Tag: veganism

What is the most common argument you’ve heard against going vegan?

As a vegan organization, the Vancouver Humane Society regularly advocates to make plant-based eating more accessible and reduce the demand for industrial animal agriculture. Plant-based advocates often hear arguments from people who disagree with veganism. This episode will delve into some of those arguments and ways to respond to them in a manner that is reasoned, thoughtful, and kind.

Plant-based whole foods

Amy: The first argument is that plant-based foods are overly processed.

Chantelle: Yeah, I hear this one a lot. I think sometimes people mistake the term plant-based foods for commercial plant-based meat substitutes or dairy substitutes.

But when we use the term plant-based, we’re really just referring to any foods that are made from plants without animal products. That includes things like vegetables, whole grains, legumes, nuts, seeds.

Of course, you can also find processed plant-based foods, just as you can find processed animal-based foods.

Why do people eat processed plant-based foods?

Chantelle: Processed foods also have their place. Some people enjoy them as a treat or as a quick option. Some people use them as they’re transitioning from an omnivore diet to make the shift easier.

I personally really enjoy some of the meat alternatives; they’re one of the proteins in my meal rotation. And so are lentils, and so are beans, and tofu, and nuts, and seitan, and soy curls, and all those other whole foods.

I basically eat how I ate before I went vegan, but thinking a little more now about getting all my nutrients. I also have a little bit more variety in my diet, just because there’s more plants out there than there are animals that humans eat.

I find that generally when someone shifts to a plant-based diet, if they ate processed foods made from animals, generally they’ll also have some processed foods made from plants in their diet. And if they ate mostly whole foods as an omnivore, they’ll do the same as a vegan.

Switching to a plant-based diet almost never looks like switching from an organic chicken breast and steamed vegetables and organic brown rice on a plate to like a plate of imitation meat and Oreos.

“Processed” doesn’t mean “bad”

Chantelle: I think it’s important to note that processed foods are not bad foods. There are some foods that feed your soul more than they feed your body, but also a lot of imitation meats have a nutrition profile that’s comparable to the meat that they’re imitating.

We have a really good blog post about understanding meat alternatives on our Plant University website that looks at a nutrition profile breakdown of meat alternatives.

Learning what nutrients your body needs

Amy: Personally, I like to think of food as a spectrum. So from eating raw vegetables to a processed plant-based burger, they all have a place in our diet.

There’s a few things that I’ve been surprised to learn as a vegan. There’s just myths out there about food.

Microwaving vegetables has been tested as keeping more nutrients in them than boiling them. Cooking method and ingredients in food can impact the amount of nutrients your body gets from the foods.

Focus on a variety of foods you enjoy

Amy: Variety really makes the biggest impact on nutrient intake. I try to think of that in terms of how I eat.

In one day, I might eat cereal and oat milk that’s fortified with vitamins and minerals. I might have a smoothie with fresh frozen fruits, hemp seeds, chia seeds, flax seeds, maybe even a plant-based collagen booster powder to strengthen my tendons that has greens and probiotics in it. I might have chips with pre-made salsa, an avocado, and then homemade cashew queso made with raw ingredients like nutritional yeast, lemon juice, salt, chili powder, and then maybe some vegan chocolate to make sure I get all my iron.

Half of that is processed, half of it isn’t, but my focus is on foods that taste good, promote muscle and tendon strength, are really easy, and promote brain and blood health.

The other day I had a microwavable vegan gluten free lasagna from Amy’s Kitchen, and another day I bought vegan pizza and pre-prepared samosas, and another day Daiya vegan pizza because I don’t necessarily have a lot of time in my day.

They’re all quick, they tasted good, and that’s what keeps me enjoying plant-based foods. So as long as I’m not eating the same thing every day and I try to switch it up and include fruits and veggies here and there, I know I’m doing alright on nutrients.

Make plant-based eating fun

Amy: When folks are thinking about this and talking about this, I think it’s about acceptance. I think it’s about making eating plant-based foods fun and enjoyable and easy and having less judgement on like what that looks like for an individual person; because that’s going to change over their lifetime, given their mental health, time capacity, energy levels, activity levels, all of those things.

Chantelle: Yeah, I think that’s a really good way of looking at it.

It takes more crops to feed animals than humans

Chantelle: We talk about how plant-based eating is better for the environment, but sometimes we hear from people that they believe veganism is bad for the environment, particularly because it drives monoculture crops.

A lot of people talk about the impact of growing things like soy as monoculture crops. We know that’s a key protein that you can eat on a plant-based diet, but more crops are needed to feed animals for human consumption than would be needed to feed humans directly.

The demand for meat and animal products is actually a driving factor in the use of monoculture crops because the vast majority of animals grown for food spend some or all of their lives in an industrial farming environment or a feedlot. It’s not all grazing on pastures.

• In Canada, corn is mainly used for animal feed and ethanol.
• In the United States, 12% of corn is used to feed people, but 60% goes to feeding animals raised for foods.
• About 77% of the world’s soy is used for animal feed.

So we’re seeing that by and large, more of these proteins and grains are being used to feed animals than if they were feeding humans directly.

Amy: It’s amazing how much farmland is being used to grow food to feed animals, which in any kind of logical way of thinking is a huge inefficiency when it comes to feeding a population of more than 7 billion people.

We’d be doing a lot better for the environment if all those fields grew food directly to feed people.

Approach with curiosity

Amy: I think if this is brought up and someone is talking about it, the best way to meet them is with compassion, kind of sharing, I hear that you care for the environment and you’re concerned about monoculture crops. And I’d love to learn more about this alongside you because I’m not an expert in it.

And then going someplace you can trust the output of it and research it together and come at it with that idea of learning and growing alongside them, rather than trying to prove that they’re wrong or make it seem like they have no idea what they’re talking about.

It’s okay to walk away

Chantelle: There’s two different sides of this coin of people using these arguments. There’s people you might be talking to in real life who often are speaking in good faith using arguments where they really feel they’re making the best decision for the environment or for what they really care about.

Sometimes there’s people on the internet saying these things who are really just going to throw whatever spaghetti at the wall they can to dispute your point. And sometimes you just have to walk away from arguments like that as well.

Eating local helps, but pair it with other changes

Amy: This next one, I think it’s a really good argument. I’m really curious to hear what you have to say about it, Chantelle. The argument is that shipping plant-based foods from far away is bad for the environment. You should just eat local, humanely raised, animal-based foods.

So I imagine this is things like palm oil and coconut coming on planes from places far away.

Chantelle: One thing people talk about is the impact of shipping plant-based foods a long distance as opposed to eating local animal based foods. And they’ve done a lot of research on this.

It’s certainly important to prioritize local, sustainable plant agriculture. I think we can all agree on that.

But, the research shows that ending all international food transport would only cut food miles emissions by 9% worldwide. Researchers have said that other choices like eating seasonal produce and reducing meat consumption could have a greater impact in reducing the climate impact of your food.

We can’t move to local, more “humane” animal foods while meeting current demand

Chantelle: Another thing is that eating local the way that some people talk about isn’t possible for most people. A lot of people who use this argument are talking about rural communities where they’re picturing a small scale animal farm with animals out on the pasture, and you can walk over to meet your local farmer, and then you can buy some meat from your local butcher, and that’s not what’s really happening.

The reality of the world we live in is the vast majority of people are living in cities, and we don’t have the space to be raising animals like that to feed all those people.

If we go farther out into nearby rural communities, we don’t have the space to have every animal roaming the pasture to meet a really high demand for animal products for every person who lives in the world right now.

That’s why industrial animal agriculture developed: to fit more animals into a smaller space for a lower cost and meet that really high demand for our growing population.

We don’t have a world of Old McDonald farms. We have a world where about 90% of farmed animals and 74% of farmed land animals are being raised in factory farms.

Locally raised animals can still be transported long distances to slaughter

Amy: With how few slaughterhouses there are, animals, even ones that are raised locally, are being transported huge distances to be killed.

For example, something I learned when I lived on the Sunshine Coast of British Columbia is that animals have to travel in vehicles, on a ferry, and then on the highway again, going to the Lower Mainland.

Then the meat, after the animals are killed and processed, goes back on the highway, on the ferry, on the highway again.

And that’s a short distance compared to some of the really long distances animals are being shipped. That uses just so many greenhouse gases, not to mention the suffering of the animals.

Plant-based foods skip the slaughterhouse

Amy: So the benefit of plant-based products is they skip that in between step. They’re going to on farm or nearby processing facilities and then they’re getting to the consumer more directly.

This is an argument that can be shared and at the same time it’s something that can be researched together, discussed together, and making sure that you hear where someone’s coming from.

Absolutely, coconuts are shipped from far away, but what are some other things we can consider? It’s all about having that conversation and building trust with the other person who’s putting that argument forward that you understand where they’re coming from.

Chantelle: Yeah, that’s a really great point. The animals are shipped from the pasture to the feedlot to the slaughterhouse and the crops to feed the animals are shipped from wherever they’re grown to the feedlot. There’s a lot more steps involved in animal agriculture than there are in plant-based.

True: Wild animals die as a result of agriculture

Chantelle: Another argument that we hear is veganism causes more animal deaths than animal agriculture.

I have a really hard time with this one, but I think a way to approach it compassionately is just to kind of lay out the facts.

First of all, do animals die from growing plants? Yes. Some animals die unintentionally from the machinery that’s used to grow and harvest crops, and some animals are killed intentionally to protect crops.

Some animals are also killed intentionally to protect farmed animals raised for food; that’s just across the entire farming system.

More crops are needed to feed animals than to feed humans directly

Chantelle: First of all, it’s not just vegans eating plants. Every human needs plants to meet their nutrition requirements.

But it’s not just humans eating crops; crops are used for animal feed.

About 36% of the world’s crop calories are used for animal feed compared to 55% feeding humans directly. If we look at the calories consumed globally, about 17% of the global calorie supply comes from animal foods, and then plant-based foods make up the other 83%.

When you look at the fact that animals are eating almost as many crops as all humans, you see that it takes far more crops to feed animals for humans to eat than it would to feed humans directly.

So while it’s not possible to eliminate all animal suffering entirely, plant-based diets are the best option to dramatically reduce it.

Respond with understanding and empathy

Amy: Yeah, this one’s interesting. I mean, animals die from all aspects of human existence.

With the need to protect crops, pesticides and rodenticides are being used.

Going to a restaurant, there’s likely rat and mouse traps set up all over the place. Grocery stores as well.

These are existing with any kind of food. It’s not a problem specific to veganism.

The best thing to do when someone brings this up is not to deny it, but to acknowledge it. It’s sad. It sucks a lot that animals are dying so that humans can live and can consume plants, but eating a vegan diet still has a far less impact on animals in the environment overall.

You can get all the nutrients you need from plant-based foods

Amy: This next one I think is a really common one that comes up, and it’s that plant-based foods won’t meet all your nutritional needs.

Chantelle: Yeah, I think that we’re getting to a place where there’s a broader scientific consensus that eating more plant-based foods is healthier for you.

When we look at the specific nutrients, you can get all the nutrients you need from plant-based foods.

There are a few that are more difficult to get or that only come in fortified plant-based foods. If you don’t want to keep track of all the nutrients you’re consuming directly from foods every day, you can take a supplement. I personally take iron pill and a B12 gummy every day. I sometimes also take omega 3 gummies.

But I get plenty of protein and calcium and iron from plants. And those are the ones that I see people worry about the most often.

You can’t get all the nutrients you need from animal foods alone

Chantelle: Another thing to note is I see carnivore only diets popping up sometimes where people are just eating animal-based foods. And you cannot get all the nutrients you need from that.

You can only get fibre from plant-based foods. So people on a carnivore only diet are getting zero fibre.

Nutrition is no mystery

Chantelle: One of the first things you learn as a kid is you’ll be healthier if you eat your veggies, and it holds true.

There’s this impression that nutrition is such a mystery, and everything is just a trend. But really, the vast majority of nutrition experts have reached a consensus that eating a wide variety of whole plant-based foods is good for your health, and it’s a good idea to limit red meat intake.

Amy: Absolutely. And just to add to some of those things you said, Chantelle, oat milk has a lot of B12 added into it already. Dark chocolate is so full of iron. Beans have a lot of calcium, but so do fortified plant milks, figs, leafy greens. Potatoes have a bunch of potassium and vitamin C.

Nutrition education has been influenced by industry

Amy: I’ve realized that most of what I’ve learned about nutrition growing up was influenced by food manufacturers and producers such as the dairy industry.

We know now that kids can thrive on plant-based diets.

The beauty of scientific research means that we understand it isn’t dairy milk that’s preventing osteoarthritis. It’s the combination of consuming calcium and a magnesium together in good quantities. You can get those in combination together from greens, seeds, beans, brown rice, quinoa. The list goes on and on.

So this is one of those myths that I find really fun to chat about with people because they start to realize how much what they grew up with is not the reality and how much opportunity there is to learn about what a body needs to thrive and be well.

And again, the most important part is to approach it with excitement and intrigue and compassion.

Talking about these topics with a judgment or know it all attitude will just sour someone’s experience and have the opposite impact.

Chantelle: Absolutely. That is always something really important to keep in mind.

Soy does not increase estrogen levels

Chantelle: We’re keeping in the trend of health related topics; sometimes you hear that soy is bad for you because it increases estrogen.

Desiree Nelson did a great job debunking this on our Plant University blog post called 10 Tips for Getting Started on a Plant-Based Diet Today.

Soy gets a bad reputation because it has something in it called phytoestrogen, which is a naturally occurring compound in plant foods that has a similar chemical structure to our body’s natural estrogen, but it behaves differently and it’s about a thousand times weaker.

According to research, phytoestrogens don’t increase our body’s estrogen, and some experts have suggested they may have a balancing effect on our body’s natural hormone levels.

But if you are worried about extra estrogen in your diet, your real concern should be dairy, which is the source of about 60 to 80 percent of estrogens consumed in Western diets.

Soy is does not increase estrogen or decrease testosterone levels

Amy: This was actually a really big one that came up when I was dating someone who was concerned about veganism. The bottom line that I figured out after researching it is that soy foods are a good source of protein and a healthy part of a balanced diet.

The concerns I heard most are related to men and children. So I’ll speak more to that.

As far as men, research has shown that eating soy foods does not lead to increased estrogen levels or decreased testosterone levels in men. Some studies have even shown that soy consumption may have a significant health benefit for men, such as lowering the risk of prostate cancer and improving heart health.

Soy has many nutrients for healthy development in children

Amy: As far as children goes, soy is a really great source of protein, providing all the essential amino acids required for growth and development. Soy foods contain fiber, vitamin K, folate, some B vitamins, iron, calcium, and magnesium. It also contains polyunsaturated fats, including omega 3 and omega 6 fatty acids, which are important for brain development.

So knowing these facts and more about plant-based nutrients can really help when those challenging questions come up from parents who think a vegan diet is abusive to children.

Dairy calves are removed so their mothers’ milk can be used and sold

Amy: The next argument is that the dairy industry takes calves from their mothers so that the mother cow doesn’t accidentally kill them.

Chantelle: Dairy farmers and sanctuary owners have spoken out against this myth, but it’s still one that persists.

Dairy is produced by impregnating cows and then the baby calf is typically removed within a few hours so the milk can be used by humans.

And then the calves are fed milk, which is sometimes waste milk from the dairy industry or a milk replacer. And then they go on to be killed for veal if they’re male or raised as dairy cows if they’re female.

Are the calves removed for their own safety? No. They’re removed because the human animal agriculture industry wants to use the milk. They would be removed regardless, because we have a dairy industry and humans want to use milk for their own consumption.

Dairy cows and calves suffer when separated

Chantelle: But even if dairy cows had lost some of their maternal instincts through the years, through generations of having their babies removed, it wouldn’t be an excuse to continue breeding them and continuing the cycle.

We see that cows mourn when their babies are taken away. They cry. They chase after them. They try to stop the farmers from taking the calves.

The dairy industry continues to do this so the milk can be used and sold for humans, and it doesn’t need to be. We have plant-based alternatives for this.

Cows and calves form a close bond

Amy: I’ve spent quite a bit of time with mama and baby cows. And it’s so incredibly far from reality, I’m not even sure how it got spread as a myth.

The bond between cows and their babies is one of the most beautiful motherhood bonds I personally have ever experienced.

I’ve noticed that cow moms are just so protective of their little ones. I got to be around just a couple day old calf and mama put her horns around me. I was providing some supplemental milk to the calf to make sure that he was getting enough and she watched me every second of the time I was there with him.

They feed calves from their udders for years, not just one year, but sometimes more. Past the point where the calves start to be painful and annoying and they bother their mums. Their mums still keep feeding them and giving them love. It’s pretty special.

The dairy industry is emotionally painful for animals

Amy: I’ve heard the call of calves and their mums calling for each other on multiple different farms who are separated from each other. And it’s really sad.

If you really think about the dairy industry and how it’s all set up, to me, this is in a way the most emotionally painful and complex animal industry.

And yet it’s the one that people love cheese and they have a really hard time giving up milk because they just like how it tastes and it’s addictive.

And yet this is the one that has such a massive emotional burden on so many. It’s something that we can move away from and, and take a stand for the mamas and the babies and what they deserve.

Chantelle: I hear a lot from people who say they would have a hard time giving up cheese. I was one of them once, and I think a lot of people who are vegan now were once that person.

And once I gave it up, I honestly didn’t find it difficult. But I find it really difficult to see the realities of the dairy industry.

Selective breeding in modern farmed animals poses welfare concerns

Chantelle: So this next argument is when I have a really hard time believing that people are making it in good faith, but maybe they are. The idea is if we stopped farming animals, those animals would go extinct.

I don’t know where this idea came from, that animal agriculture is some sort of conservation movement. Keeping animals alive so that we can use and slaughter them at a fraction of their natural lifespan is not about conservation.

Modern farmed animals have also been selectively bred for the maximum meat production or byproduct production, like eggs or dairy, and that has been detrimental to their health. It leads to so much suffering.

• Broiler chickens raised for meat grow so large that their legs cannot support their bodies.
• Egg laying hens lay eggs far more often than they would in the wild, which uses up the calcium they need in their bodies, and it leads to bone fractures.
• There are genetic defects in cattle and sheep and pigs from selective breeding for growth and from inbreeding.

Animal agriculture is harmful to wildlife conservation

Chantelle: If we’re talking about conservation, industrial animal agriculture has also been extremely harmful for wildlife.

• Wild animals are killed to protect farmed animals.
• We see habitat loss for raising and feeding animals.
• Agricultural runoff is harmful to waterways and to animals who live in them and depend on them for drinking water.

When we look at all of the mammals on earth, farmed animals make up 62% of the world’s mammal biomass, whereas wild animals are just 4%. Farmed animals are really not struggling to be conserved right now.

How grazing impacts conservation

Amy: I appreciate this one because I think it comes up really commonly with the beef industry. Particularly it’s one I’ve seen the Canadian Cattlemen’s Association put forward a specific version of it, which is that there’s areas of the North American plains that only cows are able to graze to maintain, and that it would be problematic if these areas were not grazed.

There’s truth to this statement. And I think that’s important to acknowledge. It’s true that there are benefits to grazing. There used to be huge amounts of bison ranging the land and grazing.

Well managed grazing mimics the natural processes that once involved those wild herbivores. It maintains plant diversity, supports soil health, and regulates species composition.

But on the flip side, we’re talking about well managed grazing. And when it comes to the volume of animals being produced for farming, there’s often overgrazing or poor management of that land, which can degrade the ecosystems.

So, if cows were to stop grazing in many of these areas, there’s benefits that could be experienced such as without the pressure of domestic livestock, the ecosystems could be more natural. There could be new plant diversity and more wild animals coming back into the spaces. And then it can also improve the soil structure, reduce erosion, and increase soil carbon sequestration, which benefits the ecosystem and climate change mitigation.

So, there’s sort of this, this nuance and this balance, but when it comes to wild animals, they move differently than farmed animals over sections of land and these areas were really intended for wild herbivores to travel across them.

The shift to a plant-based world is gradual

Chantelle: I think this one is kind of a different side of the same coin, which is if we all go vegan, the farmed animals would all be killed, or would take over, or would have nowhere to go.

And first of all, a lot of these questions come from the idea that everyone on earth will somehow go vegan all at the same time and that all farmed animals will suddenly be rendered economically redundant. I do not see that happening.

I think it’s much more realistic that people are going to gradually shift toward a plant based food system and fewer animals will be bred for food over time.

A compassionate world would not make life worse for animals

Chantelle: But even if we did have this suddenly vegan world, farmed animals are already headed to slaughter. Farmed animals are already regularly being culled because of things like shifts in the economy or disease spread.

So a world where all people suddenly care very deeply about animal welfare and are doing our best for the animals can’t be worse than the system we have in place right now.

Animal consumption continues to grow

Amy: This myth sounds like it’s coming from someone who was on their last limits of trying to have an argument against veganism.

The consumption of animals is continuing to grow on our planet. Which makes me really sad, as someone who spends my life trying to advocate for these animals.

Even with the number of people going vegan and vegetarian growing, it isn’t enough to match the population growth. The volume of animals being killed and consumed is still larger than ever.

It’s remarkable how much change is going to be needed to make a drop in the bucket when it comes to reducing animal consumption.

That degree of gradual change is not going to have any of the suggested impacts listed in this myth.

As the food system shifts for humans, we work on solutions for pets

Amy: And we’ve got one more. If we all go vegan, what will dogs and cats eat?

Chantelle: I think that’s a good question. I think as we move toward a plant-based food system for humans, we’ll also be working toward a similar shift for animals.

And it’s an important question to ask what our companion animals who eat an omnivore or carnivore diet can eat besides other animals.

If our goal is to end farmed animal suffering, two important steps are shifting human diets toward plant based foods and then working on solutions for non-human animals who eat meat to not be relying on food from other animals.

Some ways we can do that is to support researching nutrition needs and developing cultured or lab grown meat. We talk more about what pet food looks like in a vegan future in our episode, Is my pet happy.

Cultured meat (lab-grown meat) and plant-based options

Amy: I would love to see cultured meat become affordable and available for pet food. I think that is the absolute way of the future. It’s unfortunate that we’re just in a time right now where it’s still in development, but I think it’s going to become the norm very soon.

And there’s also vegan pet foods. Which many animals right now are thriving on and enjoying. I just think how great would it be to lower our impact and consumption of animal products because of continued technological innovation. And to me, that seems like something everyone can get on board with.

Next episode

Please join us next month as we hear perspectives from people who operate farm sanctuaries.

65% of people are eating fewer animal-based products.

In this month’s episode of The Informed Animal Ally, the Vancouver Humane Society’s Amy Morris and Chantelle Archambault delve into a recent project from the VHS to determine what people in British Columbia’s Lower Mainland think of plant-based eating and to share the benefits.

Note: This written discussion has been edited for length.

Why share the benefits of eating plant-based?

Chantelle: As we’ve mentioned before on this podcast, industrial animal agriculture is arguably the biggest animal welfare crisis in the world. We’ve also mentioned that eating a plant-based diet is the most impactful way to decrease the demand for animal products, which drives farmed animal suffering. Another important piece of that puzzle is advocating for plant-based foods to be more accessible for everyone. But what does that advocacy look like in practice?

This month we’ll be delving into a recent project from the Vancouver Humane Society to determine what people in British Columbia’s Lower Mainland think of plant-based eating and to share the benefits of eating a plant-based diet.

Report prepared for the City of Vancouver: Increasing Plant-Based Purchasing at the Municipal Level

Amy: Yeah, and to share a little bit of what’s kind of behind this: In 2021, the City of Vancouver made a commitment for their staff to look into the city shifting 20% of their animal-based purchasing to plant-based foods, following the release of a report that our organization commissioned on what the city could save in greenhouse gas emissions, cost, and animal lives.

So after the success of that report, we were supported by a funder to develop and promote a cost-benefit analysis demonstrating what an individual could save if shifting towards a more plant-based diet.

Poll of plant-based habits and attitudes in the Lower Mainland

Amy: That involved observing the quantity of animal products consumed by B.C. residents. Since we were already gathering that polling data, we recognized it would be worthwhile to gather meaningful data about BC residents, plant-based eating habits and attitudes as a whole.

We used a recent poll from VegTO as a starting point, and then we gathered data that we could use to further the plant-based movement in B.C. In the next little while, we’ll take you through some of the findings from both the survey and the cost benefit analysis. You can find this data linked in the blog post associated with this podcast.

There are lots of visuals there to make the data come alive. And really to give a broad overview of what the survey entails, it included results from just over 800 residents of the Lower Mainland to ensure that the data could be statistically significant.

Chantelle: Right. And those respondents were also balanced for demographics like age to be as accurate as possible.

How different generations feel about plant-based eating

Chantelle: Let’s talk about age. People have been avoiding animal products like meat, eggs, and dairy in some cultures for thousands of years, plant-based eating has deep roots in a lot of cultures, including ancient Indian cultures and Eastern Mediterranean societies. But the idea of plant-based eating in most of the Western world is pretty new.

The word vegan is less than a hundred years old. It was coined in 1944 by the founder of the Vegan Society named Donald Watson, and the concept has been growing very gradually since then and has recently bloomed.

If you were to look for a vegan-friendly meal at your average food court just 40 years ago, you wouldn’t have had a lot of options. I’ve heard so many stories from early vegans who had to get by on french fries and ketchup any time they were outl. Because those early adopters persevered and advocated, the movement has spread and now you can find something plant-based to eat almost anywhere. We’re so fortunate to have this amazing selection of veggie burgers and wraps and curries, and almost anything else you can think of.

And now that we have all these delicious options available, there’s so many more people who are open to eating plant-based foods.

Which generations are eating more plants?

Chantelle: In the survey that we did in the Lower Mainland, we found that younger generations are more likely to decrease or eliminate animal products from their diets. 69% of people aged 18 to 34 had reduced their consumption of animal products, compared to 66% of people aged 35 to 54, and 60% of people aged 55 and over.

In both the younger age groups, 3% of people identified themselves as being vegan, compared to in the 55+ age group, which rounded to 0% of people who identified as vegan.

Why people are eating more plants, by age

Chantelle: Another interesting finding that came out of the survey is that the motivations for eating more plant-based foods differed by generation.

People aged 18 to 34 were most likely to eat more plant-based foods to save money or to help the environment, while the other age groups were like ust to eat more plants for their personal health.

When it comes to choosing what to eat, all the age groups consider taste to be a priority, with price and availability coming close behind. Younger people are also more likely to consider convenience and the influence of friends, family, and their community.

It’s really great news that people are beginning to consider convenience a priority just as plant-based convenience foods are becoming more widely available. Those are things like packaged meals or plant-based lunch meat.

As companies keep developing those products and they keep evolving to have prices and flavors that rival their animal-based counterparts, it’s going to become easier and easier for someone to pick up something like a $2 package of veggie bologna over a $4 package of meat bologna that tastes essentially the same. That’s when it’s likely that we’ll see a wider shift toward a society that eats more sustainably.

Amy: Yeah, I’m really looking forward to that. Certainly I think it makes sense that eventually those products are going to become more affordable.

Do people with pets eat more plant-based foods?

Amy: We were also really curious. If people who have pets make any different decisions when it comes to plant-based eating than people without pets.

Pet guardians more likely to consider farmed animal welfare

Amy: So current pet guardians and non-pet guardians were asked how much they agreed with the statement, “I think about the treatment of farmed animals when I’m deciding what food to buy”.

I found it interesting that 59% of people who currently have pets agreed or strongly agreed with that statement compared to 47% of people who don’t currently have a pet.

Chantelle: I think that’s very interesting. I can see where that number is coming from because people who share their lives with animals can see how complex they are and how much they feel, and how strong their relationships can be.

Amy: I think it lines up with what I would expect too. Although, of course I’d love to see more connection between pets and farmed animals, considering we know they’re all sentient, they can feel pain and suffering.

Having a pet doesn’t make people value plant-based eating more

Amy: With another question on the survey, when asked how much they agreed with the statement, “Eating more plant-based foods can have a significant impact on reducing harm to animals”, there was really no discernible difference between pet guardians and non-pet guardians.

70% of people who currently have a pet agreed or strongly agreed with that statement, compared to about 68% of people who don’t currently have a pet.

Do you feel that seeing your pets’ unique personalities, intelligence, and capacity for love, joy, fear, and pain has made you more compassionate towards other animals?

Chantelle: I mean, for myself personally, sharing my life with animals has definitely made an impact on the way I see things.

Content warning: pet loss. Losing my first cat was actually what convinced me to start phasing out animal products from my diet years ago because it didn’t make sense to me to make animals die for the food I ate when I was so devastated by the death of an animal that I loved and farmed animals have the same complex internal lives that our companion animals have.

Pigs can reason just like dogs, cows form friendships and emotional bonds with their calves. Chickens can solve problems. They all dream, they think they feel and they want to have a good life.

Do men eat more meat?

Chantelle: Another interesting distinction in the survey data was about gender identity. You may have seen the stat that most vegans identify as women. Looking at the survey gives us some more insight into what the gender gap really looks like when it comes to plant-based food habits and attitudes here in the Lower Mainland.

Men are less likely to reduce animal product consumption, identify as vegan or vegetarian

In the survey, women and those who prefer to self-describe were significantly more likely at 71% to have reduced their animal product consumption than men at 58%.

Of the survey respondents who identified as vegan or vegetarian, 70% identified as women or preferred to self-describe and 30% identified as men.

That could partly be because animal products, especially meat, have historically been heavily marketed to men and associated with masculinity. If you think of something like ads for barbecue equipment that show a full tray of steaks, those are really featured around things like Father’s Day, and they almost always show men in the ads.

And then we see so many people who are changing their narrative on this, which is great news. The Game Changers is a really great documentary from filmmakers including Arnold Schwarzenegger. It follows a number of plant-based athletes to bust the myth that you need to eat animals to be strong, and it shows that anyone can be just as if not more strong eating plant-based.

What does the plant-based gender gap mean for food access?

Chantelle: I think that gender gap is probably making a really big impact when we consider that there’s a lot of men in high power positions in the companies that decide what food is available.

Men are 83% of the 533 named executive officers in S&P 100 companies, which is what many people consider to be the a hundred most major companies in the United States.That means that a lot of decisions about what food is offered and what food is marketed are ultimately being motivated by male leadership.

What do people think of plant-forward policies?

Amy: Speaking of male leaders being prominent in the corporate sector, we were really curious about what people, both those who eat plant-based primarily and those who do not, think about change at that institutional level.

Most people support plant-forward government policies

Amy: The survey showed that three in five consumers (60%) would support including animal product reduction efforts into local, provincial, and federal climate, health, and animal welfare strategies.

The results also showed that a majority (58%) would support shifting government subsidies from animal-based food production to plant-based food production.

Most people believe menus with plant-based options are more inclusive

Amy: When it came to restaurants, hospitals, schools, and public institutions like parks food service, the survey showed that 89% of consumers would either not change their opinion or value them more highly if they offered more plant-based food options.

Looking at this in more detail, the survey data indicated that 73% of consumers would view food services that offered greater variety of plant-based options as more inclusive to all.

So that’s nearly three quarters of the population that see this change as meaningful and want the kind of leadership who are making decisions about this to make more plant-based options available.

Most people would eat more plant-based foods if there were more tasty options on menus

Amy: 65% of respondents strongly or somewhat agreed that they would eat more plant-based meals if there are more tasty options available when going out to eat.

So big changes can be made at the institution level to increase the prevalence of plant-based foods.

How to advocate for more vegan-friendly options

Amy: Really the best thing we can do as individuals to support these changes is to encourage restaurants, schools, park concessions, and government to adapt familiar and popular menu items to be plant-based.

We can also ask them to prioritize the marketing of plant-based items; place them front and centre on the main menu, rather than having them be something on the side.

If you’re keen to get involved with that kind of advocacy, there’s resources PlantUniversity.ca or through our farmed animal advocacy team at the Vancouver Humane Society who can provide personalized support to help you get involved in your community to ask for more kind of prominent plant-based options.

Chantelle: Yeah, those are all great points. It makes such a big difference for individuals choosing what to eat when institutions have made those plant-based foods straightforward and accessible.

Is a plant-based diet nutritious?

Amy: We also wanted to get an idea of what the major barriers were to switching to a plant-based diet.

Survey results indicated that nutrition was the main barrier. 88% agreed or somewhat agreed that they think about nutrition when deciding what food to buy, and 28% of respondents said that they were concerned they wouldn’t get enough protein in their diet if they ate more plant-based foods.

To share a little bit of a personal story, I grew up as a gymnast eating an animal-based diet. Today, I’m a rock climber and a runner, and I have genetic blood sugar issues and I eat a fully plant-based diet.

There are some strategies I’ve found to help me keep up the energy I need for the activities I’m doing. I make sure that I eat a protein with every carb. That’s either nuts, soy products, or a good volume of lentils and beans.

I also avoid really carb intensive foods like white rice or potatoes unless it’s an activity day, because my body can’t process those types of sugars very well. So I opt for sweet potatoes and brown rice instead.

My body really craves fats and protein after a big day in the mountains, so I’ll often eat a spoonful or more of peanut butter before bed to ensure my body’s getting what it needs to stay active. Avocados are really great too, and they’re great insulin regulators.

When I take slower days where I’m not moving a lot, I eat the same ratios of food, but I stick to smaller meal sizes. The reason I eat smaller meals more frequently is to manage my blood sugar, essentially to ensure my body always has the fuel that it needs without a big sugar spike and a consequent dip.

I make sure to take my B12 and eat foods rich in magnesium, calcium, iron, and also make sure to intake lots of electrolytes.

While being active feels good, it feels even better knowing that I’m fueled by plants. I’m grateful that I don’t feel pressure to harm animals while being active. And many of my high intensity athletic friends also eat a plant-based diet.

And this is a personal experience. Certainly everyone has a different dietary need, a different kind of lifestyle, and figuring out what the best foods are for your life is what’s most important. Some of this comes lots of research, going to nutritionist, going to naturopath, and learning about food, and so I really recommend just going to many sources as you can to gather information to understand what your body needs and how to take care of yourself.

Chantelle: Yeah, absolutely. We’re really just sharing our personal experiences about what works for us, but it’s really great that you found something that works for you, Amy.

There’s so much information on nutrition out there that it can at times be hard to sort it all out. I really personally like the recipes on PlantUniversity.ca because they’re focused on good nutrition while also being really tasty. The website also has great videos from nutritionists breaking down the important things to make sure you are considering for your body to thrive on a plant-based diet.

I have also found that since going vegan and eating a plant-based diet, I’m more mindful about making sure I get the nutrients I need, so I’m eating meals that are more balanced to help me get through the day.

I used to struggle with low iron when I was an omnivore and later a vegetarian. I would experience some symptoms of that, like weakness and fatigue even when I was getting enough calories for the energy I was using. Now I’m eating more foods that are rich in that nutrient, like dark leafy greens and tofu, and I’ve found it easier to keep my nutrient levels where they need to be.

Is a plant-based diet tasty?

Chantelle: You might not be surprised to hear that the top concern people identified in the survey was taste. 73% of respondents said taste influences their food choices the most, and 37% said that they worried they wouldn’t enjoy their meals as much if they switched to more plant-based foods.

Amy: Yeah, this is a really interesting one. This is something that I’ve thought about a lot because growing up my favorite meal was macaroni and cheese and I just loved cheese in general. So when I transitioned to a plant-based diet, I was worried about having to give up my favorites.

I found a really good mac and cheese recipe using vegetables and seasoning to make up the cheese sauce. Just the other day I had a mac and cheese meal that reminded me so much of my childhood and no animals were harmed for me to be able to eat that meal. I know nostalgia is really powerful and I did miss cow’s dairy cheese for a little while. But I’ve gotten to the point now where I’ve created new memories about the food that I like to eat, and I don’t crave things like dairy cheese anymore.

There are more resources than ever to help you find options for things that you have as a go-to that provide the nutrients and the taste that you’re looking for.

I found checking out the aisle at the grocery store that has plant-based alternatives. Sometimes there’s many aisles or it’s kind of strewn around the grocery store in a lot of different spots.

I find also learning how to better flavour foods that are made with things like walnuts, beans, and lentils is the best way to address nostalgia for meat-based recipes.

Chantelle: For sure, and your taste buds definitely change as your diet does. One of my favorite things about switching to a plant-based diet has been all the new foods I’m getting to try.

When I expanded my view of food from meat being the centre of a dish to considering the dish as a whole and having all these different protein options like beans, mushrooms, lentils, tofu, seitan, and I also do enjoy plant-based convenience foods like mock meats, this whole culinary world opened up to me.

I find that I have a lot more variety in my diet now, but that’s not to say I don’t still enjoy my classic comfort foods like your mac and cheese. There are so many resources out there to adapt your favorite dishes by swapping out ingredients, but the easiest thing that I’ve found to do is if I’m craving something like Alfredo, I’ll just look up vegan Alfredo and the work of figuring out ingredient swaps is already done for me.

Amy: Yeah, I love that.

How plant-based food can lower your grocery bill

Amy: We spoke quite a bit about the survey, but the main reason we did this survey was to do a cost benefit analysis and have that be available for individuals to see the kind of financial and environmental and animal welfare benefits to switching to more plant-based diet. So what’s that all about?

Chantelle: In a brief summary, we know that one thing that’s really deeply impacting people right now is rising food costs with the price of groceries going up. We thought many people might be looking for ways to reduce the cost of their cart and the food that they’re buying.

The poll validated what we suspected and found that the vast majority of people are concerned about rising costs and are looking for ways to cut back at the grocery store.

• 92% of people are concerned about the rising cost of living.
• 87% of people are looking for ways to cut back at the grocery store, and most people are not just looking for sales and deals, they’re also looking to change the way they eat.
• 75% of people are trying to eat more affordably.
• 66% of people shared that they would be open to exploring more plant-based food options to save money.

When we look at the youngest group surveyed, all those numbers are even higher.

• 96% of people aged 18 to 34 are concerned about rising cost of livings.
• 91% are looking for ways to cut back at the grocery store.
• 82% are trying to eat more affordably.
• 77%, so more than three quarters are open to exploring more plant-based food options to save money.

While most people were open to eating more plant-based foods to save money, some people do express concerns that plant-based eating is just too expensive; maybe imagining a scenario where people are eating the highest cost mock meats every day.

But we know that practically, that’s generally not what’s happening. Most people who eat plant-based are eating a balance of a lot of different foods, including whole foods like tofu and legumes.

The cost benefit analysis essentially lays out the actual financial savings of swapping out animal products for plant-based products.

If you consider the cost savings of swapping ground beef in your chili for red lentils, a hundred grams of ground beef is $1.54. A hundred grams of lentils is less than a third of that at 48 cents. Or if you have a bean burrito instead of chicken, a hundred grams of chicken breast is $2.42, whereas the same amount of black beans is just 42 cents.

So those savings are significant and they do stack up over time significantly, which means that rising food costs in general could be a factor that push plant-based eating to become more of the norm.

How plant-based food can cut your emissions

Chantelle: The other thing the report looks at is the impact of our food choices on greenhouse gas emissions and what making those same swaps could mean in terms of emission savings.

We found that eating plant-based for a year can save as much carbon dioxide as the emissions used to power an entire home for six months.

Or if you just switch 25% of your diet from animal-based foods to plant-based foods, that could save enough carbon dioxide each month to charge a cell phone 2068 times.

Impact of swapping beef for lentils

Swapping beef for lentils has the biggest impact in terms of emissions, and the second biggest impact in terms of cost. That’s because beef is so resource intensive to produce. Cows need a lot of space; they eat a lot of food; they produce a lot of methane. If all beef products in someone’s diet were replaced with lentils for one year, it would be the equivalent to the carbon sequestered by 18 tree seedlings over 10 years.

Depending on how much beef and what kind of beef a person eats, they could also save up to $60 a month by making that swap.

Impact of swapping seafood for mushrooms

The next most impactful change in terms of emissions and the biggest impact in terms of cost is swapping seafood for mushrooms. Mushrooms have a really similar texture to seafood and they can be used as a substitute and a lot of recipes.

If a person eating the average Lower Mainland diet ate mushrooms instead of seafood for a year, they would save enough emissions to drive about 1600 kilometers in a gas powered vehicle.

Depending on the amount of seafood a person is eating, the cost savings are up to $64 a month.

How plant-based eating helps animals

Amy: Yeah, those are all really significant impacts that one person can make by changing just one thing, the way they eat.

Of course, eating plant-based also has a major impact on reducing animal suffering because there’s less demand for animal products so fewer animals will be raised and killed in the conditions we’ve spoken about that are pretty horrific.

If you’re aiming to reduce your consumption of animal products to reduce animal suffering, it’s really important to consider the number of animal lives used to supply consumption habits, as well as the amount of hardship a particular animal will face in their short lifetime.

So for instance, chickens are quite small, so a very large number of them are killed to supply the demand for chicken meat. Dairy cows are typically given very little freedom and are forced to endure births and heartbreaking separation from their calves about once per year. They also live longer, more long suffering lives.

So just really thinking about each product that you consume, what’s its origin? Who is it coming from? What is that individual’s life like? I found that really helpful when I was moving towards a plant-based diet; to not see this packaged product as just plastic and marketing, but seeing the animal behind it and thinking about the animal behind it. That really helped me stick to my motivation to create a full shift and to go a hundred percent plant-based.

What’s next?

Amy: So what’s next?

Chantelle: Great question. So there are a lot of ways we’re planning to use the data from the survey, including for the cost benefit analysis.

We are also sharing it with the media.

We’re raising awareness in the community through things like infographics and ad campaigns.

We’ll also be engaging with government policy makers and institutional decision makers to talk about ways that the public supports these more institutional shifts towards plant-based foods and plant-based policies.

We’ll use it to inform the content we create moving forward for Plant University, which is a resource that helps individuals and institutions shift their diet and the foods that they offer to more plant-based foods.

How can you help?

Chantelle: One way that you can get involved with this is by sharing the cost benefit analysis from the Plant University website or the related infographics and social media posts with your friends and family.

You can also use some of the stats we’ve discussed today to engage with your favorite restaurant or grocery store or at your school or workplace if food is purchased and provided.

Amy: I’m looking forward to seeing the ways that people choose to change their diet. I think there’s a lot of great ways to start and to shift kind of one little bit at a time and certainly the resources are there to make that happen.

Chantelle: Absolutely. And we are also available as a resource so you can comment on the posts associated with this episode or reach out to us on social media.

Next episode

Please join us next month as we discuss animals used in rodeo.