Why We’re Not Vegan (And at Peace With It)

This is such an awesome video! Thank you for putting this together. It summarizes my thoughts on so many subjects wonderfully!

Same! I tried veganism but it was beyond me financially , especially since i can't eat beans and many of those vegan alternatives due to stomach issues. When i was vegetarian, for 15 years, i had constant bloating and stomach issues due to beans. I stopped eating beans during the pandemic and replaced it with fish. Then slowly added in chicken due to cost. I feel happy, entergetic witj no digestive issues

I’m not going to tell anyone what to do, but I do have a problem with the official denial of the meat industry. If people can watch Earthlings and still want to eat meat then what else can I say.

Instant subscribe. I needed to hear a lot of this and it had nothing to do with veganism.

I was vegan for 23 years but it was not for me and I was badly damaged by it, adding chicken and fish back to my diet completely revitalized my life, my energy and my mental health, let alone physical health! What works for one does not always work for another! Being happy and healthy is the key!

Wonderfully reasoned commentary, and well filmed and edited. I truly appreciate you sharing your nuanced perspective.

Animals are friends not food! It is not natural, necessary or normal to eat animals or secretions from animals. Go vegan!

I didn't finish watching, but I need to share this thought:
Every change is difficult. And when people ask me if it's not difficult to be vegan, because, you know, you have less choice and so on. I'm like: Yes, that's true, I have less choice! And no: I have less choice - that's why it's easier!

It will be a good idea if there was a 50% tax on meat

It’s interesting hearing some vegans proclaim how they’re making a positive contribution to the environment by not eating meat and dairy but they’re more than happy to drive around in their large 4 wheel drives with leather seats.

I would suggest watching videos of Earthling Ed. He puts the vegan case often in discussion with non vegans. He is known for calm reasoned argument. It makes for good viewing, a point made by many of those (including meat eaters) commenting on his presentations. It is educational too.

Veganism is incredibly unhealthy. Humans do not thrive eating plants.

Oxalates in plant foods nearly destroyed my health.

Ive been carnivore for 7 months now ive never felt better. Never eaten less vegetables in my life as well.

Id say the most important thing to cut from ones diet is refined grains or grains in general.

10+ year vegan here, to summarize your points:
1) You think veganism can be healthy but not worth the effort
2) You think veganism can be environmentally positive but not worth the effort
3) You think veganism can be perfectionist and prefer harm reduction
4) You think veganism can be extreme on the ethical spectrum and draw the line elsewhere
Fair enough but If we're being honest your actual reasons sound more like: culture, convenience, taste.
Which is true for most people in the world.
If you lived on a vegan planet though the likelihood of you making the effort to kill cows for sandwiches is very low.
Which is true for most people in the world.
So you are a product of your culture...like most people in the world.
Every person cannot champion every cause but by aggregation we can all make our culture and world a better place.
So we should support each others efforts to do better for our culture and our world.
The reason vegans make the effort is because they are soberly connected to the hellish suffering of animals on earth.
The surprise is how fun, easy, fulfilling and sensical veganism feels when you try it.

Well said. 👍🏻More empathy + Openness = A better world.

I was vegan and what vegans fail to acknowledge due to western privilege and wealth, Veganism exploits people. Children. Deforestation. Depletion of native water sources and native food sources for less wealthy countries. Veganism is a way to pave a road to hell with good intentions but is painfully contradictory. Balance. Lower consumption- eating only what we need. Is the only way. And with that, grace comes in. Westerners also fail to be grateful for the process and what it took to get the food to their plate. Appreciation and gratitude for every animal and vegetable and fruit on our plate comes with knowledge on how we received it to begin with. We all need to do better, and we all need to balance together.

It’s very refreshing to see a video that doesn’t go overboard one way or the other. Thank you for balance and understanding.

I still believe it's helthier to include animal products. But i still care about the animals, so i have created a few rules:
- only chicken meat: way less intelligence than most animals and less impact on environment,
- only some fish for omega 3.
Milk and eggs from animals living in good conditions to me is kind enough. Honestly if i was an animal, i wish to have food and be protected from death and diseases of "nature". Isn't that what we do as humans for ourselves?

I an very much at peace now because i went vegan 10 years ago. It has been the best decision of my life. I have no doubt it is the future of food to not consume animal products. But change takes time.

It takes two steps for masses to move a step forward. Veganism is only seen as extreme now because our society have normalized ways to extensively commodify other sentient beings based on traditions that isn’t serving us in today’s context. Discussions to raise awareness of existential and social problems not exclusively to just Vegans needs to be normalized until it becomes a norm. Until then any effort is valued. I don’t have to be called a Vegan, it’s my personal take to make myself more relatable but I understand the term is needed for optics to be as an opposing side of Speciesism. Both sides shouldn’t push absolutism but we need to eradicate the stigma against Veganism. I believe majority of the push back comes from biases that aren’t managed, then corrupts the unflattering truths about animal agriculture.

Some of the vegetables I buy are produced in slave-like conditions and pollute the environment with pesticides. My laptop contains rare earth metals that fuel violent conflict. I use facebook even though it's been used for genocide. But not consuming animals products is a win-win-win situation (health, environment, ethics). No, you don't have to be 100%, but I do think we should be striving toward doing as much good as you can.

Born in a family who ate meat atkeast twice a week, I was told that even as a toddler somehow my body would reject meat, even when my mother tried to camaflouge it in potatoes as such, growing up I started to completely detest any sort of meat because I couldn't stomach it. I did eat fish and eggs, because I seemed to feel alright consuming them, although it was once in a week or two. As an adult I was in prime health till I moved to Australia and being coerced by my then partner to start eating meat. I caved in. Ate meat. Seemed also viable option since to buy veggies we have to sell an arm and a leg here. It was hard atfirst for me to eat meat but slowly little by little I journeyed on thinking it was the more healthy route to bulk up and get strong. I was wrong. In the decade I have eaten meat I have becomes seriously depressed, has had several health concerns, packed on the weight contrary to the perfect physiuque I had, lost lot of hair, skin lost its glow, and I am just in my 30s. These are just few of the issues. I was always lethargic. Muscle aches etc. Anyway, it's been just under a year I am slowly goingback to being a vegetarian and I feel ane look younger than the past decade already. Still along way to go. I had lost my zest and will to live but now I feel energetic and is having an active life compared to the past several years on meat.

My take from personal experience - eating meat nearly destroyed me completely, both mentally and physically. Pay me a million bucks and now I wont touch meat again. My cholestrol was high and now its in perfect range and no more pre-dianetic either.

The stress and fear hormones of the last few minutes of the life of the animals before it gets slaughtered definitely deposits in the consumer of that meat. I am not even going to touch the topic of how cancerous meat consumption is because we have snowflakes on internet that will get offended. This is my personal view from my experience so I won't shy from speaking this truth, if it helps someone, why not.

So I am glad I am back on track and now started to look like a 21 yr old even in my late 30s, contrary to last year - overweight, depressed, low self esteem, and bunch of health issues.

Take from this comment what you will.

I feel that this is true to many topics, not only veganism though. I also feel that people are obsessed with being right, and can't accept that other people might have different views/opinions, and that's ok. It's rare to be able to have deep conversation with someone nowadays, unbiased, without having to prove who are right, and just throwing and exchanging ideas and views. Don't let the haters get to you guys.

Long story short: the trait is consciousness.

It was interesting reading through the resonable comments. I am not vegan nor vegetarian. I personally don't think it's a sustainable lifestyle nor is it good for the planet unless you're growing the majority of your food, sourcing it locally, or foraging it. Commercially grown produce in the States is as bad if not worse than CAFOs. I also wonder why some vegans are ok with eating bugs and plants when those are also alive.

I think I would actually like to know your opinion about the ethical aspect. I understand the frustrations about polarized views but I guess the vegans that you are referring to would want to know the answer to this question: What is your ethical case for eating animal products?

i think mankind should take a few steps backwards,more farming less hustle and bustle,but is there time,the planet as we know it is dying

A really balanced and thought provoking approach to a topic that can be very polarising! Thanks for sharing and opening the minds to others.

I was vegan for 6 years, and I went back to being a vegetarian, very happily so. I'll have a vegan day every now and again if I feel like it, but never going back to vegan unless there is a catastrophe and I can only eat roots 😊 Do not feel disheartened by the negative comments, do NOT feel guilty if you eat meat. Guilt is a religious concept, a made up one just to make people feel bad about themselves, we do not need that in our lives. Also, we did not create nature the way it is, so if one day I'll need to eat meat again I will, and I'll be grateful to the animal for its sacrifice.
One thing I'll never do though will be eating synthetic meat for the sake of the planet. I really don't care. Or flour made out of insects as they're pushing us to do in Europe.
I'm italian mind you, and that to me is simply something unconceivable.
Hugs! ❤

First of all: Happy to see, that you bring up this topic! 💚
I agree on the first point (health) and also the second is alright (however, eating vegan is one of the most impactful things you can do for the environment), but on the third (animal ethics) you are looking for excuses. Been there, done that, 7 years ago.

I have a masters in ethics from the university of vienna and can tell you, there simply are no good ethical counterarguments against veganism. It's like looking for reasons why it's ok to torture your dog for fun. It just isn't.

I'm not saying you have to be a perfect 100% vegan, but in everyday life just go for the vegan options. I personally do that and only eat animal food when it is a present or really hard to find something vegan.

You can do it. Just be honest to yourself and take it one step at a time 💪🏽 All the best to both of you 💚

Being vegan is horrible for health (bread, pasta, fries etc are all vegan garbage. Being vegan is the worst thing for environment (poor quality plastic fake "leather" that pollutes at highest rate, overuse of farm land, killing natural ecosystems including wildlife with GMO crops, creating mountains of non-compostable plastic waste, using huge amounts of water and toxix chemicals for plant farms, etc). Being vegan is definitely not ethical, since you kill all animals with plastic waste and misuse of farm lands, flooded with toxins and being depleted fast. Please, don't repeat vegan ВS, there are too many idiоts who have zero clue how DAMAGING & UNETHICAL veganism actions is. Aside from being a wrong diet for humans. We are omnivores and must eat 10-15% of animal products to be healthy, since we need certain amino acids and essential fatty acids, none of us could create internally and those must me consumed. Being overweight or obese is selfish and steals resources from people in need. So, lose the fat, don't be so egocentric! Also, enough with shopping addiction and getting into debt! That's way better than being vegan 🙄

Love this, thank you

Yes it is necessary, and yes you should feel guilty. Cheers 👍

I recommend the documentary Sacred Cow (Diana Rodgers, 2021). There are so many myths about cattle and its environmental impact. This documentary dispels many of them.

Very well written and delivered. Great work.

I think the other context is that in the past (>250 years ago) farmed animals were used like oxen, to pull carts, plough paddy fields etc. etc. That's is why, beef used to be very expensive, because the animals had great economic value for their labour. The Latin word "capita" means a head of cattle, and is the base word for "capitalism".

But nowadays, since we have tractors and locomotives, so it is no longer economical to use oxen to do work. So in industrialised countries, the animals have no work to do so it becomes economical to kill them. And since there is a cultural notion that eating meat is festive or high class, as a country becomes industrialised, the consumption of farmed meat increases.

Regarding health, industrial animal farms use hormones, non-therapeutic antibiotics and so many other drugs to make the animals grow quicker. They even feed cows meat products! Aside from the direct implications on our health, it also breeds superbugs that are resistant to antibiotics.

your thoughts about few people doing perfect vs. many people doing better is one of my core arguments when discussing things like veganism, travel or consumption. to me, it is important to stay focused, open-minded but also forgiving and realistic. thank you!

unsubscribed ... suffering of sentient beings isn't debatable ... i'd like to have nothing more with this awful channel ...

I went vegan six years ago because where I live and in my life situation, factory farming is the way animal products are produced and I am in a position to be able to make the choice not to participate in that system.
For me it's an ethical and environmental decision, any health benefits are a bonus. Health is not always a benefit in veganism because it's totally possible to be a junk food vegan and hardly ever eat vegetables. Most ways of eating can be healthy or not depending on how you go about it. I try to make healthy choices and after the initial learning curve find that my plant based diet is easy to maintain and less expensive.
I don't think the all or nothing approach is realistic. Life is way more complicated. Everyone's circumstances are unique to them and we all can only do what's best for us and within our means. Educate yourself (using non-biased sources) and make conscious choices for how you want to live. Once I learned about the animal agriculture industry my choice was clear, but I also think that being kind to people is just as important as being kind to animals.

Just showing that you’re a hypocrite.

I found this video interesting, but I felt that the overall message was “you can do a bit of everything, but reduce it” which in my opinion is an ineffective point to put across. I will be focusing on the ethics part of the video with my statements bellow.

I agree with your statement that personal philosophies are indeed derived from our own environment and experiences, there is also a collective philosophy - if we all saw a dog slaughter house the majority would be appalled ( vegans and non vegans) because we know that harming a pet animal is morally wrong. But where do we draw the line and why have we decided that it’s “ok” to harm certain animals but not others? We know and condemn hurting humans also. I saw you also mentioned hunting across the comments - I’m unsure if you referred to it as a “natural” occurrence the same as animals hunting each other - but more often than not hunting is seen as a “sport” or “leisure” in todays world.

However, in a live or die situation humans are programmed to survive - if you are in a position where you absolutely have no choice but to eat meat to survive that is just laws of nature, lucky most of us who can make the choice don’t live in that scenario.

I honestly believe that although someone can love animals while eating them, that is an hypocritical statement that doesn’t align with that persons acts. If you choose / select what animals are worthy of said love, that in my opinion is conditional love and not an overall love for animals. I hope that made sense.

Having said that I respect peoples choices and I respect your choices, point isn’t to preach but to gain further understanding of the mindset put through in this video, and hopefully, politely challenge it :)

I'm currently reading an article about veganism for uni and it's really good (Our Animals, Ourselves - The Socialist Feminist Case for Animal Liberation, lux magazine) and it also talks about the problem of "annoying vegans". I would highly recommend it! :)

Wow! Very thought-provoking.. Thank you for putting this out.

This video was spot on. I was vegan / vegetarian for 15+ years but my bloodwork clearly showed my lack of iron, protein, & zinc (& I was a good veg. by eating soy and beans for protein & taking tons of vitamins). I believe in ahimsa but at the end I almost killed both myself & my partner. People need to respect what their bodies are telling them & not being pressured when others shove it down their throats that they should eat a certain way. Thank you so much!

Tradition, convenience, etc :doesn’t justify killing and exploiting.
Less people do g child abuse is better than a lot of being abusing children, doesn’t means u should advocate for people to do less child abuse. U should tell them to stop all together.
So I want to know what is the morally relevant difference why it’s ok to exploit and kill non humans for convenience and chlorite and tradition etc but not ok to do the same to humans?
Name the trait(s)

Science is clear u can be healthy being vegan. Decade of human outcome data showing vegans are healthy. That’s why u can’t find any study in world that says u must eat animals to be healthy. There’s over 30,000 edible plants to choose from. Your locals shops have all u need. Beans, veggies, fruit, grains etc easy and cheap

great video on many levels. being born omnivores has to say something about what we should be putting in our bodies. it doesn't have to be every day like you say. I have a little once a week just for nutrition and gut health

I made a joke comment about this earlier, but this video has stuck with me as I’ve gone about my day - so I rewatched it just now.

The message seems to be that veganism is a personal choice, and the creators believe that we should each respect that choice. I’m completely in agreement!

However, I didn’t learn why they (the two creators on this channel) aren’t vegan.

I was a strict vegan for almost a decade. I currently have a diet that is most easily described as pescatarian, but on most days looks more like a vegan diet.

Why am I not vegan? Because I eat what I want to eat.

See how easy that question was to answer? The creators of this video spent almost 8 minutes not answering the question, as it’s suggested in the title they will be. I suspect their real answer to the question is the same as mine.

They state in the description or a pinned comment that they’re intentionally not discussing research or statistics. Raising health (beyond the individual) and environmental impacts of a vegan diet are essentially pointless without considering scientific research. They suggest relaying on common sense to inform this discussion rather than scientific data. My common sense can’t tell me much about the environmental impact of gargantuan amounts of cow farts.

I guess I’m just annoyed that the title of this video suggested it was something it’s not, and the creators spent the video dancing around a topic that doesn’t really have anything to do with veganism - they just wanted to talk about respecting personal choices.

As suggested in the video, there are a great number of vegans here on the old internet that are huge jerks - and even though they’re jerks they typically have pretty good arguments that are much more informed and clearly communicated than this video. If the purpose was to answer those folks’ arguments, I don’t think it’s doing it.

Alternatively, I’m old and I forget that a large portion of social media content has the exclusive purpose of getting attention and engagement. If that’s the case here, I’m happy to help! 🙃

This one isn’t going to age well.

Once our alien overlords arrive and discover how much they enjoy the taste of human, we’ll have more important problems to solve.

It’s easy to agree to disagree when you’re both at the top of the food chain.