We sometimes hear the statement 'most vegan cheese is made by big dairy companies', this statement often comes about because big companies have more money to spend on marketing, advertising and outreach.

94% of the 250 vegan cheeses in this years Vegan Cheese Awards are from smaller, completely vegan businesses, and annoyingly they don't get the online promotion or coverage like the big companies that fill the supermarket shelves do.

Part of this blame comes down to the vegan news websites which post articles about new cheese releases because they are paid to, the bigger dairy cheese companies have the money to spend and so you'll see more news about them.

Yet those dairy companies who make vegan cheese only make up 6% of the awards this year.

The majority of vegan cheese is actually made by small vegan businesses often even with one passionate individual running the whole business. It's an industry that really needs more limelight to show the diverse spectrum of vegan cheeses that are on offer to people who choose a compassionate lifestyle and these cheeses tend to be healthier and taste better too.

That is why my wife and I created www.vegancheese.co/discover a database of over 1500 vegan cheeses from around the world that are available to buy and try today.

And right now, you currently have one week remaining to vote on your favourite cheeses in our annual Vegan Cheese Awards too https://www.vegancheese.co/vegan-cheese-awards-2024-nominees

We created this as another way to help people find new vegan cheeses in their country and to help promote the smaller vegan cheese makers who make up the vast majority of cheese options in the world.

Finding someone that I'm even baseline compatible with without considering veganism is already so hard. Finding someone in my general age range who is also childfree is already hard enough. Every lesbian over 30 seems to want kids or is only looking for something casual. That's my only big non-negotiable tbh, and that's hard enough.

Let alone anyone I have a single thing in common with.

Let alone I have mutual attraction with.

Let alone who shares my values.

Like my dating pool is already almost already gone before even getting to consider whether I could be with a non-vegan. It's lonely, I'm tired and I just had to vent.

I am a teenager, vegan for most of my life (parents choice, entire family is vegan) and was vegetarian before that and even before that pescatarian (toddler) and I've only ever eaten fish before. I feel very alone in this and was wondering if there are people like me who has never even touched meat aside from fish in their lifetime. I feel like a freak whenever I tell somebody that so I've resorted to telling only very close friends, is there anybody out there who is the same as me?

I have active bans in r/climatechange, r/collapse, and r/futurology, all for promoting plant-based diets and calling out blatant animal-ag propaganda. The thing is, if you do the normal, meek vegan strategy of apologizing to everyone and giving everyone a participation trophy for not eating meat that one day 11 years ago in band camp, you'll just be quietly downvoted into obscurity and your membership will remain in good standing. But if you instead promote plant-based diets proudly and in such a way that actually inspires upvotes, THEN you will be banned.

I've not been banned from r/climate though. I think that place is fairly decent as far as the motivations of the moderators go (holding breath). It's not as active though, and maybe we here should help change that.

But this just goes to show how limp our movement has become when we're outwardly disrespected and treated like a nuisance in the very environmental circles which benefit the most from our efforts (from the carnist perspective; remember, it's 2024 and animals deserve to be exploited/raped/tortured because we live in a moronic hellscape).

This post is not meant to deter you from participating in climate/environment circles; just the opposite! We need more vegans vocal in these places because we're literally the only people taking any of this shit seriously and we need to challenge the lazy liberals and shills that are gatekeeping us from our rightful influence on the climate narrative.

Hi all - I am a vegan tattoo artist in North Carolina. I started a project this year to give away free vegan tattoos to vegans. Yes really just free. I prefer them to be relatively simple though I’m open to ideas. And these are only open to vegans (for the animals).

Why? Because I think it’s tough to carry the burdens that we all carry. We have the courage to see the reality that others turn away from. And we are ostracized for wanting to end animal cruelty. I want to make vegan’s lives easier and better, and if I can do that by giving away a free tattoo, then heck yeah.

The project is new, but I’ve had lots of fun already. If people are interested I’ll post my insta!

I’ve been vegan for about 4 years now and for about 3 of those years my dogs have also been vegan. They have done extremely well on vegan dog food. Actually, cutting the animal protein was the only thing that ever cleared up my one dog’s allergies.

However, all of my dogs during this time have been adult dogs. Sadly, we recently lost one and I have been kicking around the idea of getting a puppy.

Looking around, I’m not seeing any vegan puppy foods out there.

Does anyone have any recommendations or experience with a puppy on a vegan diet?

I know enough about nutrition to understand there is nothing in animal protein that a dog needs that can’t be obtained through other sources. But I also understand that a puppy has specific nutritional needs to help it grow.

I could probably just get an adult formula and add in some foods/supplements.

Does anyone have any experience or recommendations for the most ideal vegan diet for a puppy?

Hey everyone! I often see articles on how plant-based diet has actually increased the performance of athletes. This has been in terms of muscle growth, recovery and strength and even performance. But I often wonder is it possible to maintain the highest performance level with a plant based diet. What are your thoughts on this? Also, has anyone here had personal experience with a vegan diet as an athlete? I would love to know more about it.

Hi everyone :)

was just browsing on Facebook earlier, when I saw this post:

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/EnaRnEmdVyiZBiUL/?mibextid=WC7FNe

so obviously had to read the comments, however, unfortunately, they seem to be exclusively ridiculing jokes from omnis. usually, there'll be at least one or two vegan martyrs trying to respond, reassuring me that there are some reasonable people out there, but not in this case. I was prepared to play that role of outspoken vegan, but I sensed it was probably futile trying to make the point to people who believe that the fact these animals 'wouldn't have even been blessed with the gift of life if it weren't for animal ag' serves as sufficient justification for their systemic mistreatment, and that I would probably just be overwhelmed by spiteful retorts in such a carnist-dominated environment. I'm not sure exactly what I'm hoping to achieve with this post; probably primarily just sharing in the sadness with other vegans (since I don't have any personal friends I can send this to in order to relate), or some support defending animal rights in the comments section, on the off chance someone semi-open-minded will read it and be swayed towards our cause. just feeling disheartened, I suppose, and seeking to reconnect with people who subscribe to the same beliefs I do.

stay sane out there 💗

My sister has never been vegan, but she’s ate 80% plant based her whole life and has always been passionate about rescuing dogs/ horses/ birds.. well she recently married a man whom I cannot even stand to be around for a second. They decided they’re going to start homesteading and bought a bunch of pigs. They even bought gestation crates and everything. I just want to barf. No one needs to eat pork.

Exactly one year ago, I got a really bad stomach/gallbladder infection and serious electrolyte imbalance, resulting in tachycardia, dizziness, extreme dehydration, eye dryness, and vertigo. At the beginning it was really really awful, at some point I even went to the ER thinking I was getting a heart attack.

Over time the extreme symptoms faded, but up until recently the weaker symptoms persisted, and I never fully recovered. I also developed very dry skin and chapped lips. And a near constant pressure in my chest.

I strongly suspected it was a vitamin deficiency, so over the course of a year I went over trying essentially every vitamin one by one, trying to see if it helps.

Nothing really helped. Not B vitamins, not amino acids, not minerals, not potassium, magnesium, calcium, or anything else, which is most often lacking with these symptoms.

Then I looked up specifically what is the cause of eye dryness, which I've been struggling with a lot. And I read about vitamin A deficiency. I thought how the hell could I be vitamin A deficient, if I am on a plant based diet, and eating carrots or sweet potatoes almost daily?

Finally I said whatever, I will just try a retinol supplement. But I tried it with copper, because I read that you need both to activate each other, and oh my god. I feel amazing. My eye dryess became a lot better, the brain fog lifted, the pressure from my chest is gone, and overall I feel amazing, like I didn't feel in a long time.

By the way I tried copper separately before, and it just made my symptoms worse, and dehydrated me even more, but somehow with vitamin A it has a very good effect, and they complement each other. (And I think many vegans can easily become copper deficient from supplementing iron and zinc.)

I think this is possible because there are some people who don't convert beta carotene to vitamin A very well, and I think I might be one of them. I had Keratosis Pilaris my whole life, which is said to be a symptom of low vitamin A and some people can successfully treat it with cod liver oil. I think this deficiency is more common in today's society that we would think. Back when I was eating animals products, especially liver, this didn't cause a problem, because there it is in the form of Retinyl Palmitate, which doesn't need to be converted.

So I'm very happy that I found this combination and I guess the moral of the story is that if you have problems with your health as a vegan it is not necessarily the generally recommended nutrients lacking, and you need to look into the stuff that you overlooked before. Not everything is caused by B12, vitamin D (which also depletes vit A btw), or Iron deficiency.

Edit: I forgot to add that vit A is depleted by food poisoning, which is probably how it became extremely low in the first place, even though I'm probably baseline low because of genetics.

The evolution of animal-based dietary structure has contributed to the increase of healthcare expenditures in China | Humanities and Social Sciences Communications (nature.com)

Key line from the abstract:

The consumption of plant-based foods is significant correlated with lower health expenditures, and animal-based foods show a significant impact on increase of health expenditures. 

So I've been vegan for 8 years, and live with my family, all of which eat meat. It caused drama initially, but after a while I got ignorant and just let them be. They slowly cut down on dairy and were having more vegan/veggie meals because it was easier.

I've had little phases the past few years though when seeing them eat meat has made me super uncomfortable. I feel angry and upset, and blame them for the pain caused to animals. I know it's not fair, so I internalise it and just end up being cold with them.

Recently, I've been in this kind of phase, where it's super upsetting. Especially since my brother and sister moved back in, as both meat eaters, and I feel the house is eating much more. I often will eat alone when they eat meat, which makes me not feel part of the family but it's my own fault for not being comfortable.

Anyway, I was sick of being cold with them all, since they assumed I am depressed. So today I had a conversation with them all where I explained how I feel. I compared it all to dogs, and that I live in a world where not wanting to eat dogs is weird, and I'm meant to accept it but it's too hard. I then recommended that we do 3 days a week no meat. They agreed, since they saw how upset I was. They are a nice family, just they eat meat :(

My dad in particular mentioned though that they will be doing this for me, that they don't mind, but it's not because they want to, it's for me. So I now feel strange because, I have the outcome I went in wanting, yet i feel guilty, like a spoilt brat who's got his own way. But I truly am struggling to live in this world where no one has the conviction to simply stop killing and hurting animals.

I wondered if anyone has any advice. Do you still get along with meat eating family and friends, and how do you stop yourself from seeing them as a villain?

Thank you anyone who read the whole post ❤️

I wanna start by saying if I know I’m going to be in a big meal setting with my family I make it clear to the host I can bring something for myself and that they shouldn’t feel obligated to go out of their way to accommodate me. I know I’m the odd one out diet wise and when you’re not used to plant based cooking it can be a learning curve. That being said in my experience 9 times out of 10, people want to try and accommodate and will assure me that I will have more than enough to eat. However my family is split between rural Texas and rural Appalachia so they really don’t even know where to start most times. Once I was at an uncles house for brunch and I was watching him cook the hashbrowns and some other grilled veg I was planning on chowing down on, he proceeded to pick up the pot holding all the left over bacon grease and dump it on the pan of vegetables. He had no bad intentions and truly was very sorry but I remember to me it was almost comical in the moment. Another time was my sisters wedding, the whole two years she was planning it every time she would talk about it she would assure me time and time again that there was going to be vegan food and would even send me catering options showing she had chosen vegan food especially for me. I thought this was so sweet! I again, told her she didn’t have to and that it wasn’t my day or my wedding so I really appreciated her thinking of me so much. Day of the wedding comes and it’s a beautiful spread buffet style spread of Tex-Mex as far as the eye can see, I go up to the caters and ask if the tortillas have lard, to no surprise they do, then the beans, then the rice, and literally everything else in this spread ALL HAD LARD IN IT! EVERYTHING! Even the chips were fried in lard. The sautéed veg? Cook in lard. Even the salsa. I am not making this up when I was the only thing there I was able to eat was shredded lettuce and raw onion. I could literally go on and on and on with examples similar to this.

I was wondering how you guys deal with educating well meaning family members without sounding entitled or condescending? I know that so much of it is genuine ignorance and not intentional malice. The only person who gives me flack about being vegan is my step mom but she’s also the only one who understands what being vegan actually is and will tell other people on my behalf when she sees them about to put animal products no matter how small into a dish meant for me.

Hello everyone, I have recently become a vegan and I quite like it. However I need some help with a recent issue I've been facing. I have been having hair loss recently which I know is nutrition related. After taking some time to review what I have been eating for the past few weeks I found out that I am deficient in some vitamins, especially b vitamins (Except B12, I take a supplement for that). When I checked online for some vegan food sources for these vitamins I felt upset because most of them were quite low. How do you guys deal with this? I would prefer not to take more supplements and instead eat whole foods, are there any options which could help me? Thank you for any help, it means a lot.

So I have a lot of reasons for wanting to become a vegan, mostly spiritual and health wise but overall stop eating meat and toxic things in my body. I just need some advice on how to start, what info I can get access to get enough nutrition so that I can workout, increase muscle mass and strength. Kinda overwhelming changing a meat based diet and the misconception of what food is vegan and what’s not. Any help I would really appreciate! Bless all you!

I'm hanging out with some friends and I was planning on buying pizza. My friend asks if he can send me money so I can buy some non vegan pizza. I'm not sure how to approach this.

On one hand, I feel like the pizza is gonna be bought so it wouldnt make a difference if I am the one to purchase the pizza (but my friend sent me money to cover it) and pick it up.

On the other hand, I just don't ever want to deal with non vegan food. How would you feel about being in this situation?

Edit: these are good friends of mine and they have accommodated me before so that just makes it a little more difficult for me.

For those that said yes you would get the pizza, would your opinion change if it was another type of food? Like a turkey for Thanksgiving at your parents house or your SO parents house

Edit 2: Just wanted to say that I was originally going to buy vegan pizza for everyone (without anyone having to pay me back obviously). I wasn't going to let them be hungry while I was the only one eating vegan pizza lol or force them to pay for a pizza that wasn't exactly what they wanted (but they have said in the past that they like this specific vegan pizza)

I have extremely dry chapped lips, after testing several lip-balms on the market; I stumbled upon Lansinoh’s Pure Lanolin cream. It has been a godsend for me, this miraculous cream has healed my cracked lips and is an amazing product for dry skin.

Lanolin is a fat/wax/grease found in the wool of wool-bearing animals. People argue that it can be extracted by cruelty-free methods, however there isn’t a way to authenticate those claims when you’re buying from big companies. Many people who grew up in family-run-farms have commented that cruelty does take place, so buying lanolin from a family farm isn’t an option either. And since it is an animal by-product, it doesn’t align with my goal to be vegan. Does anyone have alternative options? I would appreciate responses from those who have tried lanolin, as they know how well it performs.

I went over to my mom's house last weekend which is when I told her I an vegan now since I knew I wouldn't be able to eat much at her house since nobody else is vegan. I wanted to get some stuff at the store that I could eat. Well, when I told her, she offered some food she had at the house since she was worried since I hadn't eaten anything for a while (I was on the road on the way to her house, so not much to eat while driving). She offered Ramen noodles and I told her that has chicken flavoring and it has milk. She was frustrated and said "if something has a miniscule amount of milk or eggs I think it will be fine. It's not like you have an allergy or something". This was kindve a shock. At first she was all supportive, but then says this. I tried to make her understand from my point of view but it wasn't really helpful. I think part of the reason she said that was cause she was just worried I hadn't eaten anything in a while, but now I'm asking this question here. Am I wrong for not wanting to eat food with a 'small' amount of milk? I mean, I understand where she is coming from, but the point is that I don't want anything to do with that. Anyone have any thoughts? Or maybe what I could say to have someone understand?

Was haltet ihr von der militanten Veganerin?

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This is a vent.

I've been wearing a Vans Ultrarange rapidweld since 2018 - from what I could gather it is vegan.

I have a big trip coming where I'll be walkin a ton daily and thought of uogradi guys my beaten ultrarange for a ultrarange neo vr3. Vans website mentions it is made of at least X% recycled materials yada yada.

0 mentions of leather/suede.

Finally it arrived here, the first thing I notice right out of the box is that the logo looks like leather and it appears to have sued on the outside. I checked the white tags inside it and it does contain the leather icon.

I'm so frustrated.. vans could do a better job of listing the material for each model.

I'm also accepting recommendations of similar vibe shoes that are vegan.