Veganuary: Take home and try veganism for a month, for free

What do Joaquin Phoenix, Paul McCartney, Alicia Silverstone, Jason Gillespie and former Germany’s strongest man winner Patrik Baboumian have in common? They are not only vegan, but they are ambassadors for Veganuary, an online behavioural change campaign platform aimed at inspiring and supporting people to become vegan thereby ending animal farming, protecting the planet and improving human health. Veganuary has inspired and supported more than one million people in 192 countries to try vegan for January – and beyond. It has become so popular that there were shortages in plant-based brands in the UK in January 2020. As Veganuary 2021 gets underway, this year’s cohort is already the biggest since the pledge began in 2014. More than 440,000 people have already signed-up for the 31-day vegan challenge – surpassing 2020’s total of 400,000 – and sign-ups are continuing at a rate of 1 person every three seconds!

Post Covid, 2021 seen as the year for positive change and Veganuary is urging everyone to embrace this unique opportunity to reshape the future and sign-up to try vegan this month. Their message is echoed by Jane Goodall, Ricky Gervais, Paul McCartney, John Bishop, Sara Pascoe, Chris Packham, Chrissie Hynde, Bryan Adams and over 100 additional international superstars, politicians, NGOs and businesses who signed a joint letter published last week calling on everyone to help fight climate chaos and prevent future pandemics by changing their diet.

Why I became Vegan?

Well, I’m not a vegan. I’m, mostly, a whole-food-plant-based foodie. That is sort of vegan plus ‘low to no sugar’, plus ‘ideally not from a manufacturing plant, but food from actual plants’ minus ‘trying to avoid leather products’. I say ‘mostly’ because I try not to offend in social circumstances if there’s been a bit of butter used in a recipe etc. Definitions are not important. What is important from the points of view of animal justice, environment and health is that you are trying to do the right thing 95% of the time.

Last year’s Veganuary participants sighted health (38%), animal justice (37%) and environment (18%) as the main reasons for taking part. I eat what I eat now for the same reasons. A plant-based diet that is based on whole-foods is by far the healthiest diet – demonstrated by a significant amount of research (Does low meat consumption increase life expectancy in humans? | The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition | Oxford Academic (oup.com)), especially related to lower blood pressure, cholesterol, blood sugar and reduced body weight, translating to less risk of heart disease, diabetes, cancer and other diseases.

The China Study, first published 2005, showed that those people who ate no animal products, eating only whole foods, including vegetables, fruits, beans and legumes, rice and potatoes, did not experience obesity. It was also noted that there was little or no disease in their communities commonly seen in Western civilisation, countries that consumed animal products, including dairy. Further studies indicated the increased incidence of fractures from dairy milk consumption, (Nurses Study, 1976).

It is therefore not surprising that enlightened self-interest comes out on top as the major driver for Veganuary participants.

Animal cruelty is not far behind as a major concern. You simply have to catch parts of documentaries (because no one can watch all of it without feeling completely and utterly sick) such as (2515) Dominion (2018) - full documentary [Official] - YouTube, and Cowspiracy: The Sustainability Secret (2014) and Forks over Knives (2011) on Netflix to get an insight into the plight of farmed animals. Over at a friend’s place for dinner on New Year’s eve, I heard the most amazing story about why one of our hosts has been vegetarian for nearly 30 years now. In the late 80s, she had watched the movie Cry Freedom - a 1987 epic drama film directed and produced by Richard Attenborough, set in late-1970s apartheid -era South Africa, about a local journalist Donald Woods who is forced to flee the country, after attempting to investigate the death in custody of his friend, the black activist Steve Biko. Not only did this movie inspire her to become involved in the anti-apartheid movement in Australia, but it also made her question the cruelty associated with one race having complete power over another – which she then began to see in how humans treated animals, leading to her becoming vegetarian. I must also add that no pandemics resulted from eating plants!

Finally, the environmental benefits of veganism are huge. For me, working in the sustainability field, it would be hypocritical to not live a less carbon-intensive lifestyle. According to What if the whole world went vegan? (anthropocenemagazine.org), if every person on Earth adopted a vegan diet – without milk, meat, honey, or any other animal-sourced foods – the greenhouse gas emissions associated with the food system in 2050 would fall by more than half compared to 2005/2007 levels. The food we eat is responsible for over one-quarter of global greenhouse gas emissions. Of those, 80 percent are linked to livestock production. On water, It takes 100 to 200 times more water to raise a pound of beef than it does to raise a pound of plant foods. Globally, 83% of farmland is set aside to raise animals. Animal agriculture is responsible for 91% of the destruction of the Amazon rainforest, and it is the greatest driver of deforestation and land use, worldwide. Finally, here’s a fact to make you think about the influence of the human footprint - humans account for about 36 percent of the biomass of all mammals. Domesticated livestock, mostly cows and pigs, account for 60 percent, and wild mammals for only 4 percent according to The biomass distribution on Earth | PNAS.

I am also a founding Board member of Home - Food Frontier, an independent think-tank on alternative proteins in Australia and New Zealand. Food Frontier recognises the need to feed our growing global population while protecting public health and ensuring environmental sustainability, we must champion safer and more sustainable ways of producing food. Therefore, reducing our reliance on industrial animal agriculture and aquaculture, and backing protein sources that have fewer impacts on human and planetary health, are central to this.

So, where can I start?

Veganuary | Home | The Go Vegan 31 Day Challenge – jump on, surf around, and sign up. Being vegan is no longer seen as socially alienating, but super cool, and in trend, in case you were wondering! Any questions, please feel free to put them down on this post, and I will aim to come back with helpful tips and answers.