Finding The Values Behind Your Veganism To Make It Stronger

Veganism is spreading, and it’s affecting more than just what we eat. We’re getting vegan clothes, vegan accessories, vegan furniture, and much more. The basic premise is always the same: avoiding the use of animal products as best as possible. However, the root cause of why people turn to veganism can differ from person to person. 

Having a strong ideological framework or belief at the core of your veganism can help you better understand your motivations. What’s more, it can make it easier to remind yourself of why you put in the effort in the first place, which can make that effort a little easier to put in.

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To reduce the suffering of animals

The notion of animals suffering, as is prevalent under the factory farming that produces most of the animal food products that we see on store shelves, is often the first step for a person to become a vegetarian and then vegan. Looking into the impacts of factory farming on animals can be harrowing, but it is often important to get a full understanding of the extent of suffering that the modern non-vegan diet allows for.

The animal right to life

Preventing unnecessary suffering is one thing, but some will argue that we can simply mitigate this by gaining animal products without the need for undue cruelty. However, at the base of this point comes the question of whether you believe animals have a right to life, as many do. Essentially, this dictates that humans don’t have the ethical justification to end animal life when we’re able to feed ourselves and live healthy lives without having to do it and that, simply put, most animals are killed or otherwise exploited out of convenience because it’s one of the easier ways we know how to produce food.

The faith-based reasons

There are plenty of faiths, such as Hinduism, which avoid the consumption of meat in general, for instance. However, while there is plenty of reference to eating meat in the Bible, there is still a good Christian basis for going vegan as well, as you can discover as you learn about Christianity. There are many who believe that all living things existing in the universe are loved and cared for by God and that, in the current production methods that we get animal products from, the kind of cruelty tolerated simply isn’t consistent with that belief.

To better preserve our environment

If you research more about the agricultural industry, you will start to realize that going green can help the environment in a wide variety of ways. The CO2 produced in animal farming can be catastrophic and, indeed, while there are transportation and storage issues faced by producing a wide supply of vegan foods, these are issues that technology and better infrastructure can solve by ensuring that more local land is used for the production of food, rather than relying on global and cross-nation supply chains that already exist to import and export animal products and more wasteful.

To improve your own health

There’s no denying that a balanced vegan diet takes some work. However, there are vegan replacements for all of the nutrients abundant in meat, including the easily-absorbed proteins found within. That said, eating meat might offer some easier access to these nutrients, but they also offer higher blood pressure, higher rates of diabetes, heart disease, and even some forms of cancer. When you learn about going vegan, you also typically learn the nutrition needed to manage a healthy vegan diet and end up becoming a healthier person at the end as a result. What’s more, you will be more likely to use your own organic foods, which cuts out much of the uncertainty of the food manufacturing process.

To find more sustainable ways of feeding everyone

Veganism might be more than just potentially the way to help reverse the ongoing climate crisis fueled by the human use of fossil fuels. It might also be able to help more sustainably feed communities and families, including those who are in the direst need of it. If you took the land necessary to produce the meat and dairy to feed a family, you could use it to grow enough crops to feed three families. Despite the fact that plant foods require water, animals require a lot more water and resources to grow and harvest, so it offers no advantages.

Living a vegan lifestyle always takes some work. However, by understanding the ideological basis for your actions, you can be more consistent and committed to them. Perhaps none of the frameworks above applies to you, it’s still worth taking the time to find your own.