Veganism is a philosophy and lifestyle that seeks to exclude the use of animals for food, clothing, or any other purpose. Vegans endeavor not to use or consume animal products of any kind. The most common reasons for becoming a vegan are ethical commitment or moral convictions concerning animal rights, the environment, human health, and spiritual or religious concerns. Of particular concern are the practices involved in factory farming and animal testing, and the intensive use of land and other resources required for animal farming.

Various polls have reported vegans to be between 0.2% and 1.3% of the U.S. population, and around 0.25% of the UK population.

Vegan diets (sometimes called strict or pure vegetarian diets) are a subset of vegetarian diets, which are credited with lowering the risk of colon cancer, heart attack, high blood cholesterol, high blood pressure, prostate cancer, and stroke. Properly planned vegan diets are healthful and have been found to satisfy nutritional needs. However, poorly planned vegan diets can be low in levels of calcium, iodine, vitamin B and vitamin D. Vegans are therefore encouraged to plan their diet and take dietary supplements as appropriate.

Definition

The word vegan, , or /ˈvɛdʒən/, was originally derived from "vegetarian" in 1944 when Elsie Shrigley and Donald Watson, frustrated that the term "vegetarianism" had come to include the eating of dairy products, founded the UK Vegan Society. They combined the first three and last two letters of vegetarian to form "vegan," which they saw as "the beginning and end of vegetarian." The Vegan Society defines veganism in this way: Other vegan societies use similar definitions.

Demographics

United States

A 2002 Time/CNN poll found that 4% of American adults consider themselves vegetarians, and 5% of self-described vegetarians consider themselves vegans, which implies that 0.2% of American adults are vegans. A 2006 poll conducted by Harris Interactive in the US listed specific foods and asked respondents to indicate which items they never eat, rather than asking respondents to self-identify. The survey found that of the 1,000 adults polled, 1.4% never eat meat, poultry, fish, seafood, dairy products, or eggs and were therefore essentially vegan in their eating habits. The survey also found that about 1.4% of men and 1.3% of women have vegan diets.

Europe

Various polls and research conducted during the 1990s put the percentage of Swedish residents being vegan at between 0.27% and 1.6% of the entire population. A study of the eating patterns of 2,538 Swedish children of ages 4, 8 and 11 by the Swedish National Food Administration found that about 1% of the children were vegetarian, less than 1% were lacto-vegetarians, but found no children to be vegans. The website VeganWelt estimates there to be between 250,000 and 460,500 vegans in Germany, or between 0.3% and 0.5% of the German population. The Netherlands Association for Veganism estimates there to be approximately 16,000 vegans in the Netherlands, or around 0.1% of the Dutch population.

Animal products

Animal products are ingredients in many products and are used in the production of many more products, although not always present in the final form. Many products use obscure names on their ingredient list, including non-animal sources. Non-food products are not required to provide ingredients on their labels. Although some vegans attempt to avoid all these ingredients, Vegan Outreach argues that "it can be prohibitively expensive and time-consuming to shun every minor or hidden animal-derived ingredient," and therefore that doing what is "best for preventing suffering" is more important than identifying and excluding every animal ingredient.

Although honey and silk are by definition animal products, some vegans consider their use and the use of other insect products to be acceptable. However, inclusion of honey and silk are contrary to the definition of veganism given by the Vegan Society.

Ethical concerns

Vegan organizations maintain that animals have certain rights, and as such it is not ethical for humans to use animals in ways that infringe those rights. Practices seen as cruel to animals include factory farming, animal testing, and displaying animals for entertainment in circuses, rodeos, and zoos.

Philosopher Tom Regan argues that animals are entities which possess "inherent value" and therefore have "basic moral rights," and that the principal moral right they possess is "the right to respectful treatment." Regan additionally argues that animals have a "basic moral right not to be harmed," which can be overridden only when the individual's right to be harmed is "morally outweighed" by "other valid moral principles." From this "rights view," Regan argues that "animal agriculture, as we know it, is unjust" even when animals are raised "humanely." Regan argues against various justifications for eating meat including that "animal flesh is tasty," that it is "habit" for "individuals and as a culture", that it is "convenient," that "meat is nutritious," that there is an obligation the economic interests of farmers or to the economic interests of a country, or that "farm animals are legal property," and finds that all fail to treat animals with the respect due to them by their basic rights. Regan therefore argues that "those who support current animal agriculture by purchasing meat have a moral obligation to stop doing so" and that "the individual has a duty to lead a vegetarian way of life."

Legal theorist Gary L. Francione argues that animals are sentient, and that this is sufficient to grant them moral consideration. Francione argues that "all sentient beings should have at least one right—the right not to be treated as property" and that there is "no moral justification for using nonhumans for our purposes." Francione further argues that adopting veganism should be regarded as the "baseline" action taken by people concerned with animal rights.

Utilitarian philosopher Peter Singer argues that there is "no moral justification" for refusing to take sentient animal suffering into consideration in ethical decisions. Singer argues that an animal's interests warrant equal consideration with the interests of humans, and that not doing so is "speciesist." Based upon his evaluation of these interests, Singer argues that "our use of animals for food becomes questionable—especially when animal flesh is a luxury rather than a necessity." Singer does not contend that killing animals is always wrong, but that from a practical standpoint it is "better to reject altogether the killing of animals for food, unless one must do so to survive." Singer therefore advocates both veganism and improved conditions for farm animals as practical means to reduce animal suffering.

Steven Davis, a professor of animal science at Oregon State University, argues that following Tom Regan's "least harm principle" may not necessarily require the adoption of a vegan diet. Davis suggests that there are non-vegetarian diets which "may kill fewer animals" than are killed in the intensive crop production necessary to support vegetarian diets. In particular, Davis argues that adopting a diet based upon "forage-ruminant-based agriculture" in the United States would kill an estimated 380-450 million fewer animals annually than a vegan diet and therefore that "humans may be morally obligated to consume a diet from plant-based plus pasture-forage-ruminant systems.

Gaverick Matheny, a Ph.D. candidate in agricultural economics at the University of Maryland, counters that Davis' reasoning contains several major flaws, including miscalculating the number of animal deaths based on land area rather than per consumer, and incorrectly equating "the harm done to animals […] to the number of animals killed." Matheny notes that Davis' proposal is "a world apart" from agriculture "prevalent in the United States" which would "greatly improve the lives of farmed animals," but argues that per-consumer, a vegan diet would kill fewer wild animals than a diet adhering to Davis' model, and that vegetarianism "involves better treatment of animals, and likely allows a greater number of animals with lives worth living to exist."

Health

Benefits

Some scientists believe that some diets (such as the standard American diet) are detrimental to health, and they believe that a vegan diet represents an improvement, in part because vegan diets are often high enough in fruit and vegetables to meet or exceed the recommended fruit and vegetable intakes.

Benefits of vegetarian diets might be valid also for strict vegan diets: according to the American Dietetic Association and Dietitians of Canada, diets that avoid meat tend to have lower levels of saturated fat, cholesterol, and animal protein, and higher levels of carbohydrates, fiber, magnesium, potassium, folate, and antioxidants, such as vitamins C and E, and phytochemicals. People who avoid meat are reported to have lower body mass index than those following the average Canadian diet; from this follows lower death rates from ischemic heart disease; lower blood cholesterol levels; lower blood pressure; and lower rates of hypertension, type 2 diabetes, and prostate and colon cancer.

A 1999 meta-study of five studies comparing vegetarian and non-vegetarian mortality rates in western countries found equivalent mortality rates for vegans and those who eat meat regularly. The study also found equivalent and lower mortality rates for vegetarians and those who eat meat infrequently. A 2003 study of British vegetarians, including vegans, found similar mortality rates between vegetarians and other groups.

A 2006 study found that in people with type 2 diabetes a low-fat vegan diet reduced weight, BMI, total cholesterol, and LDL cholesterol and did so to a greater extent than the diet prescribed by the American Diabetes Association.

Vegans are less likely to die by choking on food since the most common food to obstruct the airway is fish which caused about 4,500 accidents a year in the UK as of 1998. Meat, poultry and bones are the next three most common causes of choking, followed by sweets and non-food objects. A 2007 report from San Diego in the US confirms that the most common cause of choking was on meat products.

Precautions

Specific nutrients

Vitamin B₁₂

The Vegan Society and Vegan Outreach, and others, recommend that vegans either consistently eat foods fortified with B or take a B supplement. Tempeh, seaweed, spirulina, organic produce, soil on unwashed vegetables, and intestinal bacteria have not been shown to be reliable sources of B for the dietary needs of vegans.

Calcium & Vitamin D

The authors of The China Study argue that osteoporosis is linked to the consumption of animal protein because animal protein, unlike plant protein, increases the acidity of blood and tissues which is then neutralized by calcium pulled from the bones. The authors add that "in our rural China Study, where the animal to plant ratio [for protein] was about 10%, the fracture rate is only one-fifth that of the U.S."

For light skinned people, adequate amounts of vitamin D may also be obtained by spending 15 to 30 minutes in the sunlight every few days. Dark skinned people need significantly more sunlight to obtain the same amount of vitamin D, and sunlight exposure may be difficult for vegans in areas with low levels of sunlight during winter; in these cases supplementation is recommended. Certain mushrooms and some Vitamin D2-fortified foods (where the Vitamin D2 is derived from yeast) are the only food sources of Vitamin D suitable for vegans.

Iodine

Iodine supplementation may be necessary for vegans in countries where salt is not typically iodized, where it is iodized at low levels, or where, as in Britain or Ireland, animal products are used for iodine delivery. Iodine can be obtained from most vegan multivitamins or from regular consumption of kelp.

Pregnancies and children

Several cases of severe infant malnutrition and some fatalities have been associated with a poorly planned vegan diet, and provoked criticism of vegan diets for children. Parents involved in these cases were convicted on charges ranging from assault to felony murder. Addressing criticism of veganism, Dr. Amy Lanou, an expert witness for the prosecution in one of the cases, asserted that the child "was not killed by a vegan diet" but that "the real problem was that he was not given enough food of any sort. According to Nigel Denby, a dietician and author, it is easy for the body to absorb iron from animal based sources making a vegan diet for small children more difficult.

Eating disorders

Resources and the environment

People who adopt veganism for environmental reasons do so on the basis that veganism consumes far fewer resources and causes less environmental damage than an animal-based diet. Animal agriculture is linked to climate change, water pollution, land degradation, and a decline in biodiversity. Additionally, an animal-based diet uses more land, water, and energy than a vegan diet.

The Livestock, Environment And Development Initiative, a joint effort of the World Bank, The European Union, The US Agency for International Development, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization and others, released a report in November 2006 linking animal agriculture to environmental damage. The report, Livestock's Long Shadow concludes that the livestock sector (primarily cows, chickens, and pigs) emerges as one of the top two or three most significant contributors to our most serious environmental problems, at every scale from local to global. It is one of the largest sources of greenhouse gases - responsible for 18% of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions as measured in CO₂ equivalents. In comparison, the proportion of total CO₂ emissions by passenger vehicles is 12% of the total CO₂. It produces 65% of human-related nitrous oxide (which has 296 times the global warming potential of CO₂) and 37% of all human-induced methane (which is 23 times as warming as CO₂). Those numbers are confirmed in a 2007 article in the British medical journal The Lancet, which concludes that reducing consumption of animal products should be a top priority, especially in developed countries where such a measure would also entail substantial health benefits.

In the developing world, notably Asia and Africa, fossil fuels are seldom used to transport feed for farm animals. Sheep or goats, for example, require no fuel, since they graze on farmlands, while bales of hay for bovines are still transported mainly using bullock carts or similar devices. Few of the meat processing techniques that occur in developed countries takes place in the majority of developing countries. Animals are also often herded to the place of slaughter (with the exception of poultry) resulting in a very low use of fossil fuels. In fact farm animals in developing world are used for multiple purposes from providing draught power, to transportation while also serving as meat once it reaches the end of its economic life.

A 2006 study by Gidon Eshel and Pamela Martin, assistant professors of geophysics at the University of Chicago, found that a person switching from the average American diet to a vegan diet would reduce CO₂ emissions by 1,485 kg per year.

The International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis argues that while most meat production in industrialized countries uses inefficient grain feeding methods through intensive farming, meat production is not invariably a poor use of land, especially in countries like China and Brazil. Since a proportion of all grain crops produced are not suitable for human consumption, they can be fed to animals to turn into meat, thus improving efficiency. Further, greenhouse gas emissions are not limited to animal husbandry; but also to several plant based sources such as rice cultivation.

A 2007 study which simulated various diets' land use for the geography of New York State concluded that although vegetarian diets used the smallest amount of land per capita, a diet which included some meat and dairy—though significantly less than consumed by the average American—could support more people on the same available land, since animal food crops can be grown on lower quality land than crops for human consumption.

Similar diets and lifestyles

Diets such as raw veganism and fruitarianism are related to veganism, but have significant differences from standard veganism. There are also numerous religious groups that regularly or occasionally practice a similar diet, including adherents to some Buddhist traditions, Eastern Orthodox Christians, Jains, Hindus, Sikhism, Rastafarians, and Seventh-day Adventists.

Cuisine

Also see the Cookbook articles on Cookbook:Vegan cuisine and Cookbook:Vegan Substitutions and its listing of Category:Vegan recipes.

See also

• Farm Sanctuary
• List of vegans
• Raw veganism
• Vegan Prisoners Support Group (VPSG)

References

External links

• The Vegan Society (UK)
• American Vegan Society
• Vegan Society of Australia
• Vegans in South Africa (V.I.S.A.)General
• Vegan Outreach, creators of the popular "Why Vegan?" pamphlet
• Vegan Action, administrators of vegan product certification in the US and Canada
• I Can't Believe It's Vegan!, a list of vegan commercial food productsHealth/Nutrition
• American Dietetic Association position on vegetarian diet
• American Dietetic Association: A new food guide for North American vegetarians
• Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine
• Vegan Health, a project of Vegan Outreach
• Vegan nutrition, from the Vegan Society
• The Vegetarian and Vegan FoundationEthical
• Movement for Compassionate Living
• People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA)