r/vegan

As a Latina it’s been hard to reduce my animal consumption. I quit eating red meat nearly four years ago after getting my rescue dog and realizing I couldn’t stomach exploit mammals for meat anymore. My Latino family has been puzzled about my choices since then. Now I want to go vegan within the next year and I can see how hard that could be socially. Anyone have tips about dealing with families or cultures that don’t understand or approve of veganism? My family acts heartbroken when I won’t eat their carne asada and I’m like, I’d rather break your heart than an animals!

You can read from time to time posts from people claiming to be vegans, that they eat animal products occasionally if such product would go to trash otherwise. It's usually said in a context of family members that didn't eat enough of their non-vegan meals, or restaurants that messed up the order.

I have a lot of problems with this approach.

Cynic in me would say that some plant-based people just look for an excuse to finally eat the animal, but I want to be fair for all of these people.

First of - Animal doesn't care what you do with it's remains, there is no respect for the death of the animal, the only respect you're showing, is the one towards other non-vegan humans. Food waste being disrespectful is a concept based on that this "food" could be eaten by other people - which is essentially a speciesist way of viewing the world.

Secondly - It's also a way that very much objectifies animals, in this context they're merely diminished to the concept of "food" that removes any individualism from the killed animal.

Thirdly - It goes hand to hand with a philosophy of negative utilitarianism - the concept of minimizing the amount of suffering in the world and maximising the amount of happiness. And while in theory it can sounds like a good concept, it is deeply flawed from vegan perspective, because it can allow eating animal products or even animal meat in the situation where we think that the live of animal has enough happiness to justify the exploitation of them. And veganism is about avoiding exploitation of animals and achieving, in the end, animal liberation, not some kind of cruelty-free dystopia that still exploit animals.

There is no way that actually justify this, that goes along with vegan principles.

I’m sure I will get called names and be told that since I am not in full support of this that I am part of AG or part of the beagle torture gang. That’s fine. Call me whatever you want. But I do want to know who is joining this rescue effort and if they’ve done any research on this Wayne guy? I also just heard that he called the police on himself during the last rescue effort? But he did not tell any of the other people involved in the rescue that he was planning on doing this. I don’t know. There’s something very awful about all of it. I love dogs and I want nothing more than to bring or find an end to their torture, but I’m not sure Wayne is the one that’s helping anymore or any less than the next person. And the things that I am starting to learn about him are becoming more and more concerning. I just wanted to express myself and see if anyone else agreed. If I’m alone in this then so be it.

I know I should have known this earlier, and I'm a little bit embarrassed that it took a personal experience to take me from vegetarian to vegan. For five years, I worked in the food industry, in marketing. I worked with restaurants and meal delivery services, and saw the way that meat was treated like nothing, so disposable, so wasted, it made me sick. I started to realize where it was all coming from, saw the chain of supply, and went vegetarian. I decided I needed to get out of the industry, my conscience just couldn't take that my entire job was to get people to do more of this.

So I didn't eat meat anymore, I stopped eating fish, buying eggs, but I still ate dairy. Nobody is dying, I thought, so that's fine right? And then I had a baby, and I breastfed that baby.

If you were to ask me what the utmost hell looked like, it would be carrying and birthing my child, having that child taken from me, and then the milk that was meant for her extracted for consumption. I truly would rather be dead.

It hit me like a truck, that this is the fate of dairy cows over and over again. I would walk through the dairy aisle at the grocery store and think of all of the babies that had been stolen so that their mothers' milk could be packaged in plastic and sold to us as healthy. How their suffering lasted for years. I watched videos of them crying out for their babies and thought of my baby.

Now it's hard for me to look at any of it, to know what I participated in, to know that it's still happening.

I don't know what the point of this post was, I just felt like I needed to get it off my chest, and to thank all of the activists here who I learned from, who made sure the information was out there, who refused to be silenced.

Thank you,
From a newish vegan, and newish mother.

Just watched the Jubilee with Dr. Jack Symes, and it reminded me of the most disrespectful thing I feel is commonly said to Vegetarian or Vegans. "I'm going to eat twice as much meat to make up for you going Vegan!". I have only disdain for this comment, and oh boy have I encountered it a lot! Drives me crazyyyyyyyyyy!

I've struggled to find good vegan leather black boots that actually last. I've bought 2 pairs from Will's Vegan (Dock boots, and WVSport Waterproof Urban Boots) and I've been very disappointed by both of them. The dock boots fell apart within about 4 months and I had to glue the soles back on, and the outer layer on the Urban Boots has been rubbing off and almost has a hole through them after only about 6 months of what I would say is normal wear.

I work at a bar so I want something sturdy that can be cleaned easily, but I also want something that I could wear in a bit harsher weather (but not like hiking or anything, just shitty urban weather like rain and snow).

I have been looking at the NoSkin brand in Melbourne but their boots seem way too big and bulky for me, and I'd prefer something a bit more mid top sort of range.

Just wondering if anyone has any suggestions. I keep hearing Will's Vegan Store are good but I'm currently 0/2 for them in terms of lasting with pretty normal wear and tear for boots. Maybe I'm just buying the wrong pairs, but I'm reluctant to give them another go so looking for alternatives.

Hi team, I’ve been vegan for 11 years or so and I plan on having a vegan wedding. However, it would seem in a (potentially bp manic moment) my mom impulse bought 200 white ostrich feathers for center pieces.

I would rather not have animals feathers or contribute to the exploitation of these birds but I love my mom and she already did it and I don’t want to put her down. I also don’t want to have to explain to anyone on my wedding day who would question it. My wedding also isn’t even for another year or so.

I just don’t know what to do with 200 wasted feathers otherwise and I guess haven’t really hit this level of moral conundrum. Although I have already explained to her that it’s still harming and exploiting an animal even if it’s collected as a by product, I don’t want to make her feel bad because she is precious to me and family but I already explained it’s not vegan and I don’t want it but they are just there and I know her feelings will be hurt

What would you do?

To me, being vegan means that I have something bigger than myself to fight for everyday. Something to wake up for, to work for, to be a better person for.

Everything I do is for the animals. And with that dedication and determination that that brings me, I can be a better human, athlete, boss, son, partner, friend, and mentor for others around me.

Don’t let anyone tell you that being vegan is a disadvantage. Let that be your superpower - not your weakness. 💪🌱

I want to make a vegan cauliflower steak I made when I was able to eat again after wisdom teeth removal. But I don’t have any vital wheat gluten. Instead of the lentils I made it with cauliflower. I have cauliflower and frozen tofu. How do I make them stick together and not fall apart?

Is it evolution? Biology? Culture? Religion?

Is it the same as people's strong desire for cheap products made in sweatshops and human rights abuses?

Why do most people have this default setting in desire over empathy?

Why have vegans and activists been minorities throughout history?

Surely there is a scientific explanation?

Hi everyone!

Few months into being fully vegan and loving it. Slowly made the switch last year by eating what I already had, but only buying vegan products moving forward. My pantry became fully vegan around the new year.

My rant pertains to my family. I have always brought dishes to family events and everyone has always loved eating them, even taking some leftovers home for themselves. However, now that everyone is aware of my lifestyle change, no one even touches the food I bring. I wish I could say this doesn’t hurt my feelings, but it does. More for me I guess?

It doesn’t help that I live in southern USA, where a stick of butter is used in nearly every dish and meat is generally served at all three meals.

I made a pretty bomb carrot cake with cream cheese flavored icing for Easter yesterday and no one except my husband and I touched it. A solid 9/10 only because the consistency was not as fluffy as I would’ve liked, but you would only know that if you actually pulled a slice out of the loaf pan.

Anyways, I don’t expect any advice. Can’t and won’t force someone to eat something I worked hard on, but it’s further alienating to have to bring myself food and then no one even wanting to touch it just because it’s vegan. Just wanted to bitch and moan and get this out of my system with some people who get the struggle.

Thanks for reading. 💖

hey all, I am cleaning out my fridge and finally confronting the stack of tofu I haven’t made my way through / continues to linger forbodingly in the back corner.. expirations are mostly April and June of 2025. Would you use or toss?

Thanks for the advice - groceries are so $$$ I don’t wanna waste anything, even though it is highly likely I’ve already done that lol

Update - thanks all! Tossing. :)



"Jordi Casamitjana, the author of the book Ethical Vegan, explains the reasons why vegans do not use wool, and nobody else should. "

I have a little extra money and want to get a cookbook or two to add to my collection. I would really be interested in your four or five favorites and why you like them. Seems like a better idea to ask people who have actually used them. These are mine.

Broke Vegan - Simple yet interesting recipes. Lots of good information about what you need to have in your pantry.

Vegan Soul Food Cookbook - If you like Southern food you will love this.

Cravings Made Vegan - Lots of cook recipes that non vegans will love. And, likely won't even realize are vegan.

Homemade Vegan Pantry - Lots of good recipes and how to make your own pantry stables.

Lord Krishna's Cuisine - If you like Indian food you will LOVE this one. It's separated by regions and has pretty much any Indian recipe you will ever need. It is a massive book, but totally worth it.

Vegan Mexico - Very well done cookbook by a non Mexican who really did his homework. Easy to make meals with ingredients that are mostly easy to find. He also has one called Vegan Tacos that is also good, but this one does have tacos too, but lots of other Mexican recipes as well.

Thug Kitchen – The foul language gets old fast, but the cookbook is solid, good recipes, fun to read for a while.

Cook the Pantry - Vegan Pantry to Plate Recipes in 20 Minutes - Another good one for organizing your pantry. Quick and easy but super tasty meals.

I Can Cook Vegan - One of the very best, everyone should have this book, lots of great recipes and cooking tips and fun to read.

Vegan Richas Everyday Kitchen - This book has a little bit of everything, breakfast, sandwiches and lots of ethnic foods from around the world. She also has a totally Indian cookbook that is also good, Vegan Richas Indian Kitchen.

Tahini and Turmeric - Middle Eastern recipes. Some of the ingredients are not the easiest to get, but if you live in an area with a spice shop or ethnic groceries you should be OK. The recipes are totally worth it.

The Best Veggie Burgers on the Planet - The only burger cook you will ever need.

Last but certainly not least - three bean cookbooks. The Beans and Grains Bible, Bean by Bean, Cool Beans, and Vegan Beans Around the World. Though there is some overlap there are enough unique recipes to get them all.

Currently starting to get into veganism, I'm learning to cook tofu/seitan/TVP for the first time, and, as expected, I'm having trouble getting these foods to taste good and have a nice texture.

So, as the title says. Bear in mind I'm European so if an ingredient is very American-centric I'm likely to have trouble getting my hands on it (ex: vegan ranch, jalapenos).