Hens kept in cramped conditions — the avoidance of animal suffering is the primary motivation of people who become vegans

A vegan is a person who avoids the ingestion or use of animal products. An animal product in this context refers to the body parts of an animal, or any substance derived from an animal without that animal's informed consent. Hardy Meyers chicken operation near Petal, Mississippi. ... Hardy Meyers chicken operation near Petal, Mississippi. ... Ingestion is the action of consuming something orally, whether it be food, drink, medicine, or other substance. ... Phyla Porifera (sponges) Ctenophora (comb jellies) Cnidaria Placozoa Bilateria  Acoelomorpha  Orthonectida  Rhombozoa  Myxozoa  Superphylum Deuterostomia     Chordata (vertebrates, etc. ... Informed consent is a legal condition whereby a person can be said to have given consent based upon a full appreciation and understanding of the facts and implications of any actions, with the individual being in possession of all of his faculties (not mentally retarded or mentally ill), and his...

Many vegans avoid the use of all animal products, including, for example, leather shoes, cosmetics, toiletries, and household cleaners containing animal products, as well as products containing ingredients that have been tested on animals. Some vegans avoid using animals as food, but may nevertheless wear clothes made of materials derived from animals. These vegans are called "dietary vegans." Modern leather-making tools Leather is a material created through the tanning of hides, pelts and skins of animals, primarily cows. ... Closeup of a womans eye while wearing makeup Cosmetics or makeup are substances to enhance the beauty of the human body, apart from simple cleaning. ... Beagle being used to determine the toxicity of an industrial gas. ...

The term vegan is also used as an adjective to describe the philosophy and practice of respect for non-human animals, and the products that avoid their use. An adjective is a part of speech which modifies a noun, usually making its meaning more specific. ... The term philosophy derives from a combination of the Greek words philos meaning love and sophia meaning wisdom. ... Respect is the objective, unbiased consideration and regard for the rights, values, beliefs and property of all people. ...

Definition

Veganism is defined by the British Vegan Society as: The Vegan Society is a registered charity in the United Kingdom, promoting the vegan diet. ...

[A] philosophy and way of living which seeks to exclude — as far as is possible and practical — all forms of exploitation of, and cruelty to, animals for food, clothing or any other purpose; and by extension, promotes the development and use of animal-free alternatives for the benefit of animals, including humans and the environment. In dietary terms it denotes the practice of dispensing with all products derived wholly or partly from animals. [1] Cruelty is indifference to suffering and even positive pleasure in inflicting it. ...

Overview

The word vegan (pronounced vee-gun, sometimes mispronounced vay-gun) was originally derived from vegetarian in 1944 when Elsie Shrigley and Donald Watson, frustrated that the term "vegetarianism" had come to include the eating of dairy products, founded the UK Vegan Society. The word starts and ends with the first three and last two letters of vegetarian, representing that veganism begins with vegetarianism, then takes it to its logical conclusion. Therefore the term vegan was originally coined to differentiate those vegetarians who (primarily for ethical or environmental reasons) seek to eliminate all animal products in all areas of their lives from those who simply avoid eating meat. 1944 was a leap year starting on Saturday (link will take you to calendar). ... A selection of produce typical of a vegetarian diet. ... Logic (from ancient Greek λόγος (logos), originally meaning the word, or what is spoken, but coming to mean thought or reason) is most often said to be the study of arguments, although the exact definition of logic is a matter of controversy amongst philosophers (see below). ... Ethics is a general term for what is often described as the science (study) of morality. In philosophy, ethical behavior is that which is good or right. ... Environmentalism is the support or involvement with the environmental movement by environmentalists. ... Phyla Porifera (sponges) Ctenophora (comb jellies) Cnidaria Placozoa Bilateria  Acoelomorpha  Orthonectida  Rhombozoa  Myxozoa  Superphylum Deuterostomia     Chordata (vertebrates, etc. ... Meat is animal tissue (mainly muscle) used as food. ...

Those who are vegans for ethical reasons today generally oppose the violence and cruelty they see as involved in the (non-vegan) food, clothing and other industries. Animal products such as leather, silk or wool are avoided. Soap must be made of vegetable oil instead of tallow or animal fat. Toothpaste, hair products, and other toiletries used by vegans must not have been tested on animals. (See also Draize test, LD50 and Animal testing.) Violence is a general term to describe actions, usually deliberate, that cause or intend to cause injury to people, animals, or non-living objects. ... Cruelty is indifference to suffering and even positive pleasure in inflicting it. ... (See also List of types of clothing and Clothing terminology) Humans often wear articles of clothing (also known as dress, garments or attire) on the body (for the alternative, see nudity). ... Modern leather-making tools Leather is a material created through the tanning of hides, pelts and skins of animals, primarily cows. ... Silk (< OE sioloc probably < L. SERICVS / Gr. ... Long and short hair wool at the South Central Family Farm Research Center in Boonesville, AR Wool is the fiber derived from the hair of domesticated animals, usually sheep. ... This article is about a common cleaning mixture. ... Tallow is rendered beef or mutton fat (suet). ... Modern toothpaste Toothpaste is a paste used to clean teeth, almost always in conjunction with a toothbrush. ... The Draize Test (named after FDA toxicologist John Draize), along with the LD50, are two of the most common animal tests. ... In toxicology, the LD50 or colloquially semilethal dose of a particular substance is a measure of how much constitutes a lethal dose. ... Beagle being used to determine the toxicity of an industrial gas. ...

Animal products

The term "animal product" in a vegan context refers to a product derived from human and non-human animals without their consent. Human breast milk is acceptable when used for human babies, so long as the mother has consented to its use. By comparison, a human being drinking a cow's milk for her calves is regarded as consuming an "animal product". Breast milk usually refers to the milk produced by a human female which is usually fed to infants by breastfeeding. ... Mother with her child (Sculpture) A mother is typically the biological or social female parent of a child or offspring while the male parent is the father. ... Look up Cow in Wiktionary, the free dictionary Cow may refer to: Female cattle, other bovines, or other large mammals including elephants and whales. ... Categories: Animal stubs ...

Animal products include meat, poultry, fish, shellfish, eggs, dairy products, fur, leather, wool, and byproducts such as gelatin, rennet, and whey. The Vegan Society and many vegans include insect products such as silk, honey, and beeswax in their definition. Meat is animal tissue (mainly muscle) used as food. ... Duck amongst other poultry The Poultry-dealer, after Cesare Vecellio. ... Atlantic herring, Clupea harengus, the most abundant fish species in the world. ... Shellfish is a term used to describe molluscs and crustaceans used as food. ... Bird eggs are a common food source. ... Dairy products are generally defined as foodstuffs produced from milk. ... The term fur refers to the body hair of non-human mammals also known as the pelage (like the term plumage in birds). ... Modern leather-making tools Leather is a material created through the tanning of hides, pelts and skins of animals, primarily cows. ... Long and short hair wool at the South Central Family Farm Research Center in Boonesville, AR Wool is the fiber derived from the hair of domesticated animals, usually sheep. ... Gelatin (also gelatine) is a translucent brittle solid, colorless or slightly yellow, nearly tasteless and odorless, that is created by prolonged boiling of connective tissue of animal cadavers. ... Rennet, also called rennin or chymosin (EC 3. ... Whey or milk plasma is the liquid remaining after milk has been curdled and strained; it is a by-product of cheese or casein making with several commercial uses. ... Orders Subclass Apterygota Symphypleona - globular springtails Subclass Archaeognatha (jumping bristletails) Subclass Dicondylia Monura - extinct Thysanura (common bristletails) Subclass Pterygota Diaphanopteroidea - extinct Palaeodictyoptera - extinct Megasecoptera - extinct Archodonata - extinct Ephemeroptera (mayflies) Odonata (dragonflies and damselflies) Infraclass Neoptera Blattodea (cockroaches) Mantodea (mantids) Isoptera (termites) Zoraptera Grylloblattodea Dermaptera (earwigs) Plecoptera (stoneflies) Orthoptera   (grasshoppers, crickets... Silk (< OE sioloc probably < L. SERICVS / Gr. ... Honey honey comb A capped frame of honeycomb Honey is a sweet and viscous fluid produced by bees and other insects from the nectar of flowers. ... Beeswax is a tough wax formed from a mixture of several compounds including: hydrocarbons 14%, monoesters 35%, diesters 14%, triesters 3%, hydroxy monoesters 4%, Hydroxy polyesters 8%, acid esters 1%, acid polyesters 2%, free acids 12%, free alcohols 1%, unidentified 6% [1]. Beeswax is secreted by honeybees in the form...

There is some debate on the finer points of what constitutes an animal product: some vegans avoid cane sugar that has been filtered with bone char, and some will not drink beers and wines clarified with albumen (egg white), animal blood, or isinglass, even though these are not present in the final product. Also, some vegans avoid food cooked in pans if they have been used to cook meat or eggs. Species Ref: ITIS 42058 as of 2004-05-05 Sugarcane is one of six species of a tall tropical southeast Asian grass (Family Poaceae) having stout fibrous jointed stalks whose sap at one time was the primary source of sugar. ... Bone char, also known as bone black or animal charcoal, is a granular black material produced by calcining animal bones: the bones are heated to high temperatures in the absence of air to drive off volatile substances. ... A typical mug of lager beer, showing the golden colour of the beer and the foamy head floating on top. ... A glass of red wine This article is about the beverage. ... Albumen redirects here. ... Isinglass is a substance obtained from the swim bladders of fish (especially sturgeon) that is used for the clarification of wine and beer. ...

As well as avoiding animal products, vegans refrain from supporting industries that use animals, such as circuses featuring caged animals, and zoos. Most vegans also refrain from using toiletries, cosmetics, or other products that are tested on animals. The term circus originates from Latin and can mean several things: A public equipped space for shows and other spectacles of the Classical period (e. ... A CAGE (Commercial and Government Entity) is a unique identifier assigned by the Defense Logistics Information Service. ... A zoo. ... Closeup of a womans eye while wearing makeup Cosmetics or makeup are substances to enhance the beauty of the human body, apart from simple cleaning. ... Beagle being used to determine the toxicity of an industrial gas. ...

Other vegan ideals may include sustainable agricultural systems that exclude animal by-products such as blood, fish, bone, and manures. Some vegans view the adoption of vegan organic horticultural and agricultural methodologies as integral to their ethical stance. Sustainable agriculture integrates three main goals: environmental stewardship, farm profitability, and prosperous farming communities. ... Red blood cells (erythrocytes) are present in the blood and help carry oxygen to the rest of the cells in the body Blood is a circulating tissue composed of fluid plasma and cells (red blood cells, white blood cells, platelets). ... Atlantic herring, Clupea harengus, the most abundant fish species in the world. ... Grays illustration of a human femur, a typically recognized bone. ... The word manure means some types of organic matter used as fertilizer for land. ... Vegan Organic Horticulture and Agriculture aims to produce organically grown foods and other crops whilst minimising (preferably erradicating) the exploitation or harm of any living creature. ...

Motivation

Animal suffering

Vegans cite a desire to reduce animal suffering as their primary motivation. Utilitarian philosophers, such as Jeremy Bentham, and especially Peter Singer, argue that the suffering of all sentient animals should be taken into consideration when making ethical decisions; thus, by abstaining from consuming products from animals exploited for food, veganism is the application of this system of ethics. Though Singer's ethical theory recognizes the suffering of sentient animals, it does not rely on the concept of rights. However, philosophers such as Tom Regan and Gary L. Francione believe that, because sentient animals are capable of valuing their life, they have the inherent right to possess their own flesh, and that, therefore, it is unethical to treat them as property, or as a commodity. Utilitarianism (from the Latin utilis, useful) is a theory of ethics based on quantitative maximisation of happiness for society or humanity. ... The term philosophy derives from a combination of the Greek words philos meaning love and sophia meaning wisdom. ... Jeremy Bentham (February 15, 1748 – June 6, 1832) was an English gentleman, jurist, philosopher, eccentric, and legal and social reformer. ... Prof. ... Ethics is a general term for what is often described as the science (study) of morality. In philosophy, ethical behavior is that which is good or right. ... For the direction right, see left and right or starboard. ... Dr. Tom Regan Tom Regan (born November 28, 1938 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania) is an American philosopher and animal-rights activist. ... Gary Lawrence Francione (1954) is an American law professor at Rutgers University. ... The Great Ape Project is campaigning for a Declaration on Great Apes. ...

The vegan philosophy is also connected to the concept of ahimsa, a Sanskrit word central to Jainism, Buddhism and Hinduism, originally taught by Mahavira and Buddha around 500 BCE, and more recently promoted by Mahatma Gandhi. Ahimsa roughly means "non-killing and non-harming." The American Vegan Society website says: "It is not mere passiveness, but a positive method of meeting the dilemmas and decisions of daily life. In the western world, we call it Dynamic Harmlessness." [2] Ahimsa is a religious concept which advocates non-violence and a respect for all life. ... The Sanskrit language ( संस्कृता वाक्) is one of the earliest attested members of the Indo-European language family and is not only a classical language, but also an official language of India. ... The holiest Jain symbol is the right facing swastika, or svastika, shown above. ... Statues of Buddha such as this, the Tian Tan Buddha statue in Hong Kong, remind followers to practice right living. ... This article is about the Hindu religion; for other meanings of the word, see Hindu (disambiguation). ... Mahavira (वर्धमान महावीर) or Mahavir (the Great Hero -- Also, Vardhamana (increasing) or Niggantha Nathaputta -- 599 BC - 527 BC) was the 24th, and last, Jainist Tirthankara. ... A stone image of the Buddha. ... Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (October 2, 1869 – January 30, 1948) (Devanagari: मोहनदास करमचन्द गांधी, Gujarati મોહનદાસ કરમચંદ ગાંધી), called Mahatma Gandhi, was the charismatic leader who brought the cause of Indias independence from British colonial rule to world attention. ...

Ahimsa is also used as a backronym: Abstinence from animal products, Harmlessness with reverence for life, Integrity of thought, word, and deed, Mastery over oneself, Service to humanity, nature and creation, and Advancement of understanding and truth. A backronym or bacronym is a slang neologismic word for a reversed acronym—that is to say, the words of the expanded term were chosen to fit the letters of the acronym. ...

Environmental

As with vegetarians, vegans are motivated by the high environmental costs of producing animal products. For example, a large percentage of the greenhouse gas methane released into the atmosphere comes from raising cows; rearing livestock entails a far higher volume of water and land than raising crops alone; most crops grown are used as animal feed; and the run-off from livestock waste into groundwater is especially polluting. Water consumption alone is of such international importance that the World Water Week conference held in August 2004 was told that the growth in demand for meat and dairy products is unsustainable. [3] and will cause enormous environmental problems and widespread human distress in the near future. For animals adapted to eat primarily plants, sometimes referred to as vegetarian animals, see Herbivore. ... An environment is a complex of external factors that acts on a system and determines its course and form of existence. ... Increasing CO2 levels Greenhouse gases (GHG) are gaseous components of the atmosphere that contribute to the greenhouse effect. ... The simplest hydrocarbon, methane, is a gas with a chemical formula of CH4. ... Atmosphere may refer to: a celestial body atmosphere, e. ... Binomial name Bos taurus Linnaeus, 1758 Cattle are domesticated ungulates, a member of the subfamily Bovinae of the family Bovidae. ... 2004 is a leap year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

Health

People do not often go vegan solely for health reasons, because dietary concerns provide no incentive to avoid animal products such as leather or fur. However, the health benefits of a diet low in animal products — such as zero LDL cholesterol and artificial growth hormones intake, and the avoidance of the antibiotics routinely fed to factory-farmed animals — provide a secondary motivation for many vegans. Cholesterol is a steroid lipid, found in the cell membranes of all body tissues, and transported in the blood plasma of all animals. ... Growth hormone is a polypeptide hormone secreted by the anterior pituitary gland which stimulates growth and cell reproduction in humans and other vertebrate animals. ... An antibiotic is a drug that kills or slows the growth of bacteria. ...

Dietary vegans

Those who avoid animal food products — for example, due to allergies or high cholesterol, or to protest against factory farming — but who otherwise use products containing animal derivatives, may describe themselves as "dietary vegans". An allergy or Type I hypersensitivity is a immune malfunction whereby a persons body is hypersensitised to react immunologically to typically nonimmunogenic substances. ... Cholesterol is a steroid lipid, found in the cell membranes of all body tissues, and transported in the blood plasma of all animals. ...

Vegan author Joanne Stepaniak argues that this term is inappropriate, because veganism is by definition about avoiding all animal abuses, not just food-related ones. For this reason, she says, a term such as "total vegetarian," or "strict vegetarian," would be more appropriate for those who avoid eating meat and dairy products, but continue to buy leather shoes. Joanne Stepaniak is the author of books on veganism, including The Vegan Sourcebook and several cookbooks. ...

Modern veganism in context

Veganism as a secular movement is a modern idea, a reaction to the imposition of suffering on non-human animals. The principles behind it, however, can be found in older ethical doctrines of the East, such as Hinduism, Buddhism or Jainism. (See Ahimsa.) This article is about the Hindu religion; for other meanings of the word, see Hindu (disambiguation). ... Statues of Buddha such as this, the Tian Tan Buddha statue in Hong Kong, remind followers to practice right living. ... The holiest Jain symbol is the right facing swastika, or svastika, shown above. ... Ahimsa is a religious concept which advocates non-violence and a respect for all life. ...

Much stricter forms of diet have been followed for thousands of years by adherents of Jainism, and a strictly bounded diet is an integral part of their religious doctrine, which promotes non-suffering. Jain monks usually follow a much stricter form of veganism where they eat only fruits and beans so that they can avoid indirect killing of plants. They abstain from eating root plants, such as garlic, onion and potatoes, because it requires the death of the plant. Stricter Jains also abstain from walking on grass. There are even those who wear masks over their mouths and noses to avoid any possibility of breathing in tiny insects. In fact, some Jains (usually monks or nuns) have been known to starve themselves to death in order to avoid harming any living creature or plants. The holiest Jain symbol is the right facing swastika, or svastika, shown above. ...

Secular veganism is pretty much unheard of in many parts of the world. In many cultures, though there are notable exceptions, meat and animal products used to be a minor part of the diet. Because raising animals for food takes up far more resources than the raising of crops, regular consumption of animal products has historically been limited to the wealthy; this, in turn, led to animal products becoming "aspirational foods", desirable because of their expense. This situation has begun to be reversed by the rising standard of living in these countries and the associated "westernisation" of their cultures. In many wealthy countries, the greatest volume of animal products is eaten by the poor, and health problems associated with over-eating are on the rise. [4] Consequently, there is a small but growing awareness of the health and environmental benefits of a vegetarian diet, mainly amongst the wealthy and well-educated.

One interesting example is the case of African-Americans who chose in the 1960s to express their concept of Black Power through the conscious choice of vegetarian diets: rejecting the traditionally animal-heavy forms of 'soul food' in favour of an African-inspired vegetarian soul food [5] was perceived as a potent form of empowerment. This political and health-based veganism is enjoying a renaissance amongst African-Americans, with a number of hip-hop artists becoming vegans. [[6] Black Power is a slogan which describes the aspiration of many Africans (whether they be in Africa or abroad) to national self-determination. ...

A Time/CNN poll published in Time Magazine on July 7, 2002, found that 4% of American adults consider themselves vegetarians, and 5% of self-described vegetarians consider themselves vegans. This may suggest that 0.2% of American adults are vegans. A 2000 poll suggested closer to 0.9% of the USA' adult population may be vegan. [7] In the UK, research showed that 0.4%, approximately 250, 000 people, were vegan in 2001. [8] CNN or Cable News Network is a cable television network that was founded in 1980 by Ted Turner & Reese Schonfeld [1] [2] (although he currently is not recognized in CNNs official history). ... A poll is either an election or a survey of a particular group. ... (Clockwise from upper left) Time magazine covers from May 7, 1945; July 25, 1969; December 31, 1999; September 14, 2001; and April 21, 2003. ... July 7 is the 188th day of the year (189th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 177 days remaining. ... 2002 is a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... 2000 is a leap year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ... 2001 is a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

Similar diets

There are several diets often thought of as similar to veganism, though there are significant differences, including the aforementioned fruitarian/fructarian diet, raw foods, and the macrobiotic diet. There are also numerous religious groups that regularly or occasionally practice a similar diet, including some sects of Buddhism, Hinduism, and Jainism, as well as some Christian sects such as the Eastern Orthodox church and the Seventh-day Adventist Church. Fructarians (or fruitarians) are a subgroup of vegans who eat only the fruit of plants. ... The raw food diet (or living foods diet) is a dietary regimen consisting of uncooked and unprocessed organic foods. ... Macrobiotics (from the Greek macro (large, long) + bio (life)) is a lifestyle that incorporates a dietary regime. ... Statues of Buddha such as this, the Tian Tan Buddha statue in Hong Kong, remind followers to practice right living. ... This article is about the Hindu religion; for other meanings of the word, see Hindu (disambiguation). ... The holiest Jain symbol is the right facing swastika, or svastika, shown above. ... Eastern Orthodoxy (also called Greek Orthodoxy and Russian Orthodoxy) is a Christian tradition which represents the majority of Eastern Christianity. ... The Seventh-day Adventist Church, or Adventist Church for short (the acronym SDA is deprecated), is an evangelical Christian denomination that grew out of the prophetic Millerite movement in the United States during the middle part of the 19th century. ...

More recently, many young people who subscribe to the anarcho-punk or straight edge punk movements have embraced veganism, and corresponding beliefs of the animal rights movement. Straight Edge is a philosophy in which one does not partake in the drinking of alcohol, casual sex, or recreational drugs, and was born out of anger at the cultural excesses of the 1980s. Straight Veg, a term equivalent to vegan, arose as a response to the increasingly popular Straight Edge. Another recent variation of veganism is the "freegan" diet (practitioners sometimes called "opportunivores"), which essentially allows its practitioners to violate the tenets of veganism when a food item is free or of a post-consumer nature (example: discarded food). The anarchy symbol commonly used by anarcho-punks Anarcho-punk (sometimes known as peace-punk) is a subgenre of the punk rock movement consisting of groups and bands promoting specifically anarchist ideas. ... For the drawing or cutting tool, see Straightedge. ... The Great Ape Project is campaigning for a Declaration on Great Apes. ... Freeganism is the practice of minimising ones impact on the environment by means of consuming food that has been or is about to be thrown away by someone else (e. ...

An interesting sub-set of veganism, raw veganism, advocates the consumption only of raw foods and the elimination of processed foods from the diet. A small scale study of raw vegans found them to be slender and healthy, but noted that they had reduced essential bone mass and lower bone mineral density. The researchers said these results are "strongly associated with increased fracture risk", but noted that the raw vegans they studied had no other biological markers to indicate higher levels of osteoporosis, and that their bone turnover rates were normal.

Vegan nutrition

Main article: vegan nutrition

For most people, a varied vegan diet presents no significant nutritional problems, and on the contrary usually comes with several health benefits, such as decreased cholesterol. However, there are several nutrients vegans should pay attention to. These include Vitamin B12, iron and iodine: deficiencies in these are more likely following a vegan diet, and deficiencies of these potentially have serious consequences, including anemia, pernicious anemia, cretinism and hyperthyroidism. Interestingly, B12 deficiency can be a problem for omnivores, too; aging, for example, can lead to an inability to absorb B12 from food, and supplementation is recommended for over-55s. Vegan nutrition is an important part of the life of a vegan. ... Cholesterol is a steroid lipid, found in the cell membranes of all body tissues, and transported in the blood plasma of all animals. ... Cobalamin or vitamin B12 is a chemical compound that is also known as cyanocobalamine. ... General Name, Symbol, Number iron, Fe, 26 Chemical series transition metal Group, Period, Block 8 (VIIIB), 4, d Density, Hardness 7874 kg/m3, 4. ... General Name, Symbol, Number iodine, I, 53 Series halogens Group, Period, Block 17 (VIIA), 5, p Density, Hardness 4940 kg/m3, no data Appearance violet-dark grey, lustrous Atomic properties Atomic weight 126. ... Anemia (American English) or anaemia (Commonwealth English), which literally means without blood, is a lack of red blood cells and/or hemoglobin. ... Pernicious anemia refers to a type of autoimmune anemia. ... Cretinism is a congenital form of deficiency of thyroid hormones, retarding mental and physical growth. ... Hyperthyroidism (thyrotoxicosis or fast thyroid gland) is the clinical syndrome caused by an excess of circulating free thyroxine (T4) and free triiodothyronine (T3), or both. ...

Residents of the UK will find themselves iodine-deficient if they rely primarily on local produce. The Vegan Society says, "Iodine is typically undesirably low (about 50 micrograms/day compared to a recommended level of about 150 micrograms per day) in UK vegan diets unless supplements, iodine rich seaweeds or foods containing such seaweeds (e.g. Vecon) are consumed. The low iodine levels in many plant foods reflects the low iodine levels in the UK soil, due in part to the recent ice-age." This demonstrates that location may also be a factor in what deficiencies may be present in any given diet. The Vegan Society is a registered charity in the United Kingdom, promoting the vegan diet. ...

Vitamin B12, a bacterial product, cannot be reliably found in plant products, and so vegans are recommended to make sure they eat foods with B12 added (such as fortified yeast extract and margarines or many boxed cereals), certain brands of nutritional yeast, or take supplements (a good multivitamin ought to include B12 in sufficient quantities). Also, British vegans should ensure they get adequate iodine, since in the UK iodine is usually obtained via dairy products rather than iodized salt. No other nutrients present special problems. In the past nutritionists advised that vegans should make sure the plant proteins they ate together formed "complete" proteins, but this "food combining" theory was disproved many years ago, though some vegan cookbooks still propound the theory. Yeast extract is the common name for yeast autolysates, that is, concentrations of yeast cells that are allowed to die and break up, so that the yeasts digestive enzymes break their proteins down into simpler compounds. ... Margarine is a generic term used to indicate any of a wide range of butter substitutes. ... Breakfast cereal Breakfast cereal is a food product designed especially to be marketed to consumers as a breakfast food. ... Iodised salt is ordinary table salt mixed with a tiny amount of iodine salts, so that it prevents disease of the thyroid gland. ... Dietitians are experts in food and nutrition. ...

Iron is said by the Vegan Society to be present in many typically vegan foodstuffs, including grains, nuts and green leaves. However, the iron in these sources is in a less easily absorbed, non-heme form. Nevertheless, the Society quotes research to show that iron deficiency is no more prevalent in vegans than in the general population. This research did not account for the fact that many vegans take nutritional supplements that are not found in food alone, whereas other research that excludes this subset of people does indeed show a marked iron deficiency among a majority of those studied. It is important to note that iron deficiency is one of the most common nutritional deficiencies in the general population, and many nutritionists and dietitians recommend a daily multivitamin because of this. The Vegan Society is a registered charity in the United Kingdom, promoting the vegan diet. ...

If the vegan diet is not varied, there may be possible deficiencies in certain vitamins, minerals, and nutrients; of course, any diet (irrespective of the inclusion of meat) that is not sufficiently varied is at risk for deficiency. If the vegan is elderly or a younger child, their exposure to the sun may be limited, in which case their skin will not produce Vitamin D3 (cholecalciferol) as it normally does when exposed to ultraviolet light, as occurs in sunlight. Vitamin D is essential for the absorption of calcium, and is usually found in both supplements and in fortified foods (the prevalence of rickets in the general population helped to spur on the fortification of every day foods, such as breakfast cereals and juices from the 1960s onwards). Calcium may also be a concern if the vegan is not eating a variety of foods, especially leafy green vegetables, fortified products, almonds, soy products, and dried fruits. However, calcium is less of a problem than many think: calcium retention is affected by things such as salt intake as much as calcium intake, and animal protein has been linked to calcium loss. Once lifestyle has been controlled for, there is no conclusive evidence yet as to whether vegan women have a different rate of osteoporosis than vegetarian or meat-eating women. An intriguing study at UC Davis and sponsored by the USDA, though, indicates that osteoporosis is more complex than simple calcium intake. In their study of healthy non-smoking women, it was shown that, while the omnivore and vegan women had similar levels of bone resorption, when put on a regime of weight-bearing exercise the vegan women built bone faster than their omnivorous counterparts. One of the team noted that the net result is a higher risk of osteoporosis for omnivorous women over time than for vegan women, saying, "If you have less bone formation, the result is the same as if you had an increase in bone resorption. So, even though bone resorption was the same in both groups of volunteers, the lower amount of bone formation in the omnivore women could lead to a decrease in their bone density." X-ray of the legs in a two-year-old child with rickets Rickets is a disorder of infancy and early childhood of multiple etiologies. ... Osteoporosis is a disease of bone in which the amount of bone is decreased and the strength of trabecular bone is reduced, cortical bone becomes thin and bones are susceptible to fracture. ... The U.S. Department of Agriculture, also called the Agriculture Department, or USDA, is a Cabinet department of the United States Federal Government. ...

One nutrient that is sometimes overlooked when analyzing the vegan diet is docosahexaenoic acid (DHA). DHA can be synthesized from alpha linolenic fatty acids; for omnivores, a good source for this omega-3 fatty acid is seafood and eggs. This healthy fat can be found in soy, walnuts, flaxseed, pumpkin seeds, and canola oil, but many vegans do not include these specific foods in their diets. This fatty acid is very important for brain function, eye function, and for the cellular transport of valuable nutrients. Omega-3 fatty acids must be taken into consideration for any diet, and special consideration taken for younger children and the elderly because growing and aging brains need more of these nutritious fats. Luckily, there are many sources of omega-3 fatty acids available to the vegan: flaxseed oil (sometimes called edible linseed in the UK) and hemp oil- which have far higher levels of omega-3s than fish oils - nuts (especially walnuts), and green leafy veggies provide omega-3s and ALA, and algae can provide DHA (algal supplements are widely available). DHA may refer to: docosahexaenoic acid the United Nations Department of Humanitarian Affairs, now known as the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs Defence Housing Authority, a provider of family housing for members of the Australian Defence Force This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other... In chemistry, especially biochemistry, a fatty acid is a carboxylic acid (or organic acid), often with a long aliphatic tail (long chains), either saturated or unsaturated. ... Omega-3 fatty acids are polyunsaturated fatty acids found in certain fish tissues, and in vegetable sources such as flax seeds, hemp seeds, walnuts, and canola oil — though some sources contain other substances which may counteract the beneficial Omega-3 (see sections Omega-3 - Omega-6 balance, and Dietary sources...

Overall, some nutritionists have expressed concerns about the potential dangers in the vegan diet. This is especially true for young children where the failure to achieve adequate nutrition can lead to permanent developmental deficits. In widely reported comments, Professor Lindsey Allen of the US Agricultural Research Service declared: "There's absolutely no question that it's unethical for parents to bring up their children as strict vegans" [9]. She later added "unless those who practiced [vegan diets] were well-informed about how to add back missing nutrients through supplements or fortified foods", which she claims the original reporter inappropriately dropped [10]. In very severe cases, parents practicing what they described as forms of veganism have been charged with child abuse for not providing adequate nutrition [11] [12] [13]. The Agricultural Research Service (ARS) is the principal in-house research agency of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). ... Child abuse is the physical or psychological mistreatment of a child by his or her parents (including adoptive parents), guardians, or other adults. ...

While it is true that special care must be taken, as with any other diet, other nutritionists point to research which clearly shows the health and longevity benefits resulting from a vegan diet. Again, these studies, like so many relating to omnivores and lacto-ovo vegetarians, have not demonstrated that they control for lifestyle: without accounting for factors like exercise and cigarette smoking, alcohol consumption, and genetic predisposition, health and longevity comparisions are statistically almost meaningless. Critics tend to say that a vegan lifestyle does not guarantee a long and healthy life; vegans, however, do not claim that it does. There are no guarantees of good health, only probabilities based on a healthy lifestyle and diet.

Possible and probable benefits

Besides diminishing animal suffering, a vegan diet is thought to reduce the risk of many health problems, including heart failure, obesity, diabetes, asthma, high blood pressure, constipation, cancer, psoriasis, and Eczema though this should not be confused with overall health or longevity. The Independent newspaper reported recently that the very oldest people tend to have a large proportion of vegetarians among their ranks.[14] The same source quotes research by Dr Pramil Singh, of Loma Linda University in California, showing that vegetarianism provides a 3.6-year survival advantage. The research was based on a 20 year study of people of the Adventist faith. This article is about the disease that features high blood sugar. ... Arterial hypertension, or high blood pressure is a medical condition where the blood pressure is chronically elevated. ... Cancer is a class of diseases characterized by uncontrolled cell division and the ability of these cells to invade other tissues, either by direct growth into adjacent tissue (invasion) or by migration of cells to distant sites (metastasis). ... Dermatitis, also known as eczema, is a skin irritation characterized by red, flaky skin, sometimes with cracks or tiny blisters. ...

Some vegan advocacy sites have a tendency to imply that a vegan diet is inherently healthy and an omnivorous diet is inherently unhealthy. It is likely that such a reductionist view, reducing dietary health to the consumption or non-consumption of animal products is essentially unhelpful. A properly planned vegan diet will supply high levels of fiber, micro-nutrients, and anti-oxidants, as well as limiting the intake of harmful fats found abundantly in some meat and dairy products, all of which promise positive health effects. It must be remembered that lifestyle, environmental health, social conditions, medical access, and emotional well being all contribute to overall health, and the attribution of complex health issues to single causes should be approached with caution. The simple elimination of meat from the diet without thought and planning toward providing well balanced nutrition, including protein and mineral intake, is no guarantee of improved health any more than a careless and ill-considered omnivorous diet. With all these caveats in mind, it should be noted that Professor Colin Campbell found the consumption of animal products to correlate with ill health on a statistical basis.(See the China project). His work therefore supports the association of good health with veganism though this outcome should also be understood as the result of an overall change of life style. The China Project is an ongoing extensive study of the correlation of disease epidemiology with the increasing urbanisation of the many provinces of China, and with the changes in eating patterns and lifestyles which this Westernisation is bringing. ...

Veganism is more environmentally sustainable than a diet based around animal products, and may improve the conditions of low income people in and out of the global south by freeing more food for human consumption. It has been argued that increased demand for crops raises prices, hence impoverishing people who largely subsist on crops. Some livestock, though not those animals generally used for food in the wealthy global north, can graze on land that is unsuited to farming; thus it could be argued that a reduction in the usage of livestock could actually cause a reduction in food available for human consumption. This argument signally fails to take into account that the raising of livestock does not typically take place on land unsuitable for crop raising, that the majority of crops currently raised are raised to feed livestock (usually meaning that food is exported from poor nations to feed animals in rich nations, this export often intimately tied to national debt), or that fewer crops would have to be raised to feed people only than to feed both livestock and people. For most forms of livestock, approximately 10kg of feed-quality grain are needed for every kg of meat produced. This means that ninety percent of potential caloric energy is lost. An environment is a complex of external factors that acts on a system and determines its course and form of existence. ... The supply and demand model describes how prices vary as a result of a balance between product availability at each price (supply) and the desires of those with purchasing power at each price (demand). ...

Veganism can make for substantial cuts to one's food budget, meat being usually the most expensive thing that people buy, food-wise — beans, rice, nuts, greens and other vegan staples are inexpensive and nutritious. For those vegans who eschew "junk" foods and heavily processed products, the savings are dramatically increased.

See the references below for more detail on these issues.

Vegetarian vs omnivore diet: cycling stamina

Dr. Per-Olaf Astrand conducted an informal study of diet and endurance using nine highly trained athletes, changing their diet every three days. At the end of every diet change, each athlete would pedal a bicycle until exhaustion. Those with a high protein and high fat meat (carnivore) diet averaged 57 minutes. Those that consumed a mixed (omnivore) diet, lower in meat, fat and protein averaged 1 hour and 54 minutes: twice the endurance of the meat and fat eaters. The vegetarian, high carbohydrate diet athletes lasted 2 hours and 47 minutes, triple the endurance of the high-protein group. (Source: Astrand, Per-Olaf, Nutrition Today 3:no2, 9-11, 1968) [15]

Vegan cuisine

Vegans enjoy almost as wide a range of foods as animal product–eaters do, since almost any dish containing animal products can be adapted by substituting vegan ingredients. Soy milk works for milk in almost all recipes, as do a variety of nut and grain milks; eggs can usually be replaced by the appropriate egg replacers (one popular version is made from potato starch). Artificial "meat" products, such as imitation sausages, ground beef, burgers, and chicken nuggets are available in many supermarkets, although many are only vegetarian. These products are often marketed to those who are simply cutting back on meat for health reasons as much as to vegetarians, and manufacturers are canny enough to know that many people will not go for a "total diet makeover", but will tend to shop for familiar foods. Some Asian cuisines contain many dishes that are naturally vegan. It is important not to give the impression that vegans are attempting to mimic an omnivorous diet, as many vegans are uncomfortable with that idea - animal products make up only a tiny proportion of the foods that humans can digest, and there is a tradition of meat-free and dairy-free cooking in western nations which fell out of favour when intensive farming became the rage after WWII. Binomial name Solanum tuberosum L. The potato (Solanum tuberosum) is a perennial plant of the Solanaceae, or nightshade, family, grown for its starchy tuber. ... Starch is a complex carbohydrate which is insoluble in water. ... Some of the many varieties of Sausages A sausage consists of ground meat and other animal parts, herbs and spices, and possibly other ingredients, generally packed in a casing (traditionally the intestines of the animal), and preserved in some way. ... Categories: Food and drink stubs ... A buffalo burger A burger or burger sandwich is a type of sandwich which consists of a hamburger bun or similar type of round bread, and a primary filling of a meat patty or vegetarian alternative (veggie burgers, vegiburgers or, alternatively, garden burgers usually contain patties made from vegetables, nuts... A chicken nugget is a piece of chicken, either whole or composed from a paste of finely minced meat, which is then coated in batter or breadcrumbs before being cooked. ... The term Asian can refer to something or someone from Asia. ...

Vegans have several foods that they tend to eat in larger quantities than omnivores: among these are the soy products tofu and tempeh, and the wheat product seitan. Many vegans express concern about reliance on soy products, and prefer to experiment with a range of foods and cuisines. Binomial name Glycine max Soybeans (US) or soya beans (UK) (Glycine max) are a high-protein legume (Family Fabaceae) grown as food for both humans and livestock. ... Tofu (also called bean curd, doufu or beancurd) is a food made by coagulating soy milk with calcium sulfate (gypsum), nigari (a sea-salt derived compound rich in magnesium chloride), or other agents, and then pressing into blocks, similar to the way cheese is made from milk. ... Tempeh is a fermented soybean food that is most popular in Indonesia and other parts of Southeast Asia. ... Species T. boeoticum T. durum T. monococcum T. spelta References:   ITIS 42236 2002-09-22 Wheat (Triticum spp) is a grass that is cultivated around the world. ... Seitan (say-tan) is a popular vegan/vegetarian food. ...

For a list of vegan recipes complementary to this article see the Wikibooks cookbook section, Vegan cuisine. Wikibooks logo Wikibooks, previously called Wikimedia Free Textbook Project and Wikimedia-Textbooks, is a sister project to Wikipedia and is part of the Wikimedia foundation, begun on July 10, 2003. ... A cookbook contains information on cooking, and a list of recipes. ...

an example of vegan cooking: vegetable sushi

vegan sushi This image has been released into the public domain by the copyright holder, its copyright has expired, or it is ineligible for copyright. ... vegan sushi This image has been released into the public domain by the copyright holder, its copyright has expired, or it is ineligible for copyright. ...

Criticism

Practical

Veganism requires a level of attention to the details of consumption which many non-vegans view as inconvenient, particularly in the area of food preparation. Most dishes prepared in western culture involve at least one non-vegan element — dairy, in particular, is pervasive. And while most people are accustomed to the idea of vegetarianism, it is much more difficult for vegans to simply "eat around" the non-vegan elements in a meal. Unsympathetic non-vegans may resent the extra effort of accommodating the vegan diet. Some vegan substitutions for non-vegan ingredients (such as soy milk for milk) only superficially resemble their animal meat based analogues, according to their critics, but many vegans enjoy these foods as they are, without wishing for too close a similarity to animal products. Soy and nut milks, of course, have been around for millenia. Cooking, as a chemical process, relies on properties (such as the fat content of milk) that plant- and animal-based ingredients do not always share, and so in some recipes calling for animal products, the vegan substitutions do not work well (similarly, vegan recipes in which omnivores insert animal products may fail, at times spectacularly). It is as well that there are so many excellent and innovative vegan cookbooks, and that vegans generally try not to simply replicate the meals they grew up with, but to extend their culinary repetoires. Soy milk or soya milk is the liquid extraction processed from soybeans after soaking, grinding, cooking and straining. ...

The lifestyle choices can be somewhat inconvenient at first. For example, avoiding clothing and shoes containing wool or leather, most brands of latex condoms (as latex is often produced with the milk protein casein), hygienic products such as soap and the myriad other animal products that many people are used to using takes skill and experience. This means that shopping for a vegan can be an awkward event filled with questions that sales assistants can't answer, even for a person with experience in these matters. Because of this, many view the practical lifestyle choices as equally or more inconvenient than the actual diet itself. Of course, label reading and looking up ingredients becomes habitual, and many vegans express their pleasure at understanding just what is going into or onto their bodies and come to regard the idea of not doing so as rather horrifying. It is often referred to as an empowering experience. Many vegans find the experience broadens their understanding of how the food, cosmetics, and clothing industries work and leads them into environmental and human rights activism. It is often the case that omnivores have difficulty in understanding that vegans do not feel deprived, that they are not practising a form of aeseticism, and that they find pleasure in their veganism. Omnivores often express the idea that vegans are "disciplined" in their choices, but vegans tend to feel that they have simply adopted new habits. Because many people believe vegans to be practising a form of self-denial, and because self-denial is often seen as morally superior, many omnivores assume that vegans feel morally superior to them. This regrettable misunderstanding often causes difficulties in social interaction, and many vegans feel that it is best not to talk about their veganism for fear that omnivores will feel implicitly criticised. It is fascinating that human cultures, foods, and assumptions about the world are so intimately connected. Long and short hair wool at the South Central Family Farm Research Center in Boonesville, AR Wool is the fiber derived from the hair of domesticated animals, usually sheep. ... Modern leather-making tools Leather is a material created through the tanning of hides, pelts and skins of animals, primarily cows. ... This article is about the concept in marketing. ... The LaTeX logo, typeset with LaTeX LATEX is a document preparation system for the TeX typesetting program. ... A condom is a device, usually made of latex, that covers a mans penis during sexual intercourse to avoid pregnancy and/or sexually transmitted diseases (STD) such as gonorrhea, syphilis and HIV. They are also known as prophylactics, as well as a number of colloquial or slang terms, such... See Casein paint for information about casein usage in artistic painting. ... Hygiene is the maintenance of healthful practices. ... This article is about a common cleaning mixture. ...

Political

Perceptions of veganism are often influenced by ideological associations with a variety of other movements and organizations, including environmentalism, anti-globalization, and especially more outspoken animal rights activist groups such as PETA. Vegans also find themselves the butt of jokes on TV and in film, usually depicted as unattractive, humourless idealogues, and their food as bland, uninspiring, or revolting, regardless of whether they are or not. Many vegans find themselves struggling with anger at being misrepresented, or with having to be consistently nice to people who are rude, or even aggressively hostile to them; it can be hard to maintain a compassionate outlook under such circumstances, but whenever a vegan loses her/his temper under pressure, they are aware that this will often be interpreted as vindication of the initial provocation. Environmentalism is the support or involvement with the environmental movement by environmentalists. ... Anti-WEF grafiti in Lausanne. ... The Great Ape Project is campaigning for a Declaration on Great Apes. ... This article describes the SI prefix peta. ...

Moral/ethical

The primary ethical criticism of veganism is against the perceived underlying philosophy of "indirect responsibility" via reductio ad absurdum. First of all, say these critics, a vegan diet does not stop the killing of animals in the production of food. Field animals such as rodents, snakes and rabbits as well as worms and insects are routinely killed in the course of producing crops. This argument depends on the perception of the critic that vegans have fallen into the trap of the Perfect solution fallacy or results from the critic themselves falling into said trap. Proponents of Veganism would argue that the intent is to avoid suffering, realizing that there is no way to live without infringing on some other life, and point out that environmentally sustainable farming methods greatly reduce the number of animals killed through the application of herbicides, pesticides, and chemical fertilisers, the use of monocropping, and the use of huge harvesting machines. Critics further argue that, though daily recommended protein intake obtained from a vegetarian diet is generally less bloody than a diet consisting of meat, it is theoretically possible to take fewer lives if one eats meat from free roaming animals (such as fish or meat obtained by hunting). In this instance the consumer is not responsible for living organisms consumed by such an animal while it is growing up. Vegans would argue that there is not enough space and resources on the planet Earth to allow Free Range farming to meet the dietary desires of the current human population. Reductio ad absurdum (Latin for reduction to the absurd, traceable back to the Greek ἡ εις το αδυνατον απαγωγη, reduction to the impossible, often used by Aristotle) is a type of logical argument where we assume a claim for the sake of argument, arrive at an absurd result, and then... Families Many, see text The order Rodentia is the most numerous of all the branches on the mammal family tree. ... Superfamilies and Families Henophidia Aniliidae Anomochilidae Boidae Bolyeriidae Cylindrophiidae Loxocemidae Pythonidae Tropidophiidae Uropeltidae Xenopeltidae Typhlopoidea Anomalepididae Leptotyphlopidae Typhlopidae Xenophidia Acrochordidae Atractaspididae Colubridae Elapidae Hydrophiidae Viperidae Snakes are cold blooded legless reptiles closely related to lizards, which share the order Squamata. ... Genera Pentalagus Bunolagus Nesolagus Romerolagus Brachylagus Sylvilagus Oryctolagus Poelagus The bane of Australian farmers - the wild rabbit Rabbits are small mammals in the family Leporidae, found in many parts of the world. ... A worm is an elongated soft-bodied invertebrate animal. ... Orders Subclass Apterygota Symphypleona - globular springtails Subclass Archaeognatha (jumping bristletails) Subclass Dicondylia Monura - extinct Thysanura (common bristletails) Subclass Pterygota Diaphanopteroidea - extinct Palaeodictyoptera - extinct Megasecoptera - extinct Archodonata - extinct Ephemeroptera (mayflies) Odonata (dragonflies and damselflies) Infraclass Neoptera Blattodea (cockroaches) Mantodea (mantids) Isoptera (termites) Zoraptera Grylloblattodea Dermaptera (earwigs) Plecoptera (stoneflies) Orthoptera   (grasshoppers, crickets... The perfect solution fallacy is a logical fallacy that occurs when an argument assumes that a perfect solution exists and/or that a solution should be rejected because some part of the problem would still exist after it was implemented. ... Earth, also known as the Earth or Terra, is the third planet outward from the Sun. ...

Critics also point out that any act of consumption is likely to involve proxy killing. When we purchase books (timber), switch the light on (to use electricity) or drive a car (gas, plastic, steel, electricity), we indirectly contribute to the destruction of the environment and therefore the taking of life. In essence, human existence causes suffering. Vegans would respond that minimizing suffering is their goal, as eliminating it is unrealistic. Further, they argue that they seek to both minimize the inadvertent and eliminate the deliberate. When presented with the choice of minimal inadvertent suffering and deliberate suffering, the vegan chooses the former. One implication of the critic's position is that one should not procreate, so as to avoid proxy killing by one's offspring and their descendants, so one who has led a strictly vegan diet all his/her life but failed to practice contraception would have caused infinitely more (indirect) suffering than a man who led a life of greed and gluttony but avoided producing children. Yet, this argument, which could arguably be seen as a Straw man, ignores the fact that people who are driven by greed and gluttony have not been shown to not procreate or that vegans, in any official position, advocate avoiding contraception; indeed, while many straight-edge vegans abjure casual sex - or, in some cases, sex itself — there is also a proportion of vegans who believe in zero population growth and take steps to ensure that they will not reproduce. Veganism generally does not take a reproductive stance, leaving that decision to each individual vegan, as reproductive choices are made by all individuals. A vegan parent would argue that raising vegan children involves less cruelty than raising omnivorous ones, and that the more vegans there are, the more pressure there is on industry to minimize cruelty in their products. If a shampoo manufacturer eliminates animal products and testing from its products, they are eliminated for all consumers, vegans and non-vegans alike. A straw man or man of straw is a dummy in the shape of a human created by stuffing straw into clothes. ...

In essence, critics claim that veganism merely serves as a symbolic gesture while obscuring the nature of human activities; yet these activities are exactly what vegans are seeking to change. The underlying principles of veganism indicate that one should consume less. For example, one may be more careful about the quantity of food one consumes rather than the type of food. Vegans would take this one step further and argue that food consumption does not have to be an either/or situation. A responsible consumer can control their quantity and type of food consumption and enjoy the benefits of both decisions. Critics argue that veganism is not exactly wrong but misguided, while vegans argue that the same can be said about their critics.

See also

• Anarcho-punk
• Animal rights
• Environmentalism, Ethical consumerism
• Freeganism
• Imitation meat
• In vitro meat
• Living foods diet
• Nonviolence
• Vegan organic horticulture and agriculture, Veganic gardening
• World Vegan Day, Wiktionary:Veg*n
• Vegan menu items
• Animal Liberation Front
• Animal testing, Vivisection
• People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals
• Peter Singer
• Henry Spira

The anarchy symbol commonly used by anarcho-punks Anarcho-punk (sometimes known as peace-punk) is a subgenre of the punk rock movement consisting of groups and bands promoting specifically anarchist ideas. ... The Great Ape Project is campaigning for a Declaration on Great Apes. ... Environmentalism is the support or involvement with the environmental movement by environmentalists. ... Ethical consumerism is the practice of boycotting products which a consumer believes to be associated with unnecessary exploitation or other unethical behaviour. ... Freeganism is the practice of minimising ones impact on the environment by means of consuming food that has been or is about to be thrown away by someone else (e. ... Imitation meat typically refers to any vegetarian food product designed to imitate the flavour and texture of processed meat. ... In vitro meat, also known as laboratory-grown meat, is animal flesh that has never been part of a complete, living animal. ... The raw food diet (or living foods diet) is a dietary regimen consisting of uncooked and unprocessed organic foods. ... Nonviolence (or non-violence) is a set of assumptions about morality, power and conflict that leads its proponents to reject the use of violence in efforts to attain social or political goals. ... Vegan Organic Horticulture and Agriculture aims to produce organically grown foods and other crops whilst minimising (preferably erradicating) the exploitation or harm of any living creature. ... Veganic gardening (or vegetal organic gardening) is a system of vegan organic gardening developed by Rosa Dalziell OBrien and May E Bruce, although the term was originally coined by Geoffrey Rudd. ... World Vegan Day is November 1st each year to celebrate the creation of the The Vegan Society and the 2004 event marks the 60th birthday. ... Vegans may safely order menu items from the restaurants listed below. ... Beagles removed by British ALF activists from a testing laboratory owned by Boots the Chemists. ... Beagle being used to determine the toxicity of an industrial gas. ... Anaesthetised rat in a stereotaxic restraining device about to undergo brain surgery. ... People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) is an international non-profit organization dedicated to animal rights. ... Prof. ... Henry Spira (June 19, 1927 - September 12, 1998) was a prominent animal rights activist in the United States. ...

References

Nutrition

• Stephen Walsh Plant Based Nutrition and Health, The Vegan Society 2003, ISBN 0-907337-26-0 (paperback), ISBN 0-907337-27-9 (hardback).
• Gill Langley Vegan Nutrition: a survey of research, The Vegan Society 1988, ISBN 0-907337-15-5

Environmental issues

• Prof. V. Smil, Rationalizing Animal Food Production, in Feeding the World: A Challenge for the 21st Century, MIT Press, London, 2000. This provides evidence for the amount of grain required to raise livestock.
• C. de Haan, H. Steinfeld & H. Blackburn, Livestock and the Environment: Finding a Balance FAO, USAID, World Bank, 1998. Provides evidence of environmental damage caused by animal farming, mainly factory farming.

External links

Vegan organizations

• American Vegan Society
• Christian Vegetarian Association
• Movement for Compassionate Living (The Vegan Way)
• People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals
• Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine
• Society of Ethical and Religious Vegetarians
• Vegan Society (UK)
• Farm Sanctuary
• Compassion Over Killing
• Earth Save - Promoting a Plant Based Diet

Nutrition

• The Vegan Society (UK) webpages on nutrition
• Free online talks on vegan nutrition

General articles

• Beyond Vegetarianism
• Essays by Joanne Stepaniak

Vegan websites

• - Vegan (and vegetarian) Wristbands
• - Vegan Baby and Vegan Mother Superstore
• - Vegan House Wares
• - Vegan Shoes and Clothing
• Meat Filter, a vegan blog
• Vegan.com, Erik Marcus's website
• Vegan Action
• The Vegan Forum - an international message board for vegans
• Huge searchable database of vegan recipes
• World Vegan Social Day
• German Vegan website

(See also external links on the vegetarianism page.) A selection of produce typical of a vegetarian diet. ...