A post from my vegan heart

This is a post straight from my heart. Yes, my vegan heart.

July 2024 – I’m at Vegan Camp Out, listening to Ed Winters’ (Earthling Ed) talk. As he looked around, he saw nearly 10,000 people who understood exactly what he was saying. Tears streamed down my face, not because I was sad, but because I felt understood.

Today, the world still condemns vegans as “extreme,” “pushy,” and “snowflakes.” But is that really what vegans are? Is that the truth?

Let’s take a look at what the majority of vegans want:

• We dream of a world without farmed animals. Each year, we breed into existence, exploit, and kill 90 billion farm animals.
• We dream of a world where everyone has access to healthy, nutritious food. Currently, 36-50% of global food production is used to feed farmed animals, not people.
• We dream of a world that conserves and protects biodiversity.
  • Wild mammals have declined by 85% since the rise of humans.
  • Today, wild mammals make up only 4% of the world’s wild mammal mass.
  • Livestock accounts for 62% of the world’s mammal mass (this doesn’t even include the 70 billion chickens slaughtered each year).
  • Deforestation, wetland destruction, habitat conversion, and overfishing are the main drivers of biodiversity loss. More than 75% of global agricultural land is used for livestock (both grazing and feed crops).
• We dream of a world where food is our medicine, and people live healthy, fulfilling lives without reliance on pharmaceutical interventions.
  • The average age at which people begin needing lifelong medication for lifestyle diseases like heart disease, diabetes, or stroke, is typically around middle age (45-65 years), after long-term exposure to unhealthy lifestyle factors.
  • The plant-based dietary pattern (a whole food plant based diet) protects against overconsumption of nutrients that lead to obesity and disease, particularly animal protein, saturated fat, trans-fats, cholesterol, simple sugars, and sodium.
• We dream of a world where compassion trumps greed, connection triumphs over isolation, and the planet comes before profit.

The list goes on, but my point is this: does that sound crazy? Extreme? Or does it sound reasonable? Hopeful, even? To live in a world where we can all breathe fresh air, enjoy clean oceans and waterways, nurture healthy bodies and minds, and co-exist with Nature—alongside vast protected wilderness, reforested lands, and eco-marine reserves?

This dream, this utopia, is the ripple effect of the ultimate goal of veganism: “to exclude, as far as possible and practicable, all forms of exploitation of, and cruelty to, animals for food, clothing, or any other purpose.”

A healthy planet, where Nature and people co-exist without one dominating the other.

If you feel resistance right now—a desire to speak out against veganism—have you ever asked yourself why? What do you really feel when you’re confronted with the truth about animal agriculture, our food systems, and their devastating effects?

Are you rationalizing, excusing, or numbing yourself, trying to cope with that horrible feeling that what’s happening is wrong and that you are complicit?

Please, take a moment to think—and be honest.

I, for one, still have hope that this dream scenario is possible, and I am protecting that hope with all I’ve got.

When I stepped out of the bubble of Vegan Camp Out, Ed Winters’ words lingered in my mind. It’s difficult to face the anger, hatred, ignorance, and, most painfully, the misinformation. At times, it saddens me. But then, I straighten my back and remind myself of the billions of farm animals slaughtered for meat, the newborns subjected to systems of cruelty, exploitation, and isolation, and the wild animals displaced from their homes, dying in nets, fires, and floods. Every second of every day, they perish—victims of humanity’s greed and parasitism.

And then I go on. For them. For the Planet. For us.

So when next you come across a vegan, please be kind. Be curious. I think you’ll find that you have more in common than you think.

If you would like any information about vegan health, hospitality solutions or the Plant Based Treaty, please reach out here.