human race, in its gradual improvement,
to leave off eating animals, as surely as the savage tribes have left off eating each other."
– Henry David Thoreau ↓
"Love for all living creatures is the most noble attribute of man."
– Charles Darwin ↓
"The animals of the world... were not made for humans any more than blacks were made for whites or women for men."
– Alice Walker, author "The Color Purple" ↓
"Nothing will benefit health and increase the chances for survival of life on Earth as the evolution to a
[vegan] diet."
– Albert Einstein ↓
"The truth is a [powerful] thing. It doesn't go away."
– PlantPure Nation
Animal Advocacy Training
Dr. Melanie Joy is the author of "Why We Love Dogs, Eat Pigs, and Wear Cows", and founder of
"Beyond Carnism".
She has more recently helped establish the Center for Effective Vegan Advocacy (CEVA),
which provides research-based guidance to anyone wishing to become a better animal advocate.
Also check out their helpful vegan communication hacks.
And when you're ready to dive deeper, their online training courses are excellent. Although they're a great organization to support,
don't let price deter you, because there's a free option.
*We have no affiliation with CEVA, we simply think they're an excellent resource.
Share any of the URL's below via email, social media, signs, t-shirts,
license plate holders, stickers, etc.
Alternatively, copy this website to
your own domain(1) for a custom message.
Top picks:
WhyPlantBased.info:
ChoosePlantBased.org:
WhyPlantMilk.info:
GotEvil.org:
StarbucksSucks.org:
General plant-based:
LoveAnimalsEatPlants.org:
WhyVegan.net:
MeatIsMurder.info:
StopEatingAnimals.info:
TryVegan.org:
EatingAnimalsIsWeird.com:
VeganAF.info:
NotIngredients.org:
EndSpeciesism.info:
FriendsNotFood.info:
PooBurger.org:
McMurder.org:
CruelFoods.org:
PlantsHaveProtein.org:
Dairy focused:
BoycottMilk.org:
DairyIsScary.org:
StopDrinkingMilk.org:
MilkIsMurder.org:
DairyIsCruel.org:
DairyKillsBabies.org:
DairySucks.org:
DitchTheDairy.org:
LetDairyDie.org:
MilkIsForBabyCows.org:
Click to enlarge or share:
PlaceholderToReplace
You can link to any video on this site by clicking the '🔗' under it. Here are some popular videos to share:
Collections:
Full movies:
Animal videos:
Stories of Hope:
Menkay:
Dairy:
Milk history:
Link to any text on this site by clicking the '🔗' to the right of its back button. Here are some popular pages to share:
You're welcome to copy/paste any text from this website, or to link directly to text boxes on this website by clicking the '🔗'
to the right of their back button. The latter has the additional benefit of introducing people to all the other
information/videos/resources available on this site as well.
Either way, we hope that this site will make your online outreach (e.g. replying to questions and misinformation on social media)
more efficient and less frustrating.
*If you come across any but/faq that needs revision, or if you think any additional but's/faq's should be added, please let us know!
Kindness cards (aka. business cards)
can be printed one or two-sided, then 1) handed out in public places, 2) left in door jambs, 3) slid
between car windows and weather stripping or windshield wipers, or 4) posted anywhere you'd post a flyer.
Be sure to check your local ordinances.
Create your own design, or use ours:
PlaceholderToReplace
Printing services will usually want you to add "bleed" (a margin of the same color as the card)
to allow for cutting variances, and the size of that bleed/margin will vary from printing service to service.
Once you choose a printing service, you can either 1) use a software like
GIMP to add their required bleed, 2) or just
email us
and we'll add it for you, or 3) don't bother adding it if you don't care about your cards having a white border on one or two sides.
*Have other image ideas for kindness cards? Please share!
Flyers are quick+easy to print, and can be
posted on bulletin boards or anywhere that's allowed (check local ordinances before
posting on utility/light poles). Use the ready-to-print flyers below, or feel free to make simple text flyers using
any of these URL's.
Handing someone a flyer makes it much more likely that they'll give plant-based
some thought after walking away. And handouts can be distributed in pretty much any public place where free speech is allowed.
Be sure to check local ordinances before putting in mail slots or distributing door to door.
Feel free to add your website to these print-it-yourself options:
Option #1 (Print 2-sided, then CUT in half) | Get PDF
Option #3 (Print 1-sided, then CUT in thirds) | Get PDF
OPTION #4 | We highly recommend
VeganOutreach.org for their excellent pre-printed,
full-color booklets. At just 5 cents each, these may even be cheaper than printing copies of the DIY options above. You could use a rubber
stamp to quickly add your own URL to the booklets,
but FYI: Vegan Outreach is a great organization to promote. Here are two of their most popular booklets:
1) With software: Use a software like
Inkscape to open the desired PDF, draw a white box over our URL, type your URL on top of the white box,
then re-save the PDF for printing.
2) Without software: Print one copy of the desired PDF, cover our URL with a small piece of white paper that has your URL printed on it,
then make copies of that.
3) Rubber stamp: A rubber stamp won't remove our URL, but can be used to add yours. Check sites like
RubberStamps.net, RubberStamps.com, and TheStampMaker.com for pricing.
Putting a sticker on your car is a great way to speak up for animals and Earth every day with minimal effort.
We'd be happy to mail you one of the stickers below
for free.
Pick one that 1) you think will look good on your car, and that 2) you'll be comfortable keeping on your car:
We're thrilled to mail you one sticker for FREE!
If you'd like to support our free sticker efforts, you can make an
optional donation,
but that's certainly not required. We appreciate you speaking up for animals!
Want more than one sticker?
If so, please make a small donation ($3 per sticker)
to help cover the cost. Anything you donate over our cost will be used to make more free stickers available (to help more animals).
Already requested a second sticker but prefer not to donate?
No problem at all, just email
to let us know which sticker to send.
Animal Protection & Rescue League
is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit whose mission is to protect the rights and habitats of all animals. You can donate to our free sticker
program via BuyMeACoffee.com.
Remember that the first sticker is on us — no donation required.
If you request more than one sticker, please purchase one "coffee" ($3) per additional sticker (which is roughly our cost).
Anything you donate over our cost will be used to support our free sticker program —
i.e. to make more free stickers available to help more animals.
Some stickers have a choice of either a red heart or green "plant" text.
We found that including both color features simultaneously made the stickers look too busy — they looked good online,
but not so good on bumpers. Hence the simplified designs and two choices.
In a high foot traffic area, chalktivism can be an very effective means of raising awareness.
However, be sure to check for any laws in your area that might prohibit it (see note at the bottom of this page), and
be wise about placement (e.g. avoid private property where free speech is not protected and/or owner will immediately spray it off).
Here are
more slogan ideas.
Alternatively, use one of
our URL's or
your URL, or a hashtag, movie name, or
any other easy-to-remember way for people to learn more.
You can find additional inspiration on
Pinterest
and
Reddit, but
don't let lack of artistic ability stop you from speaking up for animals — the right words in messy text
multiple places will likely be more effective than one beautiful but time-consuming drawing. Much of what you'll see
on Pinterest/Reddit/etc was done with the intention of instead getting shared on social media.
*LEGAL NOTE: While we've all seen children chalking on sidewalks with impunity, and while selective enforcement (viewpoint discrimination)
is likely unconstitutional, some jurisdictions may have laws that prohibit all forms of sidewalk chalking (e.g. as forms of vandalism, etc).
But since the chalk is on the sidewalk/ground (not defacing a building, etc), and since chalk easily washes away (no permanent damage),
laws can vary from absence, to tolerance, to prohibition. So be sure to familiarize yourself with how it's been handled in your area.
Also see these articles from
WashingtonPost.com
and Bloomberg.com.
1) Door hangers are cheaper than mailing postcards, and much more likely to get noticed.
Many printing services offer pre-cut door hangers like the ones below, or you can DIY with flyers/postcards
plus a hole punch and rubber bands. Feel free to use any of
our URL's(or yours) in your design.
*Check local laws before distributing door-to-door,
plus whether political material may be exempt from laws regarding commercial material.
2) Signs can make a huge impression on a lot of people
when held or placed in a strategic location. Check your state and local laws
to determine what's possible. You can simply draw signs on cardboard, or
print them.
Here are several slogan ideas, or use any of
our URL's, or
yours!
3) Clothing is easy to get imprinted, which makes it possible
to wear your message (ie. help animals and Earth) wherever you go. Do a search for "custom clothing printing" or similar.
Simply adding one of our URL's(or yours)
doesn't require any artistic skills whatsoever.
4) Please use your imagination to help animals and Earth – there are certainly many possibilities that
we haven't thought of. This last one is a bit out of our budget, but we all need to dream big on this issue!
Have other promotional ideas or artwork? Please share!
Eating Animals Is WeirdAnimals Are Not IngredientsHumane Slaughter Is a MythEnd the Animal HolocaustFor the Animals, Environment, and Health: Go VeganFor the Animals, Planet, and Yourself: Go VeganPlease Go Vegan, for the Animals, Planet, and YouKeep Calm, Plants Have ProteinAll Protein Starts With PlantsGet your protein from the source: PlantsThere Is No Excuse For Animal AbuseReject Violence, Go VeganKilling Animals Normalizes Violence. Go Vegan.Predator or Protector? Choose VeganLove Animals, Eat PlantsLove Animals, Don't Eat ThemLove Animals, Don't Kill ThemEat Your Veggies, Not Your FriendsEat Something, Not Someone. Go Vegan.Speak for Those Without a VoiceWhy Love a Dog and Eat a PigWhy Love a Horse and Eat a CowLoving dogs while eating pigs is like loving pigs while eating dogsStop Making Excuses, Go Plant-BasedIf You Love Animals, Don't Eat ThemIs Your Food Grown or Born? Go VeganDon't make Your Body a Graveyard. Go Vegan.Not Your Mom, Not Your MilkCow's Milk Is for Baby CowsListen to Your Heart, Not Your HabitsDairy Is CruelMeat Is MurderMeat Is Murder. Milk Is Rape.World Peace Begins On Your Plate. Go vegan.World Peace Starts With PeasGive Peas a ChanceFight Climate Change With Diet Change: Go Vegan.Stop Harming Animals and Earth. Go Vegan.End SpeciesismPlant-Based Food System NowIs Your Dinner Someone's Death Sentence? Go VeganThink With Your Heart, Not Your StomachThe Future Is VeganWe Are All AnimalsBe One Few Person Harming AnimalsBe the generation that ends animal exploitationVeganism Is a Matter of RespectFriends Not FoodStop Paying for Animal SufferingBe Kind. Be Vegan.Be Kind to Animals. Be Vegan.equALLityJustice Is Inclusive — Be Vegan.Let Compassion Fuel You — Go Vegan.Let Compassion Fuel Your Life — Go Vegan.Expand Your Circle of Compassion. Go Vegan.Animals Are Not Ours to Eat or Experiment OnEating Animals Is PervertedPlant PoweredAnimal Lover or Hypocrite? Go VeganVegan, Because Anything Else Is Animal AbuseGo Vegan, and No One Gets HurtVegan, Genesis 1:29Did Dinner Die for Your Sins?Is Your Body a Tomb for Animals?I Am a Life, Not a LunchSave Lives 3x Daily — Go Vegan.Call Me Ben, Not BreakfastCall Me Dan, Not DinnerI Am Not An IngredientGot Pus? Cheese Does.Eat Fruit, Not FriendsStop Eating AnimalsDid your lunch want to live?Imagine If Animals Could Speak. Go Vegan.If you can read this, you're too old for milkIf you can read this, you're too old for breast milkStop Eating Things That PoopDon't Eat Anything With a Face or a MotherYou're Only As Kind As You Treat Animals.Kindness is not killing animals. Go vegan.
When emailing us, please include "ChoosePlantBased"
in your subject line to help prevent your message from going to spam.
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This website was created to raise awareness of new possibilities for kind and healthy eating.
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3rd Party References:
The American Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics is the world's largest organization of nutrition and dietetics practitioners.
They state:
"It is the position of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics that appropriately planned vegetarian,
including vegan, diets are healthful, nutritionally adequate, and may provide health benefits for the prevention
and treatment of certain diseases. These diets are appropriate for all stages of the life cycle, including pregnancy,
lactation, infancy, childhood, adolescence, older adulthood, and for athletes."
"Despite the appearance in our media of confusion, there is massive global consensus about the fundamentals of a health-promoting diet,
and it's a diet that, every time — no matter whether it's high in fat or low in fat, higher in carbs or lower in carbs —
in every population and every kind of research — it's a plant-food predominant diet... every time."
Dr. David Katz Yale University Prevention Research Center
"I know of nothing else in medicine that can come close to what a plant-based diet can do."
Prof. Dr. T. Colin Campbell
Nutritional Biochemist and co-author of The China Study
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Animal Protection and Rescue League is a nonprofit organization whose mission is to protect the rights and habitats of all animals.
Since forming in 2003, APRL has influenced animal protection legislation, conducted numerous animal rescues, and educated hundreds of thousands of people about humane eating.
We run a lean operation without salaries or staff. Even this website was built by volunteers using
free software.
You can view our financials on GuideStar, where we've earned the platinum seal of transparency.
To help us help animals, the best things you can do are:
You arrived here via CruelFoods.org. Although Whole Foods should be leading the plant-based movement, they're actually
impeding it through
"humane washing".
Humane washing is a form of deceptive marketing that's harming animals, people, and the planet — and Whole Foods uses it extensively. Please remember that
1) there is no humane way to kill a healthy animal that wants to live, 2)
"organic"
does not mean humane, 3) animal products are products of
sexual abuse,
kidnapping and
murder, as well as causes of completely needless
human and
environmental harm.
None of these should be encouraged through deceit. Please look at the reality inside these Whole Foods
humane chicken
and pig suppliers,
and never buy into Whole Foods' harmful deceptions again.
You arrived here via PooBurger.org. At about 1/3 of their
natural lifespan,
most dairy cows are killed and sold as hamburger.
But FYI, it's
more poo
than ham. If you want more ham than poo, that would be
pigburger.
You arrived here via EndSpeciesism.info. While the concept of
speciesism
may initially sound extreme, remember that the concept of
racism
was was initially considered extreme as well.
In fact, speciesism has us committing the same types of unnecessary
violence
against fellow
sentient beings
that racism once did —
but this time on ultra-genocidal
levels. And to assume that another species' suffering is less important than our own shows that we're still suffering from the same
flawed assumption
that gives rise to such violence.
Justice is inclusive. All inclusive.
