Go Vegan For The Animals | Go Vegan For The Planet | Go Vegan For Your Health
Vegan Q & A | Vegan Nutrition | Vegan Recipes | Literature and Resources

Vegan Question and Answer

Here are some answers to a few frequently asked questions about veganism. If you have your own, email it to us and we'll respond to you personally, and we may even publish it on our website.

What about free range?

Although free-range producers claim to be more humane than factory-farm conditions, free range farms are by no means free of cruelty. Eggs (and poultry) may be labeled as "free-range" if they have USDA-certified access to the outdoors. No other criteria, such as living environment, size of the outside area, number of birds, or space per bird, are included in this term. Typically, free-range hens are debeaked at the hatchery, have only 1 to 2 square feet of floor space per bird, and -- if the hens can go outside -- must compete with many other hens for access to a small exit from the shed. Although chickens can live up to 12 years, free-range hens are hauled to slaughter the same as battery-caged hens, after a year or two. Free-range male chicks are trashed at birth, just as they are in factory farms. As all free-range animals are still viewed as objects to be killed for food, they are subject to abusive handling, transport, and slaughter.

I want to be vegan, but how can I give up the taste of milk, cheese, and ice cream?

There are vegan substitutes for these things that taste just as good, if not better than the real thing. Try soy milk (sweetened, vanilla and chocolate are usually best). There are lots of different brands on the market, each with their own flavor, so try them all to see which one you like the best. Soy ice cream is also available in every flavor you can imagine (rice based ice cream is also available). There are also a few cheese substitutes, but most contain "casien," which is a milk derived protein. However, There are some vegan soy based cheeses. Tofutti makes American cheese slices that are very good, and even melt well in sandwiches. Tofutti also makes a vegan cream cheese that is great on bagels. There is also a new brand of vegan soy cheese by Follow Your Heart that is all vegan and tastes great. There are tons of soy yogurts on the market as well. Check them out at your local supermarket.

The goal of veganism is to reduce suffering by refusing to contribute to animal cruelty, and the production of both of these products causes considerable suffering to bees and silk worms, both of which are animals. To produce honey, many bees are killed by the methods used to collect honey. The bees are then robbed of their food supply, and it is replaced with nutritionally deficient sugar water. In the production of silk, silk worms are boiled alive to extract the silk from their bodies.

What would you do with all the animals if everyone went vegan? It is simple economics that as fewer people eat meat and dairy products, prices will go down. All the meat, dairy, and egg products that exist now will be sold, but for less money. As more and more people adopt a vegan diet, less of these products will be produced, because prices will fall. Eventually, we’ll stop raising animals for food altogether. Many people who work in these industries, except for those in the top positions in each company, are already being treated very poorly; for example, most slaughterhouse workers aren’t given health insurance, and many line workers suffer from carpal tunnel syndrome. So the jobs that replace these jobs will certainly be better than the jobs that are lost as this industry goes the way of the slave trade.

What would you do with all the animals if everyone went vegan?

It is simple economics that as fewer people eat meat and dairy products, prices will go down. All the meat, dairy, and egg products that exist now will be sold, but for less money. As more and more people adopt a vegan diet, less of these products will be produced, because prices will fall. Eventually, we’ll stop raising animals for food altogether. Many people who work in these industries, except for those in the top positions in each company, are already being treated very poorly; for example, most slaughterhouse workers aren’t given health insurance, and many line workers suffer from carpal tunnel syndrome. So the jobs that replace these jobs will certainly be better than the jobs that are lost as this industry goes the way of the slave trade.

What books do you recommend on the topics of animal rights and veganism?

To purchase any of these books, simply type the title and author into your search engine to find a vast array of ways to purchase them online (Ebay.com and Half.com often have good book bargains). You may also find these and other books on animal rights at your local bookstore.

- Diet For A New America by John Robbins

A great resource that discusses the destructive effects of animal agriculture in terms of animal welfare, the environment and your health. Many people have gone vegan simply from reading this book. A must read.

- Vegan: The New Ethics of Eating by Eric Marcus

Not since John Robbins' Diet For A New America has anyone presented in such a compelling -- and successful -- manner the myriad reasons to adopt a plant-based diet.

Although Vegan contains the most up-to-date scientific research illuminating the relationship between an animal-source diet and disease, it’s extremely layman-friendly and readable. In addition to the irrefutable health argument Marcus presents for the vegan diet, he takes you into the modern factory farming world and exposes the hellish plight of hundreds of millions of food animals. The book finishes with a discussion of world implications of diet choices, and Marcus’ own fascinating personal story.

- Animal Liberation by Peter Singer

A well researched and influential philosophy text on the issue of animal rights. This was one of the first texts defining animal rights. A must read.

- The Vegan Sourcebook by Joanne Sepaniak

This book is great for new vegans. It includes facts about the ethics of a vegan lifestyle as well as a more in depth look at the psychological and social aspects of going vegan, such as the section “Being Vegan In A Non-Vegan World.”

 Why aren't honey and silk vegan?