What would it take for you to become vegan?

[Strivetobe]

A genuine question after a conversation some friends and I were having. They said that they'd become vegan if the ready meals and prepackaged vegan meals were cheaper. It got me thinking, are there any conditions under which you would consider veganism and if so, what are they?

If there was a decent vegan cheese that resembled actual cheese in taste and texture both for eating as it is and melting.

Also, if bacon was no longer available.
I could probably be vegetarian if it wasn't for bacon. I don't eat it that often but I couldn't cope with never being able to have it again.

They said that they'd become vegan if the ready meals and prepackaged vegan meals were cheaper.

They're not concerned about packaging being bad for the environment, the animals and the food chain then?

I gave up meat years ago but still eat fish on occasion.

To go fully vegan I'd need the following products to be readily available, taste good and at a price comparable to the real deal

• sashimi fish - probably the biggest reason I'm not fully veggie now
• cheese - full range of flavours and types, from ripe brie to dolcelatte to parmesan. I've never tried vegan cheese that's been any better than an edible approximation of cheddar, and I already find avoiding animal rennet a bit restrictive sometimes.
• milk - I've tried some of the vegan alternatives like soy and almond milk and I just can't get on with them, even though I only drink it in coffee and cooking.
• eggs - not sure what the vegan options are at this point in time, but based on cheese I can't imagine they'd be much good.

If all meat/animal products smelled/tasted like lamb.

Nothing. I can't eat beans or pulses, I'm not a big carb eater, I mainly exist on meat/fish and veg. Actually I don't eat cheese either, but I do have some milk in coffee, and eat yogurt and ice cream, butter, so couldn't do dairy free. I also don't eat ready meals, as I am not keen on processed food, so a Vegan ready meal, for me, would be no better than a standard one.

I do have issue with the "documentaries" that everyone references as a trigger for going vegan. They are made by organisations, some with very questionable motives, which are promoting an agenda and are very selective with what they show. Where is the balance of what good farming is.

I am not a farmer, but do live in the countryside, and can assure you the farms/farmers locally to me are caring and kind to their livestock. They also grow crops too, wheat and rape seed, and need the mix of farming to be sustainable.

Waitrose do a vegan chocolate made with coconut milk.

A digestive system that cooperated. I tried veganism before for a few years, but I simply cannot eat well enough - just getting enough calories and protein (similar to soulrunner at aiming for 1g+ per kg of body weight) - on an entirely plant-based diet without a lot of issues. There is a reason pretty much all recommendations for those with chronic low appetite are dairy or egg-based, they're just easy ways to get the most nutrients and energy in the least amount of stomach space.

I have been looking into the planetary diet which involves a significant reduction of animal products from the standard and I think it might be more doable with my condition except for the dairy target unless there were big technological breakthrough in food science to make something comparable enough in calories and protein (one of most dairy-free alternatives selling points is less calories). I'm doing it by baby steps, starting with trying to find ways to hit the veg target without digestive problems and next will be reducing red meat - basically thinking an add one, reduce one steps until I get to dairy.

I think if the EAT-Lancet diet or a similar one became agreed upon enough that it would be on labels for prepared foods like other daily recommendations, it would help it be easier to shop more consciously even if I could never be vegan. Personally, even having been vegan, when it comes to dietary ethics, I find being more planetarily efficient more convincing than suffering as to me, while many vegans recognize this, the ones I know who go on about their suffering-free diets - entirely ignoring many parts of the plant food supply chain with issues like child labour and other labour full of suffering - has put me off a bit.

Only if all my family did it...I'm not prepared to buy separate food and cook different things for everyone.

Lol I would never go vegan. It's strange that they won't eat animal products but will eat fake products designed to look like the animal equivalent like mushed up almonds for 'milk' and squashed together chickpeas for 'burgers'
Plus who wants to eat weird lab produced 'burgers' that looks and taste like the real thing but are filled with stuff the manufacturers won't tell you what the ingredients and manufacture methods are such as the beyond 'burger'

I do love turnips and potatoes.
Also cabbage.
We grow loads of stuff in the UK that's vegan. And wheat gluten makes a good meat substitute - seitan.

Oatmilk is local too.

I don't see the difficulty with a local vegetarian diet.

But for now I do eat cheese occasionally.
Not bothered about milk but cheese is excellent.

I haven't had a lot of good vegan alternatives.
And I'm broke so the fancy artisanal ones are out of my budget for now.

If i lived alone it would be easier to become vegan. My kids love ham, yoghurt and cheese! I eat meat twice a week. The other five days I'm veggie. I think it's good to reduce your overal meat intake as less animals are killed.

It's strange that they won't eat animal products but will eat fake products designed to look like the animal equivalent like mushed up almonds for 'milk' and squashed together chickpeas for 'burgers'

Why is that strange? The vegans who eat fake meat/dairy (not all of them) didn't go vegan because they hated the taste of burgers/milk. They did it to reduce animal cruelty/suffering.

FFS I'm a vegetarian. Sometimes I mash chickpeas and beans and spices and form them into a patty and fry them. How is that "strange"?

Something that convincingly replicates the taste and texture of meat and provides a good amount of B12.

Nothing.

There's no such thing as vegan food anyway. Some kind of animal life will always have been extinguished in the production of plant based produce.

Personally I'd rather have a steak produced in a sustainable way on permanent pastureland (with cowpats fertilizing the ground, providing food for flies, insects and worms that are then eaten by song birds, amphibians, and all kinds of mammals) over acres and acres of sprayed crops and vegetables where nothing else is allowed to live and the soil is wrecked or future generations.

I think it's cruel to make your family a vegan without them having a say in it. We all eat the same foods here from the eldest to the littlest.

It just is strange to me, that's all

I’m vegetarian and have recently (in the last 4 months or so) made a conscious decision to only buy cruelty free products for washing and cleaning. As things run out, I have been more careful about what I buy to replace them.
I’d be ok with becoming vegan if I could get decent vegan cheese. I’ve tried the alternatives but struggled to enjoy them.

Nothing. I really don’t believe it’s necessary.

Meat and animal products would jave to become so expensive that we are forced into it.

My IBS would have to vanish.

All those vegetables.... I can't even think of the consequences!

Nice meat substitutes, nice chocolate, nice honey. No soya in any of those. Also some sort of newly discovered food that didn't rack up huge amounts of airmiles as it is flown around the planet.

For me to be vegan would mean living on potatoes, vegetables & baked beans and possibly bread (is that vegan?)

I like eggs, chicken and fish too much to ever be vegan.

If it was easy to get all the nutrients I needed without resorting to daily beans (not good) or supplements.

And better tasting butter substitutes.

I love the idea of being vegan but it’s not practical if you have a life