Veganism
Until the recent acceleration of conversion to vegetarianism, veganism
was a rather difficult lifestyle to adopt. Nutritional information was
sparse, support was lacking and retail provision was negligible; nor
was there much understanding in the general public - even vegetarianism
was often seen as deviant or as best eccentric only a decade ago.
Nowadays, however, the picture is completely different.
A major reason for adopting the vegan diet is concern at the suffering
of animals in present-day food-production. The concern of the vegan
extends to all aspects of the use of animals - not just the piece of
animal on your plate. Egg production, both factory-farmed and free-range,
inevitably involves the suffocation, crushing or gassing of 40 million
chicks every year that happen to be born male and are consequently useless
to an egg producer.
The same idea applies to male calves - in order to take milk from the
mother, she must be made pregnant once a year. The calves are then taken
from their mothers at a few days old, causing great distress to both
mother and calf. Farm animals are not allowed to reach old age: with
the current trend towards incorporating farms into ever larger business
concerns, profitability is all, and welfare and ethics take a back seat.
There are other reasons for becoming vegan - the health of the planet
and human health. Given the waste (90%) involved in feeding vegetable
protein to animals for a small return of animal protein, we cannot today
afford to waste our land resources on such inefficient practices. It
has been estimated (Crispin Tickell, British Association for the Advancement
of Science) that the planet can support only 3 billion people on the
average meat-dominated North American diet. Given that the current population
of the planet is over 5 billion, North Americans are necessarily taking
more than is their fair share of the planet’s food resources.
The methane produced from meat and dairy farming has been proven to
be one of the highest factors in climate change.
Studies have also shown that the vegan diet is healthy. Here are just
two examples from the wealth of evidence. Health benefits are also well
established - vegetarians suffer less from obesity, coronary heart disease,
high blood pressure, diabetes, diet-related cancers, diverticular disease,
constipation and gall stones (Diet, nutrition and health: report of
the Board of Science and Education, British Medical Association 1986).
In this climate more and more people understand the reasons for vegetarianism
and with the prominence of the live animal exports issue; the logic
of veganism has become more evident. The vegan diet is highly effective
in reducing heart disease and other conditions. It is necessary to at
least cut down on milk and egg products because they are still sources
of animal fats, which cause circulatory diseases. A study recently showed
that feeding babies cow’s milk instead of human milk causes juvenile
diabetes - in many cases an allergic reaction can be set up where the
baby’s body attacks its own pancreas. It is now universally agreed
that virtually no one in the west suffers from protein deficiency, including
vegans. Dairy products remain the worst foods for congesting the body.
Since the early 1980s, the collective at Arjuna has
always included some vegans (before that, vegans were rare everywhere),
and providing for vegans is a well established policy principle. It
is our aim to provide all the basic ingredients for a vegan diet here,
including dairy substitutes such as soya, which is one of the most common
dairy alternatives, being used to make dairy free cheese, milk, yoghurt,
cream, tofu and tempeh. But soya is not the only alternative, and to
make sure that your diet is not limited, it is recommended to have a
variety of food sources, other dairy alternatives such as rice and oat
milks. For meal alternatives there is also seitan, made from wheat gluten.
These are particularly useful for new vegans with hankerings for dairy
products. However, some choose to take a fresh approach to meals and
recipes, rather than simply replacing dairy products with vegan substitutes,
We also try to make shopping
a more pleasant experience for vegans by avoiding, foods where dairy
products have been included as unnecessary additives such as whey, and
lactic acid sourced from dairy.
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