Throughout the years, I have become increasing aware that more and more of my friends had begun thinking ethically about what they ate. While most of my friends decided to try out to vegetarianism, three of my friends became fully vegan. This dietary change in their life had little to no impact on my own until recently when my closest friend Ashley went vegan. Ashley and I have been basically inseparable since preschool, so when she went vegan, I quickly started eating more vegan meals alongside her. When she first told me she was becoming fully vegan I was skeptical that she would stick with it. Ever since I've known her she has always been the trendier friend. From having purple hair in middle school, to going to college and majoring in art, she has always been what society would call a "hipster". for these reasons I was unsure if her intentions were for ethical reasons, or if she was just hopping on the newest fad. Ashley quickly squashed all my doubts about her and has successfully been vegan for five months. When I recently asked her why she became vegan, she sent me links to a whole bunch of websites with issues ranging from animal treatment in the meat industry, to the health benefits of veganism. While I browsed the articles she sent me and respected her personal reasons for going vegan, it was still not enough for me to make the switch to veganism, just enough to peak my interest.
So I decided to explore veganism on my own and document my findings and experiences here! I figured there was no better starting point then learning about the history of veganism. In an article about the brief history of veganism from Time Magazine, I discovered that veganism is not a recent "fad" as I had so naively assumed. The term veganism was coined in 1944, with flesh avoidance practices even being linked to as early as 500 BCE! I figured if humans have been practicing meat avoidance for centuries, there must be a deeper reason for its practice that I wasn't aware of.
A Deeper Dive
In my research, I found out that according to the vegan society, their definition of veganism is described as "a way of living which seeks to exclude, as far as is possible and practicable, all forms of exploitation of, and cruelty to, animals for food, clothing or any other purpose." While this made sense to me, I was interested to see that the vegan society's definition of veganism included honey as a non vegan item due to the idea that humans are forcefully harvesting a product from an animal (For more information on the negative effects of the honey industry, click here). Growing up, I had never thought that beekeeping was harmful to the bees, and began to wonder what other animal treatment issues I had been blissfully ignorant about.
I began my research on the treatment of animals in the meat packing industry by visiting the ASPCA official website. There I found a plethora of links on the treatment of animals for consumption and decided to begin with the most consumed meat in the United States, Chicken. I quickly learned on the ASPCA website that "The United States raises and slaughters almost 10 times more birds than any other type of animal. Approximately 8.5 billion chickens are killed for their meat every year, while another 300 million chickens are
used in egg production". While the number of chickens consumed per year was staggering, I was more surprised that there were two vastly different types of chicken for consumption and egg production. I learned that chickens for consumption are called "broiler" chickens, and chickens used for egg production are egg laying hens. While it is obvious that female chickens would be ideal in the production of eggs, it was shocking to learn the "broiler" chickens and are an entirely different breed! As you can see in the photos above, Chickens used for egg production can come in a variety of colors like brown or even appear to be striped. While "broiler" chickens are all white. The reasoning behind the use of different breeds is due to each breeds potential to produce food for consumption. The "broiler chickens" have been specially bred to have to the greatest possible quantity of meat, while the hens are carefully selected and bred for their ability to produce the highest possible volume of eggs. Due to this selective breeding, both types are prone to suffer physical genetic mutations.
Unfortunately, It is not only breeding that is used to maximize the potential economic payoff of chickens, but also their living conditions. In my research, I found out that both breeds of chickens are kept in cramped, often unkempt spaces with high levels of ammonia that can even burn their eyes and throats. "Broiler" chickens can sometimes get so large that according the the ASPCA website "some cannot support their own weight and become crippled, unable to reach food and water". All this information was terribly alarming and I wondered why more people AREN'T Vegan, and turned to the internet to find out!
Reasons or excuses?
We've all heard the same couple of reasons about why people aren't willing to participate in veganism. Some that even I can admit to are because it seems too expensive, I would get tired of eating 'boring' food, the lack of protein is bad for you, or simply that I would miss meat! Most of my excuses were addressed in a blog by The Minimalist Vegan, where author Masi Ofei offers positive responses to these types of questions and even suggests some quick and easy solutions! Another resource I can already tell I will be relying heavily on during this experience is one of my favorite Youtubers Olivia Vargus, who originally became vegan as a way to lose weight in college, but has since stuck with it for over a year! Her videos are super informative and she LOVES cooking and eating delicious meals. I have linked her newest "what I eat in a day" video down below in case you wanted to check it out.
Equipped with all this information on the history of veganism, the not so great treatment of animals, and some helpful tips from fellow bloggers, I feel ready to take on this journey into exploring veganism.