This speech sheds light on aspects of our food system that are deliberately hidden—allowing you to make truly informed choices. By highlighting how you already hold the core values of veganism, the information in this speech empowers you to align your actions with your existing values.
In this persuasive speech about veganism, speaker Emily Moran Barwick challenges you to reconsider your beliefs about veganism and our food system and look at the everyday with new eyes.
Instead of listing reasons why you should go vegan, this speech sheds light on aspects of animal agriculture that are deliberately hidden from the public—allowing you to make truly informed choices.
By highlighting how you already hold the core values of veganism, the information in this speech empowers you to align your actions with your existing values.
Technical Notes: As this article is a speech transcript, the written version will reflect a spoken delivery and also may not properly relay the speaker’s pace, tone, and emphasis.
This speech was originally published on June 15, 2016. Reasons for republication.
What would you do if you found out that everything you know, everything you believe, everything you’ve been told since you were a child was a lie?
And not just any lie, but one carefully crafted, finely tuned, expertly executed, and deliberately designed with the express purpose of assuring you that wrong was right, that bad was good, and that violence was love.
A lie powerful enough to manipulate you into taking part in horrific and barbaric acts you’d otherwise find appalling. Powerful enough to wash blood from your hands; to alter your perception so severely that murder appears mundane and compassion becomes extreme. tweet this
You Deserve to Know the Truth
Hello, my name is Emily Moran Barwick. I’m an animal liberation activist, an artist, an educator and a vegan. I created BiteSizeVegan.org, where I educate people about veganism through a wide array of content styles while covering a diverse range of subjects.
Undoing a life-long belief is no easy task. But in order to make informed decisions, to look ourselves in the mirror and ask if we are truly living the values we purport to have, we must know the truth.
We must educate ourselves about what is really going on, not rely on what we’ve been taught. We must make decisions based on facts, not fantasy.
In our time together today, I’m very likely going to challenge some of your life-long beliefs. I’m going to ask you to set your preconceptions aside and try to look at the ordinary with a fresh set of eyes.
I am aware that this is a great deal to ask of you, especially coming from a total stranger. I’m asking for your trust when I haven’t even earned it. But believe it or not, I am not here to force my beliefs upon you. Or to make you vegan. I won’t pretend to have that power. And no one really makes any lasting change through force anyway.
I’m simply here to show you what is really going on every second of every day all around the world behind closed doors. To present evidence—for your consideration—that things may not be as they appear.
Undoing a life-long belief is no easy task. But in order to make informed decisions, to look ourselves in the mirror and ask if we are truly living the values we purport to have, we must know the truth. We must educate ourselves about what is really going on, not rely on what we’ve been taught. We must make decisions based on facts, not fantasy.
I’ll want to preface this talk by saying that I’m going to be transparent with you, and I’ll even tell you if I don’t know something. I’ll also be providing citations throughout this post for every fact I state, along with a bibliography below so that you can dig deeper. I’ll only be able to scratch the surface in this brief window of time we have together.
Is Veganism an Extreme Way of Living?
So let’s get started. Veganism is often viewed as an “extreme” way of living. Vegans do not eat, wear, or use anything that comes from someone else’s body.
We don’t eat meat, drink milk or eat cheese. We don’t consume eggs or honey. We don’t wear leather, wool, silk, or down. We don’t use products that were tested on animals or contain byproducts from their slaughter.
We don’t attend circuses, zoos, aquariums, or any other event that exploits living beings for our entertainment and pleasure.
From the outside, such rigorous exclusions and avoidances can easily appear extreme. But remember: today is about challenging appearances and assumptions of extremism and normality.
Today is a lesson in unlearning.
The Truth About Dairy
Credit: Andrew Skowron / We Animals Media
What better way to unlearn than to start our journey at the end and work our way back to the beginning?
And what better way to question what’s accepted as good and normal than with something as wholesome and everyday as a glass of milk?
The source of milk is no big secret: it comes from cows. But that’s about as far back as most people trace milk’s journey to our refrigerated grocery case.
Milk Production Requires Repeated Pregnancies
Credit: Lukas Vincour / Zvířata Nejíme / We Animals Media
Most of us grow up thinking that cows are made to be milked. We may think they have a constant supply of milk—even that they need to be milked to relieve the pressure.
Well let’s look at this critically for a moment. Cows are mammals, just like us. And mammals produce milk for one reason: to feed their babies.
Cows carry their babies for nine months—just like we do; they lactate to feed their babies—just like we do; and after weaning, they stop producing milk—just like we do.
So, in order to have a constant supply of cow’s milk for human consumption, we need a constant supply of pregnant cows.
In the dairy industry, cows are repeatedly inseminated—which is a nice word for raped. The restraining apparatus used to secure the cows is referred to—at least in America—as a “rape rack.”1
What Happens to the Male Calves of the Dairy Industry?
Veal—an industry that even many meat-eaters oppose—wouldn’t exist without dairy.
Every cup of yogurt, every scoop of ice cream, and every glass of milk is directly connected to the deaths of those baby calves.
Once a cow gives birth, we face another roadblock to our milk’s journey. Babies, after all, drink their mother’s milk.
So, to make sure there’s a constant supply of milk for us, the babies must be taken away soon after birth. This is precisely what occurs in the dairy industry.
If the calf is a male, he is sent to a veal farm where he is tied down, unable to move, or locked in a cage where he cannot even turn around until he’s slaughtered while still only a few weeks old.
Veal—an industry that even many meat-eaters oppose—wouldn’t exist without dairy. Every cup of yogurt, every scoop of ice cream, and every glass of milk is directly connected to the deaths of those baby calves.
The Toll of Separating Mother & Child
Credit: Jo-Anne McArthur / Animal Equality / We Animals Media
But we’re not quite done tracing milk’s path to our cereal bowls. While the slaughter of babies is certainly horrific enough, we cannot forget the mothers left behind.
Cows bond intensely with their calves and will cry out for days when they are taken.
When residents of Newbury, MA called the police to report disturbing noises emanating from the Sunshine Dairy farm at all hours of the day and night, the police explained that the mother cows were “lamenting the separation from their calves”—but not to worry as “the cows are not in distress and that the noises are a normal part of farming practices.”2
This is not anthropomorphizing. It is a mother’s grief and it’s utterly heartbreaking to watch.
The bodies of dairy cows generally give out at age four or five—at which point they are regarded as “spent”—despite their natural lifespan of twenty years or more. They are sent to slaughter for cheap meat and pet food—deemed unfit for human consumption.
The Final Separation: Slaughter of Fetal Calves
At the slaughterhouse, many of these mothers face their final and most brutal separation from yet another child.
At the slaughterhouse, this most horrific and final separation of mother and child is just the last in a cycle of pregnancy after pregnancy, and loss after loss.
While formal statistics are difficult to obtain as most studies focus on the economic cost of “fetal wastage,” approximately 10%-70% of cows arrive at the slaughterhouse pregnant.3
In fact, there are entire industries that rely upon the slaughter of pregnant animals.
A wide array of scientific experiments use what’s called fetal serum from a range of animals—with bovine fetal serum being the most widely utilized.4
Bovine fetal serum is obtained by cutting a living fetus out of the mother’s womb, piercing the heart and draining the blood. The process can take up to 35 minutes while the fetal calf remains alive.5
But this most horrific and final separation of mother and child was just the last in a cycle of pregnancy after pregnancy and loss after loss.
Infection Is the Norm: The Physical Demands of Dairy
There’s an official number of pus cells allowed in milk, euphemistically referred to as the “somatic cell count.”
In addition to this extreme psychological and emotional trauma, the physical demands of repeated milkings and the crowded and unsanitary living conditions lead to frequent infections and sores.
Dairy cows are pumped full of antibiotics and growth hormones, all of which seep into their milk.6
In fact, there’s an official number of pus cells allowed in milk, euphemistically referred to as the “somatic cell count.”
In the United States, around 22 million [22,177,500] pus cells are allowed per single fluid ounce of milk [750,000 cells/mL], with global allowable limits ranging from just under 12 million [11,828,000 cells/fl. oz. in Canada & the EU (400,000 cells/mL)] to 29.5 million cells/fl.oz. in Brazil [1,000,000 cells/mL].7
What Happens to the Female Calves of the Dairy Industry?
Credit: Amy Jones / Moving Animals / We Animals Media
When we push onwards through to our dairy cow’s beginning, back past the first pregnancy, before she became the broken, hollowed-out shell eventually collapsing under the insane demands of her short life, we come to her birth. The moment she emerges into the world, wide-eyed and brand new.
The moment she is taken from her own mother.
You see, we talked about what happened to the male calves who are sent off for veal. The daughters of the dairy industry are still separated from their mothers.
They’re kept around to take their mother’s place and keep the money machine going. Keep the milk flowing.
So that every grocery store, every corner shop, every gas station will be sure to stock this wholesome, normalized, entirely ordinary product.
The Greatest Magic Trick Ever Performed
We are being sold the ultimate outcome of rape, enslavement, kidnapping, abuse, disease, torture, infanticide & murder—whitewashed into an image of wholesome nutrition.
It’s the greatest magic trick ever performed.
The animal products we perceive as mundane, when reverse-engineered, reveal a perversely complex and—to put it lightly—an ethically challenging journey from genesis, through processing and production, to the end product.
That is to say: from the animals’ birth, through confinement, abuse, slaughter, and denigration of corpses to the shiny, happy, store-ready products that we literally eat up without even a single thought as to what the animals went through.
We are being sold the pus-filled ultimate outcome of rape, enslavement, kidnapping, abuse, disease, torture, infanticide, and murder—whitewashed into an image of wholesome nutrition.
As vegan activist Gary Yourofsky has said, it’s the greatest magic trick ever performed. tweet this
And people say veganism is extreme.
The Truth About Eggs
Credit: Jo-Anne McArthur / We Animals Media
Unfortunately—or perhaps you may feel fortunately—we don’t have time to take this reverse journey in such depth with all of the products we create from living beings.
But let’s at least take an abridged look at another seemingly harmless item. One consumed all over the world and with which most Americans start their day.
One lovingly mixed into baked goods for birthdays and other special occasions. One decorated in celebration of peace and new life: the incredible, edible egg.
Layer Hens: Living Beings Treated as Machines
Like milk, the source of eggs is clear: they come from chickens. Unlike milk, chickens do not have to be impregnated to supply them.
But any time we make a living being into a machine—a supplier of inventory—the bottom line will always be profit. And increasing profit means increasing output and increasing efficiency.
Any time we make a living being into a machine—a supplier of inventory—the bottom line will always be profit.
Just like the mothers of dairy, the bodies of layer hens give out prematurely from the extreme demands of production.8 Hens lose vital nutrients every time their body forms an egg.
Every aspect of their lives is regulated to ensure maximum output.
From controlling their laying cycles with days and days of persistent light, followed by long periods of complete darkness, to starving them for weeks at a time in an effort to force yet another egg cycle from their worn-out bodies—a process benignly referred to as “induced molting”9—to the outright manipulation of their very genetic makeup.
What Happens to the Male Chicks of the Egg Industry?
Credit: Andrew Skowron / We Animals Media
We’ve optimized our machines, you see, and bred one kind of chicken for meat, and another kind for eggs.
Because of this, the egg industry produces billions of unwanted male baby chicks every year. Just like male dairy calves, who are unable to produce milk, male layer chicks can’t lay eggs. So they are of no use.
Male baby chicks are either painfully gassed, slowly suffocated in plastic bags, or they are ground up alive—referred to as “maceration” within the industry. We’re talking about the cute, fluffy yellow baby chicks we adore come Easter time.
This is standard practice all around the world, with the United States and European Union specifying that chicks must be less than 72 hours old when they are killed.10
They are not even granted three days of life.
What Happens to the Female Chicks of the Egg Industry?
The sisters of the egg industry’s discarded sons get to live out their short lives in cramped battery cages, unable to even extend their wings.11
Of course, you’ve likely heard about the rise of free-range and cage-free facilities.12 But in truth, the only comfort these labels bring is to our own conscience.13
Credit: Stefano Belacchi / Essere Animali / We Animals Media
Cage-free birds are crammed into tiny sheds and have twice the mortality rates of battery-caged hens.14
Layer hens are generally good for 1–3 cycles, each lasting roughly a year. In countries where induced molting (again, the industry term for starvation) is illegal, they’re simply killed around their first birthday.
The Power of Packaging
I hope you are starting to see the power of this lie.
We might as well start our day by throwing chicks in a blender.
Of presenting cruel confinement, starvation, abuse, the barbaric murder of day-old babies, and the slaughter of one-year-olds—themselves still children—as something completely normal and kind. Packaged in perfect little orbs.
And we have the audacity to decorate them in celebration of new life.
To fawn over the very chicks who were ground up alive for their production. To mix them into treats for our children and loved ones. To start our day with the products of abject misery and call it “sunny side up.”
We might as well start our day by throwing chicks in a blender.
Animal Lovers Eating Animals
We could spend all week reverse-engineering the paths of the seemingly endless number of animal-derived products we encounter on a regular basis.
In fact Dutch artist Christien Meindertsma spent 3 years tracing and cataloging all of the products made from a single pig: PIG 05049.15
The only way to maintain this duality of our professed values (as animal lovers) and our daily actions (as animal eaters)—is to ensure that the animals we eat and use have no names, no faces, and no identities.
So we give them inventory numbers.
This brings us to the next layer of our collective self-deception: the systematic erasure of individual identity.
You see, this is where the lie is most vulnerable. Because beneath the years of indoctrination, we still believe ourselves to be animal lovers.
We go to the movies and root for Babe the pig, cheer for the chickens of Chicken Run, and pull for Nemo the fish to find his way back to his father.
Then we go home and eat bacon and eggs and make chicken fingers and fish sticks for the kids.
The only way to maintain this most glaring dissonance—this duality of our professed values and our daily actions—is to ensure that the animals we eat and use have no names, no faces, and no identities.
So we give them inventory numbers.
The Systematic Erasure of Individual Identity: Animals as Inventory
To mark these living beings as inventory, we brand them with hot irons or freeze their skin off. We tattoo and tag them, inject electronic transponders under their skin, or strap them to their necks or ankles. We even give them barcodes.16
The important thing is that they are clearly identified as property. And that they are treated as such.
Because as soon as we see them as individuals, we threaten the very foundation of the lie upon which we so desperately depend.
Standard Mutilations in the Meat, Dairy & Egg Industries
We humans love to play the role of savior in the disasters of our own creation.
We swoop in to milk the cow and relieve the painful pressure of her swollen udder—pressure that wouldn’t exist had we not taken her child away.
If their bodies don’t conform to our desires, we alter them at will.
Baby pigs have their teeth cut out, their ears notched, their tails cut off, and their testicles ripped out—all without anesthetic.
Chickens, turkeys and other birds in the meat and egg industries have their sensitive beaks cut or seared off.
Cows have their horns cut or burned off and are also castrated without anesthetic.
And with some of our most impressive mental gymnastics—which would be admirable if it weren’t so horrific—we say this barbaric mutilation, this conversion of living beings from someONES to someTHINGS is for their own good.
Because if we don’t clip their teeth or cut their beaks or slice off their tails, they’ll attack and chew on each other.
What we fail to mention is that these behaviors are stress responses to confinement in overly-crowded, insanity-inducing conditions. That if we didn’t put them in these abusive conditions, they wouldn’t react the way they do.
But we humans love to play the role of savior in the disasters of our own creation. We swoop in to milk the cow and relieve the painful pressure of her swollen udder. Pressure that wouldn’t exist had we not taken her child away.
Humane Legislation: Defining the “Right Way” to Kill
The term “humane slaughter” is a perfect embodiment of our desperate attempt to simultaneously be animal lovers and animal killers. To be their protectors and their tormentors.
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We amass mountains of paperwork, conduct thousands of studies, spend untold amounts of money, form governmental, institutional, and industry panels, all to decide, define and decree the right way to kill.
You can pour through the documents from the USDA,17 or the European Union,18 or any country for that matter, to learn the legal speak that makes taking the life of a living being acceptable.
And you don’t have to look too far to start finding caveats and loopholes. Religious slaughter without any form of stunning gets a pass.
Birds and fish are excluded from humane slaughter regulations—the very name of which is a perfect embodiment of our desperate attempt to simultaneously be animal lovers and animal killers. To be their protectors and their tormentors.
I mean it really is absurd when we step back and think about it. Do we have manuals on how to humanely rape? Or how to compassionately kidnap? Or ethically rob? Of course not, because those are oxymorons. They cannot coexist.
But when it comes to killing animals, we will bend over backwards and create massive paper trails of regulations to feel good about what we are doing.
Again, I must ask— is veganism really the extreme choice here?
Look at what we have to go through to make eating animals acceptable.
What Happens Behind Closed Doors
Note: At this point in the speech, I inform the audience that I will be playing a video of what happens to animals within the animal products industries. This footage has been blurred in the YouTube video of the speech but is available in full in the accordion below (along with an explanation for the blurring).
Before we move into issues of the environment and health impacts of diet, I’m going to play brief video.
The portions of the footage where the location is known will be labeled as such. But it doesn’t mean that the same thing isn’t happening in other parts of the world. I trimmed down hours of footage into a 3-minute clip.
It will not be pleasant, but I’d implore you to watch anyway. You can’t make an informed decision without having all the facts.
If you feel you must turn away, I’d just ask you to think on the question: “If I can’t watch the process, do I have a right to eat the product?”
View the uncensored footage
This is the footage originally shown in this speech. Due to the nature of the footage, the speech video was age-restricted on YouTube, severely decreasing its accessibility to a broad audience.
In order to make the speech available to all viewers, I blurred the footage within the YouTube video. However, I believe it’s of vital importance for the uncensored footage to be available to all, which is why I have included it in this post.
In my years of being vegan and speaking with many, many non-vegans, I have yet to ever hear one reason that even comes close to justifying putting a sentient being through what we just saw. Not one.
You cannot watch that and say that the animals we kill for our food don’t know any better. That they die peacefully and humanely.
They can sense the fear. They can smell the blood. And they fight. They fight to the end.
This Is Happening All Over the World
And you can’t say that it’s happening in some far away place because it’s happening all over the world.
The CO2 chambers you saw—those were the medieval devices lowering pigs to an extraordinarily painful death of burning from the inside out—that is seen as the most humane method of slaughtering pigs.
It’s employed worldwide, including here in the United States.19
The Environmental Impact of Animal Agriculture
Thus far, I’ve focused primarily on the ethical truths behind the mask of normality.
But the wake of our destruction is littered with far more than the trillions of beings we kill every year.
The environmental, health and societal impact of what (whom) we put in our mouth is astounding.
There is no way I’ll be able to cover these areas today in the depth they deserve, so I encourage you to refer to the resources linked throughout and at the base of this article. But let’s try to take a bird’s eye view of our impact on this planet.
When it comes to the environment, we usually hear about conserving water, cutting down on emissions, halting deforestation.
The single most devastating force behind our planet’s environmental collapse remains not only unspoken, but actually actively denied by the very organizations charged with saving our planet.
Environmental protection agencies encourage us to take shorter showers, carpool or ride our bikes, go paperless, and recycle more.
Our governments hold international conferences to address climate change and seek solutions.
All the while the single most devastating force behind our planet’s environmental collapse remains not only unspoken, but actually actively denied by the very organizations charged with saving our planet.20
Animal agriculture is a leading cause of climate change.21
It’s responsible for up to 51% of greenhouse gas emissions compared to the 13% of all global transportation.22
It uses a third of the earth’s fresh water,23 up to 45% of the Earth’s land,24 and is responsible for 91% of Amazon rainforest destruction—with 1–2 acres cleared every second.25
It is also a leading cause of species extinction, ocean dead zones, and habitat destruction.26
The efforts we make to recycle and take shorter showers are rather insignificant in comparison.
The Water Footprint of Animal Products
Accounting for variation in production system, the global average water footprint for a single pound of beef is 1,847 gallons/lb, with numbers ranging all the way to 8,000 gallons/lb.27
Without fail, plant-based products have the smallest water footprints based on weight.28
Of course weight doesn’t necessarily mean sustenance. Still, global averages show that “when viewed from a caloric standpoint, the water footprint of animal products is larger than for crop products” with “the average water footprint per calorie for beef [being] twenty times larger than for cereals and starchy roots.”29
Animal Protein Requires More Water Than Plant Protein
With protein being one of the greatest nutrition concerns for people considering veganism, it’s worth noting that “the water footprint per gram of protein for milk, eggs and chicken meat is about 1.5 times larger than for pulses,” with beef’s footprint being 6 times larger.30
Leading to the conclusion that “it is more efficient to obtain calories, protein, and fat through crop products than animal products.”31
Our Food & Water Are Going to the Animals We Eat
But we don’t really need studies to tell us that eating animals requires more energy input and creates more waste than eating plants. How can it not?
Eating animals is incredibly inefficient. We are filtering our nutrients, water, and resources through someone else’s body.
Eating animals is incredibly inefficient. We are filtering our nutrients, water, and resources through someone else’s body.
Globally, we’re feeding close to 40% of our grain to our food animals.32 How can that not be worse for the environment than simply eating the plants ourselves?
The United States alone could feed 800 million people with the grain we feed to our livestock.33 That’s more than the estimated 795 million people going hungry in the world today.34
Ninety-eight percent of the massive water footprint for animal agriculture we just covered goes to growing feed crops for the animals we eat.35
I’m not suggesting that a global shift to veganism will automatically result in the proper redistribution of our crops to those in need, nor address the issue of unnecessary food wastage, but it’s the only way we can have enough food to feed everyone.
For an in-depth (and updated) look at the inefficiency of animal products, the diversion of our resources, and the necessity of a global shift to plant-based diets, please see “Can Veganism Solve World Hunger? An Honest Answer“
The Land Usage of Animal Agriculture
This is where many people point to small, local farms, and sustainable practices. Like grass-fed beef. Or free-range, cage-free eggs.
The thing is, we don’t have the land. There’s simply not enough land for the number of animals we eat every year.
The amount of land that it takes to produce 37,000 pounds of plant-based foods will only yield 375 pounds of meat.36
The land required to feed one vegan for one year is 1/6th acre. It takes three times as much for a vegetarian (someone who consumes dairy and eggs but no meat) and eighteen times as much for a meat-eater.37
You can grow fifteen times more protein on any given area of land with plants versus animals.38
On top of all of that, studies show that pasture-raised cows emit 40%–60% more greenhouse gases than grain-fed cows.39
The Environmental Impact of Fishing
I could talk about the environmental cost of animal agriculture all day and we would only just be scratching the surface.
I do want to speak briefly to fishing and ocean health before moving on. I produced a video report, “Empty Oceans: Is The World Running Out Of Fish?” encompassing the most recent research (at the time of production) on the state of our oceans, which you may refer to, but I’ll summarize some main takeaways.
Whether you eat fish and marine life or not, this matter impacts all of us. The ocean, or rather the phytoplankton within the ocean, provides somewhere between 50%–80% of our oxygen,40 and the oceans’ ecosystems store carbon in massive quantities.41
Since we tend to go for the “biggest fish” first, only 10% of predatory fish species remain,42 which could leave the unchecked species to feed on the ocean’s vegetation, releasing the stored carbon.
If we lost just 1% of these blue carbon ecosystems, it would be equivalent to releasing the annual greenhouse gas emissions of Australia.43
We pull 90-100 million tonnes44 of fish from our oceans each year,45 with some sources even estimating 150 million tonnes.46 There is no way for the marine populations to replenish themselves.
Our industrial fishing methods are incredibly inefficient, with some operations throwing 98% of their catches overboard, dead,47 because they aren’t the targeted species.
Animal Agriculture & Ocean Health
As I said earlier, land-based animal agriculture is the leading cause of ocean dead zones, which are areas in the ocean starved of oxygen such that marine life suffocates and dies.
So the animals we are raising for food on land are killing the animals we are ripping from the ocean.
And to add a further layer of perversity, we are feeding the fish we catch to the cows, pigs, chicken, and other land animals—and to the fish we farm.
The Extremism of Eating Animals
As consumers, we find comfort in the fact that most people eat the way we do—that most people don’t seem to be concerned.
And we continue to believe the lie that this is the way it’s supposed to be.
And people think veganism is extreme?
When humanity is decimating habitats, consuming land and resources, polluting the oceans, destroying the rainforest, driving species after species into extinction, feeding plants that we could eat to animals, and feeding other animals to animals that aren’t supposed to eat animals—all so that we can eventually eat the animals ourselves.
But of course as a consumer, we don’t see the trail. We see the pretty packages and sleek advertising.
We see these ordinary, innocent, everyday products. And we find comfort in the fact that most people eat the way we do—that most people don’t seem to be concerned.
And we continue to believe the lie that this is the way it’s supposed to be.
Beyond Personal Choice
We say that children are our future, but what future can they have when we are eating the planet to death?
Ethics aside, we have environmentally reached the point beyond personal choice—beyond “you eat how you want to eat and I’ll eat how I want to eat.” This is a global crisis, and it’s not about you or me anymore.
We say that children are our future, but what future can they have when we are eating the planet to death?
The world cannot sustain meat, dairy, and egg production. It simply can’t. We have to start aligning our actions with our values.
The Health Impact of Animal Products
I’m going to speak very briefly to the impact that animal consumption has on our health.
The doctors in whose hands we place our very lives aren’t even educated about the number one cause of disease and death in our country.
We take drugs by the truckload, undergo dangerous surgeries, spend trillions of dollars on health care every year,all in our stubborn refusal to acknowledge the simple fact that diet is the number one cause of disability and premature death.48
That the vast majority of deaths in the United States are entirely preventable if we would simply change the way we eat.49
The denial of this truth is so pervasive, our desire to maintain the system we’ve constructed so strong, that only one quarter of medical schools in the United States teach even a single course in nutrition.50
The doctors in whose hands we place our very lives aren’t even educated about the number one cause of disease and death in our country.
Heart disease, the number one killer in the United States, is a dietary disease that can be and has been reversed with a vegan, plant-based diet.51
But instead, we take handfuls of medications and have doctors crack open our chests to roto-rooter our arteries rather than stop eating animals.52
After all, a vegan diet is too extreme, right?
We Are Living the Greatest Lie Ever Told
Once we look at it objectively, from the outside, our behavior is baffling.
We serve meat, dairy, and eggs at climate change conferences—supporting and consuming the very source of the problem that the conference was created to address.
We train doctors to save lives with years of expensive education covering every drug on the market while never addressing the true cause of disease.
We run our resources and nutrition through someone else’s body, squandering astronomical amounts of food and water and creating an astounding amount of waste.
We genetically manipulate, breed, confine, abuse, rape, torture, denigrate, mechanize, and murder sentient individuals under our self-created codes of conduct that bring comfort to consumers.
All to avoid facing the fact that we are living the greatest lie ever told.
The Good News: You Can Choose to Live Your Values
Veganism—far from being an extreme lifestyle—is the most sane and rational way to live.
It’s the most powerful tool we have for saving our planet, for improving our health when we eat health-consciously, and for regaining our compassion—for becoming the people we believe ourselves to be: good people.
But here’s the good news. We have the power to open our eyes. We have the choice to break the cycle and refuse to sell this lie to the next generation.
To realize that veganism—far from being an extreme lifestyle—is the most sane and rational way to live.
It’s the most powerful tool we have for saving our planet, for improving our health when we eat health-consciously, and for regaining our compassion—for becoming the people we believe ourselves to be: good people.
And good people don’t destroy the planet, leaving our children without a future. Good people don’t throw newborn babies into grinders.
Good people don’t rip day-old babies away from their mothers. Good people don’t rape, torture, and murder.
Yet “good people” everywhere are doing all of these things with every bite of every meal.
But that’s the beauty here. You no longer have to buy into the lie.
You decide what goes into your body. You decide whether you want to continue to have others kill for you. You decide whether you want to continue consuming death, terror, and heartbreak.
You have the information at your feet. The responsibility now lies in your hands.
You decide. And my hope is, you’ll decide to go vegan.
If you found this speech impactful, please SHARE it with others.
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— Emily Moran Barwick
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Reasons for re-publication & other editor notes (from Emily): This speech was originally published June 15, 2016 under the title “The Extremism Of Veganism | Exposing The Greatest Lie”. At the time of publication, and for many years thereafter, this article was purely a straight transcript of the speech (essentially a massive “wall of text”).
In a long-held desire to increase the accessibility of this (and all) Bite Size Vegan resources, I have completely overhauled the formatting and structure of this article: adding subheadings, images, pullquotes, and more useful links to updated and additional information. I also decided to re-name the speech to be more approachable for a general audience.
While I am generally hesitant to alter the publication date of an article on my website, I have chosen to in this case due to the degree of change. However, I want to be clear that while I have updated linked resources within the text, and addressed broken links within the citations and bibliography, all of the statistics and figures remain as they were in 2016—they have not been updated to current data.
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A cogent, powerful speech. Thank you.
Very, very good job.(I hope I’m excused from watching the 3 minute video since I’ve been vegan for a couple years. I just couldn’t bear it.)
Soon! someday i will find the time in my busy life to translate this whole speech in Spanish, prepare myself to present a speech like yours and go back to Peru and Latin America to share the vegan message THIS clear and THIS factual.
lots of vegan love Emily! :D
I stopped eating all animal products exept for organic eggs and fish. But after seeing this its hard for me to even eat those 2 things. I said before that you dont focus on human suffering. But its also good to point out how animals are treated. I cried when i saw how the animals were abused and tortured. Im a christian, the Bible says that you shouldnt treat your animal with cruelty. Im disgusted by the state of the world were in. Its a culture of death so thick that pervades this society, only Christ’s coming can change it! We are rotten and sick people for doing the things we do to all creation!
tomorrowsworld
Thank you, thank you, thank you for making this video! You said everything so perfectly, with just the right amount of blame that won’t make meat eaters angry, but instead, maybe start considering what the true extreme choice here is. I will definitely be sharing this on my Facebook, instagram, blog, family and friends, etc. I’m so proud to be vegan and you are a true role model. Thank you!!
Thank you so much Valerie! So honored to hear that this speech was effective for you :) I do feel that it’s probably the best “generalized” speech of mine, meaning one you can send to almost anyone. Anyways! I so appreciate your feedback. All the best to you!
Hi, Emily,
I agree with what Mark S. wrote above. I wouldn’t change anything with regard to your speech. And the same thing goes for your video. Sadly, people who aren’t vegan (yet) need to hear your words. You’re speaking the truth. And of course, sometimes the truth hurts. I’m already familiar with what happens to animals used for food, entertainment, etc. and even I am hurting for the animals. The video is extremely difficult to watch — but as you said, you can not watch and just listen.
I especially like that you make the point that people should extend the love and compassion they show toward certain creatures (I’m trying to reference the part when you talk about Finding Nemo, et. al., but can’t remember it all — sorry!), toward all animals, including those used for the purposes I stated above. It’s that “disconnect” that so many people don’t get. And the disconnect often is unintentional. It was for me, until I learned the facts. This education is so important and you present it so well.
It’s obvious to me that you spent a lot of time on writing your speech, doing your research — so you could use *facts”, and making the video. I know you’re not looking for compliments but way to go, Emily! Fantastic job.
Thank you so much for doing this — for the animals, our planet, and more.
Randy, thank you so much for your profoundly kind words about my speech. I am honored to hear that you find it to be effective in conveying the realities of what we do to non-human animals. And yes, the part with loving animals while eating other animals is this section. I am so appreciative of you taking the time to share your feedback with me. And honored that the work I put into this seems to be of some worth. Many thanks!
Hi again, Emily,
Thank you so much for your kind reply. And thank you for the link to what I was *trying* to reference! Yes, that’s it — “this most glaring dissonance—this duality of our professed values and our daily actions”. I’m so glad you presented this in your speech so very well. In my opinion, this really gets to the core of what veganism is all about. If I were in your audience, listening to your talk — *that* is what would get my attention and help me to think about, most of all. The rest of your speech is wonderful, of course. It’s just that the concept of understanding the “dissonance” or the “disconnect” with regard to animals is what I feel could be the best catalyst for the kind of change we’re hoping for. I’m not sure whether that came out “on paper” as I had intended, but the feeling is there in my head and in my heart.
I agree that it is a powerful point of emphasis! I actually discuss this in this section of a speech I gave to vegan activists.
This speech was powerful and you touched on all the important reasons to change to a vegan whole plant based diet. My only wish is that everyone could hear this speech. Thank you for speaking out for those who can’t. Beautifully done, Emily!
Thank you so very much, Judi! I’m honored to hear that you found the speech to be effective. Thank you for taking the time to comment and share this with me.
Hi! Thank you so much for this powerful speech, and all the other fantastic educational work you’ve done. How have I only just discovered you??? Thank you for your time and keep up the awesome work!
I was only Vegan 8 years and departed after being put in a nursing home that would not give me vegan food. I fear my health is dictating that I should return to this most compassionate of lifestyles not only for the animals this time, but for myself too..
Well done! Worth the countless hours you spent on it. Can’t think of a single word I’d change.
One note, when I watch the video the 3 minute clip that starts at 21 minutes is blurred out. I can hear the audio but all I see is extremely blurred video. Not that I really want to see it again. I can tell from the audio I’ve seen many of the clips in some of you earlier videos.
Mark, Thank you so much for your feedback! RE: the blurring, you can see the uncensored footage still on this post. You’ll also see there the explanation for why I had to blur the footage in the original YouTube video. I hope that’s helpful! It was a hard decision to make. I hope the way I’ve gone about it has struck a decent balance.
UPDATE: I have now added a “banner” below the video embed at the top of the post to hopefully make it clear to anyone at the top about the play the video. The text links to the footage embedded within the post. I hope this helps orient people more! I really appreciate your feedback on this experience!
My experience as well. It would have been helpful if the blurring explanation was more obvious and part of the clip’s introduction as I was confused, wondering whether the problem was on my end.
I totally understand and wish I was able to do that. The only way I was able to un-age-restrict the existing video was to use the (very limited) YouTube editor. It allows you to make very, very limited changes to already-published YouTube videos. I was able to blur and get the age-restriction lifted. However, there is no way for me to actually edit the video to add an explanation within the video itself. I did add a “card” that comes out of the upper right of the video right at the moment the footage starts. I also added notes to the description, first comment (only on YouTube, obviously), and then on this post, within the body of the article. I do apologize that this is not an ideal situation. But of the limited options available to me, it was the best I could find.
UPDATE: I have now added a “banner” below the video embed at the top of the post to hopefully make it clear to anyone at the top about the play the video. The text links to the footage embedded within the post. I hope this helps orient people more! I really appreciate your feedback on this experience!
Dear Emily,
It was very helpful to learn how you put together speeches and articles. It is a good entry point for those new to veganism. I only had books to rely on, but your informative articles speak plainly and directly to people.
It is definitely a one source place to learn and find all the information needed. People now have a place not only to learn but to share with other like-minded people. It is tough for those new to veganism not to have anyone to share and exchange information with. Now thanks to you we do.
Sally, thank you so much for always taking the time to grace me with a thoughtful comment. Really brightens my day. I’m glad that you enjoyed learning more about the “behind-the-scenes” of making these educational resources. I’m honored by your framing of my work. I do so hope that it serves as a growing library of resources that are approachable, accessible and effective. Many thanks always!
Hi Emily.I remember sharing this speech years ago when you first made it.This is one of the best speeches I have seen on the “brushed under the carpet”subject.
Very good work Emily,you are one of the reasons i went the compassionate route all those years ago.
Thank you,you are a blessing to this planet.
Thank you so very much, Paul! That means a great deal to me. I hope this speech can continue to reach people. I’m so incredibly honored to have had any role in your journey. Thank you for taking the time to comment.
You are most welcome Emily.
Thank you for your great effort for making the most comprehensive, essential, and depth work on veganism and animal advocacy.
Thank you, Chris! That means so much to me. I do hope this speech can continue to reach people.
Finally watched the behind the scenes video and part of this one, and skimmed the transcript. Sorry for the delay.
This speech is so powerful, so well thought out, written, organized, and so well presented. (Where was it delivered?) It is easily on par with Gary Yourofsky’s “best speech ever” and deserves the same exposure and accolades. I shared it on FB (the only social media platform I’m on).
Each one of the sub-sections of the transcript is a world in itself to explore and learn about. You have probably done a video on each of those sub-sections.
Sometimes the truth is difficult to hear, especially when we have been deliberately lied and believed lies those lies our whole life. I hope everyone will watch this speech and that they do so with an open mind and heart, and change their behavior to match values that, as you point out, they already hold.
Thank you so so much, Emily.
Thank you so much for the feedback, David, and for sharing the speech! It was delivered in Worcester, Massachusetts. I’m honored to hear how effective it’s come across for you and do so hope it remains a solid “entry point” to veganism.
Absolutely brilliant powerful inspiring. Thank you. I’m sharing the link WIDELY! Vegan for over 34 years, this is one of the BEST presentations I’ve seen. It made me so PROUD to be vegan for the animals.
Veda, I cannot express how much it means to me to hear that you found my presentation to be so effective. And thank you SO much for sharing it! I can only do so much to get the resources I create “out there” to the public. Sharing it with others is SUCH a service, and I greatly appreciate it. I just want everyone to have access to the truth—I believe everyone deserves to know the true impact of their choices and have the opportunity to align their actions with their values. Many thanks!