Veganism

See also: Good Thing | Vegetarianism | Politics

The philosophy and related actions of not eating animals or animal products or by-products. This includes eat meat (fish / pig / cow / whatever), eggs, milk, butter, or any other dairy. Vegans also generally avoid products that are made using animals in other ways, as with leather clothing or shoes, certain types of sugar, gelatin-containing film, or cosmetics tested on animals. Some go so far as to avoid bee-produced honey as the bees are often burned alive after they make the honey as it is more efficient to start a new colony than waiting for their honey-making cycle to begin again.

Veganism is considered strict Vegetarianism.

Table of contents 1 Philosophy
2 Vegan Recipes Links
3 Vegan Restaurant Links
4 E-number links (useful in the European Union)
5 General Vegan / Animal Liberation Links
6 Ethical food organisations / companies
7 Software
8 Organic
9 GM

Philosophy

People usually become vegan due to moral concerns. Most vegans believe that a vegan diet is healthier than the typical omnivorous human diet, but are more often motivated by compassion for animals. Factory Farming in both meat and dairy industries is a leading reason for vegans to avoid such product. Vegans also stress that exploiting animals in modern society is not necessary for survival.

Vegans also generally develop other political philosophies, perhaps Anarchism, Buddhism Socialism or left-wing Christian (humanism), which have similar characteristics to veganism in that they reject the exploitation of creatures.

Most Christian and Jewish faiths reject the idea of Vegetarianism/Veganism due to Genesis 1:26: “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth.” This passage has been oft-interprited as being omnivorous is “what God wants.”

Veganism’s appearance in the mass media are not its health effects or growth but usually in the form of a small extremists group known as the Animal Liberation Front (http://www.animalliberationfront.com) rather than its vast non-violent community. This group takes compassion for animals to the next level by either releasing captive animals or destroying property of organizations that exploit, kill, or otherwise harm animals. This is done to damage the profit of such an organisation and draw attention to animal torture in the name of science. This group may be considered at least extremists and at most terrorists. It often attracts negative, sensational attention to the plight of other groups such as environmentalists and animal rights groups who work within the law, similar to how abortion bombers bring negative attention to religious pro-life activists.

Vegan Recipes Links

Vegan Restaurant Links

E-number links (useful in the European Union)

What is an e-number? (http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/List%20of%20E%20Numbers)

General Vegan / Animal Liberation Links

Ethical food organisations / companies

NGO’s and organisations who provide a (more) fair wage for the (3rd world) workers.

  • Fair Trade (http://www.fairtrade.nl/html/english.html) – Organisation, brand and trademark.
  • Max Havelaar (http://www.maxhavelaar.com) – Honest coffee.

Software

Cooking or vegan related software.

Organic

Organic stores and information. Organic food could be vegan or vegetarian, but not necessarily. Traditionally, stores selling organic food relatevely do provide more vegan/vegeterian food than mass food stores.

  • […]

GM

Information regarding genetically modified (GM) food which is often patented.

  • Slashdot: Plant a Seed, Get Sued? (http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/01/14/2254236) – A story about GMed seeds which the user (e.g. farmer) may not legally use to create seeds off.

TakeDown.NET -> “Veganism”