Veganism - The Shadows Of Life #19

"Veganism isn't about being perfect, it isn't about being superior, it's about looking beyond ourselves and thinking about how our choices affect others."

Veganism is a philosophy and a way of living which seeks to exclude as much as possible all forms of exploitation of cruelty to animals for food, clothing or any other purpose. This paper argues that with consuming animal products, people close their eyes to the truth of animals having rights and with increasing meat consumption they open their bodies to diseases such as hypertension. Also it states that by embracing a cruelty free diet, even a single person can make a tremendous contribution to the environment.

As people with internet connection or a little bit of education about how the meat that we buy on markets is being produced; we all are aware that animals have fully functioning nervous systems, which means they are all able to feel pain and they all want to live. But because people like the taste of something, meat industry exists and forces animals to walk into their deaths and become someone’s meal. We can all say that no creature with a healthy mind wants to die or to become somebody's dinner.

Looking at the health aspects of this issue, animal products are one of the primary causes of heart disease, diabetes, cancer and hypertension. When we are little, all of us are being told that animal products are necessary for our protein intake. That is incorrect. Grains, vegetables, fruits and legumes all have enough protein and other nutrients for our body. The plant-based sources of these nutrients tend to be low in saturated fat, high in fiber and packed with antioxidants. That means, we can all have healthy cruelty free diets and live a healthy life with lower risk of heart disease based on plant-based food sources. We don't have to harm animals to live a healthy fulfilled life.

According to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development(OECD), an average adult consumes 34 kilograms of meat(cows, chickens, pigs and sheep) every year. Because of this supply-demand relationship, there are 19 billion chickens, 1.5 billion cows, 1 billion pigs and 1 billion sheep on the planet. It is more than three times the number of people. And these numbers are rising when the human population grows. It takes massive amounts of water to grow crops for animals to eat, clean filthy factory farms, and give animals water to drink. Without this much demand for animal products, it will not be necessary to force animals to reproduce either.

Also Red meat such as beef, lamb or pork is responsible for 10 to 40 times as many greenhouse gas emissions as common vegetables and grains.

Almost all of us grew up eating meat, wearing leather, visiting zoos or buying animals from pet shops. We have never considered the choices we make, which are normalized by society, harming other creatures or polluting our planet. For whatever reason you are reading this right now, you should ask yourself: Don’t animals have rights?

Seray Soyman
Meeting Director,
Agora Leo Club,
Turkey.