hansel and gretel
floey | 19 | infp | vegan since 12/10/2015 | i'm mchalenski trash and allison's daughter.
watching: carmilla, fresh off the boat, girl meets world. maybe kc undercover. don't judge pls.
reading: mchalenski fanfiction, the tao of pooh, the raven boys, catcher in the rye
currently obsessed with: scisaac
waiting for: SUPER GIRL!!!
Repeat after me:
- Veganism is not affordable
- Veganism is not cruelty free
- Veganism is not the best choice for everyoneRepeat after me
-I’m an idiot and wrong.
-Veganism can be made affordable.
-Veganism is fucking cruelty free. That’s what it’s all about.
- Veganism is the best choice for everyone, if everyone did it.
-I’m a fucking asshole for making this completely wrong text post and should shut the hell up now.Exploiting undocumented immigrants, and other workers is cruelty free?
Nearly 500,000 children as young as six harvest 25 percent of US crops.But I guess brown people don’t fucking matter.
People are literally starving in South America because all the Quinoa crop is being exported mainly for white vegans who want to live “cruelty-free” but don’t care about brown people as much as they do about animals.
plus, 4 of the 8 most common food allergies (soy, wheat, peanuts, and tree nuts) are common vegan substitutes.
o shit
i would literally starve to death if i couldn’t eat cheese or meats because my body cannot process nuts as they are too rough on my intestines and cause inflammation
Veganism is incredibly expensive depending on where you live, mostly if there are no local farms near you. Plant food prices skyrocket, and food deserts exist.
Veganism is not even close to cruelty free. You cannot be cruelty free in this country (USA) unless you 100% grow your own food because we use slave labor to pick it. Plus this doesn’t factor in all the harm being caused by the transport of your food, by the truck that carried it around.
Veganism is not the best choice for everyone, because some people cannot survive off of a plant based diet. I had tried for a good while, and my chronic illnesses spiked from it. Plus the constant monitoring to make sure I was receiving adequate nutrients triggered my ED to hell and back.
Veganism is a great way to start lowering your negative effect on the planet, but that is all it is, a starting place. Your work is not done just because you became vegan and you do not get to throw stones at others because you still live in a glass house.
Furthermore - it is absolutely possible to lower your footprint while still consuming animal products - you just have to be selective about what kinds and where they are sourced from. I have a permaculture based garden planned out for when we get land that actually has a smaller footprint than the typical vegan who buys everything at a store does.^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Actually, none of us can survive on a plant-based diet. We cannot manufacture B12, and the so-called “plant-based” sources of B12, it turns out, don’t produce it in a form we can digest.
B12 is found in all animal products.
Additionally, although humans can manufacture taurine (only found in meat), not all of us can manufacture enough taurine. This is why some people get sick when they go vegetarian.
To survive on a vegan diet you need to artificially supplement B12 and possibly taurine. Period.
A diet that requires artificial supplementation is, by definition, unhealthy. And while the cost of vegan B12 supplements is low, when you’re already paying more for your food… Taurine supplementation, if you happen to be one of the people who needs it, is another added expense and hassle. A few vegans have also found it necessary to supplement carnitine, which is considerably more expensive. Oh, and most vegans don’t get enough calcium and end up with bone problems. Many are also Vitamin D deficient, especially if living at high latitudes, if dark skinned, or if religiously using sunscreen. And Vitamin D2 (plant derived) is not as easily absorbed as D3 (which ONLY comes from animals), so you need even more of it.
Then there’s protein.
I personally cannot properly digest nuts. I react the way lactose intolerant people do to milk if I consume pistachios, walnuts, or pecans. Almonds are actively toxic to me. Hazelnuts mess with my brain.
Because I am on thyroid medication, I am not supposed to consume large quantities of soy, as it can make my thyroid worse, throwing off my dosage. I can have some, but I cannot use it as a major protein source. This is also true for trans men (the phytoestrogens intefere with testosterone therapy), cis men with low testosterone (same reason) and women with a family history of breast cancer (elevates risk). Excessive soy consumption has also been linked to early puberty in girls (Again, phytoestrogens) and reproductive/sexual problems in both sexes. Eating a bit of soy is fine, but tofu should not be used as a meat substitute except for the occasional meal.
This limits my access to non-animal proteins to beans and grains. If I was gluten intolerant as well (I’m not, but it’s in my family), it would be a real problem. The only dairy substitute available to me is rice milk (and rice causes many of the same problems environmentally as raising beef).
Oh, but it’s better for the environment, right?
Nope.
In addition to the already-mentioned quinoa, we’re cutting down rain forest in Mexico to grow avocados. Rice production is almost as bad for the environment as factory-based beef production for similar reasons. Also, plant-based foods, esp. fruit and fresh vegetables, are more likely to end up being wasted.
Studies indicate that if we all gave up meat tomorrow, all 7 billion of us gave up animal products forever, the good side would be the reduction in antibiotic use and greenhouse gas emissions.
How about the bad side?
1.3 billion people would lose their jobs overnight. 1.3 billion. 987 of them are poor.
Another thing that Ban Eating Meat Tomorrow types forget is that veganism is not necessarily the most effective use of farmland.
Uh, what?
The statement that if everyone switched to a vegan diet we would need a fraction of our current farmland assumes all farmland is created equal.
It simply is not.
I suspect that a lot of this perspective either comes from city dwellers who have no clue about farming or from people in the US breadbasket where there is a lot of high quality farmland suitable for raising food for humans.
The last global census in 2008 said that at that time, if all 6 billion people went vegan, it would need 3,068,444,911 acres of arable land. At the time there was about 3,212,369,959 acres of arable land: That is to say land suitable for raising crops humans can eat.
However, we’re building on, or otherwise destroying, arable land at the rate of about 1% a year and the population has grown.
We literally do not have enough arable land to feed everyone a plant-based diet.
And there are parts of the world that have a worse proportion of arable land to land only suitable for pasture than the US. Scotland comes immediately to mind. People in these places would have to import most of their food. I’m not sure Iceland could survive without eating fish.
If we all gave up eating meat tomorrow many of us would starve. I’m not exaggerating or being alarmist.
I’m also not criticizing people who choose not to eat animal products (just please make sure you get the required nutrients).
I am criticizing the “I don’t eat animal products and nobody else should either” crowd. Because it’s not that simple.
Also, bluntly, vitamin B12 deficiency can cause mood disturbances and paranoia…
But again, if you have to consume artificial supplements for whatever reason (unless it’s a personal absorption issue) your diet is not healthy.
Sorry, it’s just not.
Reblogging again for added info
DOODS, JUST…READ THIS STUFF. SO MUCH INFORMATION OMFG I LOVE IT. THANK YOU BTW NOW I DON’T FEEL BAD FOR NOT BEING VEGAN XDD
@jenniferrpovey@ubifidesibiamor@jaynefray@hey-wanna-be-friends Alright my friends, Imma break this down step by step because I don’t have a lot of time here, and so I’m gonna be pretty blunt with it.
(TL:DR, everything that was said in the comment that people are praising here can be refuted with research)
ALSO I’m on mobile so I apologise for long sources.
B12: B12 is not an animal product, nor is it produced by animals. B12 is produced by fungi, and so is naturally found in soil and water supplies, humans used to be able to obtain their full cobalamin (B12) intake from just a few drops of freshwater!
However, due to water refinement and soil nutrient scarcity due to overfarming, it’s no longer available in these sources, this is why it’s necessary to supplement on a vegan diet these days.
HOWEVER, what needs to be remembered is that the majority of nutrients which come from animals came from plants first, and so it is for this reason that the majority of the animals you eat have also been supplemented with B12, the same way that some vegan foods have! B12 deficiency is actually a common problem in a large percentage of the general population, not just vegans.
And I know that I personally, would much rather drink clean water and just supplement B12 than get my B12 intake from dirty water sources.
DIETS WHICH REQUIRE SUPPLEMENTATION ARE UNHEALTHY:
This is the CDC’s list of the most frequent killers in western society. http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/deaths.htm
And this is a list of points and sources of why almost every threat on that list can be reduced with a plant based diet:
Heart disease: http://ajcn.nutrition.org/content/70/3/516s.full.pdf ‘Vegans have 28% reduced risk of ischemic heart disease’
Cancer:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3249408/pdf/kwr289.pdf Milk drinking during adolescence is associated with a 302% increase in prostate cancer risk
http://www.pcrm.org/health/health-topics/foods-for-cancer-prevention ‘Vegetarians have half the cancer risk’
Lower respiratory diseases: http://www.pcrm.org/health/medNews/cruciferous-compound-may-prevent-respiratory Researchers found that those with the highest intake of cruciferous vegetables had 3x the number of antioxidants in the upper airway cells
Stroke: http://www.pcrm.org/health/medNews/meat-and-eggs-increase-risk-for-stroke ‘The highest intake of red and processed meat were associated with an increased risk of stroke by 41 and 24 percent’
Alzheimer’s: https://youtu.be/390qtST0SIA This video explains the Alzheimer’s side of things better than I can ✌️
Diabetes: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/22983636/ ‘Confirms a link between high consumption of total and red meat and incidence of type 2 diabetes’
PROTEIN: okay, so for you, soy and nuts are off limits. However the likelihood for all vegan protein sources being off limits for someone? I.e. Beans, nuts, lentils, other legumes, veg, fruit, seeds, grains. Not very likely.
Not impossible! And to those people, it’s understandable that a vegan diet is not the best option, however to you, and the vast majority of people, protein on a vegan diet is absolutely obtainable.
VEGANISM ISNT THE MOST SUSTAINABLE: You’re referring to the nova study, right? I’ve made a post on this in the past that I’m just gonna copy in here.
‘Alright. This study has been debunked by quite a few people, but Imma just highlight how.
The main point to note, is that this study is massively stacked against vegans, in the way that it literally excludes some vegan foods. The study talks about grazing lands, and perennial crop lands being out of use to vegans, because only grain and the likes can be grown in perennial land, and obviously we use grazing land.
Let me repeat that first part though. GRAIN and the likes.
Human’s can’t eat grain? Human’s can and do eat grain constantly, including wheat, rye etc, (not good for coeliac sufferers, but food for everyone else). This eliminates 39 million hectares of land from vegan use, which, had we been assigned this land (which we rightfully should have been), veganism would have come out significantly on top in terms of land use.
HOWEVER, according to the study, one aspect of grazing land includes forest woodland. You can’t make food from forests? Fruits, nuts, berries, greens, mushrooms, this further refutes the credibility of the study findings, obviously.
The next point to note is that in the study, the amount of arable land in the US is 95 million hectares (arable land being land which can be used to grow food which can be fed to humans) However this is the epitome of a low-ball, the world bank estimates that arable land in the US reaches as high as 155 million, which puts veganism miles above any other group to start with, but then if you add the perennial crop land which wasn’t included for a vegan diet, you end up with 195 million hectares. Bearing in mind that the current vegan figure in the study is 95 million hectares, you can see that this is a significant increase.
This study also takes a figure from the current amount of arable land, and not the potential arable land, in reality, the amount of land we could potentially use to cultivate food for humans is much higher than the arable land figure used in the study.
The study also found that at a certain human population, all diets levelled out except veganism, because obviously with all other diets, you’re actually using massive amounts more food and land to feed animals. This can’t go on indefinitely, which is why some studies have found that an omnivorous world wont be able to sustain the human population by 2050. One more point to note is that in the study, the caloric breakdown of different diets was extremely biased against vegans. Grains, which can be used to grow 15 million calories per acre, accounted for less than 20% of land, whereas nuts and pulses accounted for 25% of land usage, which can be used to grow 2-3 million calories per acre. This is a horrible use of crop land and is extremely disadvantaging to vegans, this alone could have shifted the tides of the study.
ON TOP OF ALL OF THIS, this article accounts for LAND USE ALONE, and ignores the fact that animal agriculture is the leading cause of climate change in terms of greenhouse gas emissions, deforestation, droughts, species extinction, ocean deadzones, the list goes on. http://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms11382http://www.pnas.org/content/113/15/4146.full.pdfhttp://dialogues.cgiar.org/blog/millets-sorghum-climate-smart-grains-warmer-world/https://www.nrcs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_DOCUMENTS/stelprdb1167384.pdfhttp://www.tradingeconomics.com/united-states/arable-land-percent-of-land-area-wb-data.html http://faostat.fao.org/beta/en/
http://www.cowspiracy.com/facts/ (Some cowspiracy facts are over exaggerated however the rankings of animal agriculture’s global damage remain true regardless)’
ENVIRONMENT: *Here’s a report from the UN asking everyone outright to drop animal products because of their long list of environmental repercussions
http://www.unep.org/resourcepanel/Portals/24102/PDFs/PriorityProductsAndMaterials_Report.pdf
*Because we currently feed more plants to animals than to humans
*And animals take in SIGNIFICANTLY more than they put out, it’s because the process of converting plant based-animal based calories is so inefficient, that we have a world hunger crisis, the world could currently feed 4 billion more people if everyone dropped animal products.
http://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/8/3/034015/meta
*Because 2/3rds of American produce goes to animals, and America alone could feed 1 billion people on plant based diets, but because so many Americans currently eat animal products, it’s necessary to import food from less developed countries, leaving those countries without enough food to feed their population.
*Because animal agriculture is the main force in habitat destruction and species extinction.
https://comfortablyunaware.wordpress.com/2012/06/09/biodiversity-and-food-choice-a-clarification/
*“What the Climate Action Plan fails to tell us is that livestock is responsible for 65% of all human-related emissions of N20, which has 296 times the global warming potential of carbon dioxide.”
“Climate change. Ocean dead zones. Fisheries depletion. Species extinction. Deforestation. World hunger. Food safety. Heart disease. Obesity. Diabetes. The list goes on. There is one issue at the heart of all these global problems that is too often overlooked by private individuals and policy makers alike—our demand for and reliance on animal products. ”
*Because animal agriculture is responsible for 18% of all human related greenhouse gas emissions, 5% more than all transport combined.
http://www.fao.org/docrep/010/a0701e/a0701e00.HTM
*Because emissions from livestock are predicted to increase by 80% by 2050, meaning that the earth will actually have no chance of survival whatsoever if we don’t curve it soon.
*Because livestock is the driving factor behind the earth’s surface being 1/3rd desertified
http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=17076#.VAodM17E8ds
*Because we could see the ocean as a total dead zone by 2048 http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2006/11/061102-seafood-threat.html
*85% of soy is used for animal feed, 2% is used for human food
http://soyatech.com/soy_facts.htm
If any of you guys see this and realise that in fact, vegans are talking quite a bit of sense and you fancy giving it a go, then message me! I’m totally willing to help with every step of your transition ✌️
This is all great and stuff but what about allergies…I’m a vegetarian and can’t go vegan because 1 expenses & 2 I’m allergic to all nuts, soy, lentils, lactose, the list goes on
That still leaves open coconut milk, oat milk, rice milk etc
And it still leaves every other kind of bean (of which there are many) pasta, fruit, veg (starchy or colourful), seeds etc, you have the whole world of foods here amigo!
It may be a little more difficult for you, granted, but it’s far from impossible 😊And even if you can’t stretch to being fully plant based, veganism is defined as doing as much as is practically available to you to reduce your harm, and so if your maximum effort still includes the odd animal product due to the unavailability of suitable plant based foods, nobody is gonna take that away from you!
You’d still count as vegan to us ✌️
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