How many vegans on board?

gibby

it takes 5 to 8 times more food to feed animal to then feed humans according to the UN than feed humans directly
they also state that an adult & child die every 3 seconds from starvation as the grain used in thsoe countries is kept for Euro & US meat stocks rather than feeding humans

there is also the massive amount of water use & the slurry produced to take into account. ALmost 20% of co2 production is from animal farming

as for going vegan its not that difficult.
there is a great little book - the Animal Free Shopper which has lists of most products that are vegan.

For drink the best place is the coop as they label the wines & beers that are vegan.

I was very shocked to learn when I went veggie that blood, fish guts, bones, gelatine & more went into normal booze

Also its worth finding some local veggie vegan groups to help as its much better when you have friends. The Vegan Society has a list of local groups.

Well done for making the effort, veganism is really growing in the UK but if you need any help please feel free to post me a PM

G

michaelq_2

Veganism helps the environment by eliminating many of the wastes and energy used in processing meats.

savvy

Hi roxiepie, I've merged you into this thread so that you can meet loads of other MSE vegans and hopefully find lots of experience and advice in this thread Happy reading!

savvy

stumpycat wrote: »

On the whole it will probably work out more 'environmentally friendly' - assuming you're not getting your fresh fruit & veg flown in from all 4 corners of the world!
(have just been to Morrisons and gone *eek* at where their apples come from!)

This is something that we are feeling quite strongly about, and can't remember where I heard it (it was a programme tho), but a few years down the line Britain will not be self sufficient as Supermarkets are importing more and more of our food, thus having a knock on effect for our producers who can't sustain themselves (think of all the farmland going for development). It's a frightening prospect that the world could one day hold us to ransom over our imported food :eek: obviously that the extreme view, but has made us support our local producers at farmers markets and shopping in small independent shops. Although we do some shopping in Waitrose, we buy as much British food as possible.

A_fiend_for_life

eslick wrote: »

how is becoming a vegan helping the environment?

iirc the rule of thumb from biology / ecology if the plant based biomass is a 100 tons, the herbivore biomass is around 10 tons, and the carnivore biomass around 1 ton. Second level carnivores, carnivores that eat carnivores, would be 0.1 ton.

A_fiend_for_life

From here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biomass_(ecology)

When energy is transferred from one trophic level to the next, typically only ten percent is used to build new biomass. The remaining ninety percent goes to metabolic processes or is dissipated as heat. This energy loss means that productivity pyramids are never inverted, and generally limits food chains to about six levels. However, in oceans, biomass pyramids can be wholly or partially inverted, with more biomass at higher levels.

and

Humans comprise about 100 million tonnes of the Earth's biomass, animals about 700 million tonnes, and crops about 2 billion tonnes. The total biomass of bacteria is estimated to equal that of plants.

domesticated animals doesn't include marine animals another source of human protein. Crop biomass is surprisingly low which might give an indication of how much we rely on oil to force two crops a year out of the soil. I am not sure if mass refers to a particular moment in time or within a time frame say over one year.

savvy

savvy wrote: »

Well I'm almost vegan :undecided

I'm very definately vegetarian, but I've got a wheat intolerance, and a slight dairy intolerance, so have rice milk and vegan marge, but I do eat egg and cheese now and then, but eat egg free mayonnaise. I eat egg/cheese based dishes as if I didn't, there wouldn't be a great deal I could eat at times (it was all I could eat for breakfast on our last HB holiday
I have slight intolerances to egg, tomato, potato, and soya too :rolleyes:

Waaahaaaay brilliant :T:T:T I can honestly say since the beginning of this year I am totally vegan - finally kicked that bad cheese habit out the window :rotfl::rotfl:

belladonna30

Hello fellow vegans, great to see you here! :wave:
It's good to know I'm not alone!

Ben84

gibby wrote: »

it takes 5 to 8 times more food to feed animal to then feed humans according to the UN than feed humans directly
they also state that an adult & child die every 3 seconds from starvation as the grain used in thsoe countries is kept for Euro & US meat stocks rather than feeding humans

What is most shocking about the millions of people without food around the world is that there is enough food produced for everyone. Many charities, including Oxfam have claimed this.

I do see benefits for the environment by being vegan, but can't see that it helps world hunger, not when enough food is already out there and is simply not finding its way to people who need it. Politics are part of the problem in some places, but as far as I can tell a lot of it is due to waste in wealthy countries. We can afford to buy up lots of the world's food at higher prices, and then according to many statistics we simply throw away lots of it, and in many cases eat too much of it as well.

I think the best thing we can do is try to avoid food waste and excessive consumption (neither are good for us anyway), and to support charities that are doing something about extreme poverty.

pinkclouds

Apologies if this is an inappropriate place to ask but could anyone please suggest/recommend nice non-dairy cheeses? I am quite keen to try some.

If it makes any difference to your recommendations: I like rather boring cheeses (cheddar, gouda, occasionally philly), am indifferent as to whether my yoghurt is dairy or non-dairy (will eat either so long as it's not plain), drink soya milk sometimes (but never cow milk) and dislike cream. Essentially, I hate really "milky" tasting food.

Any help appreciated, thanks.