Veganuary??

[Wimpeyspread]

This is not intended to be a goody question, simply trying to understand. Articles in the news saying Veganuary will save thousands of farm animals - what do people think will happen to these animals?

[CodenameVillanelle]

Where are these articles? Could you link them please?

[Wimpeyspread]

How do I link? Tried copy and paste, but it won’t. Sky news online

[LynetteScavo]

https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/news.sky.com/story/amp/veganuary-could-save-a-million-animals-in-one-month-charity-says-11898676.

[Ylvamoon]

Nope anyone who believes that farm animals will be saved by Veganuary is a bit naive.

This is interesting listening:
www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000bl1k

[Jellybott]

If there's less demand, then there's less need for more animals to be supplied. So for example if a million less pigs are eaten then that's a million less that need to be bred.

[Wimpeyspread]

Yes, but the current uneaten million will still be slaughtered, so hardly ‘saved’

[Jellybott]

No, the current million in particular won't be 'saved', but it's still a million less deaths as a result, as there's a million less which need to be bred.

[AppleJane]

Supply and demand. It's quite simple. If a supermarket starts a new vegan range in January that is popular and they decide to keep stocking those items there is only so much room on the shelves. Meat and dairy orders will go down. It's already happening - try a google search. There is help out there for farmers to make a switch from animal to veg farming. It's the supermarkets and not the farmers who make the most money anyway.

[Ylvamoon]

AppleJane - 5 weeks of people going vegan... and then? Back to normal!
Meat is quite cheap at the moment, so nope Veganuary is not saving animals it's just putting meat on ice. People gravitate to cheap food.
As for more highly processed vegan product ranges, it's a myth that they are better for the environment.
My motto: eat locally sourced foods, buy minimal processed foods with no additives, and yes cut down on meat to 1-2 days/week.

Please have a listen to the Radio 4 program - link i posted earlier- it's very interesting listening.

[cricketmum84]

In the first 6 months of 2019 there were 3.6 million less animals slaughtered than in 2018. I'm pretty sure that there aren't 3.6 million extra animals wandering around the countryside with no sense of purpose.

Less meat bought = less animals slaughtered = less animals bred for slaughter. It's basic supply and demand.

[AppleJane]

Exactly cricketmum84

Just like there aren't hundreds of babies wandering around for all of the periods I had where my eggs weren't fertilised!

I just can't understand how people don't get it. Although saying that, before I gave up smoking ten years ago I told myself a lot of lies to justify why I should keep doing it.

I doubt most people go back to 'normal' after trying veganuary. I'm sure lots of people will at least cut down on dairy and meat and I've seen many posts where people say they never went back to using cows milk etc so it all has a knock on effect.

[bumblingbovine49]

I think some people are hard of thinking. Obviously fewer animals will be bred and as result there will be fewer deaths, but that is because fewer animals will be born, which is absolutely NOT the same as saving animals..

Arguing that reducing birth rates saves the lives of those who were never born is a very very odd argument.

Veganism has many valid reasons for existing but my view is that saving the lives of farm animals is not one of them..

The extinction of farm animals.species well be an outcome of world wide veganism).

I don't know if that would be a good thing or not but most farm animals are bred for food. If we don't want to eat them, their reason to exist disappears.

The saving lives argument is spurious and irritating for its stupidity . If we want to support veganism ( which I have no problem with at all) we should be clear eyed about it.

[Jellybott]

I haven't suggested that it 'saves the lives' of unborn animals.

If you're picturing a million animals being released happily into the countryside, then yes, you might be disappointed with the reality. But if you think a million less animals being bred just to live miserable lives and be slaughtered is a good thing, then it's worth doing. And if you think reducing your meat consumption to 1-2 times a week is worthwhile, then surely reducing it completely for a month is as well.

[AppleJane]

Sadly there are many myths out there about veganism. I've seen it said 'I've got to carry on eating meat else the world will be over-run with farm animals'. People will believe anything to carry on doing what they want.

The fact is that veganuary is not about militant veganism but is a softer approach to encourage people to try it.

If you really want that headline to be factually correct how about making some other suggestions?

How about:

Only 1 million instead of 1.2 million pigs will scream in fear and agony as they are gassed to death this January.

Not so happy clappy is it?

[Pinkyyy]

I just wish vegans could make their own choices and be happy with them. Instead of constantly bombarding others to do the same.

[cricketmum84]

And I just wish that people would stop and think of vegans as individuals rather than lumping us all together as militants who constantly bombard others to join us like some sort of cult.

I don't eat meat or dairy or eggs. I'm probably 99% vegan. I don't bang on about it or try to convince everyone to convert. We aren't all throwing red paint at butchers windows.

Your comment is actually quite discriminatory. You worry about what's on your plate and I'll worry about what's on mine.

[AppleJane]

I guess once people found out that animal agriculture is the biggest cause of climate change and that your choices means there might not be a planet around for their future grandchildren it's hard to 'be happy' with that knowledge isn't it?

Don't get me wrong, I loved the taste of meat. I get it. But I've come to the conclusion that those 5 minutes of pleasure on my taste buds are not worth all the other stuff that goes with it.

[Pinkyyy]

@cricketmum84 I was quite obviously referring to the vegans who display that type of behaviour. Not individuals such as yourself, who don't.

[cricketmum84]

@Pinkyyy you may have wanted to use the phrase "SOME vegans" then. Rather than generalising.

[AppleJane]

What type of behaviour?

[Pinkyyy]

@cricketmum84 I agree I should edit it.

Please include the word MANY when reading my post.

[Pinkyyy]

@AppleJane the anger, the shouting, the protesting, bothering people in supermarkets, ruining people's meals out in restaurants, etc, etc.

[CodenameVillanelle]

AppleJane - 5 weeks of people going vegan... and then? Back to normal!

Veganuary 2018 graduate here and still vegan. My dad was 2017. Best mate 2019. I appreciate I move in circles where being vegetarian and vegan is quite common but the statistic show that veganuary is very successful in encouraging people into going vegan for more than a month.
Personally I don't care if people are vegan for a month, year or life - every little bit is positive.

[noblegiraffe]

Apparently Veganuary doesn’t have a particular impact on meat sales, and things like the Greggs vegan sausage roll just reminded people about how delicious their meaty sausage roll is so drove up normal sausage roll sales.

[AppleJane]

@Pinkyyy have you witnessed that behaviour a lot?

I think people are trying a more gentle approach these days for the most part.

There is a guy you can find on YouTube called Earthling Ed and he goes out on the street and has some really interesting conversations with people, asking them questions just to get them to try and think more deeply on the matter.

Questions like 'if an animal doesn't want to die can it's death ever be considered humane?'

This is a thread called veganuary on a forum category called vegan so to be fair anyone on here who isn't a vegan can't surely then complain about veganism being discussed can they?

Do you think there will ever come a time when we stop seeing ourselves as conquers of the world and instead caretakers of the planet?