this post was submitted on 31 Jul 2024
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[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (31 children)

The difference between veganism and religion is that one is based on facts, the other is not.

  • It's true that other species of animals are sentient, they have nervous systems similar enough to ours that we know they can feel pleasure and pain.
  • It's true that we kill billions of them per year.
  • It's true that the vast majority of them are factory farmed (74% worldwide, 99% in the US).
  • It's true that humans at all stages of life can thrive on a properly planned vegan diet, according to most major health organizations.
  • It's true that animal agriculture is extremely inefficient and loses a lot of calories from crops being put towards feeding animals (see: trophic levels)
  • It's true that animal agriculture has a huge impact on the environment compared to feeding crops directly to humans.

so get out of here with that nonsense that veganism is religious zealotry. I don't have time to cite a source for each point, but they're all super easily verified. Veganism is looking at the impact of your choices with clear eyes and choosing compassion over personal pleasure. It's choosing to live and let live, rather than forcing death and misery on other species because you like the taste of their flesh and secretions.

[–] [email protected] -1 points 3 months ago (8 children)

You are focusing on the word religious, but it's the zealot that's important here. Of course you lot are zealots. It doesn't matter what argument is made against veganism, you will defend it - vehemently.

OK, maybe not all of you are radical to the point of, I dunno, bombing meat processing plants, but online, you make a up very vocal group of people. Enough that there are memes about y'all. It's like linux folk, or the people over on lemmygrad, the anti-woke crowd, the feminists, and other vocal groups.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 months ago (4 children)

I'm not vegan, but what are the counter arguments? It tastes good? It's convenient?

[–] [email protected] -1 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Humans are omnivores, and have been for the lifespan of our species

There are a number of important nutrients that humans get from animal products that are difficult to get from plant-based sources, including vitamin B12, which is not present in land-based plant species (I'm not sure whether red algae counts as a plant, so I'm playing it safe with land-based)

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago

This is one argument @darganon. We need nutrients from a variety of things. We can live without some of them but that can come at the cost of health later in life e.g Vegetarian women more likely to fracture hips in later life.

Furthermore:

animal-source foods (ASFs) are dense in bioavailable vitamins and minerals. ASFs are the only intrinsic food source of vitamin B12 [7] and contain more bioavailable forms of vitamins A and D, iron, and zinc than plant source foods (PSFs)

Source

Then there's land-use:

• 86% of the global livestock feed intake in dry matter consists of feed materials that are not currently edible for humans

• Contrary to commonly cited figures, 1 kg of meat requires 2.8 kg of human-edible feed for ruminants and 3.2 for monogastrics

• Livestock consume one third of global cereal production and uses about 40% of global arable land

Source

It wouldn't surprise me if we evolved to have balanced diet from multiple sources because they have the nutrients we require. We most likely don't need all the meat we're eating and we do a terrible job in developed countries with reducing waste. But just like a purely meat based diet, a purely plant based diet is just one of the extremes. To each their own though.

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