Of all the social-justice acts out there, I actually think veganism is one of the lowest- hanging fruit. It's just so easy that the only reason non-vegan culture can possibly persist is through a really high degree of not giving a shit. In a way, that's understandable; I don't have much of a connection to animals myself. A lot of my vegan friends love animals and want to be around them all the time; I don't. If a smelly dog never jumps on me again, it will be too soon. But the fact is, animals have senses and feelings. Interacting with any animal for longer than thirty seconds can conclusively show you that animals like and dislike things, and that they feel something that looks exactly like pain. Which brings me to... 2. If you care about consent, then veganism is transparently the right thing to do. There are environmental arguments and stuff, but I mean, seriously, let's call a spade a spade: when you eat meat, you're eating the murdered body of an animal who died for no reason other than your transient pleasure. As for animal products: many things that happen to animals on factory farms are abominable and obscene, as two minutes of Googling or this_ website or this video can show you. Even if you decide to eat animal products that come only from well-treated animals, there's no way to be sure that those animals were actually well-treated unless you're raising them yourself. As this vegan FAO points out, there's an amazing amount of animal suffering that still occurs on "humane" farms. (Sa/on has written about it, too.) Some of those farms are doubtless fairly pleasant for the animals, but others.... Well, let's just say that calling some "humane" farms more merciful than factory farms is like saying that being burned alive is preferable to dying in a medieval torture device. Personally, when I went vegan, a lot of the reason it felt easy was because I no longer had to spend tons of mental energy suppressing my empathy. I was amazed at how relieved I felt. Again,