In today’s world the human population keeps rising so obviously since there is more people, we need more food and that can result in treating animals carelessly. Humans are omnivores so we could eat plants and animals so why do most of us head towards the massacre of animals just to feed the population? Were on top of the food chain so who cares about the animals we eat anyway. There are people that believe animals also have feelings so they build a moral or way of living by being vegetarian which means they will only eat the food they need from plants. There are multiple ways of turning vegetarian you could either not want to eat animals that has been killed without the right treatment or just dislike meat all entirely. I am here to find out what is the main factor in creating vegans is it the cruelty of animals or is it just something entirely different? It could even be a mix who knows but that is what were about to find out.

I am the type of person that does not mind what I eat, I could eat vegetables for an entire day or I could eat meat or I could mix the two I really do not care they both taste good. But vegetarians come in an all different variety, some only eat eggs, fish or just do not eat anything from animals. But what really makes a vegan a vegan? Do they just like vegetables better or is just disgusted by meat? Most of the time I ask a person why their vegan they mostly always give me the same answer. “The way they treat animals is wrong, they live in inhuman conditions. They are forced to breed, make milk and people put chemicals in them so they can produce ore meat and to me it’s disgusting if I’m going to eat anything that lives in that type of environment.” My cousin’s girlfriend told me this and yes it intrigued me because even though I know all this information I am not going to stop eating meat but that is just me. She is not the only person that feels this type of way about animals because almost any vegan feels the same way. If it’s not that than it is mostly because they want to lose weight or something of that nature.

A lot of experiences could make a vegan but the most common one is the one you most probably expect which is the exploitation of animals. It is mostly always that as described in the article “Why go vegan?” They explain it’s not always the reason, but it is mostly the reason by any way you look at it. “Preventing the exploitation of animals is not the only reason for becoming vegan, but for many it remains the key factor in their decision to go vegan and stay vegan. Having emotional attachments with animals may form part of that reason, while many believe that all sentient creatures have a right to life and freedom.” Even though we are the top of their food chain doesn’t mean we should just treat animals in an inhuman way, they still have thoughts and feelings just as we do, we should have animals in a more friendly environment before we kill them of is what vegans are trying to portray because we do have animals locked up for their whole life than just kill them without remorse.

People believe if they go vegan it will help the animals in danger and in conclusion help the cause. But does it help the cause? It could just be a wild guess and looking towards the positive side of all things. On the website npr.org it states being vegan actually does help the animals in our society “It suggests that 95 “is the average number of animals spared each year by one person’s vegan diet.” There are a variety of sources estimating average individual intakes of meat. A story in USA Today Wednesday reported that each meat-eating individual eats 7,000 animals (including fish) over their lifetimes. This number is based on the Vegetarian Calculator.” This quote is trying to say for each person living a vegan lifestyle it spares an average of 95 animals per year, so that number piles up for every vegan and next thing you know over thousands of animals are saved.

The way the animals are treated in some farms is really frightening if you investigate it. It is a slaughterhouse for any animal who does not supply what is needed to sell, the chickens, cows, pigs, and any animal that is needed to produce food is killed off once their productivity drops. In the article “recipes.howstuffworks.com” they basically say how animals’ lives are affected. “Like chickens, dairy cows are killed when their productivity rates drop. Cows can live up to 25 years, but most dairy cows die after five. Male calves, which have no value to dairy farms, are quickly sold and slaughtered in veal farms.” These animals have feelings to just like us, how would it be if we were treated just as those animals? It will be heart breaking to even be in this type of situation so ofc I under why some people in urban cities choose to change their diet.

With the many food varieties in the urban cities we can choose what we eat and when we eat. With all the resources at our disposal we can easily change our diet whenever we want to rather than the people in places that are not as adapted as us. For instance, there are tribes that are disconnected with society and they are forced to have a certain diet for survival. They eat meat from the local animals and practice in agriculture so they can plant certain vegetables or fruits. What if vegetarians are also turned with the fact of being comfortable with changing their diet? If they have no choice to only eat meat, I am sure they will eat anything to survive.

Take personal experience for example, in our community you’re hungry and you have a choice either a cheeseburger combo for 5 dollars or a salad which is like 8 dollars and that is just the salad. You are hungry and not having that much money you’re going to choose the burger because it fills you up more rather than the salad which won’t even hold you off for more than 30 min. Looking back at it yes animal cruelty may be the driving factor the making vegans but I also believe it’s a combination of morality and economic stability of even being able to switch your diet. In my community there is such of variety of fast food that is ridiculous, there is 4 establishments in a 1 block radius and not one sells a salad. So, society also adds in a factor of a person’s diet over their life in my low-income community there is rarely eating healthy eating available while in the higher income areas its more accessible.

This is more of a problem with low income families who really cannot afford healthy eating, so they choose the food which is more accessible and end up eating fast food which has the animals which vegetarians are trying to protect. If it was the other way around best believe there might be more vegetarians because of how costly fast food will be compared to healthy eating. From what I have been looking at vegetarians will mostly be a group of financially stable people who can switch diets with no worry of their income. Not saying people in low income families cannot be vegetarians but it is more of what the group will consist of. The article “Nutrition quality of food purchases varies by household income: the Shopper study” states this exact idea I have come across but they studied the experiment of the correlation with economic stability and food choices “Lower income households purchase less healthful foods compared with higher income households. Food purchasing patterns may mediate income differences in dietary intake quality. It is saying what I said that lower income households eat less healthier foods while higher income households eat healthier foods, and this could relate with certain people being vegan.

Being vegan does not just deal with choosing to be vegan and that it. There multiple factors, the first is not feeling right with eating meat at all you would want to stop wanting to eat meat entirely. A crucial factor of being vegan is the first reason as said in the article “14 Reasons Why You Should Go Vegan in 2020” it says one of the main reasons of being vegan and you really can’t deny it. “Even though for some people, the ethical argument for veganism isn’t as strong – it can never hurt to be kind. Sparing someone’s life is always the right thing to do, especially if that someone is completely innocent. Unfortunately, there has been a huge greenwashing campaign going on, started by the meat and dairy industry, to play with our conscience. Happy animals are shown on cartons and packages while the reality is a lot more sinister. There’s really nothing humane about animal farming or taking someone else’s life.” Its stating that animal cruelty is bad so we should be vegan because innocent deaths should be stopped. Going back to my research question which was what makes a vegan a vegan and yes animal cruelty is the driving factor of creating vegans but to become vegan your economic stability is a big part of it to. To make this diet change you need to afford it because eating healthy is more expansive than eating meat. Therefore, that is the reason behind become vegan.

                                                                                                            George Rodriguez 
                            Works cited

Alena, et al. “14 Reasons Why You Should Go Vegan in 2020.” Nutriciously, 27 Feb. 2020, nutriciously.com/why-go-vegan/.
Dowdey, Sarah. “What Is Vegan Diet?” HowStuffWorks, HowStuffWorks, 29 Aug. 2007, recipes.howstuffworks.com/vegan.htm.
King, Barbara J. “Does Being Vegan Really Help Animals?” NPR, NPR, 12 Mar. 2015, www.npr.org/sections/13.7/2015/03/12/392479865/does-being-vegan-really-help-animals.
Turrell, G., et al. “Nutrition Quality of Food Purchases Varies by Household Income: the SHoPPER Study.” BMC Public Health, BioMed Central, 1 Jan. 1970, bmcpublichealth.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12889-019-6546-2.
“Why Go Vegan?” The Vegan Society, www.vegansociety.com/go-vegan/why-go-vegan.