On November 6, the Vegan Society of Western Ontario hosted James Aspey, renowned YouTuber and vegan activist, for an inspiring speech.
Source: Blog Post from the PETA Website
Individuals of all ages were present, from university students to children with their families.
The event entailed a brief summary of Aspey’s journey, his thoughts on veganism and how individuals rooting for the same cause can spread the message in a peaceful manner.
Beginning his vegan path merely four years ago, Aspey has now become a worldwide role model for individuals. At the age of seventeen, he was diagnosed with leukemia and given only six weeks to live. After a difficult recovery, Aspey was inspired to begin his career as a fitness trainer, which soon introduced him to vegetarianism.
“I met an old Indian man on the cruise ship I was working on and I asked him why he was a vegetarian, and the answer has stuck with me ever since… he said, eating animals is bad karma,” said Aspey.
After providing a background on what truly motivates him to stick to his passion, he spoke about the different industries that take part in animal products and why he believes each one is harmful.
“Animals are used for food, clothing, entertainment and medicine. At the end of the day, animal products seem impossible to let go because of either trade, habit, taste or tradition… but to me none of those reasons seem good enough to kill,” explained Aspey.
According to his presentation, the production of animal commodities results in a large amount of deforestation, carbon emission and other environmental remodelling.
He said, “There has been more methane emission from cows when in their stressful environments than any other form of transportation we use.”
The National Geographic predicts that by 2048 there will be no fish due to the irresponsible consumption that is going on right now.
“We use 56 billion land animals and use up three trillion water animals per year,” stated Aspey.
After detailing some environmental repercussions of animal products, Aspey spoke about how fellow activists can spread the message in a peaceful manner.
This part of the event was an interactive process as many questions were asked from the audience, tailored from their personal experiences.
According to a common consensus in the room, one of the most frequent questions that vegans get asked is where they get their protein from. According to Aspey, “If you are eating enough calories, you are getting enough protein… there are less nutrition deficiencies in veganism than meat eaters.” He also went on to mention that there are body builders, UFC fighters and football players that are vegan.
Another common argument that arises is whether or not free range or humane killing is acceptable. Many multibillion dollar companies place labels of “free range” on their products to make it seem enticing, however, most of the changes made do not greatly impact the experience of the animal.
“The animals still end up at the same place whether it be a terrible slaughterhouse or a slightly better slaughterhouse… there is no humane way to kill something that doesn’t want to be killed,” said Aspey.
Aspey had very similar thoughts on the egg and dairy industry as well: “A little bit of animal cruelty is still not okay,” he said.
A surprising topic of discussion was brought up by Aspey himself: according to him, there are many “pro-plant” movements that look down upon veganism.
His response to this debate was: “There is no stimuli within plants, therefore there is no pain. However, to address the concern of harming plants, animals eat six to ten times more plants when being raised as livestock, therefore cutting off animal products will also decrease the consumption of plants.”
Another popular question that came up was how to get used to living as a vegan and if it is possible to make it more convenient. Although many restaurants and grocery stores are becoming vegan accessible, it appears to still be a dilemma for many individuals.
Aspey recommended joining Facebook groups for vegans in many different locations in order to ask local vegan residents where to find food, calling up restaurants to ask about their options, or downloading the application Happy Cow which gives you a list of all the food places near by.
The last issue that came up was the fact that the female to male ratio of vegans is highly unbalanced. Many male members in the audience asked how that can be changed.
“What’s manly is standing up for the vulnerable, being a follower of the norm is not manly at all,” replied Aspey, who believes the unbalanced ratio is due to men being looked down upon when showing their compassionate side.
The question and answer segment was followed by a raffle draw provided by the Vegan Society, in which some attendees won gift cards to Plant Matter Kitchen, a local vegan restaurant.
His reason for inviting so many questions in that portion of the event was that a good activist is someone who knows the answer to almost everything. However, he stressed that how to answer a question is also important.
Aspey believes in peaceful conversations and that the movement should not become a competition.
For more information on the Western Vegan Society check out their Facebook page!
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