My Thoughts on Veganism

I went vegan at the beginning of 2020. For years I’ve been horrified by factory farming (in the future I think it will be seen as one of the greatest moral horrors of our time) and had been reducing my intake of animal products for a while but never felt brave enough to fully commit.

I decided to try Veganuary in 2020 and have mostly stuck with it ever since. Some benefits I experienced:

• I have way less cognitive dissonance between my beliefs and actions

• I learned how to cook delicious vegan food to the point where I really don’t miss non-vegan stuff unless I’m eating out

• I’m eating more balanced and nutritious food so I feel healthier and have lost weight

Why?

I’m vegan for animal suffering reasons. I don’t think a vegan diet is inherently healthier than other diets (though it has encouraged me to eat more nutritiously). I don’t think it’s inherently bad to use animal products (if I owned chickens I’d probably eat their eggs). I’m not even sure if it’s inherently bad to kill animals for food if they don’t suffer (I am still figuring out my stance on population ethics). A positive side effect of veganism is that it’s likely better for the environment, though that’s not my primary motivation. I’m very excited about the possibility of clean meat I have no ethical objection to eating a substance identical to meat that didn’t involve suffering (though I think we should be quite careful due to risks of prions diseases).