Why veganism is going to explode in 2021
It seems as if everywhere you turn you see or hear the word vegan. Whether it is an advert online, a new vegan product, the news that Wagamama has committed to making 50 per cent of its menu meat-free by the end of 2021, or that record numbers of people have signed up for Veganuary.
It seems as if everyone is talking about veganism and going vegan. Even animal farmers are transitioning to plant-based farming. But why?
1 | Pandemics
If there’s one thing we don’t want to hear about ever again, it is Covid-19. And yet there’s a good reason why leading infectious disease experts have referred to the coronavirus pandemic as a “dress rehearsal”.
After all, the 2009 swine flu pandemic was traced back to a pig farm in North Carolina, and the 1918 flu pandemic, now known to be an avian strain, is strongly believed to have started in a chicken farm in Kansas. BSE came from cattle farms in the UK, Nipah from pig farms, MERS from camel farms, Bovine TB from dairy farms, Bird flu strains such as H5N1 and H7N9 from poultry farms and live bird markets, and of course SARS and Covid-19 from wet markets. And this is just scratching the surface.
Simply put, if we don’t change the way we live, it is highly likely that Covid-19 won’t be the last or most severe pandemic that we face. After all, Covid-19 didn’t just appear out of nowhere, it started because of the way humans interact with animals and the natural world. To further prove this point, Covid-19, as well as originating from a wet market has also mutated in mink farms all around the world.
This is why leading experts and scientists, including those from the UN, the WHO, and the European Food Safety Authority, among others, have all warned us about the role that animal farming plays in the spread of infectious disease. With the CDC stating that three out of every four new or emerging infectious diseases in humans come from animals.
The problem is, animals in farms act as mixing vessels for viruses from wild animals to mutate and then be transferred to humans. This is why as well as animal farming, deforestation and encroachment into wild habitats is considered to be the other leading risk factor in the emergence of infectious diseases. And ironically, the number one cause of habitat loss and deforestation is animal farming.
In the end, as long as we keep exploiting animals, the issue of pandemics will always be a when, and not an if.
2 | Animals
By now you’ve probably come across a video online showing something like pigs being killed in CO2 gas chambers, or newborn male chicks being thrown in macerators and ground up alive in the egg industry. Or dairy cows being forcibly impregnated, having their babies separated from them within the first 24 hours of them being born and then being put into solitary confinement hutches so that we can take their mother’s milk.
However, even though these standard legal practices are so upsetting we actively avoid watching them and even thinking about them - the issue of what we do to animals is much larger than just these actions. It’s about the fact that we deny these animals their autonomy, exploit them in any capacity and then take their life from them needlessly. And it is worth stating that all dairy cows and egg-laying hens are killed in the same slaughterhouses as the animals killed just for their flesh.
Fundamentally, the ethical focus of vegans is about addressing the fact that we deny animals the moral consideration that they deserve, and we ignore their individuality by reducing them to what we refer to as ‘livestock’ and stapling a number through their ear. A sentient being becomes number 1135 and is viewed as disposable as if they are inanimate objects.
Consequently, we end up in a paradoxical society where we view different species of animals as having a different worth of life. For example, someone who rescues a dog is viewed as a hero, but someone who rescues a pig is viewed as a criminal. And yet morally there is no difference between a dog and a pig and both acts involve saving an animal from a situation that is causing them suffering.
“Ultimately, veganism is about understanding that even though the animals we exploit are very different to us, the traits that make our life morally valuable are also found within them”
Ultimately, veganism is about understanding that even though the animals we exploit are very different to us, the traits that make our life morally valuable are also found within them. The fact that each of us is a sentient, conscious, feeling being who has an experience of life that is intrinsically unique and valuable to us. And yes, this does apply to marine animals and bees as well.
3 | The Environment
At this point, it is well known that animal farming is incredibly damaging for the planet. It produces at least 14.5 per cent of the total greenhouse gas emissions, which is more than the combined exhausts of all transportation including planes, cars and trucks, and some estimates place this number even higher.
It is also estimated to use around 30 per cent of the planet’s fresh water and it is the number one cause of water pollution and oceanic dead zones.
On top of that, it uses 83 per cent of global agricultural land. In fact, 48 per cent of the entire landmass of the UK is dedicated to animal farming and in the US it is 41 per cent. In Brazil, 80 per cent of deforested land has been turned into pasture with the vast majority of the rest being used to produce feed for animals. Consequently, it is the leading cause of deforestation and habitat destruction.
Ultimately it is just an incredibly inefficient form of food production with the most efficient animal products still requiring six plant calories to produce just one calorie in return. And organic grass-fed meat and dairy is no different, with a recent study showing that organic animal products are just as bad for the environment as regular meat.
And if this was not enough, out of 313 global food systems the most sustainable diets were the plant-based diets, with the least sustainable being diets that favoured ruminant meat and milk. Switching to a plant-based diet would also allow us to feed everyone on the planet whilst also freeing up 75 per cent of agricultural land, which is an area of land equivalent in size to the whole of Australia, China, the EU and the US combined - land which could then be reforested and restored, allowing us to sequester 16 years worth of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere by the year 2050.
And the importance of this was emphasised just recently when researchers showed that even if we eliminated fossil fuel emissions immediately, the emissions from agriculture alone would make it impossible to stay below 1.5 degrees celsius and potentially even two degrees. And so even though veganism is not the only environmental measure we need to adopt, there is no complete solution without it.
4 | Health
When it comes to health, it is not just that a plant-based diet has been shown to be healthy and nutritionally adequate for all stages of life, including pregnancy and infancy, as stated by the academy of nutrition and dietetics, it is that a whole-foods plant-based diet has also been shown to help the gut microbiome, reduce inflammation, lower high cholesterol and high blood pressure, boost your immune system and also reduce the risk of developing many of our leading chronic illnesses, such as heart disease, type two diabetes, certain forms of cancer such as colon, breast and prostate, as well as strokes and dementia.
Not only that, but people report feeling like they have more energy, sleep better, and their digestion, acne and allergies have improved as well.
Ultimately it has never been easier to be vegan, with more and more options becoming available all the time and more information becoming increasingly available. In the end, there are so many reasons why people are adopting plant-based diets and vegan lifestyles, whether it is to minimise the risk of ever worrying about another lockdown again, wanting to ensure that we have a habitable planet in the future, reduce their risk of early death, or to be a part of a more compassionate world for all animals, both human and non-human.
So with all that being said, maybe it is time to give it a try yourself and join the hundreds of thousands of people who are also currently making the switch.
