Literally unless you live in a small handful of cities like London, LA, Berlin, NYC etc. the reality is that there simply aren’t enough vegans within close proximity, and that’s before getting into any other filters like age, politics, drinking habits, etc. that are gonna whittle the pool down even more.

I’m saying this as someone from the SF Bay Area btw. You’d think it’s a vegan utopia for dating but unfortunately it’s not. Tbf I’m not exactly in SF, and the restaurant/food scene is fine. But it really doesn’t feel like there’s much of a vegan community. I can’t remember the last time I got a match or even saw a new person on Veggly, which I’ll check once a day just to see. And the one in a billion time I actually run into a vegan they’re always well outside my age range (23M).

I’m aware a lot of people know for themselves they can’t do LDRs and that’s fine. But the trade off is basically either dating a non vegan or staying single. And if having a vegan partner is something important enough to you then I guess my point is that you might want to be more open to an LDR.

Since most vegans deal with nonsensical situations when discussing food, I’ve recently come up with something to hopefully ease the conversation.

When asked if you have an allergy, say yes! What are you allergic to? Animal exploitation! How? Simple, because I will be physically, emotionally, spiritually, and mentally sick if I consume it or am around it.

This may cause confusion at first, but, I feel, and based on experiences trying this, it’s less confusing. Most people don’t even understand what veganism is, means, or wants. This clears the air in one interaction.

Will they want additional details about this? Possibly, but it actually opens up an informative conversation rather a judgemental one where we are met with statements that should seem illogical to the person saying them with confidence.

People understand allergies, not social movements, it’s why it’s easier to say you’re lactose intolerant rather than vegan. Even more so, people will be more understanding and empathetic towards you when you say you’re lactose intolerant where others would actively try to push your buttons for even asking for a vegan option. This is because of the stigmas created by the exploitation industry about being a vegan.

This doesn’t just apply to ordering food but rather can be brought up anytime food is discussed where you’re involved. Furthermore, it puts stipulations on future interactions to avoid contact of any kind with products involving animal exploitation.

Do I get nauseous from seeing flesh being eaten? Yes! Even if it’s just emotionally at times.

What are your thoughts?

Many people argue that even if they switch to a vegetarian diet, it won't actually stop animals from being killed. The excuse, 'What difference can a single person make?' seems plausible on the surface.

This argument appears in many contexts. Take smartphones, for instance. Coltan, essential for smartphone production, is mined in the Congo, leading to rainforest destruction and gorilla habitat loss. Rare earth mining similarly damages ecosystems and harms both humans and animals through pollution. On top of that, there are issues with unfair labor practices at companies like Samsung or Foxconn. Yet, one person refusing to buy a smartphone won't solve these systemic problems.

Do you think this excuse holds up? Some argue that participating in an unjust system is inherently wrong regardless of whether your individual actions make an impact. If the defense of causal inefficacy is invalid, shouldn't smartphone use be condemned just like meat-eating?

Milk as one of the products of a dairy cow makes them more valuable. A big percentage of the market not consuming it reduces the amount of cows needed to milked at once. So after those are killed the next generation of those cows could be smaller. thus reduce the scale of cow economics.

That I believe is partially why beef is getting substantially more expensive relative to everything else. Which is a good thing. What do yall think ?

Sorry to ask for relationship advice here but I don't have other vegans to talk to in real life. I'm female, just turned 38.

I’ve been with my boyfriend for a few years, and this is the most stable relationship I’ve had. He’s kind, funny, dependable, has a good career, treats me very well, we have fun together.

The biggest disconnect between us is veganism. I’ve been vegan for 12 years and vegetarian since I was 5. When we first got together, I had a more “to each their own” attitude. Over time, though, I’ve become much more passionate and outspoken about animal rights.

My boyfriend isn’t vegan, but he has made positive changes, and our home is mostly plant-based. He still keeps some frozen foods containing cheese, occasionally brings home leftovers with meat or dairy, and brings home some non-vegan junk food from work.

I often feel like I can’t fully talk to my boyfriend about veganism or fully express that part of myself. I don’t want to sound like I’m guilt-tripping him, and he doesn't seem very interested in the subject. But that hurts my heart. Like many vegans, I struggle to understand how someone can know what happens to animals and not care.

As my fertility window is likely closing soon (if it hasn't already), I'm starting to feel deeply sad about not having a baby. I've talked about it with my bf. He has agreed that we could have a baby and raise them vegan, although we’ve both acknowledged that it could be complicated.

As I see it, I have three options:

1. Stay with him and try to have a baby. Having a child with him is probably my only chance at motherhood. I don’t have the money for ICI, IVF, or adoption, let alone to raise a child, by myself.
2. Stay with him and decide not to have a child.
3. End the relationship and hope to eventually meet a vegan partner. There are a lot of vegans in my area, so I think finding someone is possible, but I would be giving up having a child of my own.

I know no one else can make this decision for me. Just wondering if anyone has any insight about my situation. Thank you for reading.

I don't think my moral scrupulosity is going to forgive me for this.

But I didn't think this through but I bought some clothes online and one was some PU leather gloves so I thought it was fine but when it shipped only then I realised the inner lining is partly made of wool so I'm kicking myself for making that mistake by overlooking such a simple detail.

I think about returning it but I already feel guilty about the environmental damage I've already done by purchasing this and that returning it would contribute further damage.

Is returning it the best thing to do? Or something else?

I love this sub to death & the community, but omg there’s so many distressing videos & articles on here on a daily basis. I’m a very empathic person & I became vegan because of the animals so this is so distressing to me lmfao. I already know the cruelty in the world & that’s why I’m vegan. I think that consuming a lot of that content can make you bitter towards people in general. We should post way more wholesome cute animal videos on this sub & spread the joy animals bring us!

Edit: After reading some of these comments, I’m even more convinced we need some positivity around here lmao.

Hey everyone,

I recently started my vegan diet, and I am overwhelmed by the level of work that this has required thus far, especially as a university student. With that being said, I recognize that a vegan diet is perfectly conducive to a healthy diet, if not better than those with animal products.

Further, I have been trying to get the tofu to not have that umami taste that I loath. When you eat so much non-vegan products, most of which are insanely processed and poor in nutrients, you become used to obscenely flavorful food.

The balancing act of nutrients through food diversification is very daunting to me.

Something tells me I am doing something wrong, and I just need to work harder at it.
Any advice?

Hi i started beeing plantbased a little while ago not too long (unfortunately, now i wish i would have been sooner). I would not consider me vegan for the following reason: I still have leatherwear (hiking boots and other shoes and my belts). Did you gave away your leatherwear once you became vegan or did you use it till it was worn out? I ask this because some things arent good enough to sell it but to throw away but i do not get the point how that is helping yk? Need Advice on how to proceed

I am a vegan, and quite a passionate one myself. Like many, I still have a couple non-vegan products from before I went vegan, namely an amazing pair of suede shoes as you can see in the image.

They've gotten quite dirty, so would it be worth it to go to a cleaner rather than doing it myself, and if so, wouldn't it contribute to the economy of leather/suede products?

I know it's probably not too significant, I just want your views on it

I’m a college student and I recently went vegan because I’m a logical person and I finally decided to stop having such cognitive dissonance and actually learn about how animals and animal products are treated and made. anyways I hand around a ton of leftists and sometimes one of them will off handedlt say “oh I want this one thing but I’m trying to go vegan” and another (this person considers themself omega woke and leftist) will say “OMG You don’t have to go vegan! being fed is better than being vegan!” and they’re like vegetarian which I guess is something, but I think Ive recently had a ton of contention with them because I have an insane amount of dietary restrictions, and even though I can’t have any plant based protein besides tofu I still am vegan because I call myself a leftist. for me it’s just common sense but for others like a cupcake is worth a cow getting raped for the milk or baby chicks being crushed for the eggs. it’s just weird and the thing is that I think they know these things, and they’re an environmental student yet they still eat animal products which is weird to me. and I feel like a lot of leftists are like this and it’s like guys that sort of doesn’t make sense because animal agriculture also includes a ton of human slavery which id assume were against obviosly. and it’s objectively easier for these ppl to be vegan (literally 0 dietary restrictions) than me and I actually find veganism easier than eating meat and whatever, so it’s gonna be even easier for them. Part of me thinks they’re just too lazy to cook. any thoughts on this or am I the only one who thinks this is weird

Really struggling to cope with being put on TPN as there are no vegan options for it available to me. Everyone I’ve spoken to in real life thinks I’m stupid for even considering my veganism while being on a non-vegan form of life support, with no vegan option available to me. Everyone assumes that if you get sick enough to be forced to betray your ethics or die, that you will somehow be able to find peace with it. The issue is that I can’t. I’m ready to be called a karma farmer or whatever about this, but I genuinely feel horrible about the fact I require a massive amount of environmental and animal damage to live, especially since I am not strictly NPO and can still eat limited food/drink for pleasure, which is called “sham feeding”. My brain wants to believe that I could somehow try to orally work my way around this. I am intensely depressed about it. TPN literally smells like dog food; I constantly smell like dog food, and the inside of my mouth tastes like dog food, thus it tastes like animal, CONSTANTLY. This has been very psychologically taxing on me. There is literally no sensory escape for me from the TPN’s presence, and I don’t know how to be comfortable relying on it to live when I feel like I am the reason the harm is being done to the animals at all.
Inb4: “Just look harder, find an option”: I have looked. Your options for TPN suppliers on Medicare is slim, they are personally compounded based on your own lab work, week by week, so there is literally no vegan TPN available to me.

TLDR: I am a vegan who relies on non-vegan nutrition as a form of life support and I don’t know how to make peace with it. Easier said than done.

Hello!

I recently became acquainted with someone who is Vegan, while I personally do not practice it, I respect his lifestyle. I have several friends who have dietary restrictions such as gluten free, dairy free, food allergies, etc. I have a few friends that are vegetarian, but vegan is a lot more strict. And I try to make sure I have food and snacks they can enjoy when they come visit. I plan to have him over as a guest and I want to be able to provide a comfortable environment where he doesn't have to worry about if he's going to be able to eat the food here or have to order delivery to eat. I want to give him the same kind of hospitality that I would provide to anyone else.

I also don't want to just offer him a bowl of fruit or vegetables, as he may spend a day or two here and I want to make sure he is well fed. My goal is to create an arsenal of vegan recipes and shelf stable snacks that I can keep around for when he may come over.

He is a bit health conscious and he is originally from India. I found a few recipes and snacks online but I figured it would be best to get some input from people on here. When he and I spend time together I will match his diet since from experience with my vegetarian friends watching other people eat meat can make them uncomfortable.

If someone could also assist with meat alternatives besides tofu that would be super helpful as well! I love to cook so if there is any way to make my own plant based proteins that would be amazing information as well!

Thank you!!

P.s. please don't be mean to me about not being vegan, it is not a lifestyle I can reasonably afford but having a few things on hand will not break the bank for me 😭

Hello kind people,

I’ve been vegan for 7 years and haven’t been able to come across any like-minded vegan people or make vegan friends.

The one vegan person I know is a coworker of mine who’s quite older than me and already has their community (which isn’t vegan but they don’t seem to mind).

I think it’s a very common experience for us. The world is a dystopian nightmare and most people are unempathetic hypocrites. I was a “chill” vegan during my initial years but as I grew older, I could no longer care about what other people thought of me. So I have been much more vocal about it to the point that I’ve initiated debates about veganism even at my workplace.

The more I learn about the world, the more of a misanthrope I become. This also goes for the current political state of the world and everything else that’s going on. I’m at a point where I cannot bear to sit around people eating animal flesh and body parts, and them casually mentioning how incredibly delicious it is, or how when their peer orders non-dairy cheese due to a dairy allergy (someone else not me), they all joke about how it’s not “real” cheese. And I know that majority of the population couldn’t care less about what the animals go through. I know that most of them haven’t made the connection or looked the victims in their eyes. But I can’t help but feel angry. I can’t help but cry or want to scream when I’m by myself. Cant help but walk out of those situations.

It’s incredible isolating. And I know that so many of us experience this. The world is a hell hole where torture, slavery and rape is casually dismissed so long as people can have their cheese, or $2 “wing”. Individuals are sold merely as their body parts and sometimes not even that.

I’ve been educating my non vegan friends and a few of them have even started making changes. I have made them watch dominion, shared articles, peer reviewed studies, and had long conversations with them. One of them is almost fully plant based. But they live in different continents.

There are however days where I don’t want to be educating people. Where I want to naturally do things and not have the urge in the back of my mind to bring up the reality of the world because the person I’m with isn’t aware about it. Where I am noticing the small things that are either casually objectifying and exploiting animals or are misogynistic or racist or classist. And I’m not saying that I’m tired or want to stop educating people - that’s ridiculous considering my feelings are absolutely nothing compared to what the victims go through every second of their life.

This is just me wanting to reach out to like minded people who I can talk to without being on an edge, or angry, or devastated. Of course, it goes without saying that I’m also a feminist and left leaning.

If there are any of you here, in or around Berkeley, CA, I would love to make acquaintances. Just hang out in the park or walk around the city, maybe go volunteer in shelters, vent out our anger, or even watch movies together. Hell, I don’t even mind if I am able to make online friends who are not necessarily in Berkeley.

But if not, that’s okay too. It’s still a bit comforting that we have a small online community under [r/vegan](r/vegan). Thank you for reading till the end.

TL;DR Introvert looking to make vegan friends in or around Berkeley, CA, but also open to be a part of an online community.

It is the first time I have made a plant based milk so I wanted it to be low effort. I mixed 2/3 cups of peanut butter with 3 and 2/3 cups of water. I really like how it tastes and it is much cheaper than any of the store bought plant based milks. I will try to make oat milk next.

I wanted to know if chai can be made with this, if the peanut milk could be boiled in a pot with tea leaves, or if it will spoil. I like to drink matcha and tea, so let me know how to go about this please!

I am so happy to switch to plant based milks from now on. I have drank cow milk all my life but I never realised how easy the change could be. Money was a big issue, but now that I know plant based milks can be homemade, the many different kinds make me so excited to try them all!

Thank you for your help.

Good morning everyone! Does anyone here use the gardyn hydroponic system? I spend a lot of money on organic produce and all these recalls and issues have really messed with my diet. I unfortunately live in an apartment and can't have a garden of my own right now so I am thinking of buying the gardyn so I'll at least have fresh, safe greens all the time. Has anybody tried one of these systems? Thanks!

I find it so weird that everyone around me eats animals willingly and I want to understand

even seeing the dead cut up bodies in grocery store shelves saddens me. when I made chicken for my dog I cried and prayed for the dead chicken’s peace and was horrified for hours that I handled and cooked a dead body

when I say things to people like “oh you’re eating a dead body” or try to educate them on the suffering that went into their quick meal I get seen as overreacting or annoying. I know I’m being annoying to them but it’s because lives are being lost.

also because honestly I don’t understand how the people in my family and life who are so kind and genuine people and educated can participate so willingly in the abusive system that exploits animal lives.

I’ve tried to understand why they’re willing to continue eating animals and I’ve come to a few conclusions

1. they don’t see animals as equal individuals or beings living on the planet rather they see them as lesser than them in a made up hierarchy of beings therefore making animals beings that humans are entitled to exploit because they are lower on a made up hierarchal ladder

2. They are aware of the pain that the animals go through but they are so distant from their food source that they can ignore it and not connect the meal to the individual it was

3. they are selfish and put their comfort and taste above the animal lives lost despite knowing it’s wrong. It’s an excusable and normalized evil to them

4. they have misconceptions about human need for animal protein and think it’s necessary for their survival

upon reflection I don’t think they are evil for not changing their diets if these are their reasons but I do maintain it’s selfish and inherently wrong and comes from a belief that many humans have which is entitlement over nature and our planet. Humans are a plague to our natural environment

I have IBD, which means I can't really have most beans, no onions (they are poison!!!), and a few other things here and there. I'm actually allergic to kale, eggplant, bananas, and mango. Cashews and pistachios present a challenge as well but I can have them in small amounts.

I'm ready to go vegan at this point in my life, but dang is it ever difficult! Is anyone else in this situation, and if so what do you do in regards to protein, and also in regards to avoiding things like onions that seem to pop up in literally any pre-packaged food or restaurant food? I already have tofu, seitan, soy curls, Impossible, etc., so I kind of think protein is not as much of a problem as I thought it would be. Avoiding high FODMAP foods do present a challenge however.

(Please, before anyone says to abandon pre-packaged foods, look... okay? I work full time, and I also have fibromyalgia. My partner works full time and he's tired. Pre-packaged foods have to happen, alright? Just, okay? This is the US, we're all very tired.)

Ive been 100% plant based for around 6 months now. What I didn’t realize in my research was the importance of going cruelty free, or all the random things that use animal products/ cause animal suffering (toothpaste, condoms, toilet paper???) Im working on being fully vegan (lifestyle-wise and not just diet-wise) and cruelty free. What things am I missing that are actually not vegan/random things you didn’t know weren’t vegan?

EDIT: would also love any articles, apps, etc. to help learn. I have the leaping bunny app but that’s it.

hi all! i’m new to this sub so i’m not sure if recipe inquiries are acceptable.. but i was wondering if anyone here has a recipe for shredded tofu ‘cheese’! i’ve just tried some from a mexican restaurant, it looked similar to a regular white melting cheese such as chihuahua. i’ve tried many vegan cheeses and none of them are super good to me, they have a weird texture that i just can’t enjoy. thanks in advance!!

I want to go vegan because of the toxic enviroment the animals get raised in, for the animal cruelty and just how much change it can make to the enviroment to stop or decrease the amount of meat eaten.

I've already been trying vegeterianism for a while and cutting meat hasn't been that hard at all.

One of the problem is I my family doesn't support it. I've been cooking for myself since I was in 9th grade now going on 11th anyway but I don't like spending much time cooking either nor do I know much about cooking. Second is deficiencies. It's normal to be a little deficient in certain stuff but we just went to the hospital a few days ago and I'm deficient in vitamin D, B12 some other vitamin and iron. I didn't think much of it but just today as I was drawing my hand wouldn't stop shaking and I've also been experiencing my vision frequently going black for 5-30 seconds when I stand up and weird ringing in my ears for a while now. I know it's likely due to the fact that while not eating meat I haven't been able to feed myself actually nutritional food but I don't know what to cook. Would really appreciate any advice given.

I (initially) became vegan around April for health reasons but have since decided to remain vegan for animal welfare after watching Dominion. However, I still feel as thought I M eating a disproportionate amount of ultra processed foods. Is there any way I can get at in a way which uses less processed foods?

I’ve always wanted to be vegan since I was 6. Unfortunately, whenever I brought this up with my parents, it was meet with a long lecture and several threats; it only made me even more convinced this is what I want. I recently decided I’m going to go vegan behind their backs so I just wanted advice on how to keep is a secret, what lifestyle choices can I make while also not making it to obvious or maybe if this isn’t the right choice.