Animal Aid

Whether battery, barn, free range or organic, eating eggs isn’t a cruelty-free option. Each year, millions of day-old male chicks are killed because they are deemed ‘useless’ to the industry because they cannot lay eggs.

Dairy cows are subjected to a constant cycle of pregnancies and have their babies taken away at one or two days old, so that the milk meant for them can be bottled up for human consumption. Male calves born to dairy herds are ‘surplus’ to the industry. Many are shot, others are sent on punishing journeys to continental veal farms.

Cows’ milk contains hormones, chemicals, antibiotics, fat and droplets of blood and pus from weeping, infected udders.

Vegans have been shown to live longer and have a lower risk of heart disease, obesity, diabetes and cancer than meat-eaters.

The production of meat and dairy products uses up vast quantities of land, energy and water. A vegan diet uses less resources, requiring half the amount of land used to produce a typical vegetarian diet and one fifth of that used for a typical European omnivorous diet. In terms of an individual’s carbon footprint, switching to a vegan diet would have a greater impact than buying an eco-friendly car.