By Gene Sager

As a college professor at Palomar College in California, I have had a large “captive” sample for polling the views of American college students. Early in the semester, I asked students in my classes on contemporary issues to fill out anonymous surveys dealing with problems and solutions. I included questions about how solutions complement one another. The results helped me structure the class to dispel myths and supply information and analysis as needed. Although anonymous, the surveys did require each responder to state their age, and this helped me understand generational changes in knowledge and opinions. My students ranged widely in age; the average age was 26.

     A few questions asked for written answers, and the responses were especially informative concerning veganism. Some older students expressed the concern that the vegan diet does not supply a sufficiency of essential nutrients, especially protein.  Scientific studies have shown that the vegan diet is nutritionally adequate. However, despite the science, concerns and criticisms of diets and other practices often become part of a stereotype of the diet or practice and linger on as myths in the minds of the generation who first heard them.

     The younger students were generally more open to veganism, but they, like their older peers, did not show an understanding of the variety of benefits of veganism. I discovered that almost all of my students saw veganism as a dietary pattern unrelated to other proposed solutions to our social issues today. I was surprised that most of the students saw no connection between veganism and the practice of simplicity. Simplicity means minimizing consumption and conserving natural resources. It also reduces hassle and stress, and it declutters both the household and the mind. Most of my students saw no kinship between simplicity and veganism, but my research and personal practice reveals a strong connection.

     Since veganism can improve health, it reduces or avoids the complications of ill health. It can mean fewer medications, less visits to doctors’ offices, less tests, less treatments, less surgeries, etc. It makes for a simpler life.

     In my family, we have found that the vegan diet also makes life simpler in the kitchen. Preparing and cooking meat leaves the pans, dishes, utensils, and dish water and sink greasy. Grease from cheese and meat calls for elbow grease. Such complicated cleanup in the kitchen and at the BBQ grill is avoided by the vegan diet. Life is simpler in the vegan kitchen.

     To their credit, some of my students were aware that the vegan diet is a green diet. It reduces environmental problems like overuse of natural resources, and it reduces emissions from vehicles and the industries required to produce food from animals. From the fossil fuels for running the tractors to produce grains to feed cattle, to the slaughter houses which require massive amounts of water and energy, to all the power needed to refrigerate or freeze beef – the production of a hamburger is highly inefficient. It is a complicated, messy business. It complicates life for all of us. A veggie burger is a vastly simpler lunch.

     Vegan ethics is based on simple, indisputable principles, such as, It is wrong to inflict unnecessary harm or death on animals. It is a clean break with predation. One of my older students wrote this one year after becoming vegan: “With no blood on my hands, I have less weight on my mind.” The simplicity of veganism is evident not only outwardly in the kitchen pots and the resources and atmosphere of the planet, but also inwardly in important ways. As a non-predator, I am at peace with the animals and the planet, and this peace is mirrored inwardly. The simplicity of vegan ethics yields peace of mind.  

     Who knew that veganism is a form of simplicity? My students did not know this at the beginning of the semester. Veganism simplifies our lives on many different levels. The more research we do, and the more experience we gather, the better we understand the multiple benefits of the vegan way of life.