My cousin told me being vegan kills way more animals than eating meat.

Your cousin probably heard on social media that growing crops kills more small field animals than just killing one animal, such as a cow. However, this doesn’t factor in all the crops that are grown to feed farmed animals.

For instance, 77% of soy grown globally is used to feed animals for meat and dairy production. Only 7% of soy is used directly for human food (like tofu, soy milk, edamame beans, tempeh). The rest is used mainly for biofuels, industry or vegetable oils. Our World in Data: Is our appetite for soy driving deforestation in the Amazon?

Globally, around 80 billion land animals and trillions of marine animals are slaughtered every year for human consumption. How many animals do we kill every year?  Of the land that’s used for food production, nearly 80% is used for livestock (meat, dairy, eggs – includes grazing land and arable land for growing animal feed), whereas only 16% is used to grow crops to directly feed humans, and non-food crops for biofuels and textiles come to 4%. Our World in Data: Half of the world's habitable land is used for agriculture

When you consider the tens of billions of land animals slaughtered per year for human consumption plus the crop deaths associated with animal feed, these numbers far exceed any crop deaths from producing plant foods for humans.

Additionally, studies have shown that the majority of animals, such as field mice who have exceptional hearing, simply relocate to surrounding areas when crops are harvested, and this accounts for the reduced numbers of field animals counted after harvesting.

For more information and numerous cited studies, check out this article: DEBUNKED: Do vegans kill more animals through crop deaths?

The environment is the responsibility of the corporations who created the problems.

Many younger people recognise that the problems created by corporations are being dumped on their shoulders. However, waiting for corporations to change without external pressure is unlikely to yield results.

Businesses and politicians will only respond to the need for environmental action when they are forced to do so by social change and individuals taking personal responsibility for their choices.

Consumer choices have already reshaped the landscape of plant-based food’s availability and the introduction of laws to curb the use of animals for product testing.

Plants feel pain, so it doesn’t matter what you eat.

Some plants have evolved complex systems that react to stimuli and even secrete chemicals that neighboring plants react to. This has led some people to erroneously equate these automatic processes with the ability to think and feel.

Plants do not have the equivalent of a brain, central nervous system or pain receptors, like animals do. When they react, it is simply an automatic chemical process, there is no decision making ability and no feeling. Hamilton and McBrayer: Do Plants Feel Pain?

People often use the argument that plants feel pain as a way to avoid the real ethical implications of eating animals. However, if you truly believe that plants are capable of feeling pain, then consider that many more plants must be grown to feed farmed animals than if we ate the crops directly ourselves.

Further Reading: the environmental impacts of animal agriculture

But what about the food chain? Humans are supposed to eat animals.

The concept of a hierarchy of animals, with humans at the top, is an entirely human construct. In the same way that some humans dominate and suppress others due to their race, colour, gender, sexuality, ability and other attributes, humans also do the same to animals due to their species.

People will often cite humans’ superior intellectual ability as a reason to exploit animals freely. However most people agree it is morally wrong to kill and eat people of our own species simply because they have reduced intellectual ability.

The vast majority of humans have access to, and can live and thrive on, plant-based foods, therefore there is no need for them to exploit animals for food.

Animal agriculture is so far removed from the so-called natural order, that instead of fitting within a concept of natural balance, it is destroying nature and ecosystems.

As humans, we have the ability to make moral choices rather than react instinctually. We can therefore choose to reduce suffering and environmental harm by not eating animals.

But soy gives you man-boobs.

It’s a common myth that plant-based foods have a ‘feminising’ effect. In particular, soy has gained a baseless reputation for giving men ‘man-boobs’ due to the presence of phytoestrogen in soy.

Clinical studies have repeatedly shown that the phytoestrogen in soy has no impact on mens’ oestrogen levels or testosterone. If soy caused breast growth, advertisers would be rushing to market it to women!

See this article for a detailed debunking about soy causing man-boobs.

Vegans are weak, thin and unhealthy.

Many people stereotype vegans in this way because they have a confirmation bias. When they meet someone who is thin or unhealthy and find out they are also vegan, it confirms their bias.

However they may not realise that the huge bodybuilder next to them at the gym might have gained their strength and muscle by eating only plants.

above: Vegan powerlifter Ryan Stills at the 2021 IPF World Championship Squat

Visit greatveganathletes.com to completely destroy your bias that vegans can’t be equally as strong and healthy – if not more so!

The food we eat barely affects climate, it’s better to focus on other factors.

Animal agriculture contributes to the 3 main greenhouse gases – carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide. Methane heats the planet 28 times more than carbon dioxide, but only lasts in the atmosphere for 12 years. Carbon dioxide lasts up to 1000 years.

So reducing methane output would quickly lower rising global temperatures. EPA: Importance of Methane

Livestock and their manure accounts for 52% of total methane emissions in Australia (when calculated over a 20 year time-frame). Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development: How Australia accounts for agricultural greenhouse gas emissions Therefore, eliminating animal agriculture is one of the most impactful ways to circumvent the worst effects of climate change.

For more information: Earth’s Biggest Threat