Plant Based

What is Plant Based/Vegan?

To clear things up, veganism isn’t just about being picky with the food you are eating…

Veganism: The principle of the emancipation of animals from exploitation by man
— Leslie J Cross 1951 - Oxford University theologian and tutor

Who goes vegan, and why?

Plant-based diets and veganism are becoming mainstream in many countries including the UK. According to a 2019 poll¹ surveying people from almost 100 countries, the most popular reason to adopt a vegan diet is for animals (68%). However a significant number adopt the diet primarily for health benefits (17%), or the environment (10%).

Some vegans who adopt the diet solely for health benefits use the term “plant based” diet. Due to the high calorific content of oils, those looking for benefits may also avoid cooking oils or other unhealthy foods. But this is not such health choices are not really relevant or related to being vegan for animal ethics reasoning.

A vegan diet can be extremely healthy (despite what you might think when you see my high biscuit intake…). The NHS has published its own advice for ensuring a healthy vegan diet². They have reported on many health benefits including diabetes type II risk reduction³, and suggest that the diet can be helpful for achieving and maintaining a healthy weight.

Ethical Reasoning

Environmentalism

I don’t think it is particularly necessary or helpful to describe my motivations for a vegan diet as solely for either the animals or environment, but instead as a response to an overwhelming number of positive arguments outweighing negative ones.

The most convincing argument for me to turn vegetarian (before becoming vegan) was for the environment. Have a go at calculating the emissions from your current diet using a CO2 equivalent emissions calculator⁴. Most UK made animal produce now comes from ecocologically destructive factory farms⁵. Large swathes of rainforest are chopped down so that feed can be grown for cattle, to supply a growing international demand for meat. The intensive farming processes used degrades the soil and requires large amounts of fertiliser. Deforestation of the Amazon rainforest is largely due to the Brazilian beef industry⁶, the largest in the world.

In order for the ever rising global demand for meat to be met, we require more and more land to grow crop for intensively farmed animals, causing an ever rising amount of agriculture attributed CO2 equivalent emissions, and degradation and destruction of nature.

What about smaller scale non factory farming, is it possible to switch back and enjoy some good old British beef⁷? The answer is overwhelmingly no^8,9, because more traditional animal agriculture still wastes huge amounts of resources and land. Roughly twice as much land is used for grazing worldwide as for crop production, but grazing provides just 1.2% of the world’s protein¹⁰. Traditional farming cannot meet the current demand for meat and animal produce.

If we want to reduce the impact our diet has on climate change and nature, we can be generous to ourselves and on a weekly-monthly basis enjoy small quantities of less resource intensive animal produce (chicken, dairy, egg), whilst waving goodbye to red meats.

Animal-ethics

On the other hand, if the UK switched solely to plants, we could be not only self sufficient, but an exporter of foods.

The most low-carbon way to produce meat and animal products, and to meet high demand, is through factory farming. This method of production is abhorrent: watch “Land of Hope and Glory” or “Earthings” and ask yourself if you are comfortable making the choice of meat over plant alternatives?

So one can quickly reach the same conclusion from an environmental and animal-ethics perspective: consume a lot less meat and animal produce!

Economic pressures force traditional farms to produce as much as possible from their limited resources. Modern farm animals are bread to be as fat and efficient as possible, often leaving them with greatly reduced lifespans. Farming standards such as red tractor¹¹ or RSPCA¹² approved are unable to guarantee ethical treatments of animals before slaughter.

If we ignore the pressure of capitalism to exploit animals, and imagine a hypothetical farm where all is done in the interest of the animals, there still remain many ethical dilemmas including:

• Meat can only be produced by slaughtering animals
• Milk production results in the slaughter of ‘unwanted’ male calves.
• Modern farm animals are bread to unhealthy proportions to maximise profit; measures to address this will probably result in more expensive and resource intensive food.

To me, it seems like the arguments for animal agriculture require imagining hypothetical socialist paradise farms, where measures taken to assure ethical treatment are often counterproductive to profit and environment.

It makes sense to choose veganism.

Veganism is not Consumerism

As a footnote to this blog post, I want highlight that my diet is not a consumer choice, but something closer to an ideology or counter-culture stance.

I want to see justice for animals, and for the environment. And I want to see justice for humanity. Justice for all people who trapped in exploitative labour practices to increase the private wealth of the wealthy. Justice for those impacted by war or environmental disasters. Justice for those who do not have sure access to basic needs like shelter and food.

There may be some occasions where eating meat is ethical, and it depends on personal circumstance and situation.

More broadly, there are many who don’t have the means to prepare vegan meals when ensuring access to food and a healthy diet remains a fundamental challenge.

But that is missing the point. Even if we can’t make all of the changes we want to on an individual level, we should make the changes we feel able to, and help others to make positive changes too.

revised 2021-02-09 for readability