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. 

Can Tofu Make a Good Alternative to Fish?

 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?

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

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.

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. 

1. Palm Oil

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:

2. Vanilla

3. Soy

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

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:

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.

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. 

1. Choose Your Adopted Pet Carefully

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

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 

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:

4. Prepare Your Home for Your Rescued Pet

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.

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.

Cases of Feral Children

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:

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.  

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. 

What is Regenerative Agriculture? 

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?

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?

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?

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.