Far from it. Veganism is about limiting your consumption of animal products.
Right. In order to limit animal suffering. Maybe wearing less leather and fur. But that's it. Plenty of tech and food you don't need, plenty of vanity items, all which contribute to animal suffering. Land clearing, mining minerals and resources, that sort of thing. All for what? Cocoa beans? It seems like veganism seeks to do as little as possible so that they can claim to be doing something when in reality it's hardly better than doing nothing.
If you cut out dairy, meat, and eggs on your trip to the grocery store-that leaves you with... Most of the grocery store.
And the vitamins aisle. I'd rather buy the steak instead of getting mushrooms, spinach and chickpeas just so I can get some of what I'd get from a single steak and the rest from a pill. It says a lot about our society when we'd rather pop a pill than eat something or adjust or dietary intake accordingly.
We should feel bad about climate change, as it's the biggest threat our species has ever known.
What? "It's the biggest threat our species has ever known"? Am I the only one who remembers the Cold War? I could swear global nuclear warfare ranks just a little higher. Jeez... Nuclear fallout & Nuclear winter Vs. Climate change? I think I'd rather experience the latter, had I the choice.
If we don't start acting now, millions of people will die. There is no shame in feeling bad about that.
I don't feel bad about that. There are billions of us and our population isn't exactly decreasing. You know why there's so much climate change? Because several billion people want iPads, TV's chocolate, ice cream, Subway salads, designer apparel, flashy cars, big homes and the latest model of everything.
You think we'll start clearing less land if we shift to crops? The land we used to feed animals would suddenly shift to feeding people who will keep breeding. And then we'd keep clearing more land to feed more people. The only difference would be that we wouldn't be feeding animals anymore. We'd still be putting our wants first to the point where we'd just let the cows starve and die until their population is either 'manageable' or non-existent.
Your entire lifestyle is dependent on the suffering of animals so you can have things you want. And not just for food or leather. Honestly analyze your life right now. Has your existence had more of a negative or positive impact on the planet or environment? You haven't even struck a balance and you're vegan.
As for factory farming, anyone with a heart will feel bad that animals are tortured behind closed doors.
The problem is that the vegan movement is trying to convince people that it's a practice used by the majority when in reality it's actually a practice used by the corporate giants who were always going to be bastards whether it was to people or animals.
By saturating the media with images and videos of the shitty morons you've convinced yourselves that the shitty minority defines the majority. It's like saying all albinos are criminals because you read an article about a bank robbery by a gang of albinos.
The vegan movement focuses almost entirely on feedlots and factory farms while ignoring the open grazing pastures of numerous countries.
I work cattle in Texas and have lived and worked in Queensland cattle country and I can tell you with 100% certainty that we and the people around us for several hours don't treat our cows, sheep or goats the way those videos portray. People pay more for healthy, happy grass-fed cattle than stressed, unhealthy grain-fed cattle. You may not want to hear it, but it affects the quality of the meat. Plus grain-fed is more beneficial for pigs than cattle due to biology.
The fact of the matter is, the vast majority of us attend free agricultural college courses on safe subcutaneous vaccine administration among other things. Ever seen a cyst in a steak? That's what happens when an uneducated dumbass pushes the needle into muscle. If microchips were actually reliable and didn't migrate and cold branding was cheaper and didn't just evaporate when stored the way propane doesn't, we'd probably use those instead of what we use now.
I find it very telling that there are almost no videos of animals being abused in a free range environment though. Probably because a tamer cow is easier to herd than a wild, panicked one.
We are no better than anyone else.
That's my point. Same resource requirements, same resulting habitat destruction, different diet. It's essentially claiming that you're boycotting Apple products because of the cost to the environment and then buying Android instead.