Poll: Your Vegan Inspiration

[edde]

The urge for healthy living was what inspired me to embrace veganism. What about you?

 

[VeganPoet]

All three! In college a Why Vegan? pamphlet from the very first batch was left in my philosophy class, and I had already been interested in nutrition. It was obviously a badass troika of right, in every sense of the word, so I went straight to vegan like a true freak! Yeah!

 

[Lou]

"Animal Liberation" is not a phrase that I commonly use. Sounds sort of like going in and physically freeing the animals. I suppose some of that comes from ALF.

I prefer the word "compassion". or maybe "compassion for animals".

 

[Danielle]

I think my pet rats were my inspiration. I used to work at a pet store when I was a teen after I got my first pet rats. I heard someone compare getting live rats as food for their snake to cheeseburgers. I don't think that would motivate hardly anyone to go vegan, but it did for me because I have an attachment to pet rats. They want to live and are treated like dirt, same goes for cows or any animal that gets treated as food.

 

[Emma JC]

healthy living was the final brick in the wall, the other 2 were already simmering but without good conviction - now all three are very important

Emma JC

 

[Nekodaiden]

Some of my reasons don't fall neatly onto your list.

1. The realization that animal products are not only unhealthy for us but completely unnecessary. (a health reason)
2. The further realization (based on #1) that we are unnecessarily harming animals - harming them and us (an animal and human welfare reason)
3. The acknowledgement that land is being used wastefully/unnecessarily to support #1 and #2
4. The acknowledgement that such land use can/is harmful to the direct/local environment (such as locals having to put up with the consequences of mass breeding/slaughtering/waste and all that comes with it - in the air, water and so on).
5. The acknowledgement that such land use #3 and society's dependence on animal products causes the hunger/starvation of 3rd world/poor people around the world who have their land that is used to produce human food taken/used instead to raise livestock.
6. Because meat/dairy/eggs/animal products in general (as consumptive items) lessens an individual's liberty (complete dependence on others to meet a basic requirement - sustenance from food. )
7. Because of hard painful poos and blood/death breath/increased body odor/increased fatigue/increased mucous/digestion issues and other reasons that have to do with health
8. Because religious reasons

To name a few.

 

[alexw32]

For me it was family influence, all the other things came later on in my life.

 

[Jamie in Chile]

I assume, when voting, we can take "animal liberation" to include any arguments relating to not wanting animals to be killed or to suffer, or animal rights, or related ethical arguments to fall into that area of "animal liberation". For me that is the main argument.

I don't think many people go vegan for environmental reasons at least not as the main or only argument, although it is a very strong argument for being at least mostly vegan.

In the West at least (where probably a good amount of the posters here are from) I don't think many go vegan for religious reasons either. Religious reasoning, whether Western or Eastern, tends to lead to avoidance of some or all meats but not strictly speaking veganism.

I think ethical reasons are about 60%-80% of the vegans, health are 10-30%, and others are 10-20%.

 

[Nekodaiden]

I assume, when voting, we can take "animal liberation" to include any arguments relating to not wanting animals to be killed or to suffer, or animal rights, or related ethical arguments to fall into that area of "animal liberation". For me that is the main argument.

I don't think many people go vegan for environmental reasons at least not as the main or only argument, although it is a very strong argument for being at least mostly vegan.

In the West at least (where probably a good amount of the posters here are from) I don't think many go vegan for religious reasons either. Religious reasoning, whether Western or Eastern, tends to lead to avoidance of some or all meats but not strictly speaking veganism.

I think ethical reasons are about 60%-80% of the vegans, health are 10-30%, and others are 10-20%.

We can all speculate on other people's motives (and short of mind reading and reliable polls, speculation is all that this is) - however:

I personally do not think that any person goes vegan knowing that doing so would be worse for their health. It may sound virtuous or satisfy that insidious human need to broadcast to the world how moral one is - like a Pharisee on the hill telling God how he fasts twice a week in the earshot of others - but very few people are willing to *suffer* their health for *animals only* - as if their very existence *depended* on animal products to avoid early death/hunger/disease and they were willing to embrace that so that others knew how compassionate they were - in other words the *ethical reasons primarily* motive.

That's bollocks, in my opinion. And I might add that the people who promote this view are contemptuous to me. Nothing implied by quoting your post, btw. I hear certain vegans on youtube and other platforms espouse this view and I see through what I believe is little more than a virtue signaling platform.

 

[silva]

We can all speculate on other people's motives (and short of mind reading and reliable polls, speculation is all that this is) - however:

I personally do not think that any person goes vegan knowing that doing so would be worse for their health. It may sound virtuous or satisfy that insidious human need to broadcast to the world how moral one is - like a Pharisee on the hill telling God how he fasts twice a week in the earshot of others - but very few people are willing to *suffer* their health for *animals only* - as if their very existence *depended* on animal products to avoid early death/hunger/disease and they were willing to embrace that so that others knew how compassionate they were - in other words the *ethical reasons primarily* motive.

That's bollocks, in my opinion. And I might add that the people who promote this view are contemptuous to me. Nothing implied by quoting your post, btw. I hear certain vegans on youtube and other platforms espouse this view and I see through what I believe is little more than a virtue signaling platform.

People follow many different diets based on the beliefs. There are those vegans that are totally ignorant of nutrition but sacrifice for AR. There are those with eating disorders, those who ignore their physicians and eat copious amounts of meat and dairy and die of diet related ills

As a teenager I was bombarded with the old 'beans and grains at every meal' and didn't fully embrace a vegan diet until I was certain it was the better.

There is certainly far more wrong with the usual omni's diet than that of an informed vegan.

 

[Urban Gardener]

Yeah, animal liberation has come to mean many different things. I think it started with the idea of not harming animals, of respecting them. But it's become associated with the idea of setting all pets and captive animals free regardless of the context or consequences. The idea of people breaking into labs and releasing non-human primates to run free wherever the lab happens to be... I'm not sure how many times that's actually happened and how much is just anti-vegan propaganda.

Anyway, I started for the sake of the animals and the environment. The health benefits became a reason to stick with it.

 

[Jamie in Chile]

I think it's good to promote what we do for ethical reasons. When we think that "do gooder" is an insult, and that "moral high ground" is often part of a criticism, if you really think about it, that's crazy. We should all be striving to be better people and sharing ideas between us on how to do so.

I think it's usually impossible to prove whether someone is talking about their ethical lifestyle as attention/praise seeking virtue signalling or not, but in general, it makes sense to give the benefit of the doubt. I personally only do it because I think it influences others to do the same and because i may also get feedback that helps me. Maybe some of my arguments are wrong and sharing them will improve them.

This thing when everyone is supposed to keep their personal views on sensitive subjects to themselves and at gatherings just chit chat about the latest music single and the weather constantly annoys me. Maybe gently pushing back against that culture would slightly help move society in the right direction.

 

[Jamie in Chile]

I personally do not think that any person goes vegan knowing that doing so would be worse for their health.

Now that am I vegetarian and mostly vegan, I actually would continue this diet even in the case it would be worse for my health. I highly doubt it ever will be, but I'd be willing to accept at least moderate declines in my health rather than eat meat even if I knew for sure that would fix everything instantly.

The idea that we should eat meat again as soon as we have a health reason to do so is arguably quite speciesist. You couldn't justify doing morally bad activities against humans by saying it would improve your health.

I think if I was stranded on a desert island with a rabbit, a knife and a barbeque I'd probably die of starvation before taking the knife to the rabbit.

 

[Hog]

Vegan Forms & PeTA keeps me vegan.

 

[Nekodaiden]

Now that am I vegetarian and mostly vegan, I actually would continue this diet even in the case it would be worse for my health. I highly doubt it ever will be, but I'd be willing to accept at least moderate declines in my health rather than eat meat even if I knew for sure that would fix everything instantly.

The idea that we should eat meat again as soon as we have a health reason to do so is arguably quite speciesist. You couldn't justify doing morally bad activities against humans by saying it would improve your health.

I think if I was stranded on a desert island with a rabbit, a knife and a barbeque I'd probably die of starvation before taking the knife to the rabbit.

I agree that eating meat (or other animal products) for health reasons (if necessary) is speciesist. If it were necessary (it's not) I would be fine with being a speciesist (for maintaining adequate health that was somehow unavailable with just plants) just like I would be fine killing some lions to save another human. I would also deduct that in such a scenario (of having adequate plant options) and I declined in health but improved with animal products that such animal products were *meant* for my body to consume. However, that deduction is predicated on a base belief - that we are created and there is a Creator - not that everything happened by random chance.

It's interesting that you claim such high morals in the desert island scenario but otherwise eat vegetarian sometimes/when it's convenient. Surely, being on this board for the length of time you would be aware of the cruelty that happens for every egg, and all dairy - and yet you consume them once in a while - but not for health reasons - but for convenience, or not to put someone out. Is this not also specieist?

I've been vegan (come October) for 3 years. I simply never eat animal products. But that doesn't make me "more moral" or something. This was sort of what I was talking about in my above post. People use veganism to virtue signal or claim it makes them a better person. Arguably, it does, but really only in one area of one's life.

 

[Val]

When i went vegan, there was not so much information available for me. I had a computer and internet connection then, but i wasn't even aware of who vegans were. But i had some nasty conditions by that time, like ridiculously high blood pressure, ulcer, excessive weight, swelling, varicose veins, haemorrhoids and never ending constipation.
I was raised in a family which had a diet extremely heavy on meat. When i met my future ex-husband, my diet got a lot worse: endless bbq, meat cutlets, sausages, cheese, fish... It was to be expected, that my health issues got worse.
I couldn't take it anymore, especially high blood pressure. My granny Nina had severe atherosclerosis (she was alive then), but i couldn't make a connection, because i knew nothing those days. All relatives from mom's line (Beloshapko and Koziks) had illnesses which we would now characterize as "diet-related" or "related to meat consumption"... but i couldn't make a connection either.
I was scared, because i was feeling that something wrong was happening to me, but i didn't know how to fix it. Well, Sumerian gods told me (very briefly, and they said i would have to educate myself in the future). By that time i'd heard something about vegetarians, but i never heard of vegans. I only knew that i should ditch animal-derived products. I decided that vegetarians are those who don't consume any animal-derived products, because i assumed (based on the root of the word), that "vegeta-" means that you eat only those things that grow (in soil)... but animals and their flesh don't grow in soil (those were the thoughts in my cabbage head, lol). I started digging info in the internet. There was almost no info about veganism in Russian language, so i started reading and watching sources in English.
In a very short time, i felt significantly better. I didn't think of environmental reasons then, or of animals who suffer and who are being killed violently. But as i gradually proceeded with self-education,- i realized that total consumerism i was raised in, is very wrong and produces only death to all... to the planet, to the animals, to humans and to human spirit.
There were no humans around to tell me that i should change. Shumerian gods overcame any obstacles possible to tell me the truth, so that my pathetic human mind could percept it and understand it. They literally saved me having told the naked truth, and they continued to support me later, telling me what i should eat and drink, and what i shouldn't. They made me get addicted to kapusta, and beans, and grains. Now that i have plenty of information around, they continue to stay my most reliable and trustworthy source: i ask them first, then check it out in the internet, and then take steps, according to what they have advised in the first place.
I believe that any reason is good (to go vegan), but to stay vegan, one needs to comprehend all reasons.

 

[Jamie in Chile]

It's interesting that you claim such high morals in the desert island scenario but otherwise eat vegetarian sometimes/when it's convenient. Surely, being on this board for the length of time you would be aware of the cruelty that happens for every egg, and all dairy - and yet you consume them once in a while - but not for health reasons - but for convenience, or not to put someone out. Is this not also specieist?

I never eat an egg or anything like that. I only eat vegetarian occassionally in the sense that I eat some products that have some minority amount of animal product. The approach I take is to read the ingredients on the product and if see one that is an animal product then I won't buy it. But once you've read past the first ten things on the list you have already covered 90%-99% of what's in there. To be vegan you have to check every single thing on the list right to the end, or only buy products that you can google online as being on a safe list. I am just not going to go to that level of strictness for now. Perhaps it's an ethical failing. I am not defending it.

It's an open question whether that makes me a better or worse advocate for a vegan lifestyle, or whether it undermines or makes me look bad or hypocritical when I say that it is wrong to eat meat. I don't feel strongly about it.

Actually, I think I am speciesist, at least a bit.

 

[Ohzen]

I always thought I could justify eating meat because I grew up with a tradition of "treating prey with respect". But I learned that above all it is life itself I should learn to respect.

Oh and... so called Carnivores! Born into a family of hunters I had to think about how often I ate meat in my life and how I always tried to justify it by seeing it as the inevitable sacrifice it was supposed to be. After I saw a "Carnivore" jerking out of a dirty plastic bag one of the finest parts an animal has to offer in terms of meat, I became very angry. I had enough when he just threw the bloody bag into the trash....

Slaughtering an animal on very rare occasions, making sure not a single drop of blood is wasted and even the hooves are put to good use is one thing... but living in times when its not neccessary to consume animals at all, I thought I finaly have to make a clear cut and start leading by example instead of playing a part in these funeral feasts. Its hard though to convince people of literaly anything they dont want. I am happy with my decision and seeing others happy makes some people jelous... so I hope they want to become even happier than me.

I struggle at times to cope with the utter stupidity of... single chicken, they have more of a flock-mind going on... but I am really sorry for some poor animals, especially pheasants! What does nature wants to tell you if you are nutritious, taste rather well and your strategy when in the presence of a hunter is to hide your longarse feathers in kneehigh thicket or go for a random direction while producing mind-altering noise?