Veganism: a way of living which seeks to exclude, as far as is possible and practical, all forms of exploitation of and cruelty to animals for food, clothing, or any other purpose.

The veganism movement has been on an increasingly steady rise as the years go by. This rise is caused by awareness being spread tremendously and vastly. According to Foodrevolution.org, “there’s been a 600% increase in people identifying as vegans in the US in the last three years”. The ignorance is fading, and knowledge really is proving itself to be power in this case.

There are a multitude of reasons as to why the rise in veganism has jumped so drastically in recent years, the main reasons revolving around benefits in overall health as well as the environment, and more people coming to understand the cruelty that animals face when being slaughtered, and the unfathomable living conditions they suffer through beforehand.

Animals are forced to endure cramped spaces, some of which are so small that their mobility is stripped away from them; pigs result to biting bars–often times leading to oral damages which will go untreated– due to the stress they are caused from being entrapped in such a small space. Chickens have their beaks cut off with a burning hot blade, all the while deprived of any form of antibiotics or numbing products. Calves are ripped away from their mothers shortly after being born, and milking cows are hooked up to machines, being milked excessively and harmfully every day. This more often than not causes painful ulcers and sores on their utter’s, which also go untreated. Animals bred for the food industry are severely neglected and treated as if they don’t feel pain or have extremely similar emotional responses as humans do.

On top of the cruelty animals face in this industry, animal agriculture is also the number one leading cause of global warming and deforestation. Forests are destroyed every day for the purpose of creating plants for slaughterhouses and housing for the animals. Mass production/breeding of these animals, especially cows, leads to an immense amount of methane gas being released into the atmosphere from cow feces, thus causing the environment to consistently warm. The effects that consuming animals does to our bodies is detrimental, as well. The media has been inundated with studies proving that a plant-based diet is much more beneficial to your health and wellbeing than a carnivorous diet is.

Veganism is on the rise and nothing can stop it. It is time to embrace how positively plant-based ideals can impact our planet. Go Vegan.