Why Vegan?

Diet

Leozette Roode has written an excellent vegan cookery book – The South African Vegan Cook Book. Not only containing amazing recipes, but vital information regarding the destruction of our environment due to raising animals to support an animal-based diet.

In South Africa more than one billion land animals are raised for food each year. As the population grows, these numbers grow – and there is a price to pay – raising animals for food and consuming a diet rich in animal products, is destroying our environment and our health!

The Destruction of Our Environment

Water Resources

Producing animal-based products requires enormous amounts of water. 4000 litres of water are required to produce a single kilogram of chicken meat. It takes over 1000% more water to produce beef, compared to wheat. One of the easiest ways you can reduce your water footprint is by eating more plant-based meals – good for you and good for the environment!

Water Pollution

Animal faeces, produced by the factory-farmed animals, plus the chemicals used to grow animal feed, are dumped into our fresh water supply, polluting some of our desperately needed water.

Climate Change

Greenhouse gases, especially carbon dioxide methane and nitrous oxide, are released into our atmosphere, as a result of raising animals for food. The gases increase the atmospheric temperature, leading to droughts, wildfires, floods and other climate-related disasters. Farm animal production accounts for 14.5% of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions.

Land

We use more than half of the land in South Africa to raise farm animals, to be consumed by humans. Grazing animals spoil the land for the many other plant and animal species that live there naturally. Significant portions of land are used to grow feed for the animals – if we used this land to grow crops to feed humans, we could feed so many more and in so doing, reduce the number of starving people.

Chronic Diseases

Many diseases with the highest death rates could be treated, reversed and prevented, through a vegan diet. This includes heart disease, which is the number one killer in the western world, some forms of cancer, type II diabetes and high blood pressure. In 2015, the World Health Organisation shocked the world when it announced that processed meats like hot dogs, polonies and bacon, could cause cancer.

Animals

Eating vegan helps reduce animal suffering. Farm animals make up the majority of abused animals globally. Do not ever think that the animal has not suffered before landing up on your plate.

According to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations, approximately 77 billion land animals are raised per year for human consumption globally. In South Africa, more than one billion animals per year are slaughtered for consumption.

Factory farming is one of the cruellest practices in the world. Whatever arguments farmers might put forward, there is no humane way to slaughter a living thing.

South Africans consume 7.8 billion eggs per year. More than 95% of these are sourced from hens that spend all their lives in battery cages. A battery cage is a small wire box that provides a hen with less space than an A4-size piece of paper. These cages prevent hens from performing any of their natural behaviours – they can’t nest, perch, run, or spread their wings. The hens suffer from serious psychological stress and these stress hormones flood their bodies – to later be consumed by humans.

An even worse existence is that suffered by sows. More than 50% of pregnant sows in South Africa spend their lives in gestation crates. These are individual metal stalls that confine pregnant sows in the commercial pork production industry. Confined in these small spaces, they are unable to fully extend their legs or even turn around. A life of hell for these highly intelligent beings.

Dairy cows produce milk for exactly the same reason we do: to feed their young, so the only way for cows to produce milk – to be used for human consumption – is to fall pregnant. In factory farms, cows are inseminated at a young age. The calf is removed from its mother so that the farmers can collect the milk for human consumption. Can you imagine your baby being torn from your arms? Studies have shown that both mother and calk suffer psychological stress due to the separation, the stress hormones flooding their bodies – to later be consumed by humans.

7 Good Reasons to go Vegan

It’s the best way to help animals

Every vegan saves nearly 200 animals per year. There is simply no easier way to help animals and prevent suffering, than by choosing plant-based foods over meat, eggs, and dairy products.

Slim down and become energised

Is shedding some extra kgs first on your list of goals for the new year? Vegans are, on average, up to 9 kgs lighter than meat-eaters. And unlike unhealthy fad diets, which leave you feeling tired (and usually don’t keep the kgs off for long), going vegan allows you to keep the excess fat off for good and to have plenty of energy.

Be healthier

Being vegan is great for your health! According to the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, vegans are less likely to develop heart disease, cancer, diabetes, and high blood pressure, than meat-eaters are. Vegans get all the nutrients they need to be healthy, such as plant protein, fibre, and minerals.

Vegan food is delicious

When you go vegan, you can still eat all your favorite foods, including burgers, “chicken” sandwiches, and ice cream. The only difference? You’ll be ditching the cruelty and cholesterol that go hand in hand with using animals for food. As the demand for vegan food skyrockets, companies are coming out with more and more delicious meat and dairy-free options that taste great, are much healthier than their animal-derived counterparts, and don’t hurt any living beings.

The reality of meat

Animal flesh is often contaminated with feces, blood, and other bodily fluids—all of which make animal-derived foods the top source of food poisoning in the United States. Tests were done in the United Sates on a certain brand of chicken flesh and found that 96 percent of the packages were contaminated with campylobacter, a dangerous bacterium that causes 2.4 million cases of food poisoning each year.

Help feed the world

Eating meat doesn’t just hurt animals—it hurts people, too. It takes tons of crops and water to raise farmed animals. All the plant food used to feed animals could feed so many more humans. The more people who go vegan, the better able we’ll be to feed the hungry.

Save the planet

Meat is not environmentally friendly. Consuming it is actually one of the worst things that you can do for the Earth. Meat production is wasteful and causes enormous amounts of pollution, and the industry is also one of the biggest causes of climate change. Adopting a vegan diet is more effective than switching to a “greener” car in the fight against climate change.

Famous Vegans

Ellen DeGeneres

Portia de Rossi

Joaquin Phoenix

Woody Harrelson

Casey Affleck

Bryan Adams

Toby Maguire

Zac Effron

Beyonce

Jason Mraz

Natalie Portman