Plant-based food: Difference between revisions

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-#REDIRECT [[Plant-based]]
+==How== __NOTOC__
+<big>
+* '''[[Cheap plant-based food|The cheap way]]''', with low-cost ingredients and a [[multivitamin]].
+* '''[[Expensive plant-based food|The expensive way]]''', for those who insist on doing everything without supplements.
+Both options can give you '''all the nutrients you need''' ''without'' meat, dairy, eggs, fish or any other animal products.
+</big>
+==Why==
+* '''For the animals''' - because most farm animals are treated badly in [[factory farms]] {{light|(and unfortunately, the less-cruel kinds of animal farming are less scalable)}}.
+* '''For humanity and the planet''' - because if we want to end [[hunger]] and feed the world without [[deforestation]], [[livestock inefficiency|then]] people need to eat more plant-based (and/or stop [[food waste]]).
+==Pictures==
+&nbsp; ''Just a few examples...''
+<div class="fullWidth">[[File:plant-based-examples1.jpg]]</div>
+==FAQ - Nutrition==
+===="Can I really get all my nutrients without animal products?"====
+Yes - [[Nutrition/Examples/Cheap plant-based|see example]].
+===="But I thought plant proteins were less digestible?"====
+Not if they're [[make plant proteins digestible|cooked properly]] and you have healthy [[gut flora]].
+<!-- TODO: Add here "What about minerals? ..." from [[/Pending FAQ]] page -->
+===="But aren't plant-based burgers really processed?"====
+* Some are, some aren't. Same is true for meat burgers.
+* Plant-based diets '''don't have to''' involve imitation meats.
+** [[peas vs pea protein|Actual peas have more nutrients]] than refined pea protein.<!-- OLD
+* Yes, it's true that [[peas vs pea protein|actual peas have more nutrients]] than refined pea protein.
+* No, the "[[imitation meat fearmongering|weird-looking ingredients]]" in imitation meats are not harmful. -->
+==FAQ - Ecology==
+===="But I heard that grass-fed cows can be raised sustainably?"====
+* '''Not''' if [[deforestation|forests are destroyed to make room for pasture]].
+* Maybe yes '''if''' the cows are a part of [[rewilding grasslands]] as a form of nature conservation. Most beef & dairy does '''not''' come from this sort of farming. And ''even if'' every suitable land on Earth had this type of cattle farming, it still '''[[How much protein could ruminants produce without crops|would not even come close to producing enough protein]]''' for 8 billion people. The world needs crops, and it would be [[livestock inefficiency|far more efficient]] to turn the crops into food directly instead of feeding the crops to animals. If we want to phase out crop-fed beef, we're going to have to eat less beef overall. <!-- NOTE: I wrote "crop-fed beef" here instead of "grain-fed beef", just so that noobs won't confuse "grain-fed" with "grass-fed" when skimming through the paragraph. Plus, "crop-fed" flows nicely from the previous sentence about crops. -->
+===="But don't cows eat the parts of crops that are too fibrous for humans to eat?"====
+Cows are ruminants, so yes, they ''can'' convert fiber into protein. But [[mushrooms]] can do that more efficiently.
+P.S. Chickens & pigs are '''not''' ruminants. They eat the [[grain grades|same grains]] that could have been milled into flour and used in food for people.
+===="But aren't chickens useful on farms to control pests by eating the bugs that infest crops?"====
+Sometimes yes. However, this alone wouldn't even come close to producing as much chicken as people eat. The arguments for eating ''less'' meat still hold true.
+===="What about fertilizer? Don't we need animals to fertilize the soil by pooping?"====
+[[soil minerals|Animals don't add minerals]] to the overall system. They can only poop out whatever minerals were already there in the plants they eat (which came from the existing soil). Also, mass production of meat/dairy/eggs requires more crops, which just increases the need for [[fertilizer]] even more.
+==FAQ - Animals==
+===="If everyone goes vegan, what would happen to the animals? What should farmers do with the animals?"====
+* Option 1: Keep them until they die of old age. {{x|Not very profitable, of course, but the right laws/incentives could overcome this.}}
+* Option 2: Keep slaughtering them at the same rate they currently are.
+* In either case, the farmers would '''stop breeding more animals.'''
+* In either case, people would still eat meat ''for another '''year''' or so'', after '''pledging''' to go vegan.
+** {{light|Maybe the "pledge" part sounds weird & hypothetical, but so is the idea of everyone going vegan tomorrow.}}
+*** {{light|If everyone ''gradually'' went vegan{{x|as in, people slowly phase out meat in their diets - or people go "cold turkey" vegan but each starting from a different day - or anything in between: there wouldn't need to be a whole lot of coordination between people necessarily; just a general trend of being more plant-based}}, there'd be no "shock in demand"{{x|as economists would say}}, and thus no "what do we do with the animals". Farmers already control how many animals are bred. They would just breed fewer of them.}}
+* Even after everyone is fully vegan, domesticated chickens/pigs/cows would still exist - maybe '''~0.1%''' of today's farm animal population - kept deliberately to preserve the species. They wouldn't be used for food. ''Petting zoos'' might be a good place for them{{x|could be privately or publicly owned, depending on the market}}. In any case, they would have to be given a [[animal species conservation|decent standard of living]].
+----
+This FAQ section will probably get longer over time.
+At the end of the day, people can survive '''and thrive''' without animal products, and it can be done [[cheap plant-based food|cheaply]] or [[expensive plant-based food|expensively]] or anything in between.
+<!-- TALK:
+Maybe move this whole FAQ section to another page, and just have the following message instead?:
+For questions, criticisms, or objections to plant-based diets, check out the [[/FAQ|FAQ]] page.
+-->
+==See also==
+* [[Animal welfare]]