India Waking Up To Veganism

<div class="sharethis-inline-share-buttons"></div>

We are living in an era where the majority of problems are caused due to human actions. There are a couple of problems that turned out to be a serious threat to the earth i.e. environmental pollution and species extinction. Most of the pollution is caused due to industrial waste and chimney smoke, one such harmful industry contains food production industries. This not just pollutes the environment but also causes threats to animal lives.
A simple step can help us contribute to reducing these hazardous things happening to our environment and the poor beings around us. And what is that simple step? Shifting to being a Vegan.
Now Vegan people are those who along with excluding meat, fish, or fowl, also don’t consume dairy products such are animal milk or eggs. Now the definition of vegans varies from person to person depending on their habits. There are punk and non-punk vegans. Punk vegans are the ones who strictly follow veganism and non-punks are the ones who have their own food preferences and are mostly not so-strict vegans.

Veganism: The Definition

Now that we know who are vegans, let’s look at the definition of Veganism, shall we?
Veganism goes beyond food and extents to cosmetics, clothing, and even entertainment. Veganism can be said extreme and exclusive support of animal rights.
Maintaining a vegan lifestyle depends on having a strong social network with the ones who support Veganism too. According to researchers, there are more practicing vegans than there are members of vegan organizations. Since it’s not based on legislation or identity politics, it’s not dependent on individual strength or collective identity. It’s mostly based on one’s everyday practices. Veganism is the only goal or tactic of the animal rights movement. The main goal of this movement is to create a better place for animals.

Vegan Diet Healthy Diet

Not just for animals, vegan diets have a lot of health benefits. Vegan diets are usually higher in dietary fiber, magnesium, folic acid, vitamins C and E, iron, and phytochemicals and they tend to be lower in calories, saturated fats and cholesterol, omega-3, vitamin D, Calcium, zinc, and vitamin B-12. Compared with other vegetarians, vegans are thinner, have lower cholesterol, and modestly lower blood pressure.

An Environment Friendly and Ethical Practice

While it’s beneficial for us human beings, this practice is also an environment friendly practice and if adopted by even half of the population of the world can make a huge difference to the environment.

According to researchers, animal agriculture is responsible for 18% of global greenhouse gas emissions and animal agriculture is responsible for 80% of deaths from pollution related to food production. Adopting a vegan lifestyle will not only encourage humans to be less destructive to animals but also will save wildlife and the world around us.

If we look at an ethical perspective, animals deserve the right to live freely too just like us. There are alternatives to the things like food, clothing, cosmetics, and entertainment that can be helpful in creating an animal-friendly world. Harming animals for our benefit is just not right.

Global Rise of Veganism

• Plant-based diets and dairy alternatives are making up nearly 8%of the global “protein foods” market.
• Plant-based products and food sales are expected to increase by fivefold by 2030, according to the Bloomberg Intelligence report.
• 17% of overall vegan food delivery has been observed.
• Specifically, orders of plant-based food increased by 28%
• Plant-based diets are growing across Asia and even many of the athletes are encouraging it.

Where Does India Stand In Terms Of Veganism?

Dairy Farming: Crueler Than Any Industry

When compared to other animal-based industries, dairy farming is crueler than any other industries. This is because animals are forced to be in certain conditions in order to provide what humans want.
For example, females in the dairy industry are forced to become pregnant so that they can lactate and produce milk that humans can take and sell. And this is done forcefully year after year continuously which is not good for their health.
And not just this, cows are injected with oxytocin that can make them produce milk twice as more than what they can actually produce. And these drugs are injected while they are pregnant which leads to cramps and pain.
Cows are treated with no empathy, they are beaten to make them stand steady while milking and tied tightly with the rope. It also observed that they are not provided with clean water and also unhygienic surrounding. They are often left to live in their own feces.
Cows and buffaloes are not even provided with proper veterinary care and medicines. They are left bleeding if in case they are injured.

Conclusion

In my opinion, Veganism as a moment should be considered on a serious note. It wouldn’t make a difference immediately but gradually. And animals are living beings just like us except the fact that they can’t speak up for themselves like us. And honestly, we all are dependent on each other so why not adopt an animal-friendly approach toward life.
Even if we can not take big steps or make a big difference we can at least shift to being a vegetarian for starters and gradually shifting to veganism can also make a difference.