Vegan Beyond Food: A Multi-Faceted Approach to Vegan Living

Veganuary is the month of scrolling through never-ending scrumptious food recipes and navigating how one can crack the mystery of materialising a plate of nutritious goodness, the vegan way.

Reducing meat consumption is a well-known way to help mitigate the climate crisis. As it stands – animal agriculture causes an estimated 18 per cent of all greenhouse gases showcasing the meat industry to be a cause for concern when it comes to global warming (PETA). Whilst changing your diet is a remarkable effort and contribution to tackling the climate crisis, here’s some suggestions on top of food to broaden the different ways you can take the reins this Veganuary.

Fashion - carbon print over animal print

Each year, the fashion industry is responsible for the slaughter of millions of animals; the mass production serves their profiteering motives in selling animal items of clothes such as silk, fur, and leather.

Fortunately, there has increasingly been pressure for a vegan market to emerge. If an item is vegan: it contains no animal, or animal-derived, substances. This is disconnected from the term cruelty -free, which means a product and its ingredients have not been tested on animals. This is something to consider when researching the correct vegan brands to buy.

When you are looking at clothing, it’s best to look at the label to see what materials they are made from. Some fashion red flags are the obvious silk, fur, and leather. Look out for the green flag alternatives including hemp, cotton, bamboo, soya-bean fibre, linen, soysilk or peacesilk, recycled nylon and polyester. A useful site when it comes to verifying if a clothing brand is vegan or not is the company `good on you`; they have a directory of companies which they have thoroughly researched on their ethical practices. There is also a `PETA -Approved Vegan Logo` to be on the lookout for to ensure you are buying the most ethically sourced clothing.

Fun Fact: Most of the world’s leather is untraceable due to complex supply chains; therefore, we are unaware of the carbon footprint leather carries (goodonyou).

Beauty - Feeling good aND looking good

A big thing to look out for with beauty companies is whether they are cruelty -free or not. This is the ethically conscious practice made by companies choosing to not test their product ingredients on animals.

Certifications which will confirm if a company is vegan or cruelty -free is either the UK Vegan Approved Logo; or PETA’s Beauty Without Bunnies Program which lists every registered company that is either cruelty-free or both vegan and cruelty-free.

A few companies who have their certifications spot on are LUSH, GRUUM, and Odacite to name a few. These companies pride themselves on all natural ingredients whilst maintaining the cruelty free badge.

So, make sure you do your research before you buy your beauty products to look good AND feel good.

It's never too late to educate

A fun way to learn about Veganism is to do it visually through documentaries. There have been some jaw dropping Netflix productions which have caught the attention of many, such as Cowspiracy and Seaspiracy. These productions aim to unveil the dubious marketing claims by British farms, such as using the `dolphin safe` label to project they are using sustainable practices.

Click here for some documentaries to inspire you and continue your vow of veganism.

Another way to immerse yourself into the education of veganism is to support vegan organisations. For example, WWF is an NGO aiming to help eliminate inhumane practices towards animals; their projects include advocating systematic change across industries to reduce environmental impact on wildlife.

come dine with me, Vegan edition

Romanticise your life and invite your friends over for vegan dinner parties. This is a way to show your friends the vegan Come Dine with Me isn’t as bad as they might think!

Our vegan founder Dawn, says “instead of speaking verbally – which many people don’t want to hear or don’t fully understand, I find letting them try what they could be eating much more effective to help spread the Vegan love❤️.”

Here’s a list of vegan recipes to impress your friends this Veganuary.