Animals Matter Too - Vegan Ethics for Everyone

12/09/2026

The new page "Vegans and Farmers Discussions" is a public space where anyone interested can talk about veganism, farming and related topics. Farmers especially are welcome to offer their points of view and information about agriculture.

Note that while we talk about both veganism and farming, the underlying philosophy is pro-vegan rather than anti-vegan. That's because vegan principles represent the best and most effective way to think about our relationship with other animals.

Anyone at all can comment on posts; our only rule is that you be polite and courteous when doing so. This is not a page for flamewars or nastiness. We will delete comments that we deem inappropriate without explanation. Repeat offenders and those who are not genuine participants will be blocked.

Please use the link below to visit the "Vegans and Farmers Discussions" page.

https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61593783181233

Animal Advocacy

03/09/2026

Something often argued about the benefits of animal-sourced food is that we cannot get vitamin B12 from plant sources. While that is not strictly true (for example, purple laver seaweed and certain strains of duckweed contain varying levels of the vitamin), it can be hard to obtain sufficient B12 without supplementation.

Here's some interesting news that shows promise for manipulating spirulina to provide a sustainable source of B12 equivalent to that found in beef.

Researchers have produced a form of Spirulina containing biologically active vitamin B12 at levels comparable to beef. By carefully controlling the light used to grow the algae, they overcame a major problem with conventional Spirulina, which mainly contains a form of B12 the human body cannot use.....

01/09/2026

One of the big complaints we see from critics of veganism is the idea that a plant-sourced agriculture would mean more land under "monoculture" cropping, increased synthetic fertiliser use, and the steady decline in soils.

For many critics, the answer is regenerative agriculture, by which they mean retaining the use of ruminant livestock under a holistic management model to maximise local land-use conditions.

However, the world is not able to live on meat alone, so large-scale cropping will always be necessary. Luckily, there have been substantial improvements over time in better production management, including no-till systems, crop rotations, use of green/organic compost etc.

In 2025, Brazilian scientists Mariangela Hungria was awarded the 2025 World Food Prize for her groundbreaking work using beneficial soil bacteria to nourish crops naturally. Her research focuses on biological nitrogen fixation, allowing plants to obtain essential nutrients without relying heavily on synthetic fertilizers.

Her methods have been successfully applied in Brazil to maximise crop productivity, save farmers money and mitigate environmental risks from crop production. No animal inputs are required by her methods.

Dr. Mariangela Hungria received the 2025 World Food Prize for her extraordinary scientific advancements in biological nitrogen fixation, transforming the sustainability of soil health and crop nutrition for tropical agriculture. The low-cost technologies and products that she has developed have incr...

30/08/2026

Dairy farmers claim single calf housing is in the calf's best interests, but research shows that isn't true. What it is in favour of is maximising dairy productivity. That's fine from a business perspective, of course, but it's yet another example of how farmed animals are treated primarily as units of production. Vegan principles propose that animals should be free and not used unfairly by us when we can do that. It is easy to find alternatives to dairy and let's be honest, humans survived for hundreds of thousands of years without it.

27/08/2026

The Better Protein Institute (BPI) was founded by Dr Chris Macdonald, a behavioural scientist, founder, and author as well as Lab Director at Lucy Cavendish College, University of Cambridge.

The BPI aims to facilitate the rapid transition to better sources of protein. Recently, he published the paper "What are the best sources of protein? Introducing the BPI Score" which finds that on a range of metrics, plant-sourced proteins deliver the best outcomes.

You might think that he has an axe to grind and likely you are right; nonetheless, the BPI evaluation makes for interesting reading. The conclusion as to the best source of protein? Tofu (cheddar was the worst).

You can read the paper at the link below, or watch Unnatural Vegan offer a brief overview.

https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/sustainable-food-systems/articles/10.3389/fsufs.2026.1677796/full

https://youtu.be/g0pe4giNcII?si=jJloiOaRqX2-mjHQ

A new study just ranked 20 common protein sources on both human hea...

26/08/2026

Dolly wasn't vegan, but she did care about animals and did a lot of work in the field of animal welfare advocacy and wildlife protection. She was also an absolute legend.

Rest in peace, Dolly Parton 🩵🦋

Dolly reached millions, and she used her platform to make the world kinder for animals.

Her music touched generations, and her compassion made a lasting impact.

25/08/2026

Ah yes, the old "plants are bad for you argument". Against overwhelming evidence to the contrary and an evolutionary history as long as the human species has existed.

"Plants can't run away, the story goes, so they evolved chemical weapons — lectins, oxalates, phytates. Every bowl of beans is the plant fighting back."

Listen to Jeff Nelson debunking this story with facts (yes, plants can cause harm) and context (we know how to prepare and eat plants to gain the benefits they offer).

Raw kidney beans really can make you sick. Nausea, vomiting, the wo...

23/08/2026

Interesting.

"The suit was brought by the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM), a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit founded in 1985 that advocates for plant-based diets and alternatives to animal-based research. The group has a long history of using legal pressure to further their goals.

In their legal complaint, PCRM argues that HHS and USDA assembled a "secret panel" that was "rife with conflicts of interest" and did not follow the long-established process for updating the guidelines.

Ultimately, the group is asking that the court withdraw the current guidelines and issue new ones that follow a process that is compliant with the Federal Advisory Committee Act (FACA)."

Lawsuit asks for the guidelines to be withdrawn, cites conflicts of interest and other issues

22/08/2026

An interesting take from Mic The Vegan. He is claiming that there is a significant fall in interest or the carnivore diet as indicated by Google Trends. This matches with the sudden uptick in interest for ethical veganism I mentioned a little while back.

Basically, Google Trends shows a fall in searches for carnivore diet info over the past 12 months, while Trends also shows a noticeable increase in searches for ethical veganism in the first six months of this year.

Mic also points out how often people who adopt this diet report considerable health issues.

Personally, I think a carnivore diet is not a good long-term health strategy. Humans have not evolved to eat meat alone while research over decades points to the health benefits of mostly plant-based diets. That said, IF someone really wants to follow this diet, I think it can be highly effective at reducing the scale of harm we cause other animals for our food so I am not THAT concerned by it. It's not vegan-friendly, but carnivore dieters can still apply vegan principles to make far more ethical choices than most consumers.

And honestly, I doubt we will ever see any kind of large-scale adoption of such a limited and overall unhealthy diet.

Is the carnivore diet over? What does the data say and how did we g...

20/08/2026

Researcher Jordi Casamitjana is conducting a survey of vegans around the world. The survey is anonymous and takes around 10 minutes to complete.

If you're vegan and aged 18 or over, please take part. 👇

Global study about what makes people become and stay vegan or plant-based