It’s almost that time of year — New Year’s resolutions. The close of one year and the start of the next one is as natural a point as any to make some promises to yourself to change up old habits, start some new ones, or just make a commitment to a state of mind. As, uh, unusual as 2020 was, it can feel futile to make a year-long commitment to anything. The pandemic has robbed us of many things, not least a sense of comfort in long-term planning. For many of us, getting through the pandemic will be enough.
So I’m here to tell you not to worry about making year-long plans for 2021. Take it one month at a time. I’m here to tell you that this year, you should try Veganuary. Here’s why.
First, what’s Veganuary?
You can think of Veganuary (“Vegan-January”) as a month-long New Year’s resolution to eat a vegan diet throughout the month of January. What started as an informal campaign is now a fully-fledged nonprofit, complete with a website, a fully-fledged team, and campaign materials. According to the organization, at least 1 million people have taken the formal pledge since launching in 2014, with countless other informal participants.
A vegan diet is defined as one that abstains from all animal products — that includes dairy, eggs, fish, and other animal-derived products like gelatin (many vegans also don’t consume honey). Veganism itself is a lifestyle that abstains from using animal products for any form of human consumption where possible, which includes things like animal testing of cosmetics or wearing leather. If you’re considering Veganuary, it usually just means trying out a vegan diet (you don’t have to throw out your leather shoes to take part in Veganuary). Some people also call it a plant-based diet — I’ll be using the word “vegan” throughout the rest of this piece.
Okay, so why should I try Veganuary?
Where to start? There are numerous well-documented and well-studied benefits to consuming fewer animal products in your diet. Let’s start with the big ones.
It’s better for the planet.
Animal agriculture is, to put it mildly, wrecking the planet. Raising animals for human consumption accounts for 14.5% of global greenhouse gas emissions. That’s one-seventh of our emissions every year, just from eating meat, eggs, and dairy. A big portion of those emissions is methane gas, which has 25 times the planet-warming potential of carbon dioxide over 100 years. The UN and IPCC have recommended that eaters in the developed world (that’s me and most of you reading this right now) cut down their meat consumption to address climate change.
And it’s not just carbon emissions. Producing a kilogram of chicken requires 13 times more water than producing a kilogram of vegetables. A kilogram of beef requires 48 times as much water. Almost one-third of the freshwater we use worldwide is used exclusively to raise animals for food.
Think palm oil is bad? Meat production is the major contributor to deforestation in the Amazon. Nearly 80% of land suitable for agriculture is used for livestock production — but animal products only make up about 20% of the calories in our diets. Factory farming harms the health of people living nearby, as tons of manure leak into the air and water, contributing to increased asthma rates, stomach illnesses, and a god-awful smell. Those farms are more likely to be built near communities of color or marginalized communities, placing the negative externalities of the farming process on the people with the least political power to counter it.
Switching to a vegan diet can lower the carbon footprint of your food by 51%, and the amount of land use by 45%. That’s a big deal, because even if we halt emissions from all other industries — even if we decarbonize our energy grid, and all switch to electric cars, and stop drilling for oil — we still won’t hit the emissions reductions goals necessary to keep warming below the targets that experts say we have to meet. Unless we change our diets.
If you care about the environment, you should care about what you eat, and the most straightforward thing you can do is reduce your consumption of animal products.
It’s better for the animals.
People care about animals. A majority of Americans believe that farmed animals are abused or treated poorly, and that this has impacts on human health and safety, too. But we shouldn’t only care about treating animals well because it might impact us. We should care because they matter, too.
Animals in factory farms are regularly hit, slapped, put through unnecessary pain, and forced to live in cramped conditions. Male pigs are castrated without anesthetics. Chickens in factory farms are drowned, boiled alive, suffocated, and frozen to death. This is the experience for most animals that end up on our plates every day— more than 90% of animals raised for food in the US and around the world are raised in factory farms.
The animal agriculture industry has gone through a lot of trouble to make sure reports of abuse don’t come to light. And it works. Factory farms aren’t located in areas with large human populations, so what happens there is hidden from view. While we’re revolted at seeing a dog or cat abused, the industrial animal agriculture system has deconditioned us to the suffering of livestock. We place pets in one category and cows, pigs, and chickens in another, even though pigs are smarter than most of the animals we keep as pets and chickens can count, show empathy, and care for their children.
It’s better for people.
2020 was rife with stories about the toll that animal agriculture takes on the workers in it. Slaughterhouses are a rough business. Workers are packed together in close, cold quarters, performing repetitive tasks that lead to injuries and amputations. The conditions in slaughterhouses this year meant workers were particularly susceptible to contracting COVID-19. And it doesn’t help when management is not only exploitative but downright abusive. This summer, managers at a Tyson Foods plant in Iowa were suspended for placing bets on how many of their workers would get sick from the virus.
Workers at slaughterhouses are more likely to be refugees, immigrants and people of color, likely to be exploited or intimidated, and less likely to feel comfortable taking legal action to protect themselves from that abuse.
Decreasing demand for factory-farmed meat while simultaneously advocating for stronger worker protections is one way to abstain from participating in a corrupt and abusive system.
Haven’t I given up enough this year?
I get it — for many people, 2020 has been one of, if not the most, trying years in memory. Starting off the New Year, with its hopes of vaccinations and reopenings and get-togethers and long-delayed weddings, with a month of abstention might not be the most enticing offer.
But this brings me to my last reason why you should try Veganuary — it’s easier than ever.
You’d be surprised at how many things you eat every day are close to or already fully vegan or plant-based. Your pantry is probably fully stocked with vegan goodies — all of the grains, dried pastas, beans, rice, and most bread is vegan. Your entire produce drawer. Oreos. With a few small switches in your meal prep, going vegan for a full month is possible with pretty minimal effort.
Start small — make little changes. If you like stir fry, just swap out the chicken or beef for tofu. Prepare your oatmeal with water or almond milk instead of milk.
The rise of plant-based alternatives also means that you can still enjoy most if not all of the same things you’re used to eating, made out of plants. Over the last year, I’ve eventually whittled down the varieties of alternatives available and come up with my own list of some of my favorite coffee creamer, butter, cheese, ground beef, and Italian sausage.
Okay, I’m down. What do I do first?
The first thing you can do is take the pledge on the official Veganuary site. Making a commitment to something means you’re more likely to follow through. The site is also a great resource for recipes to last you all of January (and beyond), with eating guides and shopping tips.
Other great recipe sites to throw into your bookmarks include:
The next thing you can do — get a friend to join. I don’t like to use the word “accountability” here, but having a friend along for the ride means you can keep each other motivated, share recipes, and sample different products to find your favorites. If you don’t have any friends willing to join, don’t forget about me — I’m happy to swap recipes and tips throughout the month!
In a year when we’ve often felt powerless to do much about the challenges facing us and our planet, I’ve found comfort and hope in knowing that there actually is something I can do to benefit myself, the planet, animals, and other people. And it starts with just paying a little more attention to what I eat. I hope you’ll join me.
