- checking login information
Loading...The Importance of Being Vegan
“If a man earnestly seeks a righteous life, his first act of abstinence is from animal food.”
- Leo Tolstoy
…
Intellectually, most of us agree that inflicting unnecessary harm is unjustified – whether the victims are human or not. Yet somehow, most of the same people who subscribe to this belief are willing to turn a blind eye to such harm when they themselves receive some kind of advantage from it – whether the benefits are in the form of food, possessions, vanity, or amusement.
Sadly, because widespread violence against animals in the form of ‘agriculture’, ‘research’ and even ‘entertainment’, is sanctioned by mainstream society and its legal systems, the majority of people tend to be unwilling to see this brutality for what it is, and to step outside of the pervasive conditioning that makes such atrocities possible.
It’s true that more and more people are beginning to speak out about the many abhorrent abuses that occur within the animal industry, and the movement to ‘improve conditions’ for these animals continues to gain popularity. And yet, each one of the awful practices that animal advocates protest passionately against – intensive confinement, enforced insemination, separation of mother and child, castration, de-horning, tail docking, de-beaking, mulesing, de-toeing, live scalding, force molting – all of these horrific procedures, and many more, exist because an ever-growing number of human consumers continue to create demand for animal products. To an industry that views sentient beings as economic units – money-making machines – it is unavoidable that such violence will be viewed as an acceptable means to the end of delivering products that turn a profit.
In any case, even if every one of the aforementioned practices were abolished, it would still be immoral and inexcusable to use other sentient beings as resources. In today’s world, vegan alternatives are available for every single significant purpose for which we currently use animals*. Increasing numbers of people are embracing veganism as the solution to the problems we experience as individuals and as a society – from our many health crises, to our environmental emergency, to the issue of escalating violence – all of which have us living in some degree of fear for the future.
As this movement for animal emancipation grows in size and strength, a powerful example is being set by the individuals who refuse to take any part in the brutal oppression of innocents that we call ‘the animal industry’. Men and women all over the globe –simply by living as vegans – are demonstrating that there is no moral justification for the harm we inflict on animals.
*NB: Although animal products are used in certain items for which there currently are no consumer alternatives – such as computers and car tires – there are alternatives that could easily be used in their manufacturing.
Read more: animal rights, animal welfare, veganism
Disclaimer: The views expressed above are solely those of the author and may
not reflect those of
Care2, Inc., its employees or advertisers.
Recent Comments from Causes
NO
I may never eat again. @_@
I have to add this.... @ Bradford S. "God" did not "say" anything in John 1 or 8. A human being wrote…
1721 comments
+ add your ownvery interesting. Am trying to eat less dairy.
Thank you for sharing.
This article should be called "The Importance Of Being A Bombastic, Self-Important Vegan." Angel Flinn takes the exact same theme and recycles it into different titled articles and calls it good. And she always infers that vegans are somehow more compassionate and more earnest about animal welfare than vegetarians and omnivores. She has not once, since I saw my first "Angel Flinn article," mentioned the fact that not everyone can stay healthy and thrive on a vegan diet. To her, if you aren't vegan, you might as well tuck tail and hide from everyone because you just aren't a compassionate animal lover. Apparently she has never heard of genetics, and how that effects what diet is going to be best for you...or perhaps she thinks those people should just die on a vegan diet so they can go to heaven.
Don't get me wrong, I don't want animals dying for my diet either, which is why I tried going vegan many years ago. And got extremely sick for my efforts, despite being closely monitored by a licensed vegan nutritionist. And yes, I "did it the right way," and avoided sugars and processed foods, AND took some premium vegan supplements. This time I'm doing the right thing and am gradually turning vegetarian instead of full-out vegan (I'm 90% there!). I need eggs in my diet (naturally nested & organic of course), as well as goat cheese, so I don't run into the same problems as before.
What I will NOT do, as I give up meat, is turn into a bombastic and self-important vegetarian.
I had been a vegetarian for 20 years now and I would not Go back to eating meat again if you pay me!
Thank you for sharing - certainly a food for thought!
Being vegan is indeed a choice, and for many reasons many believe it is the best choice. If most go to a vegetarian or vegan lifestyle, those people will most likely be healthier than their omnivorous friends. Less animals will need to be raised in horrible conditions which are being passed on vicariously to their human and animal diners.
Thank you for the article. I am already vegetarian and trying to incorporate more vegan meals into my diet until I can go completely vegan.
I didn't think you'd have done it intentionally, LOL! I've read in the F&S site that there still are a lot of technical issues being dealt with. One I noticed was trying to delete comments from my IN BOX and being thrown right into the "Trash" folder and reading a post that I'd deleted two or three days ago and the numbers showing in the IN BOX actually went UP, not down. It eventually gets worked out, but it's frustrating.
Pego, not sure if you meant it to end up here, but a comment about teflon really doesn't have much to do with being vegan. Could Care.2 have messed up and sent this here instead of to the article about eliminating plastics from one's kitchen? Weird if it did.
Cecily, since I noticed that you have now just posted to two very old discussions about being vegan, I took a "peek" at your member profile. Okay, so you "denied veganism" for many years,but you are only 23? So, okay, that tells me a lot. BTW, you say there is NO alternative? Really? I think what I do to the earth and the environment as an omnivore is beneficial in many ways, and certainly far less negative impact than many, if not most vegans who don't raise their own food, don't check out the sources of where it's grown, and do nothing else to "help the planet" than merely not consume animal products.
login to add your comment
use your care2 login
add your comment