Veganism is the practice of abstaining from the use of animal products—particularly in diet—and an associated philosophy that rejects the commodity status of animals. A person who follows the diet or philosophy is known as a vegan.
A flexitarian diet, also called a semi-vegetarian diet, is one that is centered on plant foods with limited or occasional inclusion of meat. For example, a flexitarian might eat meat only some days each week. Flexitarian is a portmanteau of the words flexible and vegetarian, signifying its followers' less strict diet pattern when compared to vegetarian pattern diets.
A plant-based diet is a diet consisting mostly or entirely of plant-based foods. Plant-based diets encompass a wide range of dietary patterns that contain low amounts of animal products and high amounts of fiber-rich plant products such as vegetables, fruits, whole grains, legumes, nuts and seeds. They do not need to be vegan or vegetarian, but are defined in terms of low frequency of animal food consumption.
Richard H. Schwartz is a professor emeritus of mathematics at the College of Staten Island; president emeritus of the Jewish Vegetarians of North America (JVNA); and co-founder and coordinator of the Society of Ethical and Religious Vegetarians (SERV). He is best known as a Jewish vegetarian activist and advocate for animal rights in the United States and Israel.
Conversations regarding the ethics of eating meat are focused on whether or not it is moral to eat non-human animals. Ultimately, this is a debate that has been ongoing for millennia, and it remains one of the most prominent topics in food ethics. Individuals who promote meat consumption do so for a number of reasons, such as health, cultural traditions, religious beliefs, and scientific arguments that support the practice. Those who support meat consumption typically argue that making a meat-free diet mandatory would be wrong because it fails to consider the individual nutritional needs of humans at various stages of life, fails to account for biological differences between the sexes, ignores the reality of human evolution, ignores various cultural considerations, or because it would limit the adaptability of the human species.
World Vegetarian Day is observed annually around the planet on October 1. It is a day of celebration established by the North American Vegetarian Society in 1977 and endorsed by the International Vegetarian Union in 1978, "To promote the joy, compassion and life-enhancing possibilities of vegetarianism." It brings awareness to the ethical, environmental, health, and humanitarian benefits of a vegetarian lifestyle. World Vegetarian Day initiates the month of October as Vegetarian Awareness Month, which ends with November 1, World Vegan Day, as the end of that month of celebration. Vegetarian Awareness Month has been known variously as "Reverence for Life" month, "Month of Vegetarian Food", and more.
Vegetarian and vegan dietary practices vary among countries. Differences include food standards, laws, and general cultural attitudes toward vegetarian diets.
Jian Yi is a Chinese independent filmmaker, social innovator and food activist who currently conducts research at the Animal Law and Policy Program at the Harvard Law School since 2022. His films Bamboo Shoots and Super, Girls! won a number of international film festival awards. Jian Yi co-founded the ground-breaking China Villager Documentary Project with filmmaker Wu Wenguang in 2004, and founded the IFChina Original Studio in 2008. His works have been shown at numerous film festivals, museums and university campuses across the globe. Jian Yi also spoke at the Apple Artists' Series among many public and media talks, including the BBC and the National Public Radio.
Suzy Amis Cameron is an American former actress, model, author and activist, who advocates for a plant-based diet.
Eating Animals is the third book by the American novelist Jonathan Safran Foer, published in 2009. A New York Times best-seller, Eating Animals provides a dense discussion of what it means to eat animals in an industrialized world. It was written in close collaboration with Farm Forward, a US nonprofit organization promoting veganism and sustainable agriculture.
Michael Herschel Greger is an American physician, author, and professional speaker on public health issues, best known for his advocacy of a whole-food, plant-based diet, and his opposition to animal-derived food products.
Forks Over Knives is a 2011 American documentary film which argues that avoiding animal products and Ultra-processed foods, and instead eating a whole-food, plant-based diet, may serve as a form of chronic illness intervention.
Ethical omnivorism, omnivorismor compassionate carnivorism, is a human diet involving the consumption of meat, eggs, dairy and produce that can be traced back to an organic farm. Ocean fish consumption is limited to sustainably farm-raised and/or ethically and wild caught, without contributing to illegal poaching.
Planeat is a 2010 British documentary film by Or Shlomi and Shelley Lee Davies. The film discusses the possible nutritional and environmental benefits of adopting a whole foods, plant-based diet based on the research of T. Colin Campbell, Caldwell Esselstyn and Gidon Eshel. The film also features the views of Peter Singer.
Cowspiracy: The Sustainability Secret is a 2014 American documentary film produced and directed by Kip Andersen and Keegan Kuhn. The film explores the impact of animal agriculture on the environment—examining such environmental concerns as climate change, water use, deforestation, and ocean dead zones—and investigates the policies of several environmental organizations on the issue.
What the Health is a 2017 American documentary film which critiques the health effects of meat, dairy product and egg consumption, and questions the practices of leading health and pharmaceutical organizations. It also advocates for a plant-based diet. It has been criticised for scientific inaccuracies.
Asa Keisar is an Israeli Jewish religious scholar, rabbi, scribe, and advocate for veganism. He has given many public lectures across Israel in support of veganism as both a Torah imperative to avoid cruelty to animals, as well as it being the Torah's ideal for mankind.
The Game Changers is a 2018 American documentary film about athletes who follow plant-based diets.
Kip Andersen is an American filmmaker, producer, writer, entrepreneur, and the founder of Animals United Movement (A.U.M.) Films and Media, a 501(c)(3) organization which focuses on promoting awareness and equality for all life. He is known for his documentary films such as Cowspiracy: The Sustainability Secret, What the Health, and Seaspiracy.
Eating Our Way to Extinction is a 2021 documentary film, which looks at the problem of unsustainable meat production and its effects on the environment.
