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Veganism
Tofu scramble, soy pizza, makizushi, cupcake
Origin of the term	November 1, 1944, with the foundation of the British Vegan Society
Early proponents	Donald Watson (1910–2005) H. Jay Dinshah (1933–2000)
Description	Elimination of the use of animal products
Subject	Diet, health, ethics, animal rights, animal welfare, vegetarianism, environmentalism

Veganism is the practice of abstaining from the use of animal products. Ethical vegans reject the commodity status of animals and the use of animal products for any purpose, while dietary vegans or strict vegetarians eliminate them from their diet only. Another form, environmental veganism, rejects the use of animal products on the premise that the industrial practice is environmentally damaging and unsustainable.

The term "vegan" was coined in England in 1944 by Donald Watson, co-founder of the British Vegan Society, to mean "non-dairy vegetarian"; the society also opposed the use of eggs as food. In 1951, the society clarified the definition of "veganism" to mean "the doctrine that man should live without exploiting animals," and in 1960 H. Jay Dinshah started the American Vegan Society, linking veganism to the Jain concept of ahimsa, the avoidance of violence against living things.

It is a small but growing movement. The number of vegan restaurants is increasing, and according to the Oxford Companion to American Food and Drink (2007) the top athletes in certain endurance sports—for instance, the Ironman triathlon and the Ultramarathon—practise veganism or raw veganism. Well-planned vegan diets have been found to offer protection against many degenerative conditions, including heart disease. The American Dietetic Association and Dietitians of Canada regard a vegan diet as appropriate for all stages of the life-cycle, though they caution that, if poorly planned, it may be deficient in some minerals. Vegans are encouraged to ensure they have sources of vitamin B₁₂, iron, vitamin D, calcium, iodine, and omega-3 fatty acids.

Background

Early history

Kerry S. Walters and Lisa Portmess write that the first ethical argument against eating animals can be traced to the Greek philosopher Pythagoras (c. 570–490 BCE). A believer in the transmigration of souls, Pythagoras warned that eating an animal might involve eating a human soul; therefore, he argued, human beings ought to regard all living beings as kindred souls.

The word "vegetarian" seems to have come into use in England in the early 19th century; The Oxford English Dictionary attributes one early reference to the actress Fanny Kemble (1809–1893) writing in 1839. In 1838, James Pierrepont Greaves opened Alcott House as a boarding school with pupils required to follow a vegetarian diet; understood as a vegan diet today. They used "vegetarian" to describe a 100 percent plant-based diet; a vegetarian was simply someone who lived on vegetation. The first Vegetarian Society, formed by supporters of Alcott House, readers of the Truth-Tester temperance journal, and members of the ovo-lacto vegetarian Bible Christian Church—held its first meeting on September 30, 1847, at Northwood Villa in Ramsgate, Kent. The meeting was chaired by Salford MP Joseph Brotherton (1783–1857).

In 1886, the society published the influential A Plea for Vegetarianism by the English campaigner Henry Salt (1851–1939)—widely known as the first writer to make the paradigm shift from animal welfare to animal rights. In it, Salt acknowledged that he was a vegetarian, writing that this was a "formidable admission" to make, because "a Vegetarian is still regarded, in ordinary society, as little better than a madman."

Vegetarians who avoided eggs and dairy products, as well as meat, were known simply as strict or total vegetarians. In 1851, an article appeared in the Vegetarian Society's magazine about alternatives to using leather for shoes, which the International Vegetarian Union cites as evidence of the existence in England of another group that wanted to avoid using animal products entirely.

Early 20th century

The first known vegan cookbook, No Animal Food by Rupert H. Wheldon, was published in England by C.W. Daniel in 1910. In it, Wheldon argued that, "it is obvious that, since we should live as to give the greatest possible happiness to all beings capable of appreciating it and as it is an indisputable fact that animals can suffer pain, and that men who slaughter animals needlessly suffer from atrophy of all finer feelings, we should therefore cause no unnecessary suffering in the animal world."

Leah Leneman writes that in 1912 the editor of TVMHR, the journal of the Vegetarian Society's Manchester branch, started a debate among readers as to whether vegetarians ought to avoid eggs and dairy. He summarized the views of the 24 vegetarians who responded, writing: "The defence of the use of eggs and milk by vegetarians, so far as it has been offered here, is not satisfactory. The only true way is to live on cereals, pulse, fruit, nuts and vegetables." The journal wrote in 1923 that the "ideal position for vegetarians is abstinence from animal products," and that most of the society's members were in a transitional stage. In 1935 it wrote that the issue was becoming more pressing with every year.

In 1888, Mahatma Gandhi (1869–1948) arrived in London to study law. Before he left India, his mother asked him to swear an oath that he would eat no meat or eggs. He wrote that after reading Henry Salt's A Plea for Vegetarianism he was glad he had taken the oath, and that the spread of vegetarianism became his mission. He became friends with other leading vegetarian campaigners, including Anna Kingsford (1846–1888), author of The Perfect Way in Diet (1881), and in 1931 he addressed a meeting of the Vegetarian Society—attended by Salt—arguing that it ought to promote a meat-free diet as a moral issue, not as an issue of human health. Norman Phelps writes that this was a rebuke to those members of the society that focused on the health benefits. Gandhi argued that "vegetarians had a habit of talking of nothing but food and nothing but disease. I feel that this is the worst way of going about the business. ... I discovered that for remaining staunch to vegetarianism a man requires a moral basis."

Although Gandhi himself continued to drink cow's milk—calling it the tragedy of his life that he could not give it up—Phelps argues that his speech was a call for the society to align itself with Salt's views on animal rights, and a precursor to the ideas of Donald Watson and the first Vegan Society in 1944.

1944: Coining the term "vegan"

In July 1943 Leslie Cross, a member of the Leicester Vegetarian Society, expressed concern in its newsletter, The Vegetarian Messenger, that vegetarians were still eating dairy products. A year later, in August 1944, two of the society's members, Donald Watson (1910–2005) and Elsie "Sally" Shrigley (died 1978), suggested forming a subgroup of non-dairy vegetarians. When the executive committee rejected the idea, they and five others met at the Attic Club in Holborn, London, on November 1 to discuss setting up a separate organization. Suggestions for a concise term to replace "non-dairy vegetarian" included dairyban, vitan, benevore, sanivore, and beaumangeur, but Watson decided on "vegan"—pronounced "veegun" (/ˈviːɡən/), with the stress on the first syllable—the first three and last two letters of vegetarian and, as Watson put it in 2004, "the beginning and end of vegetarian." The word was first independently published in the Oxford Illustrated Dictionary in 1962, defined as "a vegetarian who eats no butter, eggs, cheese or milk."

The same meeting in November 1944 saw the foundation of the British Vegan Society, with 25 members. Fay K. Henderson published Vegan Recipes the following year; it was the first recipe book with the word "vegan" in the title.

The first vegan society in the United States was founded in 1948 by Dr. Catherine Nimmo of Oceano, California, and Rubin Abramowitz of Los Angeles. Nimmo had been a vegan since 1931, and began distributing the British Vegan Society's Vegan newsletter to her mailing list within the United States.

In 1951 the British Vegan Society broadened its definition of veganism to "the doctrine that man should live without exploiting animals." Leslie Cross, the society's vice-president wrote that veganism is a principle, that it is "not so much about welfare as liberation." The society pledged to "seek to end the use of animals by man for food, commodities, work, hunting, vivisection and all other uses involving exploitation of animal life by man." Members were expected to declare themselves in agreement with this, and to live as closely to the ideal as they could, but without making specific promises about their own behavior.

In 1957, H. Jay Dinshah (1933–2000), the son of a Parsi from Mumbai, visited a slaughterhouse and read some of Watson's literature. He decided to give up all animal products, and, on February 8, 1960, he founded the American Vegan Society (AVS) in Malaga, New Jersey, incorporating Nimmo's society, and explicitly linking veganism to the concept of ahimsa, a Sanskrit word meaning "non-harming." The AVS called it "dynamic harmlessness," and to stress the connection with veganism named its magazine Ahimsa. Two key books explained the philosophy: Dinshah's Out of the Jungle: The Way of Dynamic Harmlessness (1965), and Victoria Moran's Compassion, the Ultimate Ethic: An Exploration of Veganism (1985), the latter first published as a series of essays in Ahimsa. Today the word "veganism" is still used to refer either to the plant-based diet or to a lifestyle that seeks to eliminate animal use entirely. Since 1994 World Vegan Day has been held every November 1, the founding date of the British Vegan Society in 1944.

2000s: Demographics

In 1997, three percent in the U.S. said they had not used animals for any purpose in the previous two years. In 2005, The Times of London estimated there were 250,000 vegans in the UK, and in 2006 The Independent estimated 600,000. In a 2007 British government survey, two percent self-identified as vegan. The Netherlands Association for Veganism estimated there were 16,000 vegans in the Netherlands as of 2007, around 0.1 percent of the population. A 2008 survey for the Vegetarian Resource Group reported that 0.5 percent of Americans, or one million, identified as vegan.

Vegan diet, clothing, and toiletries

Avoidance of animal products

Ethical vegans entirely reject the commodification of animals. The Vegan Society in the UK will only certify a product as vegan if it is free of animal involvement as far as possible and practical.

An animal product is any material derived from animals, including meat, poultry, seafood, eggs, dairy products, honey, fur, leather, wool, and silk. Other commonly used animal products are beeswax, bone char, bone china, carmine, casein, cochineal, gelatin, isinglass, lanolin, lard, rennet, shellac, tallow, whey, and yellow grease. Many of these may not be identified in the list of ingredients in the finished product. There is disagreement among groups about the extent to which all animal products, particularly products from insects, must be avoided. Neither the Vegan Society nor the American Vegan Society considers the use of honey, silk, or other insect products to be suitable for vegans, while Vegan Action and Vegan Outreach regard that as a matter of personal choice.

Ethical vegans will not use animal products for clothing, toiletries, or any other reason, and will try to avoid ingredients that have been tested on animals. They will not buy fur coats, leather shoes, belts, bags, wallets, woollen jumpers, silk scarves, camera film, and certain vaccines, etc. Depending on their economic circumstances, they may donate such items to charity when they become vegan, or use them until they wear out. Clothing made without animal products is widely available in stores and online. Alternatives to wool include cotton, hemp, rayon, and polyester. Some vegan clothes, in particular shoes, are made of petroleum-based products, which has triggered criticism because of the environmental damage associated with production. In warmer climates, vegans tend to wear shoes made of hemp, linen or canvas.

Cuisine

Further information: Wikibooks Cookbook list of vegan recipes

Any plant-based dish may be vegan. Common vegan dishes prepared without animal ingredients include ratatouille, falafel, hummus, veggie burritos, rice and beans, veggie stir-fry, and pasta primavera. Ingredients such as tofu, tempeh, and seitan are widely used in vegan cuisine. Plant cream and plant milk—such as almond milk, grain milk, or soy milk—are used instead of cows' or goats' milk. Vegan recipes will use apple sauce, ground flax seeds, mashed potatoes, soft or silken tofu, or commercial starch-based egg-substitute products, instead of chickens' eggs.

Meat analogues, or "mock meats," made of soy or gluten—including vegetarian sausage, vegetarian mince, and veggie burgers—are widely available. Since, however, some meat-free vegetarian foods, including some vegetarian sausages, may include eggs or dairy products, they would be part of an acceptable diet for vegetarians but not for vegans. Cheese analogues made from soy, nuts, and tapioca are commonly used. Vegan cheeses like Teese, Sheese, and Daiya can replace the taste and meltability of dairy cheese in various dishes. Joanne Stepaniak writes that cheese substitutes can be made at home, using recipes from Vegan Vittles, The Nutritional Yeast Cookbook, and The Uncheese Cookbook.

The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine recommends what they call the "Four New Food Groups." They suggest that vegans and vegetarians eat at least three servings of vegetables a day, including dark-green, leafy vegetables such as broccoli, and dark-yellow and orange such as carrots; five servings of whole grains (bread, rice, pasta); three of fruit; and two of legumes (beans, peas, lentils).

Health arguments

People on diets which include animal-based food have been shown to be more likely to have degenerative diseases, including heart disease. According to the 2010 Dietary Guidelines for Americans, a report issued by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, a vegetarian diet is associated with lower levels of obesity and reduced risk of cardiovascular disease. According to the EPIC-Oxford study, vegetarian diets provide large amounts of cereals, pulses, nuts, fruits, and vegetables, which makes them rich in carbohydrates, omega-6 fatty acids, dietary fiber, carotenoids, folic acid, vitamin C, vitamin E, and magnesium. The vegan diet is more restricted, and recommendations differ. Poorly planned vegan diets may be low in vitamin B₁₂, calcium, omega-3 fatty acids, vitamin D, iron, zinc, riboflavin (vitamin B₂), and iodine. The American Dietetic Association and Dietitians of Canada said in 2003 that properly planned vegan diets were nutritionally adequate for all stages of life, including pregnancy and lactation, and provided health benefits in the treatment and prevention of certain diseases. The Swiss Federal Nutrition Commission and the German Society for Nutrition do not recommend a vegan diet, and caution against it for children, the pregnant, and the elderly.

Physicians John A. McDougall, Caldwell Esselstyn, Neal D. Barnard, Dean Ornish, Michael Greger, and nutritional biochemist T. Colin Campbell, argue that high animal fat and protein diets, such as the standard American diet, are detrimental to health, and that a low-fat vegan diet can both prevent and reverse degenerative diseases such as coronary artery disease and diabetes. A 2006 study by Barnard found that in people with type 2 diabetes, a low-fat vegan diet reduced weight, total cholesterol, and LDL cholesterol, and did so to a greater extent than the diet prescribed by the American Diabetes Association.

The 12-year Oxford Vegetarian Study of 11,000 subjects recruited between 1980 and 1984 indicated that vegans had lower total- and LDL-cholesterol concentrations than did meat-eaters. Death rates were lower in non-meat eaters than in meat eaters; mortality from ischemic heart disease was positively associated with eating animal fat and with dietary cholesterol levels. The study also suggested that vegans in the UK may be at risk of iodine deficiency because of deficiencies in the soil.

According to the American Dietetic Association and Dietitians of Canada, diets that avoid meat tend to have lower levels of saturated fat, cholesterol, and animal protein, and higher levels of carbohydrates, fiber, magnesium, potassium, folate, and antioxidants, such as vitamins C and E, and phytochemicals. People avoiding meat are reported to have lower body mass index than those following the average Canadian or American diet. From this follows lower death rates from ischemic heart disease, lower blood cholesterol levels, lower blood pressure, and lower rates of hypertension, type 2 diabetes, and prostate and colon cancers.

A 1999 meta-analysis of five studies comparing vegetarian and non-vegetarian mortality rates in Western countries found a 6 percent reduction in mortality from ischemic heart disease in vegans compared to occasional meat eaters. The same study found that there were no differences between vegans and meat eaters in mortality from cerebrovascular disease, stomach cancer, colorectal cancer, lung cancer, breast cancer, prostate cancer, or all other causes combined. It was found that the mortality rate due to ischemic heart disease was 26 percent lower among vegans compared to regular meat eaters, but 34 percent lower among lacto-ovo vegetarians (vegetarians that eat dairy products and eggs) and pescetarians (those that eat fish but no other meat). The lower rate of protection for vegans compared to pescetarians or lacto-ovo vegetarians is believed to be linked to higher levels of homocysteine, which is caused by insufficient vitamin B12, and it is believed that vegans that get sufficient B12 should show even lower risk of ischemic heart disease than lacto-ovo vegetarians. No significant difference in mortality was found from other causes.

A large 15-year survey that investigated in the United Kingdom the association between diet and age-related cataract risk found a progressive decrease in risk of cataract in high meat eaters to low meat eaters, vegetarians, and vegans. Vegans were found to have a 40 percent lower risk of developing cataract compared with the biggest meat eaters.

Vitamin B₁₂, iodine, choline

The Vegan Society and Vegan Outreach recommend that vegans eat foods fortified with B₁₂ or take a supplement. B₁₂ is a bacterial product that cannot be found reliably in plant foods, and is needed for the formation and maturation of red blood cells and the synthesis of DNA, and for normal nerve function; a deficiency can lead to a number of health problems, including megaloblastic anemia. Iodine supplementation may be necessary for vegans in countries where salt is not typically iodized, where it is iodized at low levels, or where, as in Britain or Ireland, dairy products are relied upon for iodine delivery because of low levels in the soil. Iodine can be obtained from most vegan multivitamins or from regular consumption of seaweeds, such as kelp. Vegans may also be at risk of choline deficiency and may benefit from choline supplements.

Iron, calcium, vitamin D

Iron deficiency may lead to anemia. Iron is less well-absorbed from vegetarian diets (10 percent absorption from vegetarian diets, versus 18 percent from an omnivorous diet); vegetarians that exclude all animal products may need almost twice as much dietary iron each day as non-vegetarians. On the other hand, the iron status of omnivores and vegans appears to be similar, and body absorption processes may adjust to low intakes over time by enhancing absorption efficiency. Molasses is a high-iron food source and many vegans take it in spoonfuls as an iron supplement.

Vegans are advised to eat three servings per day of a high-calcium food, such as fortified soy milk, almonds, and hazelnuts, and take a calcium supplement as necessary. The EPIC-Oxford study suggested that vegans have an increased risk of bone fractures over meat eaters and vegetarians, likely because of lower dietary calcium intake, but that vegans consuming more than 525 mg/day have a risk of fractures similar to that of other groups. A 2009 study of bone density found the bone density of vegans was 94 percent that of omnivores, but deemed the difference clinically insignificant.

Another study in 2009 by the same researchers examined over 100 vegan post-menopausal women, and found their diet had no adverse effect on bone mineral density (BMD) and no alteration in body composition. Biochemist T. Colin Campbell suggested in The China Study (2005) that osteoporosis is linked to the consumption of animal protein because, unlike plant protein, animal protein increases the acidity of blood and tissues, which is then neutralized by calcium pulled from the bones. Campbell wrote that his China-Cornell-Oxford study of nutrition in the 1970s and 1980s found that, in rural China, "where the animal to plant ratio was about 10 percent, the fracture rate is only one-fifth that of the U.S."

Regarding vitamin D, Vegan Outreach writes that the only significant natural sources in foods are from fatty fish, such as cod liver oil, mackerel, salmon, and sardines; eggs, if the chickens have been fed vitamin D; and mushrooms if treated with UVB rays. Vegans are therefore advised to use supplements, though light-skinned people can obtain adequate amounts by spending 15–30 minutes in sunlight every few days. Dark-skinned people need significantly more sunlight to obtain the same amount of vitamin D, and sunlight exposure may be difficult in some parts of the world during winter, in which case supplements are recommended.

Pregnancy, babies and children

The American Dietetic Association considers well-planned vegan diets "appropriate for all stages of the life cycle, including pregnancy and lactation," but recommends that vegan mothers supplement for iron, vitamin D, and vitamin B₁₂. The Vegan Society recommend that vegan mothers breastfeed to enhance their child's immune system and reduce the risk of allergies. Vitamin B₁₂ deficiency in lactating vegetarian mothers has been linked to deficiencies and neurological disorders in their children. Some research suggests that the essential omega-3 fatty acid α-linolenic acid and its derivatives should also be supplemented in pregnant and lactating vegan mothers, since they are very low in most vegan diets, and the metabolically related docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) is essential to the developing visual and central nervous system. Pregnant vegans may need to supplement choline.

A maternal vegan diet has been associated with low birth weight, and a five times lower likelihood of having twins than those who eat animal products, though the article cited concludes that it is the consumption of dairy products by non-vegans that increases the likelihood of conceiving twins, especially in areas where growth hormone is fed to dairy cattle. Several cases of severe infant or child malnutrition(resulting in spine malformation and fractures), and some infant fatalities, reported in families in which parents fed their child and themselves with strict vegan diet. Dr. Amy Lanou, nutrition director of the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, and an expert witness for the prosecution in one case, wrote that vegan diets are "not only safe for babies; they're healthier than ones based on animal products." She wrote that "the real problem was that was not given enough food of any sort."

Eating disorders

The American Dietetic Association indicates that vegetarian diets may be more common among adolescents with eating disorders, but that the evidence suggests that the adoption of a vegetarian diet does not lead to eating disorders, rather that "vegetarian diets may be selected to camouflage an existing eating disorder." Other studies and statements by dietitians and counselors support this conclusion.

Dietary, ethical, and environmental perspectives

Dietary veganism

Dietary vegans eat an entirely plant-based diet—either for health reasons or out of concern for animal welfare—but may continue to use animal products for other purposes. Joanne Stepaniak, author of Being Vegan (2000), argues that to place the qualifier "dietary" before "vegan" dilutes its meaning—like using the term "secular Catholic" for people who want to practise only some aspects of Catholicism. She writes that people should not call themselves vegan simply because they have embraced the diet: "Practising a vegan diet no more qualifies someone as vegan than eating kosher food qualifies someone as Jewish."

The Associated Press reported in January 2011 that the vegan diet is moving from marginal to mainstream in the United States, with vegan books such as Skinny Bitch (2005) becoming best sellers, and several celebrities exploring vegan diets. According to the AP, over half the 1,500 chefs polled in 2011 by the National Restaurant Association included vegan entrees, and chain restaurants are starting to mark vegan items on their menus.

Oprah Winfrey went on a vegan diet for 21 days in 2008, and in 2011 asked her 378 production staff to do the same for one week. Former U.S. president Bill Clinton adopted a vegan diet in 2010 after cardiac surgery; his daughter Chelsea was already a vegan. His diet followed the advice of Dean Ornish, Caldwell Esselstyn, and T. Colin Campbell: mostly beans, legumes, vegetables, and fruit, and a daily drink of almond milk, fruit, and protein powder. In November 2010 Bloomberg Businessweek reported that a growing number of American CEOs were becoming vegan, such as Steve Wynn, Mortimer Zuckerman, and Russell Simmons.

Ethical veganism

Ethical vegans see veganism as a philosophy, lifestyle, and set of principles, not simply a diet. Bob Torres, author of Vegan Freak (2005), writes that ethical veganism consists of "living life consciously as an anti-speciesist."

The philosophical debate about the moral basis of veganism reflects a division of viewpoints within animal rights theory between a rights-based or deontological approach and a utilitarian/consequentialist one. Tom Regan, professor emeritus of philosophy at North Carolina State University, is a rights-theorist who argues that animals possess inherent value as "subjects-of-a-life"—because they have beliefs and desires, an emotional life, memory, and the ability to initiate action in pursuit of goals—and therefore must be viewed as ends in themselves, not a means to an end. He argues that the right of subjects-of-a-life not to be harmed can be overridden only when outweighed by other valid moral principles, but that the reasons cited for eating animal products—pleasure, convenience, and the economic interests of farmers—are not weighty enough to override the animals' moral rights.

Peter Singer, professor of bioethics at Princeton University, approaches the issue from a utilitarian perspective. He argues that there is no moral or logical justification for refusing to count animal suffering as a consequence when making ethical decisions, and that the limit of sentience is "the only defensible boundary of concern for the interests of others." He does not contend that killing animals is wrong in principle, but that from a consequentialist standpoint it should be rejected unless necessary for survival. He, therefore, advocates both veganism and improved conditions for farm animals to reduce animal suffering. Singer is not concerned about what he calls trivial infractions of vegan principles, arguing that personal purity is not the issue. He supports what is known as the "Paris exemption": if you find yourself in a fine restaurant, allow yourself to eat what you want, and if you're in a strange place without access to vegan food, going vegetarian instead is acceptable.

Gary L. Francione, professor of law at Rutgers School of Law-Newark, is a rights-theorist. He argues that "all sentient beings should have at least one right—the right not to be treated as property," and that adopting veganism must be the unequivocal baseline for anyone who sees nonhuman animals as having intrinsic moral value; to fail to do so is like arguing for human rights while continuing to own human slaves. He writes that there is no coherent difference between eating meat and eating dairy or eggs; animals used in the dairy and egg industries live longer, are treated worse, and end up in the same slaughterhouses. Francione is critical of consequentialist positions that admit of occasional exceptions to vegan principles; see below.

Carol J. Adams, the vegan-feminist writer, has used the concept of the absent referent to describe what she calls a psycho-social detachment between the consumer and the consumed. She wrote in The Sexual Politics of Meat (1990), described by The New York Times as a bible of the vegan community: "Behind every meal of meat is an absence: the death of the animal whose place the meat takes. The 'absent referent' is that which separates the meat eater from the animal and the animal from the end product. The function of the absent referent is to keep our 'meat' separated from any idea that she or he was once an animal, to keep the 'moo' or 'cluck' or 'baa' away from the meat, to keep something from being seen as having been someone."

Debate about the "Paris exemption"

Singer's support for the "Paris exemption"—the acceptance of flexibility on special occasions, or when vegan food is hard to find—is part of a debate within the animal rights movement about the extent to which it ought to promote strict veganism without exception. The positions are reflected by the divide between the animal protectionist side—represented by Singer and PETA's consequentialist approach—which argues that incremental change can achieve real reform, and the abolitionist—represented by Francione's emphasis on rights—which argues that apparent welfare reform serves only to persuade the public that animal use is morally unproblematic. Singer said in 2006 that the movement should be more tolerant of people who choose to use animal products if they are careful about making sure the animals had a decent life. Bruce Friedrich of PETA argued in the same year that a strict adherence to veganism can become an obsession. Veganism should not be dogma, he wrote:

e all know people whose reason for not going vegan is that they "can't" give up cheese or ice cream. ... Instead of encouraging them to stop eating all other animal products besides cheese or ice cream, we preach to them about the oppression of dairy cows. Then we go on about how we don’t eat sugar or a veggie burger because of the bun, even though a tiny bit of butter flavor in a bun contributes to significantly less suffering than any non-organic fruit or vegetable does or a plastic bottle or about 100 other things that most of us use. Our fanatical obsession with ingredients not only obscures the animals’ suffering—which was virtually non-existent for that tiny modicum of ingredient—but also nearly guarantees that those around us are not going to make any change at all. So, we’ve preserved our personal purity, but we’ve hurt animals—and that’s anti-vegan.

Francione writes that this position is similar to arguing that, because human rights abuses can never be eliminated entirely, we should not safeguard human rights in situations we control. By failing to ask a server whether something contains animal products, in the interest of avoiding a fuss, he argues that we reinforce the idea that the moral rights of animals are a matter of convenience. He concludes from this that the PETA/Singer position fails even on its own consequentialist terms, although this does not apply to all vegans.

Environmental veganism

Resources and the environment

People who adopt veganism for environmental reasons often do so because it consumes fewer resources and causes less environmental damage. Organizations such as PETA point out that animal agriculture is linked to climate change, water pollution, land degradation, a decline in biodiversity, and that a commercially available animal-based diet uses more land, water, and energy than a strictly vegetarian one.

The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization released a report in November 2006 linking animal agriculture to environmental damage. The report, Livestock's Long Shadow, concluded that the livestock sector (primarily cows, chickens, and pigs) was one of the two or three most significant contributors to the planet's most serious environmental problems, at every scale from local to global. According to the report, it is responsible for at least 18 percent of the world's greenhouse gas emissions, as measured in CO₂ equivalents, with Robert Goodland and Jeff Anhang of World Watch magazine placing the figure in 2009 as at least 51 percent. A 2006 study by Gidon Eshel and Pamela Martin, assistant professors of geophysics at the University of Chicago, found that one person switching from the average American diet to a vegan diet would reduce CO₂ emissions by 1,485 kg per year.

Greenhouse gas emissions are not limited to animal husbandry. Plant-based sources such as rice cultivation cause similar problems. A 2007 study that simulated the land use for various diets for the geography of New York State concluded that, although vegetarian diets used the smallest amount of land per capita, a low-fat diet that included some meat and dairy—less than 2 oz (57 g) of meat/eggs per day, significantly less than that consumed by the average American—could support slightly more people on the same available land than could be fed on some high-fat vegetarian diets, since animal food crops are grown on lower-quality land than are crops for human consumption.

In June 2010, a report from United Nations Environment Programme declared that a global shift towards a vegan diet was needed to save the world from hunger, fuel shortages and climate change.

Debate over animals killed in crop harvesting

Steven Davis, a professor of animal science at Oregon State University, argued in 2001 that the least-harm principle does not require giving up all meat, because a plant-based diet would not kill fewer animals than one containing beef from grass-fed ruminants. Davis wrote that cultivating crops also kills animals, because when a tractor traverses a field, animals are accidentally destroyed. Based on a study finding that wood mouse populations dropped from 25 per hectare to five per hectare after harvest (attributed to migration and mortality), Davis estimated that 10 animals per hectare are killed from crop farming every year. If all 120,000,000 acres (490,000 km) of cropland in the continental United States were used for a vegan diet, then approximately 500 million animals would die each year. But, if half the cropland were converted to ruminant pastureland, he estimated that only 900,000 animals would die each year—assuming people switched from the eight billion poultry killed each year to beef, lamb, and dairy products.

Davis's analysis was criticized in 2003 by Gaverick Matheny and Andy Lamey in the Journal of Agricultural and Environmental Ethics. Matheny argued that Davis had miscalculated the number of animal deaths based on land area rather than per consumer, and incorrectly equated "the harm done to animals ... to the number of animals killed." Matheny argued that per-consumer, a vegan diet would kill fewer wild animals than a diet adhering to Davis's model, and that vegetarianism "likely allows a greater number of animals with lives worth living to exist." Lamey argued that Davis's calculation of harvesting-related deaths was flawed because based on two studies; one included deaths from predation, which is "morally unobjectionable" for Regan, and the other examined production of a nonstandard crop, which Lamey argued has little relevance to deaths associated with typical crop production. Lamey also argued, like Matheny, that accidental deaths are ethically distinct from intentional ones, and that if Davis includes accidental animal deaths in the moral cost of veganism, he must also evaluate increased human deaths associated with his proposed diet, which Lamey argued leaves "Davis, rather than Regan, with the less plausible argument."\

See also

• Artificial leather
• Edenic diet
• Fruitarianism
• Health food restaurant
• Lacto / Ovo / Ovo-lacto vegetarianism
• Low carbon diet
• Macrobiotic diet
• Pescetarianism
• Roger Crab (1621–1680)
• Semi-vegetarianism
• Veganarchism
• Veg*n
• Vegan organic gardening
• Vegan Prisoners Support Group
• Vegetarianism and religion
• Vegetarianism and wine

Notes

1. ^ For the ethical/dietary distinction, see for example:
   • "Vegan Diets Become More Popular, More Mainstream", Associated Press/CBS News, January 5, 2011: "Veganism is essentially hard-core vegetarianism. While a vegetarian might butter her bagel or eat a cake made with eggs, vegans shun all animal products: No meat, no cheese, no eggs, no honey, no mayonnaise. Ethical vegans have a moral aversion to harming animals for human consumption, be it for a flank steak or leather shoes, though the term often is used to describe people who follow the diet, not the larger philosophy."
   • Gary Francione in Francione, Gary L. and Garner, Robert. The Animal Rights Debate: Abolition Or Regulation? Columbia University Press, 2010, p. 62: "Although veganism may represent a matter of diet or lifestyle for some, ethical veganism is a profound moral and political commitment to abolition om the individual level and extends not only to matters of food but also to the wearing or using of animal products. Ethical veganism is the personal rejection of the commodity status of nonhuman animals, of the notion that animals have only external value, and of the notion that animals have less moral value than do humans."
   • Margaret Puskar-Pasewicz. Cultural Encyclopedia of Vegetarianism. ABC-Clio, 2010, p. 242: "Vegans are divided into two sub-categories: lifestyle vegans and dietary vegans. Lifestyle vegans eschew all animal products in their diet and life ... Dietary vegans exclude animal products only from their diet."
   • "Veganism", Vegetarian Times, January 1989: "Webster's dictionary provides a most dry and limiting definition of the word 'vegan': 'one that consumes no animal food or dairy products.' This description explains dietary veganism, but so-called ethical vegans—and they are the majority—carry the philosophy further."
2. Torres, Bob and Torres, Jenna. Vegan Freak: Being Vegan in a Non-Vegan World. PM Press, 2009, pp. 100–102.
3. "Interview with Donald Watson", Vegetarians in Paradise, August 11, 2004: "I invited my early readers to suggest a more concise word to replace "non-dairy vegetarian." Some bizarre suggestions were made like "dairyban, vitan, benevore, sanivore, beaumangeur", et cetera. I settled for my own word, "vegan", containing the first three and last two letters of "vegetarian"—"the beginning and end of vegetarian." The word was accepted by the Oxford English Dictionary and no one has tried to improve it."
   • Watson, Donald. Vegan News, No. 1, November 1944: "We should all consider carefully what our Group, and our magazine, and ourselves, shall be called. 'Non-dairy' has become established as a generally understood colloquialism, but like 'non-lacto' it is too negative. Moreover, it does not imply that we are opposed to the use of eggs as food."
4. ^ Berry, Rynn. "Veganism," The Oxford Companion to American Food and Drink. Oxford University Press, 2007, pp. 604–605.
   • Regarding its growing popularity, Berry writes: "Despite the seeming hardships a vegan diet imposes on its practitioners, veganism is a burgeoning movement, especially among younger Americans. In the endurance sports, such as the Ironman triathlon and the Utramarathon, the top competitors are vegans who consume much of their vegan food in its uncooked state. Even young weight lifters and body builders are gravitating to a vegan diet, giving the lie to the notion that eating animal flesh is essential for strength and stamina. Brendan Brazier, a young athlete who regularly places in the top three in international triathlon events and who formulated Vega, a line of plant-based performance products, said of his fellow vegan athletes: "We're beginning to build a strong presence in every sport."
   • For other examples of Ironman triathlon athletes who are vegan, see David Scott and Ruth Heidrich.
   • For more about its popularity, see "Vegan Diets Become More Popular, More Mainstream", Associated Press/CBS News (U.S.), January 5, 2011.
   • Also see Nijjar, Raman. "From pro athletes to CEOs and doughnut cravers, the rise of the vegan diet", CBC News (Canada), June 4, 2011.
   • For the Vegan Society clarifying its definition in 1951, see Cross, Leslie. "Veganism Defined", The Vegetarian World Forum, volume 5, issue 1, Spring 1951.
5. ^ Freston, Kathy. Veganist: Lose Weight, Get Healthy, Change the World. Weinstein Publishing, 2011. For Ornish on weight loss, see p. 21ff; for Campbell on cancer, heart disease and diabetes, see p. 41ff; for Esselstyn on heart disease, see p. 57ff; for Barnard on diabetes, see p. 73ff; for Greger on factory farming and superbugs, see p. 109ff.
   • Segelken, Roger. "China Study II: Switch to Western diet may bring Western-type diseases", Cornell Chronicle, June 28, 2001, accessed September 15, 2006.
   • "China-Cornell-Oxford Project On Nutrition, Environment and Health at Cornell University", Division of Nutritional Sciences, Cornell University, accessed February 2, 2011.
   • Campbell TC; et al. (2002). "Medically supervised water-only fasting in the treatment of borderline hypertension". J Altern Complement Med. 8 (5): 643–50. doi:10.1089/107555302320825165. PMID 12470446. {{cite journal}}: Explicit use of et al. in: |author= (help); Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
   • McDougall, J. et al. "Effects of a Very Low-Fat, Vegan Diet in Subjects with Rheumatoid Arthritis", J Altern Complement Med, volume 8, issue 1, February 2002. doi:10.1089/107555302753507195 PMID 11890437
   • Esselstyn CB Jr. (1999). "Updating a 12-year experience with arrest and reversal therapy for coronary heart disease (an overdue requiem for palliative cardiology)". Am J Cardiol. 84 (3): 339–41. doi:10.1016/S0002-9149(99)00290-8. PMID 10496449. {{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
   • For a paper about the health effects of certain lifestyle changes, including a vegetarian diet, see Ornish D, Brown SE, Scherwitz LW, et al. "Can lifestyle changes reverse coronary heart disease? The Lifestyle Heart Trial", The Lancet, July 1990, 336:8708, pp. 129–133. doi:10.1016/0140-6736(90)91656-U
   • Trapp, C.B. and Barnard, N.D. "Usefulness of vegetarian and vegan diets for treating type 2 diabetes", Curr Diab Rep, volume 10, issue 2, April 2010.
6. ^ For an overview, see "Position of the American Dietetic Association and Dietitians of Canada: vegetarian diets", Canadian Journal of Dietetic Practice and Research. Summer 2003, 64(2):62-81; also available here , accessed January 31, 2011: "Well-planned vegan and other types of vegetarian diets are appropriate for all stages of the life-cycle including during pregnancy, lactation, infancy, childhood, and adolescence."
   • For a second overview, see Key TJ, Appleby PN, Rosell MS. "Health effects of vegetarian and vegan diets", Proceedings of the Nutrition Society, 2006, 65:35-41.
   • For additional sources, see:

   • For vitamin B12, Norris, Jack. "Vitamin B12: Are you getting it?", Vegan Outreach, July 26, 2006, accessed February 4, 2011: "B12 is generally found in all animal foods (except honey). Contrary to rumors, there are no reliable, unfortified plant sources of vitamin B12, including tempeh, seaweeds, and organic produce. The overwhelming consensus in the mainstream nutrition community, as well as among vegan health professionals, is that plant foods do not provide vitamin B12, and fortified foods or supplements are necessary for the optimal health of vegans, and even vegetarians in many cases. Luckily, vitamin B12 is made by bacterial fermentation such that it does not need to be obtained from animal products."
   • For iron, "Iron deficiency—adults", Better Health Channel, Government of Victoria, Australia, accessed February 4, 2011: "High-risk groups such as vegetarians, adolescent girls and women athletes need to eat iron-rich foods each day (combined with foods that are high in vitamin C). ... Vegetarians who exclude all animal products from their diet may need almost twice as much dietary iron each day as non-vegetarians. Sources include dark green leafy vegetables—such as spinach—and raisins, nuts, seeds, beans, peas, and iron-fortified cereals, breads and pastas."
   • For vitamin D, see "Bones, Vitamin D, and Calcium", Vegan Outreach, January 9, 2007, accessed February 4, 2011: "If you get exposed to the following amounts of midday sun (10 am to 2 pm), without sunscreen, on a day when sunburn is possible (i.e., not winter or cloudy), then you do not need any dietary vitamin D that day." On other days, take a supplement; see page for recommendations.
   • For calcium, see "Bones, Vitamin D, and Calcium", Vegan Outreach, January 9, 2007, accessed February 4, 2011: "Based on research showing that vegans who consumed less than 525 mg per day of calcium had higher bone fracture rates than people who consumed more than 525 mg per day (14), vegans should make sure they get a minimum of 525 mg of calcium per day. It would be best to get 700 mg per day for adults, and at least 1,000 mg for people age 13 to 18 when bones are developing. This can most easily be satisfied for most vegans by eating high-calcium greens on a daily basis and drinking a nondairy milk that is fortified with calcium."
   • For vitamin D and calcium, also see Appleby, P. et al. "Comparative fracture risk in vegetarians and nonvegetarians in EPIC-Oxford", European Journal of Clinical Nutrition, volume 61, issue 12, February 2007. doi:10.1038/sj.ejcn.1602659
   • For iodine, see "Iodine", Vegan Outreach, December 26, 2006, accessed February 4, 2011: "Iodine is needed for healthy thyroid function which regulates metabolism. Both too much and too little iodine can result in abnormal thyroid metabolism. ... Studies have shown that vegans in Europe (where salt is either not iodized or not iodized at high enough levels) who do not supplement (as well as those who oversupplement) have indications of abnormal thyroid function."
   • For omega-3 fatty acids, see "Omega-3 Fatty Acid Recommendations for Vegetarians", Vegan Outreach, accessed February 4, 2011: "Without diet planning, vegans and vegetarians have low omega-3 intakes and blood levels; and, in some cases, elderly vegans have close to none." Vegans should therefore take supplements; use low omega-6 oils like olive, avocado, peanut, or canola; and consume 0.5 g of uncooked alpha-linolenic acid (ALA) daily (e.g., 1/4 teaspoon of flaxseed oil). See page for details.

7. Walters, Kerry S. and Portmess, Lisa. Ethical Vegetarianism: From Pythagoras to Peter Singer. SUNY Press, 1999, p. 11.
8. Kemble, Fanny. Journal of a Residence on a Georgian Plantation in 1838-1839, Harper and Brothers, New York, 1839, pp. 197–198.
   • Davis, John. "The earliest known uses of the word 'vegetarian'", International Vegetarian Union.
   • Also see Davis, John. "Extracts from some journals 1842-48 - the earliest known uses of the word 'vegetarian'", International Vegetarian Union.
   Vegans won't eat anything that casts a shadow....... And also did yiu know that they pull wings off bees to stop them eating buffallo wings.......
   • Another early use of "vegetarian" is the April 1842 edition of a journal published by Alcott House in Surrey; see Davis, John. "Prototype Vegans", The Vegan, Winter 2010, p. 19.
9. Davis, John. "A History of Veganism from 1806", International Vegetarian Union.
10. Davis, John. "The Origins of the "Vegetarians", International Vegetarian Union", July 28, 2011.
    • Also see "History of the Vegetarian Society", Vegetarian Society, accessed February 7, 2011, and "History of Vegetarianism: The Origin of Some Words", International Vegetarian Union, April 6, 2010, accessed February 4, 2011.
11. For Salt being the first modern animal rights advocate, see Taylor, Angus. Animals and Ethics. Broadview Press, 2003, p. 62.
12. Salt, Henry Stephens. A Plea for Vegetarianism and other essays, The Vegetarian Society, 1886, p. 7.
    • For Salt's book on animal rights, see Salt, Henry Stephens. Animals’ Rights: Considered in Relation to Social Progress. Macmillan & Co, 1894.
    • Also see Salt, Henry Stephens. "The Humanities of Diet", in Walters, Kerry S. and Portmess, Lisa. Ethical Vegetarianism: from Pythagoras to Peter Singer. SUNY Press, 1999, p. 115ff; an extract from Salt's The Logic of Vegetarianism (1899).
13. For a 19th-century reference to this division, see "Under Examination", The Dietetic Reformer and Vegetarian Messenger, Vol XI, 1884, p. 237: "There are two kinds of Vegetarians—an extreme sect, who eat no animal food whatever; and a less extreme sect, who do not object to eggs, milk, or fish ... The Vegetarian Society ... belongs to the more moderate division."
14. "History of Vegetarianism: The Origin of Some Words", International Vegetarian Union, April 6, 2010, accessed February 4, 2011.
15. ^ Phelps, Norm. The Longest Struggle: Animal Advocacy from Pythagoras to PETA. Lantern Books, 2007, pp. 163–165.
    • Also see Davis, John. "Gandhi—and the launching of veganism", International Vegetarian Union, accessed 17 August 2011.
    • For Kingsford's book, see Kingsford, Anna. The Perfect Way in Diet. Kegan Paul, Trench, & Co, 1881.
16. ^ Leneman, Leah. "No Animal Food: The Road to Veganism in Britain, 1909–1944",Society and Animals, 7, 1–5, 1999.
17. Wheldon, Rupert. No Animal Food, Health Culture Co, New York-Passaic, New Jersey, 1910, pp. 11–12.
18. ^ Stepaniak, Joanne. The Vegan Sourcebook. Lowell House, 2000, pp. 1–3.
19. ^ For details of how "vegan" was chosen, see "Interview with Donald Watson", Vegetarians in Paradise, August 11, 2004, accessed May 5, 2011.
    • For Watson's original description of the term, see Watson, Donald. Vegan News, No. 1, November 1944.
    • For more details, see "History", Vegan Society, accessed November 28, 2009.
    • For the pronunciation, see "FAQ, Definitions", International Vegetarian Union, accessed January 31, 2011.
    • And "Vegan Community Mourns Donald Watson", Vegetarians in Paradise, December 1, 2008, accessed September 9, 2008.
20. Dinshah, Freya. "Vegan, More than a Dream", American Vegan, Summer 2010.
    • That Nimmo had been a vegan since 1931, see Stepaniak, Joanne. The Vegan Sourcebook. Lowell House, 2000, pp. 6–7.
21. Cross, Leslie. "Veganism Defined", The Vegetarian World Forum, volume 5, issue 1, Spring 1951: "In a vegan world the creatures would be reintegrated within the balance and sanity of nature as she is in herself. A great and historic wrong, whose effect upon the course of evolution must have been stupendous, would be righted. The idea that his fellow creatures might be used by man for self-interested purposes would be so alien to human thought as to be almost unthinkable. In this light, veganism is not so much welfare as liberation, for the creatures and for the mind and heart of man; not so much an effort to snake the present relationship bearable, as an uncompromising recognition that because it is in the main one of master and slave, it has to be abolished before something better and finer can be built."
    • The Vegan Society wrote in 1979 that the word "veganism" "denotes 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 ..." See "Memorandum of Association of the Vegan Society", Vegan Society, November 20, 1979, accessed February 1, 2011.
22. Stepaniak, Joanne. The Vegan Sourcebook. Lowell House, 2000, pp. 6–7.
    • Also see Phelps, Norm. The Longest Struggle: Animal Advocacy from Pythagoras to PETA. Lantern Books, 2007, p. 187.
    • "American Vegan Society: History", American Vegan Society, accessed August 13, 2009.
23. Phelps 2007, p. 188.
24. "World Vegan Day", Vegan Society, accessed August 13, 2009.
25. Duda, M.D. and Young, K.C. "Americans' attitudes toward animal rights, animal welfare, and the use of animals," Responsible Management, 1997, cited in McDonald, Barbara. "Once You Know Something, You Can't Not Know It: An Empirical Look at Becoming Vegan", Animals and Society, 8:1, 2000, p. 3.
26. "Donald Watson", The Times, December 8, 2005.
    • Hickman, Martin. "An ethical diet: The joy of being vegan", The Independent, March 15, 2006.
27. "Would you describe yourself as a vegetarian or vegan?", Survey of Public Attitudes and Behaviours toward the Environment, Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, table 210, question F7, p. 481, accessed February 1, 2011: 81 respondents out of 3,618 said they were vegans.
28. "Wat is veganisme?", Nederlandse Vereniging voor Veganisme, accessed October 3, 2007.
29. "Vegetarianism in America", Vegetarian Times, 2008, accessed February 1, 2011.
    • Also see "Vegan Diets Become More Popular, More Mainstream", Associated Press/CBS News, January 5, 2011.
30. "Criteria for Vegan food", Vegan Society, accessed November 28, 2009.
    • Also see "What is Vegan?", American Vegan Society, accessed February 1, 2011: "Vegans exclude flesh, fish, fowl, dairy products (animal milk, butter, cheese, yogurt, etc.), eggs, honey, animal gelatin, and all other foods of animal origin. Veganism also excludes animal products such as leather, wool, fur, and silk in clothing, upholstery, etc. Vegans usually make efforts to avoid the less-than-obvious animal oils, secretions, etc., in many products such as soaps, cosmetics, toiletries, household goods and other common commodities."
    • "Trademark Standards", Vegan Society, accessed January 3, 2010.
31. "Vegan FAQs", Vegan Outreach, accessed March 11, 2007.
    • "Animal ingredients and products", Vegan Peace, accessed February 3, 2011.
    • Also see Meeker D.L. (ed). Essential Rendering: All About The Animal By-Products Industry'. National Renderers Association, 2006.
32. "Honey: Ain't so sweet for the bees", Vegan Society, accessed February 3, 2011.
    • "What is Vegan?", American Vegan Society, accessed February 3, 2011.
    • "Is honey vegan?", Vegan Action, accessed February 3, 2011.
    • "What about honey and silk?" and "What about insects?", Vegan Outreach, accessed February 3, 2011.
33. Stepaniak, Joanne. The Vegan Sourcebook. Lowell House, 2000, pp. 20, 115–118, 154.
34. "Egg Replacements", People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, accessed August 17, 2011.
35. Barnouin, K. (2010). Skinny Bitch: Ultimate Everyday Cookbook. Running Press. 43. ISBN 0762439378; See also Mosko, Sarah S. (2011, Sept.-Oct.) "The Cheese Challenge." E/The Environmental Magazine. 22 (5), 38-39. ISSN 1046-8021. "After melting and taste-testing four top brands, the site veganbaking.net concluded that vegan cheddar and mozzarella shreds made primarily from tapioca or arrowroot flour combined with various oils from Daiya (daiyafoods.com) had both the flavor and melt-ability to stand up to their dairy counterparts."(subscription required)
36. Stepaniak, Joanne. The Vegan Sourcebook. Lowell House, 2000, p. 188.
37. "Vegetarian starter kit", Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, posted on vegsource.com, accessed January 31, 2011.
38. "Building healthy eating patterns", Dietary Guidelines for Americans, United States Department of Agriculture, 2010, p. 45.
    • The report said: "In prospective studies of adults, compared to non-vegetarian eating patterns, vegetarian-style eating patterns have been associated with improved health outcomes—lower levels of obesity, a reduced risk of cardiovascular disease, and lower total mortality. Several clinical trials have documented that vegetarian eating patterns lower blood pressure.

      On average, vegetarians consume a lower proportion of calories from fat (in particular, saturated fatty acids); fewer overall calories; and more fiber, potassium, and vitamin C than do non-vegetarians. In general, vegetarians have a lower body mass index. These characteristics and other lifestyle factors associated with a vegetarian diet may contribute to the positive health outcomes that have been identified among vegetarians."

39. "Position of the American Dietetic Association and Dietitians of Canada: vegetarian diets", Canadian Journal of Dietetic Practice and Research. Summer 2003, 64(2):62-81; also available here , accessed January 31, 2011.
    • For the view of the Irish Nutrition and Dietetic Institute, see "A guide to vegetarian eating", Irish Nutrition and Dietetic Institute, accessed September 30, 2009.
40. For Switzerland, see Walter, Paul et al. "Gesundheitliche Vor- und Nachteile einer vegetarischen Ernährung", Bundesamt für Gesundheit, accessed February 1, 2011:

    • "Therefore, a vegan diet is not recommended for the population in general, and in particular not for children and other vulnerable groups such as pregnant women and elderly people."

    • German: "Deshalb ist die veganische Ernährungsweise generell für breitere Bevölkerungskreise insbesondere für Kinder und andere Risikogruppen wie Schwangere und ältere Leute nicht zu empfehlen."

    • For Germany, "Ist vegetarische Ernährung für Kinder geeignet?", Deutsche Gesellschaft für Ernährung, accessed February 1, 2011:

    • "The strict vegetarian / vegan diet is not recommended for any age group because of the risks. The DGE warns against it especially for infants, children and young people."

    • German: "Die streng vegetarische/ vegane Ernährung wird aufgrund ihrer Risiken für keine Altersgruppe empfohlen. Die DGE rät besonders für Säuglinge, Kinder und Jugendliche dringend davon ab."

41. ^ Freston, Kathy. Veganist: Lose Weight, Get Healthy, Change the World. Weinstein Publishing, 2011.
    • For Ornish on weight loss, see Freston, p. 21ff; for Campbell on cancer, heart disease and diabetes, see p. 41ff; for Esselstyn on heart disease, see p. 57ff; for Barnard on diabetes, see p. 73ff; for Greger on factoring farming and superbugs, see p. 109ff.
    • Segelken, Roger. "China Study II: Switch to Western diet may bring Western-type diseases", Cornell Chronicle, June 28, 2001, accessed September 15, 2006.
    • "China-Cornell-Oxford Project On Nutrition, Environment and Health at Cornell University", Division of Nutritional Sciences, Cornell University, accessed February 2, 2011.
    • Campbell TC; et al. (2002). "Medically supervised water-only fasting in the treatment of borderline hypertension". J Altern Complement Med. 8 (5): 643–50. doi:10.1089/107555302320825165. PMID 12470446. {{cite journal}}: Explicit use of et al. in: |author= (help); Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
    • McDougall, J. et al. "Effects of a Very Low-Fat, Vegan Diet in Subjects with Rheumatoid Arthritis", J Altern Complement Med, volume 8, issue 1, February 2002. doi:10.1089/107555302753507195 PMID 11890437
    • Esselstyn CB Jr. (1999). "Updating a 12-year experience with arrest and reversal therapy for coronary heart disease (an overdue requiem for palliative cardiology)". Am J Cardiol. 84 (3): 339–41. doi:10.1016/S0002-9149(99)00290-8. PMID 10496449. {{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
    • For a paper about the health effects of certain lifestyle changes, including a vegetarian diet, see Ornish D, Brown SE, Scherwitz LW, et al. "Can lifestyle changes reverse coronary heart disease? The Lifestyle Heart Trial", The Lancet, July 1990, 336:8708, pp. 129–133. doi:10.1016/0140-6736(90)91656-U
42. Barnard, Neal D. et al. "A Low-Fat Vegan Diet Improves Glycemic Control and Cardiovascular Risk Factors in a Randomized Clinical Trial in Individuals With Type 2 Diabetes", Diabetes Care, volume 29, issue 8, August 2006. doi:10.2337/dc06-0606 PMID 16873779
    • Trapp, C.B. and Barnard, N.D. "Usefulness of vegetarian and vegan diets for treating type 2 diabetes", Curr Diab Rep, volume 10, issue 2, April 2010.
    • Barnard, Neal D. "Dr. Neal Barnard's Program for Reversing Diabetes". Random House, 2007, pp. 40–50.
43. Appleby P.N. et al. "The Oxford Vegetarian Study: an overview", American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 1999, 70 (suppl):525S–531S.
44. Timothy, J (September 1, 1999). "Mortality in vegetarians and nonvegetarians: detailed findings from a collaborative analysis of 5 prospective studies". American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. 70 (3): 516S–524S. PMID 10479225. Retrieved 2008-01-31. {{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
45. Timothy, J (September 1, 1999). "Mortality in vegetarians and nonvegetarians: detailed findings from a collaborative analysis of 5 prospective studies". American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. 70 (3): 516S–524S. PMID 10479225. Retrieved 2008-01-31. {{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
    • A 2003 review of three studies comparing mortality rates among British vegetarians and non-vegetarians found a non-significant reduction in mortality from ischemic heart disease, but noted that the findings were compatible with the significant reduction found in the 1999 review. See Key, Timothy J (September 1, 2003). "Mortality in British vegetarians: review and preliminary results from EPIC-Oxford". American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. 78 (3): 533S–538S. PMID 12936946. Retrieved 2008-01-31. {{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
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63. Davies, Rob. "Couple face questioning after vegan daughter suffers bone disease", The Daily Telegraph, June 8, 2008.
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64. Lanou, Amy Joy. "Just the facts: A vegan diet is safe, healthy for infants", Houston Chronicle, June 25, 2007.
65. Dedyna, Katherine. "Healthy lifestyle, or politically correct eating disorder?", Victoria Times Colonist, January 30, 2004.
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    • David, Brenda and Melina, Vesanto. Becoming Vegan: The Complete Guide to Adopting a Healthy Plant-Based Diet. Book Publishing Company 2000, p. 224: "Research indicates that the large majority of vegetarian or vegan anorexics and bulimics chose this eating pattern after the onset of their disease. The "restricted" vegetarian or vegan eating pattern legitimizes the removal of numerous high-fat, energy-dense foods such as meat, eggs, cheese, ... However the eating pattern chosen by those with anorexia or bulimia nervosa is far more restrictive than a healthful vegan diet, eliminating nuts, seeds, nut butters, avocados, and limiting overall caloric intake."
66. Bennett, Jannequin and Lewis, Carl. Very Vegetarian. Thomas Nelson Inc, 2001, pp. vii–ix.
67. Stepaniak, Joanne. Being Vegan. McGraw-Hill Professional, 2000, p. 10.
68. Stepaniak, Joanne and Messina, Virginia. The Vegan Sourcebook. McGraw-Hill Professional, 2000, p. 21.
69. Moskowitz, Isa Chandra et al. "Vegan diets becoming more popular, more mainstream", The Washington Post, January 6, 2011.
70. "Oprah Winfrey goes vegan for 21 days", MSNBC, May 22, 2008.
    • "Vegan diet spotlighted on 'Oprah' episode featuring authors Kathy Freston, Michael Pollan", Los Angeles Times, February 1, 2011.
71. Sherwell, Philip. "Bill Clinton's new diet: nothing but beans, vegetables and fruit to combat heart disease", The Daily Telegraph, October 3, 2010.
    • Segal, David. "Restaurants' Best Press: 'Bill Clinton Ate Here'", The New York Times, October 25, 2010.
    • For more about Clinton, see O'Connor, Anahad. "Bill Clinton’s Vegan Journey", The New York Times, August 18, 2011, and Martin, David S. "From omnivore to vegan: The dietary education of Bill Clinton", CNN, August 18, 2011.
    • See Campbell, T. Colin. The China Study. Benbella Books, 2005.
    • For the diet recommended by Ornish, Esselstyn, and Campbell, see Freston, Kathy. Veganist: Lose Weight, Get Healthy, Change the World. Weinstein Publishing, 2011.
72. Stein, Joel. "The Rise of the Power Vegans", Bloomberg Businessweek, November 4, 2010.
73. Torres 2010, p. 60.
74. Regan, Tom. The Case for Animal Rights. University of California Press, 1983, p. 243.
75. Regan 1983, pp. 333–334, 394.
76. Singer, Peter. Practical Ethics. Cambridge University Press, 1999, pp. 57–58, 62.
77. Clyne, Catherine. "Singer Says", Satya magazine, 2006, accessed February 4, 2011.
    • Gilson, Dave. "Chew the Right Thing", Mother Jones, May 3, 2006.
    • Broudy, Oliver. "The practical ethicist", Salon, May 8, 2006.
78. Singer, Peter and Mason, Jim. The Way We Eat. Rodale, 2006, pp. 282–283.
    • The term "Paris exemption" was coined in 2004 by Daren Firestone, a Chicago law student, in Paulson, Amanda. "One woman's quest to enjoy her dinner without guilt", Christian Science Monitor, October 27, 2004, p. 2
    • For criticism of the Paris exemption—which writers also call the "Paris exception"—see, for example, Torres, Bob and Torres, Jenna. Vegan Freak: Being Vegan in a non-Vegan World. PM Press 2010, p. 45ff.
79. Francione, Gary and Garner, Robert. The Animal Rights Debate: Abolition or Regulation. Columbia University Press, 2010, p. 62ff.
    • Also see Francione, Gary. "Mission Statement", Animal Rights: The Abolitionist Approach, accessed February 1, 2011.
80. Adams, Carol J. The Sexual Politics of Meat. Continuum International Publishing Group, 2000 (first pub. 1990), p. 14.
    • For The New York Times, see Jesella, Karla. "The Carrot Some Vegans Deplore", The New York Times, March 27, 2008.
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    • Also see Francione and Garner, 2010, pp. 71–72.
82. Friedrich, Bruce. "Personal Purity versus Effective Advocacy", Goveg.com, PETA, 2006, accessed February 3, 2011; also available here .
83. Francione and Garner 2010, pp. 72–73.
84. See, for example, Mason, Jim and Singer, Peter. Animal Factories: What Agribusiness is Doing to the Family Farm, the Environment and Your Health. Harmony Books, 1990.
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    • Also see Brown, L.R. "World food resources and population: the narrowing margin", Population Bulletin, vol 32, issue 3, 1981, pp. 1–44.
86. "Livestock’s Long Shadow", Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, 2006.
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87. Eshel, G., and Martin, P.A. "Diet, Energy and Global Warming", Earth Interactions, vol 10, issue 9, 2006, pp. 1–17: "We conclude that a person consuming a mixed diet with the mean American caloric content and composition causes the emissions of 1,485 kg CO2-equivalent above the emissions associated with consuming the same number of calories, but from plant sources. Far from trivial, nationally this difference amounts to over 6% of the total U.S. greenhouse gas emissions."
88. Neue, Heinz-Ulrich. "Methane emission from rice fields", BioScience, vol 43, issue 7, 1993, pp. 466-473.
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89. Peters, Christian J.; Wilkinsa, Jennifer L; and Ficka, Gary W. "Testing a complete-diet model for estimating the land resource requirements of food consumption and agricultural carrying capacity: The New York State example", Renewable Agriculture and Food Systems, vol 22, issue 2, 2008, pp. 145–153.
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90. Felicity Carus UN urges global move to meat and dairy-free diet, The Guardian, 2 June 2010
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91. Davis, S.L. "The least harm principle suggests that humans should eat beef, lamb, dairy, not a vegan diet", Proceedings of the Third Congress of the European Society for Agricultural and Food Ethics, 2001, pp. 449–450.
    • Also see Corliss, Richard. "Should you be a vegetarian?" Time magazine, July 2, 2002.
92. Matheny, Gaverick. "Least Harm: A Defense of Vegetarianism from Steven Davis's Omnivorous Proposal", Journal of Agricultural and Environmental Ethics, vol 16, issue 5, 2003, pp. 505–511.
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Further reading

Vegan societies

• American Vegan Society, accessed February 1, 2011.
• Brazilian Vegan Society, accessed February 1, 2011.
• Indian Vegan, accessed February 5, 2011.
• Japan Vegan Society, accessed February 20, 2011.
• South African Vegan Society, accessed February 1, 2011.
• The Vegan Society (UK), accessed February 1, 2011.
• The Vegan Society of Australia, accessed February 1, 2011.
• Uruguayan Vegan and Vegetarian Union, accessed February 1, 2011.
• Vegan Ireland, accessed February 7, 2011.
• Vegankind (IRAN), accessed forum February 1, 2011.

Organizations

• Vegan Action, administrators of vegan product certification in the U.S. and Canada, accessed February 1, 2011.
• Abolition of Speciesism, New Zealand, accessed February 1, 2011.
• Vegan Outreach, creators of the "Why Vegan?" pamphlet, accessed February 1, 2011.
• Farm Sanctuary, accessed February 1, 2011.
• Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, accessed February 1, 2011.
• The Vegetarian and Vegan Foundation, accessed February 1, 2011.
• People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), accessed February 1, 2011.
• Movement for Compassionate Living, accessed February 1, 2011.
• TARVE "The Voice For Farmed Animals", accessed October 23, 2011.

Resources

• American Dietetic Association. A new food guide for North American vegetarians, 2003, accessed February 1, 2011.
• Vegan Health, Vegan Outreach, accessed February 1, 2011.
• Vegan nutrition, Vegan Society, accessed February 1, 2011.
• "A Diet For All Reasons" - Video, a 1993 lecture by Michael Klaper MD, accessed February 1, 2011.
• Vegan Village, accessed February 4, 2011.

Recipes

• Cest la Vegan, accessed March 1, 2011.
• Healthy Happy Life, accessed March 1, 2011.
• FFVK, accessed March 1, 2011.
• Vegan Yum Yum, accessed March 1, 2011.
• Veganish, accessed April 16, 2011.

Articles and books

• Marcus, Erik. Veganism: The New Ethics of Eating. McBooks Press, 2000.
• Pollan, Michael. "An Animal's Place," The New York Times Magazine, November 10, 2002.
• Lanfield, Michael The Interconnectedness of Life. Toronto, October 24, 2011.
• Lanfield, Michael Regarding Animal Rights in Zoos. Toronto, October 22, 2011.
• Riston, Joseph. An Essay on Abstinence from Animal Food, as a Moral Duty. London: Wilks and Taylor, 1802.
• Safran Foer, Jonathan. Eating Animals. Hamish Hamilton, 2010.
• Steiner, Gary. "Animal, Vegetable, Miserable", The New York Times, November 21, 2009.
• Wheldon, Rupert H. No Animal Food. London, 1910.

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• Veganism
• Vegetarianism
• Animal rights
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• Ethical theories
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