As a vegan I frequently find myself defending veganism. “What made you do it?” people usually enquire about my decision to cut out all animal products from my diet. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t mind being cross-examined about my plant-based diet. In fact, I appreciate the interest. It’s just that omnivores never seem to get asked these things. They are usually regarded as the control group, the norm, and veganism is considered a deviation from that norm. This strikes me as a very biased way of looking at human nutrition. It seems perfectly logical to me that whether we choose to consume animals or not is in either case the product of a conscious decision, regardless of the outcome. What I mean by that is that if you decide to eat meat you should also be able to defend your decision with sound arguments in the same way as is expected from vegans. This would only be fair. “Why do you eat meat?” “Why do you consume animal products?” Given what we have come to know about animal-eating and its many negative consequences on the environment, our health and the well-being of animals, I would find it very difficult to answer such questions satisfyingly if I was a meat-eater. The plant-based diet, on the other hand, has widely been recognized as the healthier and less ecologically harmful option. That’s not to say that dissenting opinions and beliefs about which diet is the most ethical or the healthiest should be dismissed, but I’m still waiting to hear a single convincing argument why humans should eat meat and other animal products, why we should not consider veganism. I doubt that such an argument really exists, at least not in the context of civilization. It goes without saying that there are obviously situations such as wars or famines that render it next to impossible for people to take ethical considerations into account when it comes to their food, where they battle for their mere existence. This text discusses choices and their implications and I want it to be absolutely clear that it doesn’t criticize the actions of those who have no choice. In the more privileged parts of the world where most of us are free to choose what we want to eat people often bring forward arguments against veganism that are really just statements about their personal culinary preferences or convenience. I don’t think these can really be considered moral arguments. To be fair, not all arguments are like that; some are harder to refute than others; some are very well-founded, others are just plain stupid