Veganism: Meaning, Pros, and Impact on Environment

A vegan is a person who makes an effort to live in a way that does not exploit animals for the good of all living things—animals, humans, and the environment. A vegan is someone who abstains from eating any animal products, including gelatin, as well as dairy products like milk, butter, cheese, and cream. Additionally, they abstain from using or wearing things that have been tested on animals or contain materials derived from animals, such as leather, suede, wool, and silk clothing items. Vegans can instead pick from thousands of goods and cuisines that don't use any animals.

Veganism is a way of life, not a way to eat. This way of thinking affirms that every sentient being has the right to live their life and should always be treated with respect rather than as property.

Many contemporary healthy eating recommendations, such as consuming more fruit, vegetables, and whole grains and ingesting less cholesterol and saturated fat, are met by a balanced vegan diet, often known as a "plant-based diet." Vegetarian diets that are well-balanced and high in vitamins, antioxidants, and fiber help lower the risk of developing conditions including diabetes, heart disease, stroke, and some types of cancer. All age groups and life stages can benefit from well-planned plant-based diets

Many people switch to veganism out of concern for how farm animals are treated. Some people object to the pointless "usage" and death of animals, arguing that humans don't need their products to feed or clothe themselves.

It is getting harder to argue that the general public is unaware of the treatment that factory-farmed animals receive due to the slowly growing public awareness of these conditions. Animals that have the capacity for thought and emotion are frequently kept in unsanitary environments where they are unable to move freely or exhibit their natural behaviors. In addition, many are selectively bred to grow or produce milk or eggs at a rate that is much higher than their bodies can handle, resulting in major health issues and even death for many.

 All animals produced for food, regardless of how they were raised, are put to death at the slaughterhouse. This includes the numerous millions of male chicks and calves that are slaughtered annually as "waste products" of the production of milk and eggs, as well as the animals that are raised for their milk and eggs and are killed at a fraction of their natural lifespan. A daily act of compassion for all these creatures is adopting a vegan diet.

 A typical Western diet only needs around one-third the amount of land and water that a plant-based diet does. Far more crops and water are required to generate animal "products" for human consumption than are required to feed people directly on a plant-based diet since farmed animals consume considerably more protein, water, and calories than they produce. Eating plant foods directly is considerably more sustainable than using up limited resources to feed farmed animals, especially as water and land become increasingly rare internationally, world hunger rises, and the population of the earth increases. Other environmental issues including deforestation, water pollution, and soil degradation are exacerbated by raising livestock and producing their feed.