We should strive to be more vegan. It doesn't have to be a binary yes/no thing. It's great for our earth, for all sorts of animals, and possibly for you too.

The first thing I'll say about being vegan is that you don't have to be a saint. Veganism is a sliding scale, and relatively few people sit at the extreme poles. I'm mostly vegan, with a few exceptions here and there. Here, I want to make the case that you should slide your lifestyle towards the vegan end of that scale.

For the uninitiated, veganism is about steering away from products derived from animals. It's like vegetarianism in the sense that vegans won't eat meat, but also includes animal-derived products such as cheese, milk and eggs. Outside of food (and depending on how vegan you are) it would also include leather and wool.

Why be more vegan?

I originally went vegan because the production of meat and dairy causes all sorts of stress on our planet. It's carbon intensive, uses huge amounts of water and land,^[1] and damages lakes and oceans through nitrogen and phosphorous runoff. In short, it is exacerbating the earth systems crisis we now face. The science is very clear, cutting down on animal-derived products helps a lot.^[2]

After being vegan for a few years (I started in January 2019), I came to appreciate another other reason for going vegan: a moral one. Consuming products derived from animals causes great suffering. Prior to making the switch, I'd never really considered the utterly miserable lives that most farmed animals live. Asked what I thought about eating meat, I once replied that "animals are dumb and taste nice."

Looking back, I think that the reality of how production of animal products seriously generated too much cognitive dissonance for me; I didn't want to think of myself as participating in so much violence and cruelty.^[3] It was easier to ignore it altogether. That mental 'block' dissolved after making the decision to be vegan. I found myself suddenly much more able to engage with how meat, dairy and other animal products were actually produced. It was like a way of thinking about the world, and my actions in it, was "unlocked". They say that Appetite comes when you eat, and it was only after going vegan that I begun to understand the moral argument for doing so.

With regards to both of these points, there is no requirement to be absolute. As your consumption of animal-based products drops, so will the material strain on planet earth and suffering of animals that you have indirectly caused. I believe those two reasons alone are enough to sustain a strong argument to become more vegan.

Common sticking points

Is being vegan easy? At first, probably not! There are a bunch of reasons why it can be difficult, or why people legitimately think it's not such a good idea. I'll set some of them out below, along with some thoughts on what my experience was like.

Lifestyle

I cook a lot, so going vegan basically meant that I had to re-learn a bunch of new recipes. This was lots easier because I had quite a few people in my life who were vegan at the time and could give me suggestions. It also meant that I discovered all sorts of new recipes and ingredients. It wasn't easy, but it also wasn't such a great ordeal. Now I've got a new repertoire, just cook whatever I want and whatever I make comes out vegan by default.

While many cities will almost always have vegan options available in restaurants, that's not a universal truth. Some places make it incredibly easy, such as in London where I live. Others are surprisingly vegan, like (I'm told) in Romania where many go quasi-vegan for Lent. Others do are not (ahem, France).

One unexpected benefit of being vegan is it's much easier to choose in restaurants. I'm not a fussy eater (except the whole veganism thing), so I'm usually happy to eat (and enjoy) whatever. These days, I sometimes find a full menu of options in an entirely vegan restaurant a little overbearing compared to a non-vegan restaurant where there's just one or two options. The latter case is freeing because it avoids choice paralysis.

Sometimes, people will get annoyed/irritated when they see me, a self-described vegan, eat something non-vegan.^[4] My working theory for why, is that me eating non-vegan food breaks the vegan/non-vegan binary that people have in their heads, which in turn illustrates that they too could reduce their consumption of animal products without forgoing them entirely and causes them cognitive dissonance.

Occasionally people will mention cost. Is veganism less or more expensive than non-veganism? I'm honestly not sure. I think you can live cheaply or expensively regardless of whether you eat animal products or not. Of course, animal agriculture is widely subsidised by the state, so it's expensive in that sense. Vegan cheese (the good kind) is expensive.

Health

Some objections to veganism are on health grounds. The bottom line, however, is that so long as you eat a health well balanced diet and supplement vitamin B12, you're good to go. If you don't currently have a healthy diet, going vegan is a great opportunity to make your diet more healthy! There's lots of nutrition information available on this website if you want to know more.

Personally, I've been vegan for 7 years and feel great. I have lots of energy, am physically fit, do loads of sports and do lots of academic work. I've had semi-regular blood tests done and they all came back fine. I've also never had problem putting on muscle mass when I wanted to. If I started to feel off the top of my game and it looked like diet was a factor, I'd be less vegan in a heartbeat. That said, everybody's bodies are different. Listen to yours.

Culture

Sometimes our cultures involve non-vegan stuff. In the UK, Christmas dinners come to mind. That can be tricky to navigate. A strict adherence to veganism can mean that you disappoint others, especially during holidays or family visits. It can also mean that you miss out on cultural experiences, like trying a particular national dish. My answer to this is: find a balance, don't sweat the small stuff, and when in doubt, just eat it. Culture is important, as are relationships with loved ones.

Taste

Meat, cheese, yoghurt, eggs and butter all taste nice. I agree. Sometimes they are delicious! But as above, you don't have to be a saint. You can eat them occasionally. But if you must, have them as a treat!

Sustainability

Some people object to vegan food on the grounds that it is not sustainable. After all, flying in avocados from Mexico to Europe doesn't seem to match up with the ideals of veganism.

Of course, you could live a hugely unsustainable life as vegan. Yes, some vegan food is unsustainable too. We should avoid that as well! Likewise, some non-vegan food is surprisingly sustainable, if perhaps not in a moral sense, so we should on balance prefer it to less sustainable alternatives. I think the following paragraph from Our World in Data sums it up nicely:

Research suggests that if everyone shifted to a plant-based diet, we would reduce global land use for agriculture by 75%. This large reduction of agricultural land use would be possible thanks to a reduction in land used for grazing and a smaller need for land to grow crops. The research also shows that cutting out beef and dairy (by substituting chicken, eggs, fish, or plant-based food) has a much larger impact than eliminating chicken or fish.^[5]

Uncomfortable thoughts about animal agriculture

These are saved until the end so that you don't have to read them unless you want to.

• Chickens grown for meat in factory farms are usually slaughtered at just 5-10 weeks old. They've been bred to grow so fast that they're essentially full sized by then. Unfortunately, their incredibly high rate of growth causes them to have lots of painful health problems.^[6]
• Dairy cows produce milk for around ten months after having given birth. As such, they go through a continual cycle of being artificially inseminated, giving birth, being immediately separated from their calf, and then being milked until they stop producing it. Re-insemination usually occurs part-way through that cycle, about three months after giving birth.
• Much of the meat production sector is highly monopolised by big companies. Individual farmers are relatively powerless against them, and often end up being forced into debt and trapped in exploitative contracts.^[7]