How can we make veganism better?

[vindicated erudite]

Here's why veganism can be problematic:

https://impactful.ninja/least-sustainable-plant-based-foods/

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Carbon footprint: Carbon footprint indicates the Greenhouse Gases (GHGs) emissions when making and distributing a product. The agriculture processes include clearing land, using heavy machinery, applying synthetic fertilizers, packaging, and transporting. These processes emit carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide, which are the GHGs responsible for climate change. 

Land usage: Land usage for some plant-based food accounts for the highest percentage of its carbon footprint. When forests, especially rainforests, are cut down to grow crops, their role as a carbon sink is diminished. Mass deforestation also poses an ecological danger as rainforests are hotspots for biodiversity. 

Pesticide usage: Pesticides sprayed on plants can leak into the surface and groundwater through run-off or leaching. That leads to harmful contamination for wildlife and humans depending on such water for food and drink. The residue of chemical pesticides can have detrimental impacts, such as causing cancer, hormone disruption, decreased cognitive function, or behavioral problems. 

Water footprint: Water footprint indicates the amount of freshwater needed for 1 lb of produce. Growing a thirsty crop on a large commercial scale can be a stress to the entire local ecosystems. 

https://pascalleroux.medium.com/why-veganism-is-unethical-5bb09c33f7f8

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It doesn’t stop factory farming from happening and, one is still participating in society and in some way, still contributing to the meat industry. Either through farm subsidies that are given via taxation, road repairs, medical aid that’s provided to those who are providing these products to the public, the list goes on. Your involvement is inescapable if one goes down this ethical tree where responsibility is necessary because one is consuming a product.

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/most-vegetarians-lapse-after-only-year-180953565/

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In a survey of around 11,000 Americans, the organization found that 84 percent of vegetarians and vegans return to eating meat, says the Huffington Post. Most lapse within a year, while nearly a third don't last more than three months.

Examples of unethical vegan products:

https://ethicalunicorn.com/2019/03/03/vegan-doesnt-always-equal-ethical-problematic-foods-what-you-can-do/

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Avocado

I’ve featured this on the blog before, but there are issues with the avocados many of us may be eating. Avocado is a common choice among vegans and non-vegans alike, especially as its popularity has continued to grow in recent years. However, avocado farming is also linked to deforestation, drug cartels and drought.

In Michoacán, Mexico, farmers are illegally razing pine forests, a vital habitat for indigenous animal species, to plant avocado trees. These trees require a lot more water, diverting natural water sources from local animal species too. Avocados have also become a lucrative business for Mexico’s drug cartels. When the farmers refuse to pay the gangs, their orchards and processing plants are burned down, or worse.

Petorca, Chile, is another large avocado producer. Avocado farming there is exacerbating an acute water shortage in a country where water is already privatised. Avocado plantations install illegal pipes and wells to divert water from rivers to irrigate their crops, which forces local populations to survive on contaminated water brought in by trucks.

Californian Avocados also can’t be classified as a brilliant option, as the state is constantly dealing with the effects of droughts and wildfires. The avocado’s native environment is a tropical one, and considering just how much water they require, this thirsty crop isn’t helping Californians out either.

Beyond all of this, many avocados leave their farms in order to be transported thousands of miles away to the rest of America, Europe, and increasingly to Asian markets such as China, racking up a pretty large carbon footprint for such small food.

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Cashews

Second only to peanuts in global consumption, cashews are incredibly popular in vegan cuisine and are often used to make dairy alternatives such as vegan cheeses. However, farmers and workers in the cashew supply chain are suffering every day due to low pay and awful working conditions.

Cashews are predominantly processed in India, where they are among the country’s top four agricultural exports, and Vietnam (often cashews are grown in African countries like the Ivory Coast or Ghana, but processed in Vietnam).

Millions of people are dependent on the industry, however, a 2007 ActionAid report highlighted how pressure from large retailers drives down prices. This is passed on to the most vulnerable in the supply chains, resulting in a rise of black market processing units in India where women only earn up to 30p per day. The deshelling process itself is also particularly dangerous. Cashews need to be processed by hand due to their uneven shape, but during deshelling the nuts produce a caustic liquid that burns the skin. In some cases protection is available, such as alkaline pot ash to counteract the acid, but workers have to pay for this themselves and often can’t afford it, suffering burns instead.

Additionally, in 2011 Human Rights Watch released a report detailing abuses in the Vietnamese cashew industry. The report found that many cashews are farmed and shelled by drug addicts who are forced to work as part of their rehabilitation, known as ‘labour therapy’. These addicts work 10-hour days for a few dollars per month (this is, by ILO’s definition, slave labour). The report also revealed incidents of beatings from truncheons, electric shocks from cattle prods and food and water deprivation for anyone who refused to work, which ‘constitutes torture under international law’.

In late 2018 Ethical Trading Initiative Norway released a study that stated that the use of drug detainees was now a marginal phenomenon but acknowledged ongoing issues with child labour, pesticide use, and water pollution. Additionally, the study only focused on five different processors and ten cashew farms, meaning there is still scope for error when it comes to labour exploitation in the overall industry.

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Chocolate

I’ve talked about chocolate extensively on the blog before too. Beyond the use of dairy, it’s important to understand that chocolate is an industry that’s rife with child labour, human trafficking, and deforestation. Luckily there are good ethical and sustainable alternatives out there too.

Approximately 2.1 million children in the Ivory Coast and Ghana may be exposed to the worst child labour conditions on cocoa farms. On average cocoa farmers earn less than $2 per day, and so often resort to child labour. Many children in Western Africa live in poverty, so begin working at a young age to support their families. Some children end up on cocoa farms because traffickers tell them that the job pays well, whilst others are sold to traffickers or farm owners by their relatives who, unaware of the danger, believe that they will find honest work and send some of their earnings home. Traffickers also abduct young children from small villages in neighbouring countries. It’s reported that at least 12,000 child cocoa workers have been trafficked from neighbouring nations like Mali, Burkina Faso and Togo. Most of the children working on cocoa farms are 12- 16, but reporters have found children as young as 5. Children typically work 80 to 100 hours per week.

Additionally, large chocolate corporations also play a large hand in deforestation, encouraging farmers to clear West African rainforests to grow more cocoa plants, as well as destroying the Indonesian and Malaysian rainforests for palm oil plantations (palm oil is extremely common in chocolate).

Basically, just because your chocolate doesn’t include dairy doesn’t make it ethical. F.E.P has put together a comprehensive list of companies manufacturing vegan chocolate, and many of them don’t make the cut when it comes to issues of human slavery.

Does anyone know of solutions to the current problems of veganism? 

My solutions:

• Use the Internet of Things to verify how ethically sourced a product is. 
• Buying locally or becoming partially self-sufficient in your food needs.
• Investment of renewable energy into transportation and production of products.
• The abolishment of factory farming and a transition to more reliable sources of agriculture.
• More investment into vegan products.
• Stop trying to make plant protein products taste like meat and sell them as plant protein instead.