vegan blog

Plant Based vs Vegan: What are the Differences?

When I first discovered the vegan lifestyle, I thought there were only two ways that you could be: either vegan or vegetarian.

I didn’t realize you had a third category called plant-based. When you compare it to vegan or vegetarian, it often tends to be much less strict in terms of what you can eat, but this will also depend on personal values. 

Plant-based is more relaxed than vegan and vegetarian, and for some people, it may fit them better. If you’d like to learn what plant-based is and how it differs from veganism, keep reading as we’ll explore what it is and how it differs from veganism.  

Key Takeaways

  • The plant-based diet is a little more relaxed than veganism or vegetarianism.
  • How much meat a plant-based lifestyle has will depend on the person. 
  • Veganism and plant-based each have their own advantages that may be more suited to certain people.

What is the Plant-Based Diet?

The plant-based diet is a little more relaxed than either the vegan or the vegetarian diet.

Veganism has often been criticized as being too restrictive, and for some people looking to go vegan, they may find it easier to go either vegetarian or plant-based.

You can always go bigger into veganism or vegetarianism later.  

The plant-based diet largely consists of eating plant-based foods, and you normally avoid eating meats and animal-based products.

However, someone living the plant-based lifestyle will occasionally eat small amounts of meat and animal-based products.

This makes it a little easier when you go to parties or family events.

Plant-based was first used as a way to define those who would occasionally eat these products since they didn’t necessarily fit into the category of vegan or vegetarian. 

People on a plant-based diet may choose to identify as vegan or vegetarian, but when you identify as plant-based, you don’t necessarily exclude all meats or animal-based products.

However, the amount you eat will be much lower than what the average meat-eating person would consume. That’s the big difference. 

You may even find yourself shifting in the categories.

For example, you may start as a vegan but find that the plant-based lifestyle fits you better because you can still eat enough meat to where you don’t feel hungry all the time.

Some vegans report this as a common problem. 

  • A plant-based diet is more flexible than veganism or vegetarianism, allowing for occasional meat and animal product consumption while still focusing primarily on plant foods. This flexibility makes it easier for some people to adopt and sustain, with the option to shift toward a stricter vegan or vegetarian diet over time if desired.

How Much Meat is Considered Plant-Based?

This honestly has a big variability with some plant-based lifestyles including small amounts of meat daily.

Others will only eat meat once or twice a week. There’s also a category called flexitarian, and while there are differences between flexitarian and plant-based, they share many similarities. 

Fun Fact!

  • An estimated 19% of all Australians are flexitarians, according to survey research from YouGov (1). 

One of the keys of being plant-based is that you eat less meat than what the normal meat-eating person would. If you’re trying to eat more plant-based foods, but you’re still eating some meat, you’re probably plant-based. 

One of the great things about being plant-based over being vegan is that you can fail 1,000 times at being plant-based, and as long as you’re trying and eating less meat, you’re still succeeding. 

Veganism, on the other hand, you need to follow the stricter dietary limitations. Of course, you can fail at being a vegan, but it always leaves you feeling more defeated when you fail at it versus being plant-based. It’s much harder to fail doing the plant-based lifestyle.    

What are the Advantages of Plant-Based vs Vegan?

Let’s cover some of the advantages of living a plant-based lifestyle versus being a vegan. You could choose a lifestyle based on your own individual values.

I’ve summed it up here with a table:

Advantages

Plant-Based Diet

Vegan

Relieves animal suffering

Yes, it does but it has less impact than veganism.

Yes, it has the full impact of not contributing to animal suffering.

Getting proteins and nutrients

Yes, it’s much easier to get your nutrients due to less dietary restrictions. 

You can still get nutrients, but planning your diet is even more essential.

Ease of sticking to it

Much easier to go plant-based and more beginner friendly for most people.

Some people will struggle to go totally vegan due to the greater dietary restrictions.

The lifestyle goes beyond food

No, the plant-based lifestyle is only about your diet. For example, you don’t have plant-based clothing or plant-based makeup.

Veganism looks at animal-friendly products as well like makeup, clothing, accessories, and household goods. The lifestyle extends far beyond the food.

Avoids animal testing

You can choose not to buy products that do animal testing, but plant-based doesn’t really focus on this. It mostly focuses on the diet. 

Veganism is totally humane and avoids all animal testing.

Healthy 

Yes, plant-based can be a very healthy lifestyle depending on what you eat. Many people are plant-based for health reasons

Veganism “can” be very healthy for you, depending on what kind of vegan food you consume, but some vegans are more ethical vegans than health-based vegans. 

Eliminates all or nothing thinking

Plant-based is more encompassing, and you don’t automatically disqualify yourself just because you ate meat. You can fail at this one and still be plant-based.

Veganism is far stricter than plant-based. You’re either vegan or you’re not, and it’s much easier to fail at being a vegan than plant-based.

FINAL THOUGHTS

None of this discussion about plant-based vs vegan is meant to divide people.

The goal of this article is to highlight the differences so that you can decide for yourself which one makes the most sense for you. You might find yourself starting out as a vegan but growing increasingly vegetarian or plant-based. You can move from one to the other, and that’s fine based on what works for you and your body.

There is no one-size-fit-all solution. Plant-based can be a great place to get into veganism from if you worry that you would miss eating meat since it isn’t as restrictive.

Share and follow along in the comments! Let me know what you think.

References

(1) https://au.yougov.com/consumer/articles/47583-world-food-day-australia-major-dietary-preferences-most-favourite-cuisines-2023#:~:text=Latest%20YouGov%20Surveys%20research%20shows,occasionally%20consume%20meat%20and%20fish. 

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Guides, vegan blog, Wellbeing

Quitting Veganism: Why Some People Quit and How to Get Back on Track

Have you ever considered quitting veganism after you went vegan? You’d be surprised at how common this actually is. Faunalytics (1) conducted a study that found how 84% of vegans and vegetarians abandoned their diets.

About one-third of vegans and vegetarians maintained the diet for three months or less.

Still, an estimated 37% said that they planned to readopt the vegan lifestyle at some point. If you fall off track with veganism, what can you do to get back on track?

Let’s take a look at some of the things you can do. 

Key Takeaways

  • People have different reasons for why they give up on veganism with some being harder to get around than others. 
  • Get rid of perfectionism and be willing to fail to learn your style of veganism.
  • Connect with veganism in a positive way to help keep it going.
  • Sometimes, veganism is too hard and vegetarianism or plant-based may fit your lifestyle better.

Reasons People Give up on Veganism

Here are some of the reasons that people give up on veganism.

Many times, you may have multiple reasons for giving up on veganism: 

  • Lack of support
  • High costs
  • Social pressures 
  • Greater convenience
  • Feeling hungry all the time
  • Nutrient deficiencies

Any one of these things can contribute to you not wanting to continue as a vegan with some of them being more serious than others.

For example, high costs can make it impossible to be vegan if on a lower income, but there are cheaper vegan foods you can buy. 

Nutrient deficiencies are also another serious one where you might buy supplements to ensure that you receive all the essential nutrients that you need.

Throw Away Perfectionism: It Works against You

There’s something about when you fail in veganism that leaves more of a psychological scar than other failures. It cuts deep.

You might compare it as similar to failing a diet. One of the problems with veganism is that this lifestyle can be more restrictive than many other eating habits. 

Especially if you go cold turkey on meat and look at veganism as an exercise in discipline, you may struggle to pull this off consistently.  

One of the things you can do is to look at veganism as less of an act of discipline. You’re allowed to fail as you figure it out. 

When I first started in the plant-based lifestyle, I would pick out the most enjoyable vegan recipes I could find.

If I didn’t like a vegan recipe, I’d never eat it again. Doing this goes a long way toward helping you to keep your discipline strong since you will struggle less with willpower.

You can fail when learning how to be a vegan. Don’t make it too hard on yourself with the discipline or with failing. Just get up and try again.

  • Failing at veganism can feel more personal and restrictive than other lifestyle changes, but it's important to view it as a learning process rather than an act of discipline. Choosing enjoyable plant-based foods and allowing yourself to make mistakes can make the transition easier and more sustainable.

Let Veganism Become a Healthy Asset to Your Lifestyle

Like many, I had a moment where I started dropping back on the plant-based lifestyle, and as soon as I did that, I saw my health start giving me a few more problems.

Not many due to my younger age but enough to notice that I was healthier on the plant-based diet. 

For me, that was more than enough motivation to go back and keep the plant-based lifestyle going.  

I can see that it clearly has a positive impact on my life—my relationship with plant-based is a positive one and that’s what draws me back to it. 

One of the reasons that people quit veganism is because they don’t connect with it in that way. 

If you view veganism as this difficult or expensive activity that only serves to restrict your lifestyle, you may struggle to keep it going. You won’t connect with it in as positive of a way as what you could. 

The right mindset in veganism is critical to going forward with it and keeping it going. High cost is obviously a hard problem to get around, but if you buy straight vegetables, rather than vegan branded processed foods, this is one of the ways to lower the cost of veganism.

TIP:

  • Focus on the Benefits – Keep a journal of how you feel physically and mentally to track your progress, invite a friend on the journey to have a companion and accountability, or simply record yourself in voice memos of your experiences. Instead of viewing veganism as a list of restrictions, focus on what you gain—better health, more energy, ethical alignment, and delicious new foods. 

Keep Going: Don’t Exclude Other Plant-Based Alternatives

If you want to be a vegan but you struggle to keep your discipline, you could try being a vegetarian or plant-based.

These choices are less restrictive than vegan, and especially if you’ve failed many times at being vegan but you don’t want to give up, vegetarian or plant-based is another way of keeping yourself going. 

There is no one-size-fits-all answer to living a plant-based lifestyle. For me, I’ve found that being plant-based was a little easier to maintain than being a vegan, but I’ve been a vegetarian at different points as well and a vegan. 

Plant-based is where you eat some meat and dairy, but you largely maintain eating plants as much as possible. This is also a good solution if you constantly feel hungry all the time on veganism, which is a common complaint. 

Never ignore this one if you get it.

It can be dangerous—people have wound up in the hospital. Then they really resented veganism afterwards, swearing off it forever, but this is all about listening to your body and what it needs. 

Vegans often need to track their nutrient intake better than others to ensure that they have all their nutrients. 

Also, a plant-based diet stops you from feeling excluded when you go to a family gathering or an event where no one else is vegan, so you experience fewer social pressures. 

This feeling of exclusion was one of the reasons many vegans would resent their diet over time, but to get around this, it’s all about keeping the right mindset. You want to keep a healthy relationship with veganism, vegetarianism, or plant-based since this will help you to keep it going. 

FINAL THOUGHTS

Hopefully this article has shown you how to get back on track with veganism. In some cases, changing your course slightly could be the better option if you don’t think you’ll have the discipline to keep being a vegan.

One of the keys here is that even if you fail, keep going with it. Don’t give up or beat yourself up. 

Try to form a positive relationship with veganism because one of the biggest reasons people quit is due to them developing a negative relationship with it over time. You need to have a real reason for keeping the vegan lifestyle going that matters to you. 

References

(1) https://faunalytics.org/a-summary-of-faunalytics-study-of-current-and-former-vegetarians-and-vegans/#:~:text=84%25%20of%20vegetarians%2Fvegans%20abandon,former%20vegetarians%2Fvegans%20was%20health.

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vegan blog, Nutrition, Vegan Alternatives

Can You Eat Cheese on a Plant Based Diet?

You’ve come here to see if cheese is considered part of a plant-based diet.

At one point, I was wondering the same thing on whether eating cheese could be considered as part of a plant-based diet. Here’s what I learned when I began to look more into this subject.

It was somewhat confusing because you get multiple answers on this. You can make your own interpretation based on your own values. 

Key Takeaways

  • Cheese is not a plant unless eating a plant-based cheese, but you can still eat it occasionally if on the plant-based diet.
  • There are a couple of good vegan cheese alternatives like Miyokos, Chao, Follow Your Heart, Violife, and Treeline.
  • Many choose the plant-based lifestyle for health reasons more than with veganism.

Is Cheese Considered Part of a Plant-Based Diet?

On a plant-based diet, plants are largely consumed, but nothing says that you can’t eat cheese once in a while. 

This isn’t veganism. 

A plant-based diet consumes meat at much lower levels, and nothing in a plant-based diet restricts eating cheese.  

Columbia University Irving Medical Center (1) even stated that you can eat beef, fish, eggs, poultry, and dairy products, but you would consume them in a much lower amount.

The emphasis must always remain on plant-based foods, however, with it consisting of about 60% of your diet. Plant-based means that you emphasize plants, but you don’t necessarily cut out meat or dairy products entirely. 

Not everyone agrees with that perspective and some believe that you need to cut out all meats and dairy products. Veganism is always a plant-based diet but the plant-based diet is not always vegan. 

When you’re on a plant-based diet, you largely focus on eating plants, but you don’t necessarily only eat plants. It’s just a large part of your diet. 

Being plant-based allows you for more freedom, and it’s okay if you eat meat or cheese once in a while, whereas if you’re a vegan and you eat meat, eggs, or cheese, you fail as soon as you eat it. This can leave you feeling bad. 

Eating cheese may not be 100% plant-based but the main goal here is largely plant-based unless you’re stricter about how much you eat.  

Try Some of the Vegan Cheeses

Some of this comes down to your own lifestyle choices, and if you’d prefer, you could also eat vegan cheeses. This would be considered as totally plant-based, depending on what the cheese is made from.

Some great vegan cheese brands you can try include:

  • Follow Your Heart: You might choose this if you want a creamy grilled cheese sandwich. 
  • Chao: Another good option for those looking for a creamy grilled cheese sandwich. 
  • Diaya: Diaya makes sense for pizzas because it tastes better when melted. 
  • Miyokos: Great option for those who want vegan pepper jack or vegan cheddar cheeses. They also have good soft cheese wheels, and they also make a good vegan butter.
  • Violife: Excellent choice for things where you need to melt the cheese like with pizza.
  • Treeline: Good choice when you want a vegan cream cheese. 

Unfortunately, some people have had bad vegan cheese, and they say they’ll never try it again. I would encourage you to try a couple of different brands to see which one works best for you. 

When you’re plant-based, however, you don’t necessarily need to eat vegan cheese, but this depends on your own values.

For example, maybe you’d prefer it since it’s more ethical. 

Harvard (2) is another example of a school that talks about how the plant-based diet doesn’t mean you’re a vegetarian or a vegan. For that reason, you aren’t bound by being unable to ever eat meat or dairy products. What plant-based means is that the most of what you choose will come from plant-based foods. 

Some people will be 50% plant-based, whereas others will eat a diet that is 90% to 100% plant-based. For some, 100% may not be the most optimal choice because they feel hungry all the time. 

When you feel hungry all the time, this is a warning sign in veganism, and you should add some meat—people have been taken to the hospital in cases where they felt hungry all the time. This is why you need to listen to your own body. 

  • Some people have had bad experiences with vegan cheese, but trying different brands can help find one that works for you—though it's not essential to a plant-based diet. A plant-based diet means most of your food comes from plants, but it doesn’t require being fully vegan, and it's important to listen to your body’s needs to maintain balance and avoid issues like constant hunger.

Establish Why You Want to Be Plant-Based

More than with veganism, many choose the plant-based diet for health reasons.

They want to live a healthier lifestyle and a plant-based lifestyle will help with that. 

By lowering how much meat and dairy you eat, it will lead to greater health benefits, but you’ll also ensure that you continue to receive vital nutrients that many vegans often need to take supplements to receive. 

For that plant-based person, you could eat cheese without a problem since it won’t raise ethical problems. You also have the type of person who goes plant-based for ethical reasons, and for that person, you may want to choose a vegan cheese. 

If you dislike one vegan cheese, don’t give up. Try some of the other choices since some will taste better than others. 

FINAL THOUGHTS

You see mixed opinions on whether a plant-based person can eat cheese on the internet, but I think as long as you aren’t vegan, you can eat cheese without a problem. 

Harvard and the Irving Columbia Medical Center both confirm that a plant-based diet is not the same as being a vegan or even a vegetarian.

You could be 70% plant-based, or you might be 90% with some cheese and meat mixed in for the other 10%. 

While someone may struggle to go totally vegan, maybe they can go plant-based, or maybe their lifestyle would fit better with vegetarianism. 

Comment below your thoughts and share with friends!

References

(1) https://www.cuimc.columbia.edu/news/what-plant-based-diet-and-it-healthy

(2) https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/what-is-a-plant-based-diet-and-why-should-you-try-it-2018092614760

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vegan blog

Plastic-Free Vegan Leather That Dyes Itself from Bacteria

One of the things that I find exciting about veganism is watching the technology around it grow and seeing how it will help to increase the number of vegans in our society. Going vegan will become easier than ever before as time goes on. Vegan leather gives you one example of something that has continued to improve with time in terms of sustainability, durability, and quality. 

Some of the newer source materials like pineapple leaves, mushrooms, and cactus improve the texture of vegan leather compared to the traditional synthetic vegan leathers made from plastic. Let’s take a look at one of the newest technological advancements with vegan leather.

Key Takeaways

  • Researchers at Imperial College London discovered a new way to produce materials and their own pigments using bacteria.
  • Plastic-free vegan leather takes about 14 days to produce and another 48 hours to dye with bacteria.
  • Plastic-free vegan leather faces a number of challenges like mainstream acceptance, mass scale, and durability while remaining biodegradable.

Sustainable Textiles and Dyes Using Microbes?

Researchers and companies in the last few years have begun to develop sustainable textiles that come from microbes, and they’ve done the same thing for making dyes. That matters because synthetic dyes like those that dye leather—can pose a challenge for the environment in some cases through water pollution, chemical contamination, and heavy metals. 

The discovery of engineering bacteria to produce materials and their own pigments were only a recent development in 2024 and took place at Imperial College London. 

The new self-dyeing and plastic-free leather has been made into prototypes with shoes and wallets, and while the technology remains in its infant stages, it represents a huge step forward for technology in sustainable fashion. 

Fast Fashion is one of the biggest consumers of water with it responsible for 2% to 8% of all global emissions, according to the Geneva Environment Network (1). Worse, an estimated 85% of all textiles each year will go to the garbage dump every year, and some of these clothes will contribute to the microplastics found in our oceans. 

This highlights the need for us to find more sustainable fashion choices and alternatives to choices like cotton and cashmere textiles. 

Plastic-free vegan leather and dyes that come from bacteria will differ from traditional plastic-based leathers in that the bacteria cellulose from vegan alternatives come free from petrochemicals. At the same time, they will biodegrade much faster than plastics, which takes anywhere from 20 to 500 years to totally degrade. 

How Self-Dyeing Leather was Created

Researchers modified the genes of bacteria that produce microbial cellulose in sheets intended to create leather that dyes itself. Bacteria placed in a growth medium for 14 days will produce a sheet for vegan leather. 

After researchers replace the growth medium, they replace it with a solution that causes the bacteria to produce eumelanin, a dark black pigment. Once they’ve dyed it, researchers will shake the bacterial cellulose for 48 hours to permanently color the sheet. 

All of this is so powerful that researchers can even add logos or patterns using a blue light. 

Some of the advantages of vegan self-dyeing leather over traditional leather includes: 

  • Non-toxic and biodegradable
  • Versatile with color, logos, and patterns
  • Scalable to create real products
  • Sustainable—requires less carbon emissions, water, land use, and time than cows

This marks a new milestone and the first time researchers have ever used bacterial engineering on kombucha bacteria to create materials and pigment simultaneously. 

Researchers believe that by 2050 textiles and fabrics will become the third largest polluter in the world (behind food and construction), and they will contribute more emissions than aviation and shipping combined. 

For carbon use in the fashion industry, leather is the worst contributor with it being problematic due to it taking up so much material from cattle. 

Dyeing leather traditionally has also been more resource intensive, and if you want black leather, you need to use azo dyes, which create large amounts of wastewater and chemical residue. 

One of the cool things about the coloration technique is that it keeps its color without fading, which was one of the things researchers worried about. 

Tom Ellis, a synthetic biologist at Imperial College London, has said that one of the things they want to do next is crosslinking. Crosslinking is what gives leather its premium quality feel and allows for it to last up to 20 years. Normally, they do this with harsh and unsustainable methods.

The Challenges of Creating Plastic-Free Vegan Leather

One of the things that needs to be pointed out is the absolute genius of it all. Creating something that will last for 10 years while also making it biodegradable to disappear after six months of throwing it on the compost heap requires a careful level of thought and precision, Tom Ellis pointed out. 

The research from the group at Imperial College London will inspire new techniques for making textiles in a sustainable fashion. Modern Synthesis is the company that plans to start out using this research to develop products, but you could see many companies making use out of it in the future if it catches on. 

That would highlight the second challenge facing plastic-free vegan leather is that it needs to catch on. Unfortunately, in some groups, veganism has a negative connotation that can make it harder to have things like this accepted, despite it being positive. 

Many fashion companies, however, have expressed a desire to use microbially-made products in their fashion. 

Another serious challenge that researchers will need to overcome to succeed is simplifying the manufacturing process. Doing this will allow manufacturers to scale up the process for mass production, which right now is one of the troubles with biotextiles and keeping the prices accessible to customers.

Final Thoughts

Vegan leather has come a long way since it first started. Biotextiles will revolutionize the fashion industry in one of the most original ways if we can overcome some of the challenges facing it.

Keeping up with vegan technology is interesting because we’re at a time where many new and exciting technologies have started to make veganism easier for mainstream society and more appealing. 

References

(1) https://www.genevaenvironmentnetwork.org/resources/updates/sustainable-fashion/

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vegan blog

Vegan Cheese Made with AI: What on Earth?

Like many other vegans, I myself loved cheese, which was one of the hardest things for me to give up. Vegan cheese has often failed to hit the mark. It struggles because cheese has an incredibly unique texture and taste, and if you’ve ever had bad vegan cheese like I have, the experience leaves you without a desire to give second chances. Most vegan cheeses are made from coconut oil and can taste like pure tasteless fat when at their worst. 

That was why when I learned that AI was starting to help with making vegan cheeses, I was dumbstruck and impressed with how we’re using AI. This article will take a deep dive on how artificial intelligence is now helping us to make vegan cheese that tastes like regular cheese. 

Key Takeaways

  • Companies use AI to create vegan cheeses trained on algorithms from a dataset of ingredients to find the most desirable traits.
  • Using AI to build new foods is one of the biggest breakthroughs since animal agriculture.
  • AI could soon help us to make foods more humane. 

How Does Vegan Cheese Made with AI Work?

One of the things we should remember is that at least for the time being, we should keep our expectations modest. It definitely checks the box for the coolness factor, but we still need to see what the best output looks like. 

Companies using AI to create vegan cheeses train on algorithms from datasets of ingredients to find the most desirable traits. This includes things like flavor, scent, and stretchability. Searching through vast troves of data, the AI helps companies to develop new combinations of ingredients. 

Essentially, AI is helping to reverse engineer why cheese tastes so delicious. One example of a company doing this is from Climax Foods. The company has used examples from over 5,000 cheese prototypes in the last four years to uncover the best one.  

One of the biggest breakthroughs this company has had is uncovering a plant source of casein, which is a protein found in milk. It’s also very difficult for vegans to get enough protein, so this has become a big breakthrough. This mimics dairy in all the ways that matter. 

For cheese, it means that it will create the stretch, melt, and browning effect that people want to see with their vegan cheeses. 

The AI helps us to find the plants to make the best vegan cheeses, but when you combine it with human intuition, this is where new discoveries unfold. 

The Technology is Only Getting Started

To understand this level of breakthrough, it marks out the biggest breakthrough in food in the last six thousand years since humans first developed animal agriculture. In the past, when companies would try to develop new foods, it would cost them millions of dollars and take years before a new one would hit the market. Oftentimes, it would only be marginally better than its predecessor. 

None of it is genetically modified cheese, so vegans can breathe a sigh of relief about that. 

Instead, the AI pulls from existing ingredients already there that would work well together to mimic the characteristics of cheese. 

One of the ultimate goals outlined by one of the researchers at Climax Foods will not only be to mimic the flavor of dairy cheese but to surpass it. 

By surpassing dairy, there will no longer be a reason for people to continue with the inefficiency and cruelty of milking mother cows (milk meant for their baby calves) to make different cheeses. 

It will also help us to fight against climate change since the farming of beef is one of the biggest contributors to climate change. Intense cattle farming leads to deforestation, water pollution, and methane emissions. 

Their methane emissions mostly happen through their belches, which are estimated to occur every 90 seconds. 

To give you an idea of how bad this problem is, cows in the United States account for 26% of all methane emissions, according to National Geographic (1). 

What we’re seeing is only the beginning stages of AI being used in this way, which is what makes it so exciting. We have a long way where we can continue to make advances with this technology. AI will transform the way we approach food production and consumption. 

There are over 300,000 edible plants on the planet, which means we have a lot of different plants we can pull from to create new vegan products. 

Transforming Foods Using AI

Vegan cheese is only one area where you will see AI taking on a bigger role. AI has also begun to unlock the potential of vegan mushroom meats. The AI will analyze vast amounts of data to explore the many opportunities where you can create new vegan alternatives that will mirror the taste, sustainability, and nutrition that you need. 

AI is the perfect tool to create new combinations that will taste more like real meat or real cheese. 

One of the reasons that many vegans stop being vegan is because they miss the flavor of meat, or they may struggle to get the nutrition that they were getting from a meat-based diet. 

Soon, we could see AI lower our reliance on animal agriculture, which requires so much for resources. Vegan meats and cheeses will reduce our environmental impact and be a far superior choice if researchers can learn how to engineer this properly. 

AI-driven insights will also allow businesses to pivot more effectively since they can get invaluable insights to inform their next business move. 

Final Thoughts

One thing you need to remember is that no innovation will come without its challenges. Some worry about the privacy and ethical concerns related to AI, and others worry that it will stifle real human creativity. 

No one can deny that AI’s ability to sift through millions of data points to bring us the most valuable insights could transform the food industry. It could help us to make food a whole lot more humane and increase the number of vegans in the world. 

References

(1) https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/article/150803-cows-burp-methane-climate-science

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vegan blog

Could Tofu Save the World’s Oceans?

Our world’s oceans suffer a huge problem with overfishing, and when you look at the fish caught in the wild every year, most experts estimate that it adds up to between 1 and 2 trillion tons of fish caught every year. This doesn’t include the fish harvested on fish farms. One of the ways that we can stop fish from being overfished is by choosing alternatives like tofu to help us save the world’s oceans. 

Key Takeaways

  • Due to its neutral flavor, tofu makes a good alternative to fish. 

  • Tofu may not be able to save them completely, but it could take the pressure off.

  • There are many vegan alternatives to fish like marinated carrots to mimic salmon meat or plant-based tuna made from tomatoes. 

Can Tofu Make a Good Alternative to Fish?

One of the things that I was surprised about was how quickly tofu became my go-to meat substitute once I started going on it. 

Tofu works as a substitute for fish because it has a neutral taste, but it can absorb spices and marinades well. For example, you might use vegan fish broth to marinate it. Tofu soaks up broth with ease. 

I’m not going to say that this will work for everyone since each person has a different taste for alternatives to meats.

 When looking at where tofu could mimic fish the best, you see it do particularly well with breaded fish, fish fillets, and cubed fish. 

Choosing tofu for a fish alternative, you would want to pick extra-firm sprouted or regular tofu to copy the flaky texture. 

One thing tofu can’t mimic is the same nutrient benefits that you’d receive from fish. Unfortunately, fish does have more nutrients with it being a rich source of protein and containing essential omega-3 fatty acids, which help with heart health. 

Tofu contains less protein, and it lacks the omega-3 fatty acids. To put this into better perspective, salmon contains 150% more protein than tofu at 20.5g of protein. For vegans who can’t have fish, tofu still gives you 8.5g of protein making it one of the better sources of protein for vegans. 

Can Tofu Realistically Save Our World's Oceans?

Veganism as a lifestyle has been growing steadily every year. According to the NHANES (1), 1.01% of the United States citizens were vegans in 2010. Fast forward to 2019 and now 2% of all people in the United States identify as vegans. This would also depend on what survey was taken because some put the figures as high as 7%. 

Realistically, I don’t think tofu will save our world’s oceans by itself. 

If we eat tofu in combination with many of the other things like smart legislation, eliminating plastic waste, and avoiding products that directly harm our aquatic undersea wildlife, we could start to make a difference by putting less pressure on the demand for real fish. 

Over time, as veganism grows, this will become an increasing alternative that puts less pressure on our ocean fish. One of the keys here isn’t that you’ll absolutely be saving the world’s oceans, but you won’t be contributing to the demand that has destroyed some of our ocean’s ecosystems from overfishing. 

Another thing is that as our technologies continue to get better, we may find it easier to make vegan food products that will taste the same as fish. 

Right now, when cooked with the right chef, you can get fish tofu that tastes reasonably close to the same as fish, but you need to cook it right or it won’t mimic the flaky texture of fish.

What About Other Alternatives to Fish?

Maybe you’ve tried tofu and didn’t like it as a fish alternative. I can understand that, but I would recommend first trying to find a vegan chef who truly knows how to mimic the fishy flavor with tofu because it can be done incredibly well. 

Besides tofu, you can use other alternative choices to fish like:

  • Marinated carrots to mimic salmon meat
  • Plant-based tuna made from tomatoes 
  • Vegan caviar from algae
  • Fish fillets and fish cakes with seitan and jackfruit

Marinated Carrots to Mimic Salmon Meat

I know this one may sound funny, but you have to admire the spirit of vegan creativity. At first glance, carrots have nothing in common with salmon—until you prepare them. Preparation is the key. You begin by cutting the carrots into thin strips and marinating them in a mixture of vinegar, oil, algae, and liquid smoke. All of this is done to resemble the flavor and texture of what you’d experience when eating salmon meat. 

Plant-Based Tuna Made from Tomatoes

When you fillet, pit, skin, and marinate the tomatoes in the right spices, the tomatoes will start to take on the flavor of tuna. However, this tuna has the added benefit of being rich in Vitamin C and Vitamin B. Tomato tuna works particularly well for sandwiches, sushi, salads and other dishes. This is a great alternative as well because tuna are one of the overfished fish populations. 

Vegan Caviar from Algae

This vegan alternative contains no real fish eggs, and it’s a tasty alternative that you can make with algae. Like with regular caviar, you wouldn’t want to eat this one all by itself, and instead, it was intended to be more like a side dish to the other dishes at your table. This also matters because caviar is rife with overfishing, and there are many questionable fishing operations surrounding it that you can avoid contributing to.  

Fish Fillets and Fish Cakes with Seitan and Jackfruit

Seitan works because like with tofu, it is neutral in flavor and you can marinate or season it in many ways. You would use seitan for fish fillets or fish burgers. Jackfruit, on the other hand, you would use for vegan fish cakes. Jackfruit works well because of its fibrous consistency. 

Final Thoughts

One of the other benefits of going with a plant-based alternative to fish, besides the fact that it reduces the pressure on our world’s oceans, is that you can sidestep all the harmful pollutants found in fish like microplastics, mercury, and dioxins. 

Going with a plant-based alternative is simply a smarter choice that will help you to save our world’s oceans. Tofu by itself won’t save our oceans, but with each person who stops eating fish, they will make a small but growing difference.

References

(1) https://sentientmedia.org/how-many-vegans-are-there-in-the-u-s/#:~:text=2007%20%E2%80%94%202010,Americans%20said%20they%20were%20vegans.

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Vegans Beware: 4 Consumer Products Linked to Rainforest Destruction

Even as a kid, I was fascinated by the Amazon rainforest, which was why it was always one thing that I cared about protecting. Rainforests in general deserve protection, but unfortunately, in the society we live in, they receive little protection. Some consumer products contribute more to rainforest destruction than others. 

I’d like to highlight some of the worst products for rainforest destruction so that vegans can decide for themselves if they should avoid those products.

Businesses that make no money off something can’t continue—you vote with your dollars. If you support products that continue with this destruction, we will get more of the same. 

Key Takeaways

  • In 2023, 74,100 acres were cleared in Indonesia alone to make way for palm oil.
  • Over 80% of the world’s vanilla production comes from Madagascar, but it can sometimes use unsustainable farming methods. 
  • Soy is a major contributor to deforestation in South America.

  • Cacao often destroys rainforests as a result of them clearing rainforests to make the plantations. 

1. Palm Oil

Technically, palm oil is considered vegan, but many vegans choose alternatives because of its strong link to the destruction of our rainforests. 

Unfortunately, this one has less to do with it being actually bad by itself, but more to do with humans and human greed and unsustainable farming practices. 

They clear vast swaths of tropical rainforest to make room for a monoculture of palm oil plantations.

Much of the deforestation for palm oil happens in Southeast Asia in countries like Indonesia—the number one producer of palm oil—and Malaysia—the number two producer of palm oil. 

In 2023 alone, 74,100 acres were cleared in Indonesia alone to make way for palm oil plantations, according to one report (1). 

When buying palm oil, it supports the loss of our rainforests, which also means we lose our biodiversity and contribute to global deforestation, a major contributor to climate change. 

When you combine beef, soybeans, and palm oil, they contribute to an estimated 60% of the global deforestation.

Alternatives

I would like to quickly highlight vegan-friendly alternatives for this choice so that you can make the switch. Vote with your dollars for environmentally friendly options. Here are a couple of alternatives:

  • Shea Butter: Much better alternative than using palm oil, and you’ll find it commonly used in skincare products. 
  • Olive Oil: Generally considered healthier than palm oil, olives often come from sustainable and organic farming methods with the limited use of irrigation. 
  • Babassu Oil: A renewable resource that you can harvest without causing significant harm to the environment, babassu oil is typically harvested in forested areas without clear cutting. 

2. Vanilla

Many vegans use vanilla in their cakes, ice cream, cookies, and whiskey, but it may not be sustainable, depending on where it gets sourced. 

The Sava region of Madagascar has undergone large deforestation due to the unsustainable farming practices for vanilla beans. Over 80% of vanilla production takes place in the Sava region, according to Symrise (2).

Like with palm oil, the unsustainable part happens as they clear the natural forests to make way for new cultivation areas. To be fair, there are sustainable methods for cultivating vanilla.

That’s why instead of posting alternatives here, I’ll just talk about how to find sustainable vanilla. 

Look for products that have a label that says certified Fairtrade. This means that the products came from a farm committed to sustainable farming practices. They will also work with local farmers to ensure that ethical labor and forest conservation practices continue to be followed. 

3. Soy

Many vegans use vanilla in their cakes, ice cream, cookies, and whiskey, but it may not be sustainable, depending on where it gets sourced. 

The Sava region of Madagascar has undergone large deforestation due to the unsustainable farming practices for vanilla beans. Over 80% of vanilla production takes place in the Sava region, according to Symrise (3).

Like with palm oil, the unsustainable part happens as they clear the natural forests to make way for new cultivation areas. To be fair, there are sustainable methods for cultivating vanilla.

That’s why instead of posting alternatives here, I’ll just talk about how to find sustainable vanilla. 

Look for products that have a label that says certified Fairtrade. This means that the products came from a farm committed to sustainable farming practices. They will also work with local farmers to ensure that ethical labor and forest conservation practices continue to be followed. 

4. Cacao

Unfortunately, rainforests often get destroyed as a result of farmers clearing rainforest to make way for cacao plantations. This issue especially affects regions in West Africa with 70% of cacao being grown in West Africa. 

Still, chocolate has been linked to deforestation across continents including Latin America, Africa, and Asia. 

One of the other issues with making chocolate is that it has high volumes of palm oil, cocoa, and soy. All of these things are contributing to rainforest destruction. 

One of the dangers here is where they use middlemen, which conceals the source of unsustainable practices. 

Due to growing public concern about chocolate and deforestation of our rainforests, some chocolate companies have committed themselves to rooting out deforestation and tackling social issues like child labor. 

The US Department of Labor (4) puts the number of children working on chocolate plantations at 1.56 million. 

Ethical Chocolate Companies

The companies highlighted below use responsible farming practices, and they don’t use child labor for harvesting their chocolates:

  • COCO Chocolate
  • PARRE Chocolate
  • Patric Chocolate
  • Primo Chocolates
  • Pure Lovin’ Chocolate

You can also look for the Fairtrade label since it ensures that the cocoa was sourced ethically.

Final Thoughts

Hopefully, this shows you the products that destroy the rainforests. Raising awareness of these products is one of the ways to take action.

None of this is to say that you can’t have a vanilla latte once in a while or eat a chocolate bar, but the point is to consume consciously. Having these things less can also help you to reduce your environmental impact.

References

(1) https://news.mongabay.com/2024/08/indonesia-palm-oil-lobby-pushes-1-million-hectares-of-new-sulawesi-plantations/
(2) https://vanilla.symrise.com/sustainable-cultivation
(3) https://vanilla.symrise.com/sustainable-cultivation
(4) https://www.dol.gov/agencies/ilab/our-work/child-forced-labor-trafficking/child-labor-cocoa

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4 Essential Things You Should know About Animal Adoption

Many vegans choose to adopt or rescue pets that animal shelters would have euthanized had they not stepped in. This practice saves the lives of animals and many vegans love it because it gives them the opportunity to save animals. Having adopted a cat from an animal shelter, here’s a couple of essential things I learned in the process. Knowing these things will make it easier for you. 

Key Takeaways

  • Choose your adopted pet carefully.
  • Fill out the adoption form to begin the process of animal adoption. 
  • Pay the adoption fees to help the organization to continue its mission. 
  • Prepare your home for your adopted animal by pet-proofing it. 

1. Choose Your Adopted Pet Carefully

Not all animals will be right for every vegan. Owning a pet for vegans can sometimes bring up moralistic issues, but many agree that adopting or rescuing animals that would have died at the shelter is a good thing. 

According to a report (1) from the ASPCA, the organization estimates the number of animals that die in shelters every year in the United States at around 920,000.

With that in mind, not every pet will be right for everyone, and you need to consider things before adopting them. 

For example, adopting a snake from the animal shelter would force you to feed it mice—some feed snakes live mice to simulate hunting—vegans may struggle hugely with the cruelty of this, depending on their beliefs. 

Another example would be if you adopted a cat. Not every vegan wants to feed cats meat-based cat food, but cats are obligate carnivores, which makes it harder to feed them a vegan alternative. 

Some people will simply give them regular food, but it’s important to understand your personal convictions ahead of time so that you can do this without feeling bad. 

Besides the moral reasons, you also need to think about what animal will fit with your personality the best. For example, a lively and energetic dog might be perfect for one person but a nightmare for the next. 

Before you adopt the pet, you might spend time with it in the designated area, which many shelters have. Doing this for a while will give you a sense of that animal’s personality and temperament.  

You need to think about your home as well. A studio apartment for a big dog can become a bad match, so you want to think about these things ahead of time. 

2. Fill out the Adoption Application

Most animal shelters will require you to fill out an adoption application with basic information like your name, address, and phone number. They will also ask questions about your past experience with animals and what your current living situation looks like. 

They do this to protect the animals being adopted and ensuring that they will go to a responsible and loving home. After you fill out the form, you typically need to meet with an adoption counselor.

This person will review your application and ask you further questions to ensure that you would be the right choice for this animal. 

The amount of care given here is because every year, 6.5 million animals wind up abandoned or lost, and they wind up going to animal shelters across the country, according to The Zebra (2). This extra care before the adoption reduces the risk. 

Before you adopt an animal, the counselor will also cover potential health or behavioral problems the animal might have. For example, the dog you want to adopt may have been in an abusive home in the past, so you would need to avoid doing certain things. 

3. Paying the Adoption Fee 

The adoption fee for animals will vary greatly depending on the organization that you choose, but it ranges anywhere from $50 to $500. 

Puppies and kittens normally cost more than older pets, and dogs will usually cost more to adopt than cats. Other things that can determine a higher adoption fee would include things like the breed and medical care required. 

In most cases, the adoption fee will cost well under what you’d pay at a pet store.

They typically charge an adoption fee because it allows them to continue providing for other animals in the shelter. The things included in an adoption fee will normally be things like:

  • Vaccinations
  • Spaying or neutering
  • Microchipping
  • Parasite treatment

4. Prepare Your Home for Your Rescued Pet

One of the important steps in the adoption process, you need to prepare the home for your new rescued pet. You want your new furry friend to feel comfortable in its environment, and this means you must take action to ensure that they will experience a safe environment free from hazards that could harm them.

Examples of where to pet-proof your home include things like small objects your pet could choke on, toxic plants, plastic bags, household chemicals, strings, and human medications. 

You should also beware of if you have a balcony because your pet could fall from the balcony. 

If you have other pets in the home, you will want to introduce them to each other slowly. To avoid fighting or aggression, you might introduce them with some type of barrier in the beginning like with a closed door. 

Many animals thrive off routine, so you may want to establish a schedule that will make your rescued animal feel more comfortable and secure in their environment. Many animals like cats and dogs don’t like significant changes, and it can make them feel insecure. 

Final Thoughts

Many vegans choose to rescue animals or adopt them since it avoids the exploitation of animals while saving them from suffering in animal shelters where they may ultimately be euthanized. For those concerned about having to feed meat to an animal, you might rescue animals that eat a more vegan diet like guinea pigs or bunnies. 

Loving animals is what pet adoption is all about and caring for pets that may not have had a good home if you hadn’t chosen to make a difference in their lives.

References

(1) https://www.aspca.org/helping-people-pets/shelter-intake-and-surrender/pet-statistics

(2) https://www.thezebra.com/resources/research/pet-adoption-statistics/

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Animal Empathy: Examples of Animals That Cared for Other Animals (Including for Humans)

One of the biggest signs that animals carry some of the same traits as humans is the fact that they can express empathy in certain situations. The trait is admittedly complex, but researchers have observed this in many different animal species. You see it more prevalent in social animal species that evolved as a way to maintain social cohesion. 

I thought this would be an interesting topic to show how we share many things with animals, and it also highlights in an indirect way why ending animal cruelty through veganism is so important. They sometimes experience the same things that we do.

Key Takeaways

  • Feral children were sometimes treated better by animals than by humans.
  • Mama cat adopts four orphaned baby squirrels. 
  • Dog saves baby deer from drowning.
  • Gorilla saves three year old boy who fell into a zoo enclosure
  • Cheetah gets an emotional support tortoise

Cases of Feral Children

Feral children are basically where an animal took empathy on them and adopted them as their own, feeding them, and helping them to survive in a cruel world. 

Around the world, there have been over 100 documented cases of feral children, but written records exist of feral children as far back as 3,000 years ago.

Ever watched the movie Tarzan or the movie Jungle Book? 

Tarzan is a fictional story, but the Jungle Book was inspired by the case of Dina Sanichar. He was a feral boy discovered as being raised by wolves in a cave in 1867. 

His earliest years were spent believing he was one of the wolves. Many of these cases happen because of abusive parents or because they were orphans that didn’t receive the proper love and care. 

An animal, taking compassion on the vulnerable child, came in and raised them. It raises fascinating questions about the boundaries between humans and animals.

In most cases, feral children will never develop language skills or only limited language skills because their brain at the most critical time, never had much for human contact. Instead, they will communicate with animal sounds. Many of them never learn to walk on two legs.

Some known examples of feral children besides Dina Sanichar include:

  • Victor of Aveyron — Raised by wolves in Aveyron, France
  • Lucas — Native South African raised by baboons 
  • Peter the Wild Boy — Raised by wolves or bears in Hanover, Germany
  • John Ssebunya — Adopted by a wild troop of vervet monkeys in Uganda in 1988

This shows you a couple of examples where animals were compassionate toward humans in their situations. You can look up the cases to see these were real examples of animal empathy. Now, let’s take a look at examples of animals that showed compassion toward other animals.

Mama Cat Adopts 4 Baby Squirrels

One of the interesting things about this case is that cats will sometimes even eat squirrels, so it came as a surprise when Pusha, a cat in Bakhchisaray, Crimea, adopted four orphaned baby squirrels that were brought to her by concerned locals who saw that the orphaned squirrels needed a mother.  

In the video below, you’ll even see her nursing the baby squirrels right alongside her own litter of four kittens:

One can debate the reasons for why animals would adopt other animals like this—whether it’s empathy or something else—but it raises some interesting questions without immediate answers. 

Dog Saves Baby Deer from Drowning

Dogs are capable of incredible animal empathy, and you’ve probably even seen cases where a dog saved a human from an attacking bear, or they saved a human from getting bit by a rattlesnake that the human couldn’t see. 

In another case, I saw a pet dog save a toddler from an attacking neighbor’s pitbull. 

That highlights examples of dogs with animal empathy toward humans, but they have also been shown to have empathy toward other animals. 

In the video below, it shows a dog that saves a baby deer from drowning:

The labrador jumped into a fast-moving river to drag the baby deer out of the water before it drowned. 

Gorilla Saves 3-Year-Old Boy

In this case, a boy fell into a zoo enclosure and a female gorilla came in and cradled the boy who had fallen. What’s interesting about this case is the lucidity of the gorilla. It knew where to take the child to help him. The gorilla took the boy to a service door where the zoo personnel were able to reach him safely. 

Here’s a video of the news incident, which happened in 1996:

Cheetah Gets an Emotional Support Tortoise

Humans aren’t the only ones that have emotional support dogs. Cheetahs are known for forming friendships with dogs, and zoos even often pair cheetahs up with dogs because it helps the cheetah to feel calm and secure.  

Most often this happens with rescue dogs or pure labradors or German shepherds because they can tolerate the kitty play more easily.

In this case, however, it was one that you never would’ve guessed—instead of a dog, the cheetah received an emotional tortoise. They soon became best friends as the video below highlights:

This wholesome video goes to show that even animals can form friendships with other animals. Even when you take the fastest land animals versus one of the slowest, they can still form friendships. 

Final Thoughts

Animal empathy is an interesting phenomenon, and it shows how even animals have feelings and compassion. 

In the cases with feral children, the animals often had more empathy for the vulnerable child than the humans in their immediate vicinity. 

This shows you one of the reasons why going vegan can make a lot of sense since continuing to eat animals will cause suffering. Eating plants makes for a better alternative.  

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Vegan Regenerative Agriculture and What You Need to Know About It

Despite its incredible importance to people all over the world, few people, even vegans, spare much thought for the soil we use for farming. Without fertile soil, we would struggle to survive. Good soil helps to grow most of our crops, so you can understand why it would be so important to take care of our soil. 

Key Takeaways

  • Regenerative agriculture is the concept of trying to leave the land as better than when you started using it. 
  • Regenerative agriculture for farming with animals means that you switch out animals once in a while to make it easier on the land. 
  • Vegan regenerative agriculture is where you set out to take the concept of regenerative agriculture but apply it in a beef-free way. 

What is Regenerative Agriculture? 

Regenerative agriculture started going big in the 1980s, but Robert Rodale, one of the pioneers of organic farming, first coined the term of regenerative agriculture in the 1930s. 

Giving credit where credit is due, it would not be right to say that he invented it. The principles and practices of it go back much further than that. Different indigenous communities have practiced regenerative agriculture for thousands of years. 

The Iowa Tribe of Kansas and Nebraska is one of many examples of a tribe currently using it to promote biodiversity and soil health. 

Looking at the concept of regenerative agriculture, the point behind it is to create a farming system where the land improves in the process rather than being depleted. Regenerative agriculture focuses heavily on soil health, responsible fertilizer use, and water management. 

Rather than growing a single crop, known as monocropping, all year round, the indigenous communities would use a combination of crops like maize, squash, and beans. They also would avoid tilling the earth, which leads to more soil erosion, depleting the soil of essential nutrients. 

This is why sometimes farmers will rotate crops every three to four years to avoid depleting, but this isn’t regenerative agriculture since it still uses monocropping.  

Regenerative agriculture sets out to leave the soil in a better condition than when you first used it. 

How Do They Do Regenerative Agriculture for Farming with Animals?

Regenerative agriculture has also begun to pick up for farmers who use them for animal agriculture. The reason I point this out is for the education, but also so that you’ll understand vegan regenerative agriculture when we come to it. 

Regenerative animal agriculture would mean that they rotate out the animals to ensure the health of the land. Industrialized cattle agriculture is hard on the soil. Their heavy hooves compact the soil, increase erosion, and reduce water infiltration. 

Not only does it degrade the soil, but it also causes water pollution since cows will muddy and pollute the creeks and streams and other water sources. 

To reduce this impact, they might switch from pigs to chickens to sheep to cattle. This choice helps to lower the amount of burden on the land. 

Admittedly, this does create fewer emissions, but some people still point out that even low-carbon steaks still produce more emissions than plant-based products. 

Examples of regenerative animal agriculture would include free-ranging chickens, composting, managed grazing, and silvopasture. 

Vegan Regenerative Agriculture: What is It and Could It Be the Answer to Healthier Soil?

Vegan regenerative agriculture, also known as veganic agriculture, moves to create a healthy food system where the food system is beef-free and doesn’t exploit animals in any form. It follows vegan principles and takes it to regenerative agriculture. 

This system moves away from intensive plowing, which contributes to soil erosion. Instead, we set out to leave the soil in a better condition than what it started in. 

Much of it would follow the same practices as what you’d get with regenerative agriculture. 

This would definitely bring about healthier soil than regenerative animal agriculture because it eliminates the damage to the soil altogether and eliminates animal cruelty. 

When you use cattle for agriculture, there will still be damage to the soil, and you’ll still have water pollution even if you use regenerative animal agriculture. 

How to Become a Regenerative Agriculture Vegan

One of the ways that you would become a regenerative agriculture vegan would be to buy strictly from vegan brands that only use the regenerative agriculture methods. 

Some vegans might mix this where you might buy from a couple of companies like this as a way to reduce your environmental impact even further without needing to solely buy regenerative brands. 

You should also try to eat seasonal and local foods since it will be easier for you to see exactly the farm and how they produce their crops. This lets you directly tell if they’re actually using regenerative agriculture.  

What Vegan Brands Produce Vegan Foods Regeneratively?

  • Tolhurt Organic Farms: The owner, Ian Tolhurst, has been an organic vegan farmer for over 45 years. 
  • Alter Eco: Making delightful chocolates, Alter Eco made all their products as certified organic to ensure no harm done to the soil or ecosystems. Alter Eco has even begun replanting and conserving a portion of the Peruvian Amazon. 

  • Nature’s Path: A family-owned organic breakfast and snack food company, Nature’s Path launched a line of Regenerative Organic Certified instant oatmeal.  

  • No Evil Foods: Besides the catchy name, No Evil Foods has done away with plastic packaging, and they wrap their products in unbleached kraft cartons. Once done with them, just throw them on the compost heap and let nature get rid of it quickly. This matters as well since regenerative agriculture seeks to recycle as much farm waste as humanly possible. That matters because the world produces around 998 billion tons of agricultural waste every year, according to Science Direct (1). 

Final Thoughts

Vegan regenerative agriculture is one of the ways that we can use to become increasingly environmentally friendly. 

One of the things that I like about this concept is that it not only seeks to do no harm, but it seeks to use farming in a way that makes for a better environment than what it was originally. All of this contributes to a soil that will continue to produce crops for future generations. 

We need to find more sustainable ways to do things because soil erosion is at an all-time high. The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) (2) estimates that 33% of the world’s soil has already been degraded, and this number could climb to 90% by 2050 if we don’t take action. 

References

(1) https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/earth-and-planetary-sciences/agricultural-waste
(2) https://news.un.org/en/story/2022/07/1123462

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