Veganism facts for kids

Some vegan foods

Veganism is a philosophy that says people should not use animals. There are vegans who choose not to eat animals, and vegans who choose not to use them in any other way either.

Vegans avoid food that comes from animals, including meat, eggs and dairy products (like milk, cheese, and yogurt). A vegan diet is sometimes called a strict vegetarian diet. Some vegans also do not eat honey. Many vegans try not to use any other animal products, such as leather, wool, feathers, bone, or pearl. They also try to avoid buying and using products that have been tested on animals. They may believe in animal welfare and animal rights, and may campaign for these causes.

Vegans eat fruits, vegetables, beans, grains, nuts, and seeds, and types of food made from them like vegan sweets, vegan cheese and vegan cakes.

Three types of lentil

Donald Watson made the word vegan in 1944.

Why are people vegan?

Some people become vegan because they disagree with the treatment of animals in the modern animal farm industry. Other reasons to become vegan are for health, religious reasons, to protect the environment, or because of world hunger. Animals eat a lot and take up a lot of resources. By not producing meat, milk, or eggs, a lot of food, land (as of 2006, 30% of the earth's land mass is used raising animals for food) and water can be saved. For instance, it takes about 16 pounds of grain to make 1 pound of grain-fed meat, so eating plants directly takes fewer resources. There is also the issue of antibiotic use in the industry. Animals are given antibiotics to such an extend that the risk of bacteria becoming resistant to antibiotics is very possible in the near future.

Some vegans only eat foods that have not been cooked. Their diet is called raw veganism.

Another more restrictive type of veganism is fruitarianism. Fruitarians only eat foods that can be harvested without harming or killing a plant.

Need for vitamin B12

Vegans must make sure their diet includes an adequate supply of vitamin B₁₂, because it does not occur reliably in plant foods. Tempeh, seaweed, spirulina, organic produce, soil, and intestinal bacteria have not been shown to be reliable sources of B₁₂ for the dietary needs of vegans. Vitamin D deficiency is possible in the absence of dairy products (which are normally fortified with vitamin D). It can be prevented by supplements, and time spent outdoors.

Health

Many people think that it is not healthy to be vegan. However, a vegan diet can have all of the nutrients needed for health. It is just more difficult to get the nutrients because there are fewer foods to choose from.

Philosophy

Ethical veganism

Ethical veganism is a philosophy and way of living that seeks to exclude, as far as possible and practicable, all forms of exploitation of animals for food, clothing or any other purpose. Ethical vegans avoid the use and consumption of all animal-based products in an effort to reduce the suffering of animals and cruelty towards them. They see veganism as the abolition of the exploitation of animals by man.

Vegan social psychologist Melanie Joy described the ideology in which people support the use and consumption of animal products as carnism, as a sort of opposite to veganism. Many ethical vegans and vegan organizations cite the poor working conditions of slaughterhouse workers as a reason to reject animal products.

Dietary veganism

Some people only follow the diet that fits to a vegan way of living. Dietary vegans do not consume products derived wholly or partly from animals. Some authors, like Richard Twine and Breeze Harper? argue that this can not be described as veganism, as veganism is more than the diet.

Environmental veganism

The amount of globally needed agricultural land would be reduced by three-quarters if the entire population adopted a vegan diet.

Environmental vegans focus on conservation, rejecting the use of animal products on the premise where fishing, hunting, trapping and farming, particularly factory farming, are environmentally unsustainable.

Possible positive effects of veganism on the environment

According to a 2006 United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization report, Livestock's Long Shadow, around 26% of the planet's ground surface is devoted to livestock grazing. The UN report also concluded that livestock farming (mostly of cows, chickens and pigs) affects the air, land, soil, water, biodiversity and climate change. Livestock consumed 1,174 million tonnes of food in 2002—including 7.6 million tonnes of fishmeal and 670 million tonnes of cereals, one-third of the global cereal harvest. Paul Watson of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society called pigs and chicken "major aquatic predators", because livestock eat 40 percent of the fish that are caught.

A 2010 UN report, Assessing the Environmental Impacts of Consumption and Production, argued that animal products "in general require more resources and cause higher emissions than plant-based alternatives". It proposed a move away from animal products to reduce environmental damage.

Reduction of one's carbon footprint for various actions. A plant-based diet in this study referred to a lacto-ovo vegetarian diet. Vegan diets are known to have lower carbon footprints.

A 2015 study determined that significant biodiversity loss can be attributed to the growing demand for meat, which is a significant driver of deforestation and habitat destruction, with species-rich habitats being converted to agriculture for livestock production. In November 2017, 15,364 world scientists signed a warning to humanity calling for, among other things, "promoting dietary shifts towards mostly plant-based foods".

A 2018 study found that global adoption of plant-based diets would reduce agricultural land use by 76% (3.1 billion hectares, an area the size of Africa) and cut total global greenhouse gas emissions by 28%. The authors conclude that avoiding meat and diary is the "single biggest way" to reduce one's impact on Earth.

The 2019 IPBES Global Assessment Report on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services found that industrial agriculture and overfishing are the primary drivers of the extinction crisis, with the meat and dairy industries having a substantial impact. On 8 August 2019, the IPCC released a summary of the 2019 special report which asserted that a shift towards plant-based diets would help to mitigate and adapt to climate change.

A 2022 study found that for high-income nations alone 100 billion tons of carbon dioxide could be removed from the air by the end of the century through a shift to plant-based diets and re-wilding of farmland. The researchers coined the term double climate dividend to describe the effect that re-wilding after a diet shift can have. However, the researchers note that "We don't have to be purist about this, even just cutting animal intake would be helpful."

Demographics

In the United States, 1 out of 10 Americans over the age of 18 consider themselves vegan or vegetarian.

In the below chart, polls with larger sample sizes are preferred over those with smaller sample size.

Vegan rights

In some countries, vegans have some rights to meals and legal protections against discrimination.

• The German police sometimes provides on-duty staff with food. After not being provided a vegan option in this context, a vegan employee has been granted an additional food allowance.
• In Portugal, starting in 2017, public administration canteens and cafeterias such as schools, prisons and social services must offer at least one vegan option at every meal.
• In Ontario, a province of Canada, there were reports that ethical veganism became protected under the Ontario Human Rights Code, following a 2015 update to legal guidance by the Ontario Human Rights Commission. However, said body later issued a statement that this question is for a judge or tribunal to decide on a case-by-case basis.
• In the United Kingdom, an employment tribunal ruled in 2020 that the Equality Act 2010 protects "ethical veganism", a belief it defined as veganism that extends beyond diet to all areas of life and is motivated by a concern for animals.

Symbols

Vegan graffiti showing an enclosed V in Lisbon, Portugal

Multiple symbols have been developed to represent veganism. Several are used on consumer packaging, including the Vegan Society trademark and the Vegan Action logo, to indicate products without animal-derived ingredients. Various symbols may also be used by members of the vegan community to represent their identity and in the course of animal rights activism, such as a vegan flag.

Related pages

• Vegetarianism

• Vegan Wikia

Images for kids

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  Fruitlands, a short-lived vegan community established in 1844 by Amos Bronson Alcott in Harvard, Massachusetts.

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  Barbara Moore attended the first meeting of the Vegan Society as an observer.

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  Veganz in Berlin, Europe's first vegan supermarket

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  Giuseppe Arcimboldo, Vertumno (1590, Milan, Italy). Now in Håbo, Sweden

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  Vegan soap made from olive oil; soap is usually made from tallow (animal fat).

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  Warm tofu (soybean curd) with garlic sauce

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  Tofu can be used as an egg replacement

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  Rice and beans is a common vegan protein combination.

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  Tahini miso soup with brown rice, turnips, squash, radishes and nori (an edible seaweed). Nori has been cited as a plant source of B12, but the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics established in 2016 that is not an adequate source of this vitamin. Vegans need to consume regularly fortified foods or supplements containing B12.

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  Vegan cheeses

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  Oatmeal with blueberries, toasted almonds and almond milk; one packet of instant oatmeal contains 8.2 mg (1/8gr) of iron.

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  Vegan products in a supermarket (Oceanside, California, 2014)

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  Pigs, as well as chicken and cattle, often have their movement restricted

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  Paul Watson, founder of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society

See also

In Spanish: Veganismo para niños