O vegano defende que o homem deve viver autonomamente, sem depender de outras espécies animais.
Por outro lado, o veganismo é uma filosofia e prática de vida e compaixão. Este caminho tem sido seguido por algumas pessoas em todos os tempos da historia da humanidade.
Só recentemente a palavra vegan (VEEGN) foi utilizada para distinguir os vegan dos vegetarianos, e o movimento vegano acabou por se tornar numa sociedade.
A primeira sociedade vegana foi organizada e fundada em 1944, em Inglaterra. E em 1960, H. Jay Dinshah, fundou a sociedade vegan Americana. Desde então mais de 50 sociedades foram criadas em todo o mundo.
Veganismo é muito mais do que uma questão de dieta. É, sobretudo, uma forma de vida que exclui todas as formas de exploração e crueldade contra o reino animal. Isto implica que um vegano se limite ao uso de apenas produtos derivados do mundo vegetal, não consumindo, por isso, leite e derivados, ovos e mel.
Os veganos escolhem viver de uma forma mais humana e compassiva em relação aos animais, são contra a morte e todo o tipo de exploração animal. Não usam produtos derivados de animais, como sejam a lã, couro, peles, roupas ou móveis, artesanatos, sabonetes ou cosméticos que contenham produtos de origem animal, nenhuma escova feita de cabelos, ou travesseiro de penas etc.
Os veganos não pescam, não caçam, e não aprovam o confinamento de animais nos circos ou zoológicos, rodeios ou touradas.
O veganismo lembra ao Homem a sua responsabilidade pelos recursos naturais e faz com que ele procure formas de manter o solo e o reino vegetal saudável, assim como o uso correcto dos materiais da terra.
Um vegano evita submeter-se a vacinação ou a soro feito de animais. Sempre que possível, e dentro do razoável, evita ainda o uso de medicamentos que foram testados em animais.
O veganismo é uma filosofia de vida, um caminho que procura a harmonia com o meio ambiente.
O vegano, em geral, também se interessa em ter um excelente padrão físico, emocional, mental e espiritual.
Talvez esta lista pareça à primeira vista difícil de seguir, mas serve principalmente para mostrar como é grande e extensa a lista de produtos ou substâncias derivadas de animais que normalmente usamos diariamente ao longo de nossas vidas.
Principalmente porque o mercado de vendas destes produtos só pensa em aumentar os seus lucros, independente da exploração animal ou dos efeitos nefastos que isso traga ao meio ambiente ou à saúde a médio prazo.
O curioso é que já existem muitas alternativas, mais humanas, para qualquer tipo de produtos de origem animal. E no entanto são poucas as empresas que as adoptam. Na América do Norte e na Europa tem crescido o comércio de produtos não derivados de animal, devido ao aumento da consciência do respeito ao meio ambiente e a compaixão por todas as formas de vida.
Embora a dieta vegana não contenha vitamina D, os seus seguidores podem consegui-la com a exposição ao sol das mãos e da face durante quinze minutos, cerca de três vezes por semana. Os outros nutrientes mais difíceis de conseguir seguindo uma dieta sem produtos animais, como a vitamina B12, podem facilmente ser obtidos ingerindo alimentos enriquecidos, ou, em último caso, recorrendo a suplementos vitamínicos.
Mostrar mensagens com a etiqueta vegan. Mostrar todas as mensagens
Mostrar mensagens com a etiqueta vegan. Mostrar todas as mensagens
novembro 01, 2011
outubro 12, 2010
Vegan Quotes: Historical and Contemporary
HISTORICAL QUOTES
"You have just dined, and however scrupulously the slaughterhouse is concealed in the graceful distance of miles, there is complicity". ~RALPH WALDO EMERSON, philosopher
"Nothing more strongly arouses our disgust than cannibalism, yet we make the same impression on Buddhists and vegetarians, for we feed on babies, though not our own." ~ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON, author
"To a man whose mind is free there is something even more intolerable in the sufferings of animals than in the sufferings of man. For with the latter it is at least admitted that suffering is evil and that the man who causes it is a criminal. But thousands of animals are uselessly butchered every day without a shadow of remorse. If any man were to refer to it, he would be thought ridiculous. And that is the unpardonable crime." ~ROMAIN ROLLAND, Nobel prize winner 1915
"I do not regard flesh food as necessary for us. I hold flesh food to be unsuited to our species. To my mind, the life of a lamb is no less precious than that of a human being. I should be unwilling to take the life of a lamb for the sake of the human body." ~MAHATMA GANDHI, spiritual leader
"But for the sake of some little mouthful of flesh, we deprive a soul of the sun, and light, and that proportion of life and time they had been born into the world to enjoy." ~PLUTARCH, Greek biographer 100 C.E.
"I have no doubt that that it is a part of the destiny of the human race, in its gradual improvement, to leave off eating animals, as surely as the savage tribes have left off eating each other when they came in contact with the more civilized." ~HENRY DAVID THOREAU, author
"We have enslaved the rest of the animal creation, and have treated our distant cousins in fur and feathers so badly that beyond doubt, if they were able to formulate a religion, they would depict the Devil in human form." ~WILLIAM RALPH INGE, Outspoken Essays, 1922
"As long as Man continues to be the ruthless destroyer of lower living beings he will never know health or peace. For as long as men massacre animals, they will kill each other. Indeed, he who sows the seed of murder and pain cannot reap joy and love." ~ PYTHAGORAS, Greek philosopher
CONTEMPORARY QUOTES
“As humans, we need to have some morality and ethics to give back to those innocent creatures from which we have taken and exploited for our comforts and needs." ~SUHAS GOPINATH, CEO of Global Inc.
“While most people would consider a vegan lifestyle too extreme, adopting a more thoughtful approach to what goes onto your plate can be a giant step toward a healthier diet.” ~SUZANNE HAVALA HOBBS, registered dietitian
"The beef industry has contributed to more American deaths than all the wars of this century, all natural disasters and all automobile accidents combined." ~NEAL BARNARD, M.D.
"The insult of marketing "Happy Cows" in California is no more than a deceptive lie. To be witness to the angry crying of the mothers, or the pathetically sad moans from the calve is to know and be haunted by an infinite sadness which all mammals share in similar circumstance." ~ROBERT COHEN, NOTmilk.com
"For me, going vegan was an ethical and environmental decision. I'm doing the right thing by the animals." ~ALEXANDRA PAUL, actress
"I made the choice to be vegan because I will not eat (or wear, or use) anything that could have an emotional response to its death or captivity. I can well imagine what that must feel like for our non-human friends - the fear, the terror, the pain - and I will not cause such suffering to a fellow living being." ~ RAI AREN, author
"The animals of the world exist for their own reasons. They were not made for humans any more than black people were made for white, or women created for men." ~ALICE WALKER, author
"The best part of being a vegan is the purity and peace of mind one experiences and the strong connection I feel to the animal kingdom." ~URI GELLER, paranormalist
"If you think humans are meat-eaters then try eating the animal raw like every other meat-eater on the planet. If something is not palatable in its raw state then you probably shouldn't be eating it." ~DAVID WOLFE, author
Encourage people you know to HELP a turkey instead of EATING one this Thanksgiving
A shocking picture? To most, probably yes, even those who consume animal flesh... yet those very same people will think nothing of sitting down to a Thanksgiving feast of roasted turkey. How sad that society has been so brainwashed and conditioned and is still too spiritually asleep to realise that the life of all animals should be of equal worth and that the killing and eating of any of them is morally unjust.
Many people think of turkeys as little more than a holiday centrepiece, but turkeys are social, playful birds who enjoy the company of others. They relish having their feathers stroked and like to chirp, cluck, and gobble along to their favorite tunes. Anyone who spends time with them on farm sanctuaries quickly learns that turkeys are as varied in personality as dogs and cats!
When not forced to live on filthy factory farms, turkeys spend their days caring for their young, building nests, foraging for food, taking dustbaths, preening themselves, and roosting high in trees.
Turkeys are born with full-colour vision just like our own, and in nature they stay with their mothers for up to the first five months of their lives. These gentle birds are very bonded to their young—in the wild a mother turkey will courageously defend her family against predators.
Erik Marcus, the author of Vegan: The New Ethics of Eating, has spent a considerable amount of time with turkeys on farm sanctuaries. He reports, “Turkeys remember your face and they will sit closer to you with each day you revisit. Come back day after day and, before long, a few birds will pick you out as their favorite and they will come running up to you whenever you arrive. It’s definitely a matter of the birds choosing you rather than of you choosing the birds. Different birds choose different people.”
Somebody else who has spent time getting to know turkeys while volunteering at Farm Sanctuary is Joanne Chang who wrote the following poignant article:
When most people hear the word turkey, they think of a roast on the table at Thanksgiving—the piece of flesh whose entire purpose is to satisfy our need to follow a tradition. It’s something that everyone must have at Thanksgiving, no questions asked.
I like asking questions. My favourite question to ask around Thanksgiving time is: Have you ever met a turkey? The answer to this question usually varies from “Oh, I’ve met lots of turkeys. My brother-in-law is one!” to “I heard they drown when they look up in the rain.” The responses do not surprise me, since most people who eat turkey do not have the opportunity or an interest in meeting the incredibly cuddly and affectionate creature in its living state. You must think I’m out of my mind to even suggest that an ugly bird can be cuddly and affectionate. But turkeys, like dogs, are truly affectionate by nature.
I was introduced to my first turkey when I spent a month volunteering at Farm Sanctuary in California. When the 70-pound tom named Wylie waddled up to me, I shuddered at his repulsive-looking face and took a step back. Wylie was bred for meat, which means his chest will grow rapidly and continuously until his legs cannot hold him anymore or until his heart gives out. Genetic manipulation is done in all farms, whether they are industrial, organic, or local.
At the sanctuary, Wylie was kept on a restrictive diet and had to be separated from the females. Because they are bred for maximum breast meat, today’s male turkeys would crush a female turkey if they tried to mate naturally. At turkey farms, the only way to make new turkeys is through artificial insemination. Yes, it is true. There are farm workers whose job is exclusively devoted to “milking” male turkeys for their semen and those whose job is devoted entirely to “breaking” female turkeys. How’s that for a Thanksgiving tradition?
As Wylie waddled up to me, a sanctuary staff member said to me, “Go ahead, he just wants a belly rub.” I was taken aback, but soon learned that turkeys are a lot like puppies. Wylie the turkey and many of the other turkeys at the sanctuary spend a lot of their days following volunteers around begging for kisses, hugs, cuddles, and scratches. I’ve spent many afternoons with a turkey preening on my lap while I scratched under her wings. The poor sweet creatures are so trusting despite the chronic pain they suffer from mutilations at the hands of humans.
Most of the turkeys I met were mutilated before their rescue; their beaks and toes were all cut off. Turkeys become frustrated and aggressive when overcrowded on meat farms. Instead of giving them more space, the turkey industry decided that it was better to cut off the birds’ toes and beaks so that they do not kill each other when they fight. Yes, this is also true. There’s someone at a turkey hatchery whose entire job is devoted to cutting off the toes and beaks of newborn turkey poults.
Wylie and most of the rescued turkeys eventually die prematurely due to collapsed organs and broken legs as their genetically manipulated bodies continue to grow out of control. The natural lifespan of a turkey is 10 years. But a turkey raised for food is killed at three to four months of age.
Every Thanksgiving, I think back to my time at the sanctuary and fondly remember the sweet gentle birds who knew nothing about hate and vengeance. They were mutilated mutants who lived in constant pain, but they were thankful to the humans who cared for them and enjoyed the short and peaceful life they had at the sanctuary. Perhaps they knew that despite all their suffering, they were luckier than the 20.4 million of their cousins in Canada who live in a constant state of violence and do not get to live beyond four months of age.
This Thanksgiving, please consider visiting a turkey at a local sanctuary instead of eating one.
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Joanne Chang is a director of Liberation B.C., a Vancouver-based animal-rights organization. Find out more here: http://liberationbc.org/
Louise Wallis, former president of the Vegan Society, on why vegetarianism is not enough
The following is from a speech given by Louise Wallis, former president of the Vegan Society, UK, at the national ‘March for Farmed Animals’ on 2nd October 2010 (World Farm Animals Day) in London.
I'm going to keep my speech pretty short. Thanks to the organisers for allowing me to speak, and thank you all for coming today. What a great event!
We are here because we all care about farmed animals, and because we don't want them to suffer.
The single most effective thing we can do to stop the suffering of farm animals is to go vegan. Being vegetarian is not enough, because you are still relying on farm animals for food. Farmed animals will only be free when we stop using them for food - of any kind.
Sadly, veganism still suffers from a poor image. Vegans are seen as self-sacrificing, hair-shirt-wearing idealists who lead deprived, difficult and miserable lives.
People say things like: "Oh I don't know how you do it, I could never be vegan". This drives me nuts, and makes me laugh - as it could not be further from the truth. I have been vegan for 28 years and I can honestly say it's the best thing I ever did. I went vegan out of concern for animals, but I quickly realised that being vegan was good for me too!
I feel happier, healthier, and I enjoy my food far more than I did before going vegan. We need to turn on its head the idea that vegans are deprived or missing out. On the contrary, it enhances your life, and makes it better, not worse!
It certainly makes life less complicated. As a vegetarian you could drive yourself mad trying to ensure you only ate free range eggs, or vegetarian cheese - as few food manufacturers or restaurants bother using these.
For this reason, vegetarians relax their standards and eat ordinary cheese - the stuff you find in supermarkets, restaurants, takeaways - despite the fact that dead calves are used to make it. The rennet used to make cheese is obtained from their stomachs. Which makes you sick to the stomach when you think about it.
Go vegan I say, it's A LOT simpler!
I think it's high time we reclaimed the word vegan too. i've noticed that many groups promote vegetarianism rather than veganism, because they worry that it will alienate supporters. I disagree. The more we use the word vegan, the more appealing it will become.
All we are doing when we avoid using the word vegan is internalising the negative messages and stereotyping that our critics invent to discredit us. We should never be ashamed of who we are, and what we stand for: non-violence.Vegetarianism is a red herring. People go vegetarian in the belief that milk and eggs are 'freely given' or "humanely produced', but we know that this is a lie.
We all want people to go vegan, it's a damn sight easier being vegan than it is trying to be an ethical vegetarian, so let's not be afraid to say: "look, do yourself a favour and don't bother with vegetarianism - go vegan".
That's what farmed animals would say if they could.
Thank you.
World Vegan Day is an annual event celebrated on 1 November, by vegans around the world. The Day was established in 1994 by Louise Wallis, then President and Chair of the The Vegan Society UK. 2010 marks the 66th anniversary of veganism and the Society.
Why, if you care about animals, you should NOT be advocating vegetarianism
by Adam Kochanowicz
I was once a vegetarian who believed so strongly in vegetarian education, I continued to recommend others go vegetarian even when I was a vegan. Eventually, I came to my senses and realized the ethical implications of a vegetarian diet are no better than an omnivorous one.
Yet advocates today are happy to tell people to go vegetarian due to some faulty logic which I will examine. Advocates believe vegetarianism is useful because it leads to veganism and anyone who disagrees is "infighting."
I've been accused plenty of times by vegetarians of being "anti-vegetarian," I was once a vegetarian myself and I wish someone would have written this article for me. For those of you who truly take the rights of animals seriously, I'm asking you to read this article with an open mind.
1. Should animal rights activists promote vegetarianism?
Of course advocating an entirely vegan lifestyle can be overwhelming to some, but should advocating vegetarianism be our response? While an individual may not be persuaded to give up all animal products, we should keep our message vegan, never recommending vegetarianism as a step. I will explain why I believe this momentarily.
Truly, there are no sets of animal products which are more ethical to animals than another set. All require exploitation which puts an animal in the situation in which poor treatment is inevitable. The general public is lead to believe, for instance, dairy can't be so bad because you don't have to kill the cow to get the milk.
However, pretty much all food animals will end up in the slaughter house once they no longer fulfill their previous role as existing for our use. When a cow stops giving milk, a bird stops producing eggs, an elephant stops doing tricks, what do you suppose a business which relies on these functions will do?
In the case of dairy cattle, you can also add the physical torment of bruised and infected udders, paralysis from long-term standing, and consider the suffering and death inflicted on the calves produced from keeping that cow pregnant. Just like a human female, constant lactation requires constant impregnation. Calves of dairy cattle are sent to veal farms where they are locked up and eventually killed.
2. What if they just won't go vegan?
So to this person who simply doesn't want to go vegan, I would not say to them "would you at least go vegetarian?" because this implies there is a moral distinction between the effects from vegetarian and an omnivore. Some advocates do recommend vegetarianism because they wish to ease them in with a gradual approach. I also support gradual approaches but vegetarianism is a poor one. Instead, I would tell them, in so many words, to be as vegan as possible.
If you are as surprised as many of my readers are by the statement that there is no moral distinction between the effects of a vegetarian and an omnivore, consider what a vegetarian is asked to do. Vegetarianism essentially says that only food consumption and only food in the form of meat is unethical. This is simply not true. Animals are used for a variety of purposes like labor, chemicals, textiles, entertainment, and research. Meat is only one such product that comes from animal use. All require torture, all require death.
3. Why is vegetarianism fundamentally inconsistent?
Vegetarianism does not even demand that an individual eat fewer animal products. In fact, vegetarians often consume more because they are replacing their diet with secondary animal products like dairy and eggs. So vegetarianism is a rule of consuming animals as much as one wishes as long as its not in the form of meat. This does not prevent or speak out against animal exploitation whatsoever.
You may suggest that someone will inadvertently consume fewer animal products as a result of vegetarianism. While that is highly unlikely, an individual will consume fewer animal products not because they're a vegetarian because they're eating fewer animal products. If someone inadvertently consumed fewer animal products because they started eating at a different restaurant, should we advocate to people to eat at a different restaurant?
You may also suggest that vegetarianism is a "step" towards veganism in that it eliminates a part of one's animal palate in preparation of a vegan diet. Indeed, this is the only way it could be a step towards veganism. However, why should meat be the first wave of elimination? I believe it would be more practical for us to tell an omnivore to take out as many animal products from their diet/life as possible.
If we instead tell them that specific products should be eliminated, what does this tell them about these products over non-food animal products and non-meat food animal products? And if we tell them to stop eating meat, we may have missed an opportunity to bring someone to veganism by having them remove other things they could easily get rid of right away!
I'm reminded of a vegetarian friend of mine who was looking over a menu. She read the ingredients of a product and saw it had milk and said to herself "oh, that's vegetarian, I can eat that." So you see that vegetarian advocacy in this particular case prompted the person to abstain from non-vegetarian products rather than to abstain generally from animal products. A false moral distinction is made.
4. "But isn't veganism extreme?"
Vegetarian advocacy also strengthens the mindset that vegetarianism is the default way to object to animal use and veganism is simply an unnecessary extreme for the truly dedicated. Veganism must be the starting point. Veganism by definition is the only lifestyle choice which seeks to exclude as far as practical and possible all forms of animal exploitation.
Let me suggest to you to just try this. Recommend veganism. If someone asks you about vegetarianism, be politely upfront about the inconsistencies of vegetarianism and see what happens. If you don't tell them, who will? I've been doing this for a long time and I have quickly proven my old mindset incorrect that people will be scared away.
It is for this reason I am passionate about writing these articles. Most of the people to whom I talk about these issues feel offended or that I am fighting with someone who wants the same things as me. However, as you can see, these are important arguments to consider.
5. But I don't eat meat so that's good, right?
I rarely use the word "meat" alone in my discussion of veganism. I think meat consumption is just as unethical as leather, wool, honey, animal-labored, animal-tested products, etc. I basically use the word "animal product" where others say "meat".
As for breaking the mainstream image, I think this person has transcended from one mainstream image to another. Now this person sees "meat" as the culprit of animal cruelty even though animal death is just as involved in the production of other animal products like eggs and dairy, sometimes with even more cruelty.
Are vegetarians more open-minded to learn about other forms of cruelty? Maybe, as they may also be more close-minded for thinking there are the moral distinctions I listed earlier. For the purposes of this discussion, we're considering someone who is a complete omnivore and is not appealing to veganism. We have the choice of accepting their reluctance by recommending them vegetarianism and the abstinence from meat instead, or reinstating veganism as the only starting point and telling them that only the increased reduction of animal products (any animal products) can be a positive step, a choice they can reasonably consider.
Try recommending just eating vegan at their next meal. Tell them they should try having a vegan breakfast or master a vegan recipe they can make from time to time. Tell them where vegan restaurants and options are. If you're satisfied with them being vegetarian, you'll find that someone who 'can't go vegan' will end up vegetarian by these suggestions without your recommendation. In fact, they may end up smart enough to call themselves someone who abstains greatly from animal products (if not completely).
6. Does vegetarianism lead to veganism?
Often, the "proof" given that vegetarianism leads to veganism is that a certain number of vegans were vegetarian initially. But does this really prove anything? Does it support vegetarianism as an effective technique for vegan advocacy? As I mentioned before, I was a vegetarian before I was vegan. Even if something about one's personal experience helped him/her to become a vegan, this should be considered along with the very negative impacts vegetarian advocacy has. Why wouldn't you switch for a more logically consistent and efficient form of advocacy?
7. Shouldn't we be working together?
"Infighting" is a word I hear too often. This word is very problematic in its implication of a unified message. Vegetarian advocacy is often performed by groups who have a fundamentally different position than an abolitionist vegan. We are not in the same boat! Most vegetarian advocacy organizations are not concerned with the fact that animals are used but how they are used. That is, these groups find no moral objection to the use of animals. That is an entirely different position which does not work toward the same goal.
Sometimes disagreements come off as harassments but understand articles like these are bold in their disagreements in order to arrive at the truth. Without a sound logical approach, action goes to waste and can even hurt the movement. This may be the first time you've heard such a disagreement and I'm asking you to consider it with an open mind.
Lacto-ovo vegetarians, are you aware of these facts?
There is more cruelty in a glass of milk than a pound of beef. The milk industry is directly related to the beef and leather industry. Every cow that gives its milk, gives a child. Remember that in order to continue lactating, a mammal must continue to have children. When those children are born, 9 times out of 10, they will end up on someone’s plate.
Purchasing "battery hen" eggs supports an institution that cages up to nine birds together, debeaks them, and forces them to continually lay eggs until they are calcium depleted and on the verge of death, at which point, they are slaughtered. Most free range hens are not "free" at all. In fact they are packed into houses, where they have minimal access to the outside. "Free range" eggs also supports an industry which looks upon male chicks as "waste products" - they will either be killed after birth or fed to a particular weight and then slaughtered.
If you truly care about animals, please go vegan.
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