ST. JOHN'S, N.L.

Theres a joke that goes, How can you tell someone is a vegan? Answer: You dont need to, theyll tell you themselves.

Its a joke vegans will tell you themselves. And its true. Poke your nose into the 2,500 NL Vegans Facebook page and youll see robust conversations about the best recipes and the hottest new restaurants. Youll also encounter a lot of passionate discussion of animal cruelty and the evils of meat.

Studies show that about one per cent of Canadians follow a strict vegan diet, which means they wont eat animals of any kind, or anything derived from them such as eggs and dairy products.

Still, thats more than 350,000people, and a 2018 Dalhousie University study found that two-thirds of them are under the age of 38. Veganism is trending upwards, and its mostly driven by Millennials and the Generation Y population.

Veganism is a philosophy. Its based on the conviction that animals are not to be harmed or exploited for human consumption even for clothes, in some circles.

It can be militant. While all vegans are adherents of the animal rights movement to some extent, some are more vocal about it than others. Theyll take undercover footage inside slaughterhouses or block trucks from entering processing plants.

Personal health and the environment also play a major role in the motivation for veganism. You can find many claims about both. While the numbers may be sketchy at times, the bottom line is that a whole-foods, plant-based (WFPB) diet can be one of the healthiest lifestyles choices you make and that meat production, especially beef, is a significant contributor to greenhouse gas emissions and a contributor to deforestation in some countries.

In a limited series starting today, well look at some of the people who make up the local vegan community. Theyll talk about their own reasons for embracing the diet, and how it has changed their lives. Well talk about health benefits and caveats, and even check out a recipe or two.

Time to chow down.

Chris Flynns voice cracks a little as he talks about the times hes joined other animal rights activists to briefly blockade trucks from the Country Ribbon chicken farm as they entered the processing plant in Pleasantville, St. John's.

While the trucks were stopped, it was a chance to poke their heads inside and snap a shot or two of all the chickens in cages.

Its pretty horrific, he said in a recent phone interview. Sometimes they cant even stand up because theyre so big and sometimes they still have yellow feathers because theyre only four weeks old when theyre killed. And sometimes their legs got ripped off because they got stuck in the cage.

He has to take a second to control his emotions.

Flynn, who works in IT, lives in Conception Bay South.

He and his fellow protesters are allied with an international lobby group called Anonymous for the Voiceless.

Not only are they vegans, but they want to convince everyone else to be vegans, too.

Vegans refuse to eat animal flesh or any byproduct of animals such as eggs or dairy. While health plays a part, the motivation is primarily ethical.

I respect the right for any conscious, sentient being to live their life free of intentional suffering, Flynn said. They certainly have a right not to be locked in a cage all their life and tortured.

Like many vegans these days, Flynn is a recent convert.

He became a vegan four years ago at the age of 24. His girlfriend was already a vegan at the time, but he didnt think much about it until he saw documentary called Food Choices.

I started to realize that meat is not required, that animal products are not required for anyone to be healthy, he said.

Flynn has thought long and hard about it ever since, and its hard to trip him up with the usual counterarguments.

Why is it not just a personal choice?

I cant say that its my personal choice to punch someone in the face, because that other person is affected by that choice, so its not a personal choice to eat an animal when that animal loses their life for it.

But dont animals eat each other?

I cant say that its my personal choice to punch someone in the face, because that other person is affected by that choice, so its not a personal choice to eat an animal when that animal loses their life for it. Chris Flynn

Certain wild animals like lions and tigers a lot of times theyll eat their own children. I dont think humans should do that. A lot of animals will just rape each other when theyre ready to mate, but I dont think we should do that either.

What about dairy, where the animal isnt harmed?

Cows will loudly pine when their calves are taken away from them, often to make veal, Flynn says. Then they have to give milk until theyre eventually slaughtered anyway.

Eggs?

Free-range chicken is just a marketing buzzword, he says. Even laying chickens, which are bred to lay eggs at an exhausting rate, are kept in cruel conditions, he says.

A 2018 Dalhousie study found that approximately one million Canadians consider themselves vegans, and that two-thirds of them are under the age of 38. The trend seems to be growing.

Chris Flynn falls well within that category, but Elizabeth Johnson is even younger.

An 18-year-old student at Memorial University who lives in Goulds, Johnson says she decided last year to research everything she could about the environment, climate change and politics.

I quickly started changing my habits started walking more, reusing and up-cycling old things from around my house, started sharing my viewpoints with my family and friends, and just overall my entire life changed, she wrote in an email.

With more research I realized just how damaging the agriculture industry is to the environment, and how becoming vegan is the single smallest thing you can do with the greatest impact on the environment, she said.

In Newfoundland, being a vegan is tough, Johnson continues. Not money-wise or finding vegan alternatives, but mainly because of the culture.

Even if youre not out protesting in the streets, some people get very defensive about the fact they eat meat.

Every time somebody would ask me why I was vegan, they would feel so defensive of their actions, she says. I have had people tell me to eat a steak and get over it.

But Johnson makes no apologies.

I did my research and understood the horrible effects that the meat, egg and dairy industry had on the animals, humans and the Earth, I knew what I was doing was wrong and I stopped valuing my tastebuds over the world. I may not be perfect, but its better for thousands of people to be vegan imperfectly than a handful of people doing it perfectly.

Peter Jackson is a Local Journalism Initiative reporter covering health care for The Telegram. Findhim on Twitter@pjackson_nl.

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