How To Be Vegan In An American Urban Food Desert
There are many excuses not to go vegan, but there are even more reasons to go vegan. Whatever is hindering you from being able to make the change does have […]
Be the change
There are many excuses not to go vegan, but there are even more reasons to go vegan. Whatever is hindering you from being able to make the change does have […]
There are many excuses not to go vegan, but there are even more reasons to go vegan. Whatever is hindering you from being able to make the change does have a solution if you are passionate enough about reducing harm to animals. One of the many highly-used excuses to not go vegan is living in “food deserts”, which are defined by the USDA as “urban neighborhoods and rural towns without ready access to fresh, healthy, and affordable food. Instead of supermarkets and grocery stores, these communities may have no food access or are served only by fast food restaurants and convenience stores that offer few healthy, affordable food options“.
For simplicity’s sake, I will be focusing on urban food deserts since there are significantly more people living in urban food deserts than rural ones. The American food desert undoubtedly exists and is a crisis that greatly impacts the health of the 26 million people affected by it, but it is often claimed that it is not possible to be a vegan if you live in one, especially in the United States. (Note that vegan does not always equate with healthy). To prove this claim wrong, here are a few examples of vegan options that can be found in most food deserts:
These are just a few of the many options you have as a vegan residing in a food desert. If you do not happen to have any of what I listed nearby, check out this list of the vegan options at a good number of fast food chains.
Be the change: If you are not happy with your situation, you have the power to try to fix it. Start a petition for your city’s convenience stores to carry fresh produce. If they are made aware that enough people are willing to pay for such items, chances are that they will change at least some of their ways in response to consumer demand. Perhaps even your local lawmakers will see this petition and take action. A great example of such an occurrence is described here, in which “after a survey revealed that 94 percent of residents would purchase more fresh produce if it were available at convenience stores, the city of Minneapolis enacted the Minneapolis Health Corner Store initiative, requiring all corner and convenience stores to stock a certain amount of fresh fruit on their shelves.” You can read more about this here. If you want to go all-out, you can try to push for more specifically vegan food as well. Find out if you have a community garden nearby. If not, start a petition for one. “Be the change you wish to see in the world”.
I will be honest with you – being vegan, especially in an area that does not have large supermarkets, is not easy. You will struggle and your struggle will be real. However, think of it this way: whatever difficulty you come across when trying to be vegan in a food desert can never be as difficult as the unimaginable horror animals experience day by day, hour by hour when they are being bred, raised, and killed for your food. Please try for the billions of cows, pigs, chickens, and turkeys who are suffering for human greed. They will thank you for your effort.
Great info! Thanks for this. I love that Taco Bell has so many options!
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