Louis Michael: Veganism fundamentals
There are three pillars of veganism: Ethics, environment, health. ‘Ethics’ addresses the ethical argument of eating and torturing another conscious being. If the word ‘torturing’ seems extreme to you then I challenge you to sit through more than ten minutes of uncensored slaughterhouse footage. The only way you can truly believe an animal has a lower level of consciousness than humans and therefore does not feel emotion, or suffer from the horrific conditions of animal agriculture, is if you have ignored all scientific discovery for the last fifty years. Animals have been shown to be both empathetic and intelligent, which is more than can be said for humanity.
The ‘environmental’ pillar consists of battling the gargantuan environmental crisis the animal agriculture industry is having on our planet. Fun facts time! Did you know, factory farming accounts for 37 per cent of methane (CH4) emissions, which has more than 20 times the global warming potential of CO2? The animal agriculture industry has a far bigger impact on global warming than all motor vehicular emissions combined!
How about the fact that the Amazon rainforest is home to 10 per cent of the world’s known biodiversity, and 91 per cent of Amazon rainforest deforestation is caused by livestock. On average the size of 50 football pitches is destroyed every single minute, and as many as 137 plant, animal and insect species are lost forever due to the rampant mindless destruction. On top of that the Amazon is known as the lungs of the earth as it produces approximately 10 per cent of the oxygen on earth; by killing it we are quite literally killing ourselves.
‘Health’ focuses on the undeniable detrimental effects a meat and animal products heavy diet has on your body, and how a vegan diet is the ultimate diet that your body can consume. If everything you’ve read so far is shocking, how about if I told you that not only was it totally unnecessary, it was also directly detrimental to our health and lifespan. Is taste really worth killing ourselves?
