The Beings We Eat

Worldwide, more than 80 billion land animals, of many kinds, are raised and killed each year as food for one particular group called Homo sapiens. Similar numbers of animals are taken from the water, so humans eat around 160 billion animals each year. In comparison, just about 100 billion humans have walked this planet in our known history.

We present these facts not to make ourselves or our readers feel overwhelmed. No one wants to feel bad. We can, however, feel responsible. Think of it as the power to change things, beginning today. Because we can, by becoming vegan.

Here is an overview of the realities of animal farming. Goats, sheep, and other animals not covered here are also respected by vegan values. These beings are just a few of the many conscious beings humans have dominated and now use daily. This domination and use is not inevitable, so you need not accept the objection that vegans are idealists and the world won’t go vegan overnight. The world of one person changes with each individual who does opt out of animal use, and that’s just what a movement means.

The Chickens and the Eggs

Of the 80 billion land animals killed each year, well over half are chickens. In the United States, nine billion out of the ten billion land animals killed each year are chickens raised for their flesh, their ability to reproduce, and their eggs.

The chickens bred and confined to lay eggs are commonly referred to as battery hens. Most are kept in small, wire cages; a small number are kept in crowded sheds, and a tiny fraction of the overall number have some access to the outdoors. Nearly all of them have much of their beaks seared off (to prevent pecking), and are quickly exhausted from the egg-laying, and at that point slaughtered for their flesh. Osteoporosis and frequent bone breaks are the norm for their bodies, purpose-bred to lay egg after egg.

Male chicks are not wanted in this business. They may be suffocated or ground alive to be used as fertilizer or feed. Egg production is a deadly business for birds.

Some feminists -- including Priscilla Feral, Lee Hall, and Richard Twine -- have pointed out the commodification of the female reproductive system in the egg industry, as well as in the dairy industry, is, and should be treated as, an issue of exploitation every bit as oppressive as the production of flesh.

Cage-Free Eggs?

The idea behind eggs marketed as “cage-free” is to switch from keeping hens in a wire cage to keeping them in a shed or on the stacked floors (known as tiers) more common in Europe. Then the customer feels that the conditions were improved. Some proprietors keep birds in both sheds and cages to take advantage of both markets.

The conditions found in cage-free operations are virtually identical to the conditions endured by chickens raised for their flesh. These “broiler” chickens spend their days in one big cage, often with many thousands of other birds, the air heavy with dust and ammonia from their waste.

So “cage-free” is no bargain for the chickens, and removing these purpose-bred animals from cages can actually increase bone breaks, stress, and competition for food. Friends of Animals president Priscilla Feral visited a company considered a pioneer in this market, and asked the tour facilitator to please pick up some of the dead birds whose bodies the crowded birds had to walk around and over, and the facilitator did so, without any sign of surprise at the dead birds. Priscilla noted that these birds too had much of their beaks taken off. The males were mostly missing. Priscilla remembers this as an appalling scene. “And they all get slaughtered at the end.”

“We have no need for eggs,” continues Priscilla. “So the vegan thing to do is to advocate peaceful and respectful alternatives. I urge everyone who is thinking about vegan living to learn how to cook and bake wonderful foods, including egg-free desserts, from Dining With Friends: The Art of North American Vegan Cuisine.”

Turkeys: True Originals

U.S. president Benjamin Franklin argued that the free-living turkey -- “a true original Native of America” -- should be the US national bird. In modern reality, turkeys face similar circumstances to those of chickens, being de-beaked de-toed to keep them from damaging the flesh of other birds in their overcrowded situations, and bred to have such large bodies that they are unable to have sexual relations and are thus artificially inseminated.

Holiday meals, like Thanksgiving in North America, can be celebrated with vegan dishes, such as nut roasts, stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy, sweet potatoes, cranberry sauce, turnips, yams and pumpkin pie. Visit our recipe section for great vegan holidays. You might also enjoy reading and distributing our FoA Victoria (Canada) Turkey/Holiday Leaflet (PDF).

Cows: Conscious Beings; Symbols of Trade

The word cattle comes from the same root as chattel, or property. In Spanish, the word for “livestock” is ganadería, for ganados (cows) comes from the word meaning winnings, or wealth. The use of these animals is linguistically entrenched with our economic practices.

Bovine animals raised for their flesh typically spend most of their shortened lives outdoors, or in carrels, and then are packed into the back of trailers and hauled to the slaughter plant.

Dairy cows are typically confined to stalls and rarely see the outdoors; confinement is more convenient for milking them several times a day.

Bred to produce enormous amounts of milk, the cows are susceptible to osteoporosis and other crippling diseases.

So they’ll continue producing milk, cows are kept pregnant nine months of the year until they give birth, and then re-impregnated within two months. Cows who might normally live up to 25 years are sent to slaughter as young as five -- as soon as their bodies are worn down. The calves are commonly taken away just after being born. Those who avoid meat but continue to consume dairy products should consider that dairy cows' bodies are also used as cheap meat.

And the veal industry flourishes as long as we have dairy operations. A dairy with 5,000 cows produces over 5,000 calves each year. A small percentage will replace the spent cows sent off to slaughter; the rest are of little use to the dairy corporation. These calves have not been bred to produce much meat, and the males can’t be used for dairy. Veal production is therefore a key satellite industry of dairy commerce.

This is why Priscilla Feral and Lee Hall, in Dining With Friends: The Art of North American Vegan Cuisine, state, “Behind every great mocha latté is a veal calf.” (Unless, of course, one orders a soy latté -- a drink coffee bars are getting the hang of these days.)

Pigs: Inspirations for the Vegan Movement

The complex lives of pigs are famously portayed in The Pig Who Sang to the Moon by Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson. Yet, as with other domesticated farmed animals, centuries of breeding have resulted in pigs who hardly resemble their natural ancestors. Conditions for pigs are like those experienced by most any other farm animals: many beings crammed into the smallest possible space for the most possible profit; death when they’re no longer deemed useful as living beings. Soon after birth, piglets have their tails docked (cut off). Birthing mothers are kept in narrow stalls, preventing them from freely moving or interacting with their offspring.

But even pigs raised in more spacious conditions come to a gruesome end. Notably, the death of a pig on an uncle’s free-range farm is what influenced a young Donald Watson to later start the Vegan Society (in 1944).

Healing the Ocean Communities

Fish, crustaceans, mollusks, and other sea animals including whales and dolphins are also under assault; half of all animals killed annually by humans are from lakes, streams and oceans. Watery worlds once teeming with life are now blighted with vast expanses of dead zones in less than a century of intensive commerce and agricultural run-off. Changing climates result in changing water patterns, so while the oceans are expanding due to melting ice, many lakes and in-shore bodies of water are drying up in unprecedented heat, reducing habitat.

Today, many fish are farmed -- kept in giant nets or pens, some in the ocean, some in tanks inland. When in the ocean, a toxic zone forms and kills natural sea life around the pens, caused by waste excreted from such a huge population of animals confined in one space. This confinement also results in disease, including sea lice. Seals and other marine animals living in areas near fish farms are often killed as well, just as wolves near ranches are killed to protect the ranchers’ living property.

Pollution generally is a major concern. Plastic, for example, breaks down into smaller and smaller pieces, particles small enough to be ingested inadvertently by fish and other marine animals.

Healing the marine biocommunities starts with us getting out of the waters with our nets, hooks, and harpoons, and respecting the environment by reducing our consumption and disposal.

What About Honey?

Those following the precepts of the original Vegan Society, founded in 1944, agree that bees should be let alone, not managed for their ability to produce honey, wax, pollen, or propolis. Insects are animals. The world's nine types of honeybee have developed their own diverse dances, which are used the way we use languages, and the bees can communicate with others from far-off continents by learning to interpret their dance moves. For more about bees, see "Making a Space for Bees" by Lee Hall (Spring 2008 issue of Friends of Animals’ ActionLine).

One of the most pleasing alternatives to honey for recipes is agave nectar, derived from the blue agave plant. The agave nectar differs in consistency from sugar syrup, and imparts a caramel-ginger essence. Ginger Lemonade is a refreshing choice from Friends of Animals’ cookbook, Dining With Friends: The Art of North American Vegan Cuisine. This drink was first inspired by a recipe in the Vegetarian Times magazine. Here’s how to make it:

Combine a 3-inch piece of peeled, fresh ginger, thinly sliced and crushed, with 1 cup agave nectar and 3/4 cup water in a saucepan. Bring to a boil over high heat, and cook for 5 minutes. Reduce heat to medium. Simmer until ginger is aromatic and mixture is syrupy, about 10 minutes. Remove from heat, let the juice cool, and discard the ginger.

Transfer it to a pitcher; stir in 1½ cups fresh lemon juice (6 to 8 lemons) and 4 cups of cold sparkling water. Add one thinly sliced lemon, and refrigerate until well chilled. To serve, fill glasses with ice cubes. Pour in lemonade, and garnish with mint sprigs. Serves 4 to 6.