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The term Ahimsa, meaning non-violence, was developed in ancient India around 3000 years ago, meaning that we shall not use, abuse, torture or kill any living being. The definition of that today is veganism, based on thousands of years of culture and wisdom.
Gandhi believed that Ahimsa meant non-violence against all living beings. He is frequently quoted by the peace movement and the non-violence movement, but few quote his quote about the equal value of animals with humans, ”To my mind the life of a lamb is no less precious than that of a human being” or his quote about the importance of treating animal well, ”The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way animals are treated”.
Today, as much as 91 percent of the devastation of the Amazon is due to the animal industry and almost 80 percent of all agricultural land in the world is used to grow animal feed for the 80 billion animals slaughtered each year in industry. This in turn is not only a threat to the world’s food supply in the long run, but is also devastating to a number of other areas such as biodiversity, water supply, eutrophication, acidification, habitat destruction, soil depletion, insect death and bee death. The animal industry also leads to sea deaths, destroyed coral reefs and marine environments, and a fifth of all the freshwater we have on earth goes to raising animals in the food-industry. One kilo of beef requires fifteen thousand liters of water. The industry leads to an increased risk of pandemics and antibiotic resistance.
The future depends on what we do today. So what are the challenges we need to face as humans?
Today we have created an extremely unjust and unsustainable situation when it comes to our production of so-called food.From a long experience of working with peace, non-violence and human rights from different areas, we have more and more realized that many of the problems we see in the world today are linked to the enormous destructiveness of animal agriculture. It is easy for industry to say that the animal industry is needed to feed a growing population on earth. But really, it’s just the opposite.
The animal industry is destroying our earth, despite the fact that those in power and politicians are silent, even though researchers agree on the problem. If everyone ate plant-based food, we would be able to feed all the people on earth several times over.
The good news is: Today there are solutions, if we want. What we offer: a win-win solution, for the whole planet
Read, listen or watch! Below you find a list with links to interesting articles & Books, podcast, films and YouTube channels about this topic!
Publications
Books
Food is Climate, by Glen Merzer
Food for Thought: Planetary Healing Begins on our plate, by Camilla Perusello
Animal Liberation, Peter Singer
Why We Love Dogs, Eat Pigs, and Wear Cows, by Melanie Joy
The End of Animal Farming, by Jacy Reese
The Lives of Animals, by J.M. Coetzee
Eat Like You Care, Gary L. Francione
Why Veganism Matters, by Gary L. Francione
This is Vegan Propaganda, by Ed Winters
Why We Should Go Vegan, by Magnus Vinding
Podcast
Youtube
Films
Sanctuaries to support
Organizations & companies
Vegan influencers
Just a handfull of all vegan Influencers:
Philip Wollen, Former Vice-President Citibank
Scientific Reports
Eating a vegan diet could be the “single biggest way” to reduce your environmental impact on earth, a new study suggests. Researchers at the University of Oxford found that cutting meat and dairy products from your diet could reduce an individual’s carbon footprint from food by up to 73 per cent.24 sep. 2020
The Art of Compassion 