Why Vegan?

There are many reasons why people choose to live vegan lifestyles, and purchase only vegan products. Like vegetarianism, veganism seeks to reduce the consumption of animal products. However, veganism seeks to not only boycott the production of meat, but also all other products from animal exploitation, such as dairy, eggs, wool, leather, and all products tested on animals. For most vegans, the primary motivation for choosing this lifestyle is one of compassion for animals, but there are also health and environmental benefits. All products that Downbound supplies are 100% vegan, containing no products from animal exploitation.

Compassion for Animals
Most of us are raised to believe that animals are placed on this earth for the benefit of humans, and are not taught to question the ethics of causing pain to animals. Indeed, given the opportunity to learn about the suffering that animals endure at the hands of humans, most otherwise well-meaning people choose to look the other way. However, animals do suffer at the hands of humans, and it has been said by Paul McCartney that "if slaughterhouses had glass walls, everyone would be vegetarian." In North America alone, over 10,000,000,000 (10 Billion) animals are bred and slaughtered every year. Such immense quantities of animals being processed require a system that works with factory efficiency at breakneck speeds. Factory farming and massive meat processing plants (slaughterhouses) have replaced the idyllic family farm. At the rate at which animals must be slaughtered, milked, shorn, etc. in order to meet demand, and at the competitive prices at which the resulting products must be sold at, there is simply no room for treating animals with compassion in this system. And even a relatively well-treated animal is robbed of her rights if we exploit her for profit, or bring her life to an end for the consumption of her body. Purchasing vegan products instead of animal-derived products is a means of boycotting the exploitation of animals, and encouraging the continued production and invention of compassionate alternatives.

Environmental Benefits
Industrialized factory farming has a devastating effect on water, soil, and air quality. Many factory farms produce more animal excrement than some cities do, yet no regulations exist to ensure the proper sewage treatment of this waste. This waste contains harmful pathogens, including E. coli, and is often disposed of aerially in the form of liquid fertilizer for neighbouring crops. The immense quantities of waste saturate the soil with an overabundance of nitrogen and heavy metals, which seeps into rivers and negatively affects a wide variety of ecosystems. Airborne particles from aerial feces distribution, rendering plants (conversion of innards and other slaughterhouse waste into homogenized ingredients for pet food and other uses), and from all waste producing factory farming operations more generally, all have a negative effect on air quality. Widespread repertory problems have been documented in communities near factory farming operations. And all animal production requires the inefficient conversion of plant protein into animal protein, sometimes with as much as a 20:1 input to output ratio. A vegan lifestyle is an alternative to supporting the environmental destruction and waste caused by factory farming and all animal farming in general. Purchasing vegan products instead of animal-derived products is a means of boycotting the environmental destruction caused by animal production.

Health Benefits
While a vegan lifestyle means more than a diet free from animal products, the diet itself is chosen by many people for its health benefits. The average diet in North America—and in industrialized nations throughout the world—is rich in meat, dairy, and eggs. Meat, dairy, and eggs are all heavy in cholesterol, fat, and hormones. The consumption of meat and other animal products has been documented to harden arteries and contribute to colon and other types of cancer. Children are reaching puberty at much earlier ages than 50 years ago, primarily due to the hormones fed to animals, which are contained in meat and dairy products. It is the position of the American Dietetic Association and Dietitians of Canada that "appropriately planned vegetarian diets are healthful, nutritionally adequate, and provide health benefits in the prevention and treatment of certain diseases." These associations also state that, "[w]ell-planned vegan and other types of vegetarian diets are appropriate for all stages of the life cycle, including during pregnancy, lactation, infancy, childhood, and adolescence."

Downbound makes it easy for you to live a vegan lifestyle. We do the research to find the best vegan products, and we make them available to you 24 hours a day, just a mouse click away.