The longer sentence would be “for most people veganism requires no sacrifice beyond occasional tests and vitamins, which is really not much work at all”.
I think you could add “and the more vegans there are, the easier it is”. A huge part of it is adoption. Things like which foods are easily found, what restaurants offer, whether you have to bring vegan options from home if you’re eating at a conference or other event, etc. will change a lot between cultures and times depending on how common the need is.
I’m pescatarian, trending towards vegetarian, live in the UK, and feel like being vegetarian here would be fairly effortless—almost everywhere always has at least a few options. Veganism already would be a lot harder. Not impossible (if only thanks to all the Indian and Pakistani food around!), but noticeably harder.
Seriously. I’ve been vegan in hip modern Western cities now, and in 2009, and I have travelled as a vegan through Eastern Europe and the Middle East. The difference is insane. The former feels effortless. The latter was absolutely awful (the number of times I had to explain that no, chicken are in fact not plants, alone… in Iran, they put lamb into fucking desserts, I kid you not), and if I had to live there longer, I think I would have changed my diet to facilitate social inclusion, variety and health. By the end of that trip, I could not tolerate eating any dates or any rice for a long time, and felt like taking bites out of my fellow travellers just to get any damn protein. Vegan food in these places is regular food, minus the majority components that were giving nearly all the nutrients and taste, you live off sides and fillers.
I think you could add “and the more vegans there are, the easier it is”. A huge part of it is adoption. Things like which foods are easily found, what restaurants offer, whether you have to bring vegan options from home if you’re eating at a conference or other event, etc. will change a lot between cultures and times depending on how common the need is.
I’m pescatarian, trending towards vegetarian, live in the UK, and feel like being vegetarian here would be fairly effortless—almost everywhere always has at least a few options. Veganism already would be a lot harder. Not impossible (if only thanks to all the Indian and Pakistani food around!), but noticeably harder.
Seriously. I’ve been vegan in hip modern Western cities now, and in 2009, and I have travelled as a vegan through Eastern Europe and the Middle East. The difference is insane. The former feels effortless. The latter was absolutely awful (the number of times I had to explain that no, chicken are in fact not plants, alone… in Iran, they put lamb into fucking desserts, I kid you not), and if I had to live there longer, I think I would have changed my diet to facilitate social inclusion, variety and health. By the end of that trip, I could not tolerate eating any dates or any rice for a long time, and felt like taking bites out of my fellow travellers just to get any damn protein. Vegan food in these places is regular food, minus the majority components that were giving nearly all the nutrients and taste, you live off sides and fillers.