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titre why veganism

Veganism, also known as strict vegetarianism, is a political stance that rejects the exploitation of other animals and therefore excludes the consumption of all animal products and participation in activities that exploit other animals for human gain.

Why become vegan ?

There are many reasons for adopting a vegan lifestyle.

We do not claim to be exhaustive here:

> Ethical and scientific
> Practical and nutritional
> Legal
> Ecological and ecosystemic
> Public health
> Economic and fiscal

  • The vast majority of non-human animals are sensitive and often sentient beings. They feel emotions similar to our own: joy, pleasure, pain, fear, sadness, suffering, anxiety and grief. Sentience is the ability to feel emotions, pain, well-being, etc., and to perceive one’s environment and life experiences in a subjective, first-person way.

  • According to the Cambridge Declaration on Consciousness delivered in July 2012: « Converging evidence indicates that non-human animals possess the neuroanatomical, neurochemical and neurophysiological substrates of conscious states, as well as the capacity to engage in intentional behaviour. Consequently, the strength of the evidence leads us to conclude that humans are not alone in possessing the neurological substrates of consciousness. Non-human animals, including all mammals and birds, as well as many other species such as octopuses, also possess these neurological substrates. »

  • The Montreal Declaration of 4 October 2022, signed by more than 500 eminent researchers in moral and political philosophy, states that: « We condemn all practices that involve treating animals as things or commodities. Insofar as it involves unnecessary violence and harm, we declare that animal exploitation is unjust and morally indefensible. In ethology and neurobiology, it is well established that mammals, birds, fish and many invertebrates are sentient, i.e. capable of feeling pleasure, pain and emotions. These animals are conscious subjects; they have their own point of view on the world around them. »

  • On 19 April 2024, the New York Declaration was signed by more than 80 university professors, researchers and scientists and stated that: « First, there is substantial scientific support for attributing conscious experiences to mammals and birds. Secondly, the state of scientific evidence indicates – at the very least – that it is realistic to envisage the existence of conscious experiences in all vertebrates (including reptiles, amphibians and fish) and in many invertebrates (including at least cephalopods, decapod crustaceans and insects). Finally, when there is a realistic possibility that animals are conscious, it is irresponsible to ignore this possibility when taking decisions concerning these animals. Violations of their welfare must be assessed in the light of scientific evidence, and must guide our decisions. »

  • Non-human animals are individuals who are an integral part of the earth’s global ecosystem and who interact with other species of living beings in necessary and complementary relationships. There is no justification for human supremacy. The ecological disasters of the Anthropocene make this abundantly clear. Non-human animals were not created to be our slaves and sufferers. They therefore have a fundamental right to life similar to that of the human species.

  • It is estimated that, worldwide, around 8 million land animals are killed every hour to be eaten, giving a daily total of almost 200 million. If we include marine animals, this figure rises to between 2.4 and 6.3 billion every day. This means that between 28,000 and 73,000 animals are killed every second.

  • Humans kill between 65 and 150 billion land animals every year (FAO estimate for 2014). However, it is estimated that we kill between 0.8 and 2.3 trillion wild fish and between 51 and 167 billion farmed fish over the same period.

  • 73% of wild vertebrate animal populations disappeared between 1970 and 2016; 70% of all birds are farmed for poultry slaughter; 60% of mammals are livestock and only 4% are wild animals; the marine mammal population has declined by 80% over the last century.

  • The vast majority of non-human animals are kept on farms where they endure appalling living conditions. Deprived of freedom and the living conditions that meet their natural needs, they are killed in infancy. Their life expectancy and right to a good life are purely and simply denied.

  • The conditions under which non-human animals are transported by sea and land and killed in slaughterhouses around the world are appalling. The vast majority are not stunned, so they are killed and sometimes cut up while fully conscious. It is estimated that an ox takes around 14 minutes to bleed to death.

  • Scientists estimate that there have been around 100 billion human beings on earth since the beginning of time. This is equivalent to the number of land animals slaughtered by humans every year.

  • Since the dawn of humanity, some 150 to 200 million soldiers and civilians have died in wars. We currently kill almost 200 million non-human land animals every day.

  • Every year 150 million animals are killed for their fur, and over 100 million for experiments (20 million in Europe). The illegal trade in wild animals generates an annual turnover of nearly 20 billion dollars, making it the 2nd largest illegal market after arms.

  • 75,000 vertebrate animals are housed in French zoos. Of these, only 28% of mammals, 32% of amphibians, 16% of birds and 15% of reptiles are classified as threatened by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. 80% of the species that visitors come to admire are not in danger of disappearing in the wild.

  • In France, leisure hunting kills around 30 million animals a year, not counting the millions more that are wounded and spend long hours in agony before dying.

  • The law excludes wild animals from the protective perimeter that it reserves for domesticated, tamed and captive animals. With the exception of certain provisions relating to protected species, wild animals do not benefit from any protective legislation.

  • There are no regulations to limit or control the suffering of fish in recreational and industrial fishing. Most fish are eviscerated alive on the decks of boats.

  • As for ‘pets’, genetics produces hypertypes that the French association of pet vets rightly considers to be a form of mistreatment and a real scourge. Hypertypes are characterised by the extreme accentuation of distinctive traits specific to certain domestic breeds; this leads to numerous pathologies: respiratory, locomotor, cardiac and behavioural, and very often reduces the life expectancy of individuals.

  • There is also the phenomenon of abandonment. France is the European country with the highest abandonment rate: 100,000 animals are abandoned every year, 60,000 of them during the summer.

  • More and more videos, documentaries, films, reports, books, personal accounts, studies and analyses are being published and distributed, revealing to the general public the reality of the suffering caused by animal exploitation. Some slaughterhouse workers and/or livestock farmers are testifying and changing careers. Associations brought legal action against farmers and slaughterhouses to force them to close down or stop the violence they were inflicting on non-human animals.

  • The animal cause is penetrating the fabric of society and more and more animal rights associations and activists are becoming involved in defending animal welfare.
  • Today, it’s easier than ever to buy vegan products. The market for vegan products is booming. Food manufacturers are competing in research and ingenuity to bring to market new alternatives to meat products. Flavour, taste and texture are a perennial obsession for professionals. Many vegan alternatives offer a flavour close to that of original meat products. Research into marketing molecular meat is well advanced in Israel, Singapore, the United States and Canada.
  • More and more organic or vegan grocery shops are offering vegan products to their customers. There are more and more vegan restaurants, and virtually all of them offer vegan or at least vegetarian options. Every supermarket now has a well-stocked vegan section for their customers. Phone apps make it easy to find your vegan addresses.
  • Today, declaring oneself to be a vegan or vegetarian is perfectly socially acceptable. More and more young adults are embracing this lifestyle for ethical reasons and/or because they are aware of the major impact of meat-based diets on global warming.
  • Vegetable food provides 10 times more protein per hectare cultivated than meat. In terms of calories, oats provide 6 times more calories per hectare than pork and 25 times more than beef.
  • When plants are turned into meat, 90% of the plant proteins, 45% of the plant sugars and 100% of the fibre are lost. One hectare of pea or bean land produces between 300 and 550 kilos of protein, compared with animal protein production of between 45 and 60 kilos.
  • A hectare of broccoli produces 80 times more iron than a hectare used for beef, and a hectare of oats 16 times more.
  • Numerous plant milks offer protein concentrations equivalent to or higher than cow’s milk. Famous brands have launched milks, flans and cereal bars enriched with plant proteins. There are also vegetable powders for making protein-rich shakes. More and more meat substitutes are enriched with protein, vitamin D, B12, iron, etc.
  • Many international sportspeople and athletes have adopted a vegan diet and have noted a significant improvement in their performance as a result of an acceleration in the speed of digestion of vegan food and a reduction in the inflammation of tendons resulting from the consumption of cow’s milk.
  • Growing crops for human consumption is generally at least 5 times more energy-efficient than grazing cattle, around 20 times more than chicken production, and more than 50 times more than rearing cattle in pens.
  • Lentils, beans, peas and soya are an excellent alternative to meat, and much cheaper too. They provide numerous minerals and vitamins and, above all, pulses contain 20% to 25% more protein than meat, and even 40% more in the case of soya! A combination of pulses and cereals provides a similar amount of protein to animal protein at a lower cost.
  • Proteins are composed of amino acids, nine of which are considered essential because they cannot be synthesised by the body (the others can), which means they must be obtained from food. All the essential amino acids our bodies need are found in plants, some of which, such as soybeans – which include foods such as tofu, tempeh, soy drinks and edamame – quinoa and buckwheat, are complete sources of protein, meaning they contain all the essential amino acids in sufficient quantities.
  • In 1978, the Universal Declaration of Animal Rights stipulated in Article 9 that: « The legal personality of the animal and its rights must be recognised by law » ; in Article 7 that: « Any act involving the unnecessary death of an animal and any decision leading to such an act constitute a crime against life. »

  • Article 2 of the 2018 Declaration of the Rights of the Animal states that: « Any animal belonging to a species whose sentience is recognised by science has the right to respect for that sentience ».

  • The European Union has recognised animals as sentient beings since the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union came into force on 1 December 2009.

  • Many countries have adopted legislation recognising animals as sentient beings. These include Germany, Switzerland, Quebec, Belgium, Portugal, Spain and France.

  • Some countries have given constitutional status to the rights of animals and their protection. This is the case in Switzerland, Germany, India, Brazil, Luxembourg, Belgium, etc…

  • Historically considered as movable property in their relationship with the world, non-human animals are now only subject to this regime by virtue of a legal fiction devoid of any scientific or ethological basis.

  • Courts and Tribunals, as well as legislation in certain countries, grant non-human animals the legal status of non-human persons. This is the case in India, New Caledonia, Brazil, Argentina, etc.

  • Proclaimed in March 2019 by legal academics, the Toulon Declaration stipulates in particular that: « Animals must be universally considered as persons and not things (…) Consequently, the status of person, in the legal sense, must be recognised for animals. »
  • In 2006, the FAO estimated that GHG emissions from the livestock sector accounted for 18% of total man-made emissions. Today, given the greater volume of global emissions, it is estimated that the livestock sector accounts for 14.5%. It should also be noted that the World Watch Institute (WWI) has actually set this figure at 21% because it is looking ahead 20 years rather than 100 years, arguing that climate change is imminent and that we need to act quickly to counter it. By comparison, transport accounts for 14% and industry 21%.

  • In a scenario aiming to stay below 2% global warming, food-related emissions would rise to 52% of global emissions in 2050 in the absence of dietary change. On the other hand, assuming a transition to a vegan diet, food-related emissions would account for only 15% of global emissions in 2050. In a scenario involving a halt to the consumption of animal products, the reduction in emissions combined with the absorption of carbon would lead to the virtual disappearance of greenhouse gases in the agriculture and land use sectors.

  • A recent study produced by Oxford University shows that even if all industrial emissions were stopped except those linked to agriculture, emissions from agriculture alone would lead to an increase of 1.5°C, and it would be very difficult to stay below 2°C by 2100. Unfortunately, the authors show that demand for ruminant meat is expected to increase by 90% by 2050, and consumption of all animal products by 70%.

  • The most in-depth analysis looking specifically at the dietary changes needed to comply with the Paris Agreement showed that in countries such as the UK and the US, consumers would have to reduce their consumption of beef, lamb and pork by 90%, their consumption of poultry and milk by 60%, increase their consumption of pulses by 500% and their consumption of nuts and seeds by more than 400% if the global temperature increase is not to exceed 2°C. If the aspiration is 1.5°C, we should go much further.

  • In terms of our diet, beef produces up to 105 kg of GHGs for every 100 g of protein, compared with less than 3.5 kg for tofu for the same protein intake. Even beef, which has a lower impact, is responsible for 6 times more greenhouse gases and 36 times more land use than plant proteins such as peas. 70% of the world’s protein intake comes from plants. The ratio between the amount of protein consumed by animals eating cereals and the amount actually found in their meat is on average….5%.

  • A vegan diet can reduce an individual’s GHG footprint by 75%.

  • A plant-based diet would enable us to free up 76% of agricultural land, which is equivalent to the whole of Australia, China, Europe and the United States combined.

  • In 2006, the United Nations published a report in which it stated that: « the livestock sector appears to be one of the 2 or 3 main contributors to the most serious environmental problems, at all levels, from local to global. The findings of this report suggest that it should be a major policy priority in the fight against land degradation, climate change and air pollution, water scarcity and pollution, and biodiversity loss ». Four years later, the United Nations warned that a global shift to a plant-based vegan diet was vital to save the world from hunger, energy poverty and the worst impacts of climate change.

  • More than 80% of the world’s agricultural land is used by the meat and dairy industry.

  • Livestock farming is responsible for 25% of soil acidification, 80% of ammonia emissions, 80% of the use of antibiotics and 80% of the capture of land-based fisheries resources.

  • The production of one kilogram of animal protein from beef requires on average six times more water than the production of one kilogram of vegetable protein from cereals or legumes.
  • 63% of the Amazon deforestation is attributable to cattle farming. Since 1970, deforestation has caused the disappearance of 73% of wild vertebrate animal populations.

  • Livestock farming is an incubator for pathogens and a trigger for epizootics and zoonoses.

  • In France, 300 million tonnes of animal waste is produced every year. Breton pig farms produce as much excrement as 60 million inhabitants.

  • Animal waste also releases nitrous oxide, which has a warming effect 298 times greater than CO2. 29% of nitrous oxide emissions are linked to animal faeces.

  • The methane produced by the enteric fermentation of animals is equivalent to 27% of the amount of methane produced on earth. The warming potential of methane is 21 times higher than that of CO2. If we take into account all animal pollution (meat and milk), the proportion of methane rises to 44% of total emissions.

  • 20 million birds disappear every year in Europe, 800 million birds have thus disappeared in 40 years. The intensification of agriculture appears to be the main cause of the phenomenon following the use of pesticides and nitrogen fertilisers.

  • According to UN scientists, 75% of terrestrial ecosystems have now been degraded by human activity, and around a million species of animal and plant could disappear from the face of the earth in the coming decades for lack of a living habitat. The primary cause of this decline is the change in land use, i.e. the transformation of wild spaces into cultivated or urbanised land, followed by the use of pesticides and nitrogen fertilisers and the spreading and infiltration of animal slurry into the soil, streams, rivers and oceans.

  • 90% of the world’s fish stocks are fully exploited or overexploited. To make matters worse, 20% of wild fish caught are used as feed for farmed animals, including farmed fish, pigs and chickens.

  • According to the FAO, global food demand is expected to increase by 50% by 2050, with animal-based foods increasing by 70% and ruminant meat in particular by 88%. To meet this demand, an additional 593 million hectares of land will be needed, equivalent to an area twice the size of India.

  • During the agricultural crisis that occurred in Europe in 2024, farmers and breeders formed a coalition to demand the withdrawal of the measures of the European Green Deal that affect them and aim to adapt EU policies on climate, energy, transport and taxation with a view to reducing net greenhouse gas emissions by at least 55% by 2030 compared to 1990 levels. This includes increasing the share of their land set aside and limiting the use of inputs (pesticides and fertilisers).
  • Vegetarian and vegan diets are good for your health, nutritionally adequate from an early age, and can have beneficial effects in the prevention and treatment of certain diseases.

  • They reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, hypertension, certain types of cancer and obesity. They reduce bad cholesterol and chronic diseases.

  • In 2015, the WHO classified red meat as a probable carcinogen and processed meat (cold meats, ham, sausage) as a proven carcinogen. It can promote colorectal cancer, stomach cancer, gastrointestinal cancer, prostate cancer and breast cancer.

  • The mortality rate of vegetarians is 9% lower than that of non-vegetarians, all causes combined. The decrease is 16% for blood circulation-related diseases and 12% for cerebrovascular diseases.

  • The World Health Organisation recently stated that new diseases are appearing at an unprecedented rate. The organisation monitored 1,483 epidemic events in 62 countries between 2011 and 2018. It is estimated that around 75% of new or emerging infectious diseases in humans originate from non-human animals. Livestock farming in particular is linked to a growing list of epidemics and diseases.

  • The H1N1 virus, which is transmitted from wild birds to poultry, is the cause of the flu virus. It is highly contagious but has a relatively low fatality rate of around 4%. In 2024, cases of transmission of the H5N1 virus appeared in numerous cattle farms in the United States. This is the first time that the virus has been transmitted from poultry to mammals. It has already infected a farmer who has died from it. If H5N1 were to be transmitted from bovines to pigs, with which we have a lot in common in terms of the respiratory system, the consequences would be potentially catastrophic. To date, H5N1 has infected 861 people and killed 455. Its mortality rate is around 60%.

  • H5N1 is not the only one that presents a risk; in fact, the strain of flu classified by the flu risk assessment tool developed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in the United States as having the greatest potential to cause a pandemic, as well as presenting the greatest risk to public health, is H7N9, a virus that has so far infected 1, 568 people, killing at least 616, which means that its mortality rate is around 40%.

  • Ebola, which has an average mortality rate of 50%. The epidemic from 2014 to 2016, which is the worst recorded to date, affected more than 28,000 people and killed more than 11,000. It is thought to have originated from the consumption of wild animals, often referred to as ‘bushmeat’.

  • Cows with tuberculosis: 1 to 10 per day, around 40 per week. Tuberculosis can be transmitted from animals to humans through breathing. There are around 50 cases of infection per year among breeders and veterinarians.

  • Mad cow disease: bovine spongiform encephalopathy. In 1996, 200,000 cattle had to be slaughtered. It results from feeding meat and offal from affected cattle and sheep to cows. Transmission from animals to humans is possible through the consumption of meat. Between 1986 and 2017, Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease officially claimed 223 human lives worldwide, including 177 in the United Kingdom and 27 in France.

  • Campylobacter: the scale of disease and contamination of our food supply is so vast and normalised that we often don’t even realise there is a problem. In total, it is estimated that there are 2.4 million cases of food-borne illness. In the UK, for example, every year, nearly 3/4 of the chickens sold in supermarkets and butcher’s shops are contaminated with campylobacter – a bacterium that can cause vomiting, diarrhoea, fever and even death – and 19% are highly contaminated.

  • The problem is similar to that in the United States, where it is estimated that around 48 million people fall ill with food-borne illnesses every year. Tests have shown that 60% of pork products, 70% of beef products, 80% of chicken products and 90% of turkey products are contaminated with E coli bacteria.

  • The antibiotics. Although some progress has been made in reducing the use of antibiotics in farm animals, such as the European Union ban on the use of antibiotics as growth promoters, their use unfortunately remains endemic. It is estimated that 70 to 80% of all antibiotics are used in farm animals. Colistin, the so-called last resort antibiotic, which is only supposed to be used in extreme cases, has also been documented as being used on farms. Currently, around 700,000 people worldwide die each year from antibiotic-resistant diseases, including 230,000 deaths from drug-resistant tuberculosis. The problem is so serious that even urinary infections and sexually transmitted diseases are becoming resistant to treatment. It is now estimated that antibiotic resistance will kill 10 million people every year by 2050.

  • In 2020, the United Nations Environment Programme issued a list of seven man-made factors favouring the emergence of zoonoses:
    • Increased human demand for animal protein
    • The unsustainable intensification of agriculture and in particular of domestic livestock farming
    • Increased use and exploitation of wildlife
    • The unsustainable use of natural resources accelerated by urbanisation, changes in land use and extractive industries
    • Increased travel and transport
    • The change in the supply of food due to increased demand for animal food, new markets for wildlife food and the intensification of agriculture
    • Climate change

Of the seven factors listed, six are linked, in part or in full, to our exploitation of non-human animals.

  • In 2009, the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics of the United States, the country’s largest organisation of food and nutrition professionals, issued a statement regarding the health benefits of vegan diets: ‘The position of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics is that appropriately planned vegetarian diets, including vegan diets, are healthful, nutritionally adequate, and may provide health benefits in the prevention and treatment of certain diseases. Well-planned vegetarian and vegan diets are appropriate for individuals at all stages of life, including during pregnancy, while breastfeeding, in infancy, childhood and adolescence, and for athletes.

  • The consumption of dairy products has been linked to prostate cancer.

  • An analysis revealed that people who ate a plant-based diet had a 10% lower risk of suffering a stroke.
  • In a study of 6,000 Americans with an average age of 68, those who followed a Mediterranean diet, i.e. a diet including fish but also more vegetables, whole grains and beans, seeds and fruits, as well as a minimum amount of red meat and dairy products, had a lower risk of dementia by a third. The study’s lead author stated that a healthy plant-based diet is associated with better cognitive function and a 30-35% reduction in the risk of cognitive impairment in old age.

  • A major study revealed that people who ate mainly plant-based products had a 23% lower risk of type 2 diabetes. Another study revealed that people on a vegan diet had a 78% lower risk of type 2 diabetes than people who ate meat on a daily basis.
  • Of the €1.2 trillion EU budget planned for 2021 to 2027, €387 billion is dedicated to the CAP, most of which is spent on direct aid to farmers. Public aid amounts to $45,700 per agricultural worker in the United States, compared to $11,600 in the European Union. This aid includes direct aid to producers such as subsidies per hectare or for the purchase of fertilisers, aid to consumers such as food stamps and collective services for the development of the agricultural sector. In 2022, 92% of French farmers received subsidies, amounting to an average of 39,586 euros.

  • It is estimated that global agricultural subsidies weigh the equivalent of more than a billion dollars per minute and that only 1% of this sum is reserved for farmers to benefit the environment. In addition, it is estimated that 12 billion dollars per year are spent on hidden costs to the environment and human health that are the consequence of our current food system.

  • As things currently stand, huge sums of money are wasted to maintain the profitability of animal husbandry. In the European Union, 20% (more than 24 billion euros) of the total annual budget is spent on subsidies for livestock farming. In the United States, direct government aid to farmers reached a record high of 46.5 billion dollars in 2020, or about 40% of net farm income.

  • Farmers receive a huge amount of public and European subsidies. It is said that for cereal producers these subsidies reach 74% of their income, and for livestock farmers these subsidies can reach 200% of their income.

  • European livestock farmers and meat producers derive 100% and sometimes more of their income from European aid; farmers are therefore no longer private companies but, on the contrary, public companies since they do not generate any profit by themselves. It is therefore the taxes of European citizens that feed the European subsidies paid to farmers.

  • If farmers wanted to be profitable, they would have to charge exorbitant prices for animal products. In other words, for farmers to be able to live without public subsidies, the prices of your meat, fish, eggs, milk, etc. would have to be increased considerably, to such an extent that no one in the middle class would be able to afford these products.

  • In 2020, a study concluded that conventional meat prices in European countries would have to increase by about 250% if negative externalities such as GHGs and changes in land use were taken into account. As for the dairy industry, the price would have to increase by 91%. In comparison, vegan products would see their prices increase by 25%.

  • In France, the average annual income per family farm worker in 2024 will be:
    • €20,000 for the (cruel) exploitation of beef cows,
    • €29,500 for the (atrocious) exploitation of dairy cows,
    • €47,000 for pig concentration camps;
    • And on the other hand, €56,000 for field crops!

The INRAE also tells us that the amount of income also depends on the level of efficiency, the controlled management of inputs and the level of indebtedness of farmers.

  • David Robinson Simon estimates the total annual cost of livestock farming at more than $400 billion in the United States alone. By way of comparison, the federal education budget for primary and secondary schools for the years 2013 and 2014 was only 634 billion dollars. The expenditure to support livestock farming and to deal with its negative effects would therefore be of a similar order of magnitude to that devoted to education.