I have researched a Vegan diet lately and found some interesting things. I was vegetarian for many years, and I regarded the times I ran into Vegans as unfortunate. Vegans, in general seemed crazy to me, but then most people treated me like I was crazy for being vegetarian. It has long been an fact that the only thing wrong with a vegetarian diet is the way other people act towards you. People often times would challenge me to explain my choice, sometimes actually getting angry at the idea, and then asking me crazy questions like “didn’t I know God wants us to eat meat?”, and that it was “Our right as masters of the world” etc. You generally don’t get invited to barbecues. People respond to vegetarians pretty badly, and that’s how I viewed Vegans. I recently watched the Vegan documentary “Vegucated” and another one called “Making the Connection” which were both good and informative. I am not sure I am entirely convinced by the Vegan rhetoric that the prime basis is to make the world cruelty free for animals, but that reasoning doesn’t work, since, If the world changed and we removed all cruelty from the raising and slaughter of food animals, gave them healthy, happy and good lives with an absolutely pain-free death, I still think the Vegans would not be happy, and still insist we do not ever eat animals. So it seems to me that it’s not really about cruelty in the final analysis, but I can’t argue with the health benefits that come from being Vegan. The Vegan diet is also better for the World and global food economy. It is a fact of ecology that as you move up the food chain of consumers and the consumed, about only 1% of energy is actually metabolized to the next level. All life on earth is powered by the Sun, and it is estimated that all plant life on Earth only metabolizes about 2% of the Sun energy that falls on the Earth each day. So if you consider a simple food chain, one that only involves corn, pigs, and man, you can see that in raising the corn to feed the pigs, the pigs only metabolize about 1% of the energy in the corn, and when man eats the pigs, man only metabolizes 1% of the energy from the pigs, or by extension, only 0.1% of the energy that was in the corn. So we can get our 1% from the pigs, or the corn, but if we choose to get it from the corn, we can feed 100 times as many people. That seems better to me. I am contemplating taking the Vegan challenge, living only on a Vegan diet for 4-6 weeks, and seeing how I feel, and if there are any health benefits. I already like most soy products from being vegetarian, so I have a head start there. One thing I think needs to be considered though, is that a healthier diet containing more fruits and vegetables should be striven for by everyone, but Vegans need to accept that if everyone in the world increased their fruit and veggie intake by only a few percent, that would be a good thing for the world. So Vegans need to stop being ethics snobs and looking down on Vegetarians, if people in the world became “mostly vegetarians” but still ate meat from time to time, that would be a good thing, and it would lead to changes that are more in line with what Vegans want for the world. Instead of viewing Vegetarians or “mostly Vegetarians” as failed Vegans, they should accept that is a good thing for the person and the world. Ultimately food is food, and sometimes the human condition doesn’t afford is the luxury of choice, so food should never be the basis of a morality.