A vegan diet excludes any product that comes from an animal, this includes but is not limited to: meat, dairy, eggs, and fish. This is an important topic to me because I was a vegetarian for three years and am coming up on one year of being 100% vegan. In general, I feel the media presents vegan diets in a guilt seeking way. There are several benefits in adopting a vegan diet, but the diverse reasons are often ignored because of memes saying “not your milk” or videos of animals being slaughtered.
Why I care:
I care about this topic, because I see an opportunity for improvement. If this topic can cut out the bias and present the facts, I think more people will be able to find ways in which they could be motivated to try the diet. The transition took me years, because it was difficult to start saying no to my family cooking for me or ditching restaurants that wouldn’t accommodate. As I learned more about the positive impact myself, a singular person could make, the transition was worth it. Three reasons started to stand out to me that pushed me over the edge, while these reasons are enough for me, others might still need more information.
What I think of the coverage:
I think the coverage is hyper focused on the animal cruelty. The animal cruelty is extremely alarming. Recently a pig was put was pushed off a ledge to bungee jump, because it was already being sent to the slaughterhouse (WARNING: this example is PAINFUL to watch). The video is an example of the torture that is happening to animals, but this is also just one of the reasons a vegan diet can push our world towards improvement.
The persuasion to decrease animal cruelty gets a lot of attention, I think that there is a need to educate to public on a more rounded view of veganism by focusing more of the benefits and ways to make small changes with a big impact.
I have been hearing of loud media on the climate crisis, and I don’t think enough people know that a vegan diet can decrease the negative effects on the climate. Vegan diets significantly decrease a person’s carbon footprint. If you have never taken a carbon footprint quiz, they are extremely interesting and helpful in understanding personal impact.
Many documentaries go into the benefits of a vegan diet, but one that really impacted myself was Forks Over Knives. While this documentary and way of eating is focused on plant based oil free eating, it does a great job explaining how many of the life threatening diseases expanded so rapidly.
Moving forward:
All of the media I have mentioned, focuses on the benefits and the good things about a vegan diet. I would like to focus on a balanced view of veganism where all of the benefits are provided, but also find any possible negative effects of a vegan diet.
