Vegan FAQ

From the same place the animals you'd otherwise eat get theirs: plants. Beans, lentils, tofu, tempeh, seitan, and whole grains all provide plenty of protein, and most people — vegan or not — already get more protein than they need.

B12 is made by bacteria, not plants or animals — farmed animals get it from supplemented feed or fortified water. Vegans get it the same way, directly, through a supplement or fortified foods. It's cheap, effective, and worth taking seriously.

Major health bodies, including the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics and the British Dietetic Association, say a well-planned vegan diet is appropriate for every stage of life, including pregnancy, infancy, and childhood. "Well-planned" is the key phrase — as with any diet.

Some of the strongest athletes in the world — in strength sports, endurance sports, and everything between — are vegan. Strength comes from training and adequate calories and protein, not from a specific food group.

No — bees are farmed like any other animal: wings clipped, colonies culled, and their food (honey) replaced with cheap sugar water. There's no shortage of plant-based sweeteners that don't require any of that.

Male chicks can't lay eggs, so they're killed within a day of hatching. Hens are bred to lay far more eggs than their bodies were built for, which wears them out fast — most are slaughtered well before their natural lifespan.

Fish feel pain and stress just like land animals — hooking, crushing, and suffocation are standard in both wild-caught and farmed fishing. "Seafood" is still a body, just from the water instead of the farm.

Plants don't have a nervous system, brain, or pain receptors — there's no evidence they experience suffering. And even if they did, eating plants directly is more efficient than feeding plants to animals and eating the animals: it takes several kilograms of plant feed to produce one kilogram of meat.

Lots of things are "natural" that we don't treat as automatically justified. What matters more is whether an action is necessary — and for most people today, with plant-based options widely available, eating animals isn't necessary for survival or health.

Obligate carnivores have no moral choice; they can't survive without meat. Humans can thrive without harming animals, and most humans also don't apply animal behavior as a moral standard anywhere else in life.

It's personal in the sense that you're the one making it, but it isn't private in the way a taste preference is — it involves another being with the capacity to suffer. That's the same reason we don't treat most decisions that affect others purely as "personal."

Vegetarian is a diet — it excludes meat, but often still includes eggs, dairy, and leather. Vegan is broader: an ethical stance against exploiting animals at all, in food, clothing, and everywhere else, because eggs and milk still mean confinement and slaughter.

It can mean slightly more space or outdoor access, but the core issues stay the same: animals are still bred, confined, and slaughtered once they stop being profitable. Better packaging doesn't change the ending.

Animal agriculture uses roughly 80% of the world's farmland while producing less than 20% of the world's calories, and it's a major driver of deforestation, water use, and greenhouse gas emissions. Shifting toward plants is one of the highest-leverage changes an individual can make.

It can reduce some impacts, like transport emissions, but it doesn't remove the core issues of land use, water use, and animal death. Plant-based food — local or not — has a smaller footprint on nearly every measure.

The staples — rice, beans, lentils, oats, seasonal vegetables — are some of the cheapest foods available. Cost goes up if you replace every meal with premium vegan meat substitutes, but that's optional, not required.

It's easier every year — most cuisines have naturally vegan dishes (think Thai, Indian, Mexican, Middle Eastern), and apps like HappyCow make finding vegan-friendly spots simple almost anywhere.

Lead with your reasons, not judgment of theirs, and give it time — most people need repeated, low-pressure exposure before a change like this makes sense to them. Cooking a meal they genuinely enjoy tends to do more than any argument.

Start with what's easiest to swap — your milk, your usual breakfast, one meal a day — and build from there. Progress compounds, and imperfect vegans still spare far more animals than perfect intentions that never start. Start by learning more. For Starts, go to the Resources page.

Cats and dogs need specific nutrients, not meat itself — peer-reviewed studies have found dogs and cats on complete vegan diets do as well or better than those on meat-based ones. The bigger question is where the pet came from: adopting is easy to square with veganism, buying from a breeder isn't.