Veganism is a lie. Why, you ask? First of all I must define the word Vegan. Veganism /ˈviːɡənɪzəm/ is the practice of abstaining from the use of animal products, particularly in diet, as well as following an associated philosophy that rejects the commodity status of sentient animals. Vegans therefore function on the premise that they do not cause animal deaths nor suffering. Unfortunately, all edible products whether intentionally or not are derivative of animals or affect animals in some way. A very famous case of this is Palm oil, (saynotopalmoil/Whats_the_issue.php), which proved to the world in a viral storm over social media that things that appear innocent on the surface can be immeasurably hostile in reality. So this brings us to the vegans diet. What does a vegan rely on mostly for nutrients? Fruit & vegetables. Where do these come from? Farms. What do farms irrigate? Land. Where does this land come from? Habitat destruction. Whether you want to admit it or not, all vegetable and fruit plantations have directly affected many species of animals lives by stealing their homes, disrupting the predator - prey balance and removing natural water sources by either fencing them off for the farms use or by drying these areas up to plant crops over more fertile flatlands. Dont forget herbivores use these areas to feed, and once their food source is gone, so is the animal. Prey going missing from the food chain have massive domino effects on everything that feeds on it, and is one of the huge reasons predators such as the tiger are finding survival so tough in the wild in India. What do vegans cook with? Oil. Global demand for vegetable oils is a driver of deforestation. Global demand for vegetable oils has recently increased, which impacts not only the global economy, but also the atmosphere and ecosystems. Increasing demand for vegetable oils has traditionally translated into demand for more land to grow oil crops. Over the last decade much of that land has come at the expense of tropical forests, and this is particularly true for palm and soybean oil. This loss of tropical forest means a loss of precious biodiversity and the ecosystem (e.g., water cycle maintenance, potential sources of new medicines) and contributes to global climate change. Tropical deforestation accounts for about 10 percent of annual global carbon emissions. How is land irrigated? Using water supplies. While this is also an issue in the production of meat, all arable land directly affects water supplies. This can take the form of destroying local aquifers, rivers, inlets, lakes, reservoirs and eventually the ocean. cleveland/open/index.ssf/2014/06/poll_finds_support_for_tougher.html. This article explains the global situation in a local circumstance. It is happening worldwide. And what lives in the oceans? Your best friends... Cetaceans! In New Zealand the Hectors / Mauis Dolphin is directly affected by agricultural run-off. doc.govt.nz/documents/conservation/native-animals/marine-mammals/maui-tmp/mauis-dolphin-risk-assessment.pdf Now, presuming you wont touch dairy lets explore milk substitutes. Soybeans. To grow soybeans, vast expanses of land are needed. This threatens wildlife and biodiversity. It also adversely affects people, the global climate, water reserves and soil quality. In South America, almost 4 million hectares of forests are destroyed every year, 2.6 million of them in Brazil alone. Many of these plantations are illegal, and cannot be monitored as closely as needed due to local government bodies either being corrupt or not having enough resources to prevent the destruction. Almond oil, coconut oil and sunflower oil are also all associated with deforestation worldwide. What animals are endangered due to deforestation, you ask? The Javan Rhinoceros The Mountain Gorilla Bornean Orangutan The Giant Panda Tigers worldwide Golden Lion Tamarin And more every day.. Global Rates of Destruction are currently 2.4 acres (1 hectare) per second. Approximately 137 species of life forms are driven into extinction every day; or 50,000 each year. Rainforests cover 2% of the Earths surface, or 6% of its land mass, yet they house over half the plant and animal species on Earth. A typical four square mile patch of rainforest contains as many as 1500 species of flowering plants, 750 species of trees, 125 mammal species, 400 species of birds, 100 of reptiles, 60 of amphibians, and 150 different species of butterflies. In one study, one square meter of leaf litter, when analyzed, turned up 50 species of ants alone. Need I go on? Elephants are very famously directly affected by crop plantation deforestation as they are nomadic animals by nature. They follow paths etched into matriarch after matriarchs memory, they know where to go when water is scarce, when to move for the dry season etc. When humans interfere with these paths, the elephants suffer. Africa is one of the biggest examples. The increasing use of wild lands for agriculture has caused elephants to move away from its home land land into savanna woodlands, which they themselves partially deforest. Elephants are forced to squeeze their herd into increasingly smaller spaces causing an increase in the density of elephant populations. It is estimated that the tropical forests of Africa will be almost entirely deforested by 2050 if land clearing continues at the current rate. Though it is difficult to estimate forest elephant populations, it is estimated that forests are equally as important of a habitat as savannas for African elephants based on population estimates; if this is true the consequences of deforestation for African elephants may be devastating. Desertification is also a problem for African elephants. Increasing deforestation has left land warmer and drier and more vulnerable to desertification. Desertification can be caused from lower rainfall and results in decreased vegetation. The knock-on effects go on... Everything I have mentioned above also affect people. Lets imagine you live in a small village with a population of 100 people. You live off the land and buy locally. The farmer who produces vegetables and crops for your livestock suddenly find that there is more money in producing rice bran oil and cease their crop planting. You now cannot source food at a local level and begin paying more for crops out of town. Local markets no longer provide cheap produce, and also have to travel further for the crops that were once on their doorstep. Rice bran becomes the biggest land consumer, and often poor farmers take matters into their own hands and illegally destroy habitat in order to make more money for their hungry families. This creates a micro-economic climate, that works on an international level instead of local investment. Animal products are everywhere you dont look. In your car, I can guarantee various surfaces contain either cotton, leather, wool etc, And before you say your car is synthetic, or synthetic fibers are better... Think to yourself, Where do synthetic fibers go when you have finished with them? Are they biodegradable? No. In fact most are plastic derivatives and take hundreds of years to leave the environment. The metals used in the internal structure? They come from quarries and extraction plants that also contribute to habitat loss and deforestation. Plastic bumpers are an obvious environmental issue. Need I mention tyre burning... When you use cleaning products you can guarantee they have been tested on animals. If they havent, they sure as hell are using information gained exclusively by testing historically. Now this must not use leather fiasco is ridiculous. Leather is a byproduct, you are doing the world a favour by using it. Leathers demand is not as high as meat, and there is already so much wastage in the cows carcass benefiting from leather products instead of non-biodegradable synthetic substitutes is a no brainer. When a vegan gets sick he takes medicines. Can You Take Prescription Medications and Still Call Yourself Vegan? No matter how committed we are I can almost guarantee that the vast majority of us will partake of something non vegan. Clearly medication is not vegan. Even if you can find a pill that doesnt contain gelatin or lactose, your meds will have been tested on animals. Current legislation demands it - theveganwoman/can-you-take-prescription-medications-and-still-call-yourself-vegan/. This also applies to the supplements you Vegans NEED to survive. Dont lie and say you dont take any...you would be dead or extremely anemic. I have experienced anemia directly due to lack of animal products and I can tell you for sure I would not wish that process on my worst enemy. Oddly enough this is all only a small portion of my many reasons veganism is an impossible dream, but I know few of you would read a three series novel on it that I would have to write. Eating vegetable and fruit products do NOT prevent animal fatalities. Infact, it often causes a more prolonged and painful death through drought, starvation and food competition. Slaughter would seem a dream in comparison. Deforestation does not chose its victims systematically. It does not exclude endangered animals from its hit-list. It kills indiscriminately. Your local selective cow breeder looks like a saint next to this faceless killer. Bottom line? No living human being can possibly live a life that does not employ the death of animals. Whether intentional or not, we live at the expense of others. We are so numerous, there is no possible way to live cruelty free. It is morbid, yes, but it is the truth. We can only live as emphatically as humanly possible. So vegans, admit you are a vegetarian and get over your fairy tale world. Happy Tricia Wiles?
Posted on: Mon, 01 Sep 2014 14:45:32 +0000
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