Designed cards with the headline numbers and ethics of the movement — ready to download, post, print, or screenshot. Pick one, click download, and you've got a sourced image you can share anywhere.
of human-caused greenhouse-gas emissions came from the food system in 2015.
Our food system caused about a third of human-caused greenhouse-gas emissions in 2015. Eating more plants can help reduce food-related emissions. — via veg.ac
of rainforest loss in the Brazilian Amazon was attributed to cattle clearing in a 2009 Yale report.
A 2009 Yale report attributed 80% of rainforest loss in the Brazilian Amazon to clearing land for cattle. Food choices are connected to forests. — via veg.ac
land animals are slaughtered for meat every year worldwide.
Over 80 billion land animals are slaughtered for meat every year worldwide. Every plant-based meal is a vote for a different system. — via veg.ac
wild fish were caught annually on average in 2000–2019, according to estimates.
An estimated 1.1–2.2 trillion wild fish were caught annually in 2000–2019. Evidence supports pain perception in fish, yet welfare protections remain limited. — via veg.ac
lower rate of ischaemic heart disease in vegetarians, including vegans, than meat eaters in EPIC-Oxford.
EPIC-Oxford found a 22% lower rate of ischaemic heart disease in vegetarians, including vegans, than meat eaters. This observational association does not prove causation. — via veg.ac
is the estimated global average water footprint per kilogram of beef, including rainfall.
Beef’s global average water footprint is about 15,400 litres per kilo, including rainfall and water associated with pollution. Pulses average about 4,100 litres per kilo. Footprints vary by place and production system. — via veg.ac
of farmland was used for animal products supplying just 18% of calories in a 2018 study.
A 2018 study found animal products used 83% of farmland while supplying 18% of calories. A global shift to diets without animal products could greatly reduce agricultural land use. — via veg.ac
the all-industry injury and illness rate was exceeded by US meat and poultry workers in data cited by HRW in 2019.
A 2019 Human Rights Watch report highlighted injury and illness rates in US meat and poultry work exceeding twice the all-industry rate. Workers also face psychological pressures. Cruelty doesn’t stop at the animals. — via veg.ac
Everything here is published under Creative Commons Attribution. Take it into your classroom, your campaign, your kitchen wall. Just keep the sources visible.
Help more people find evidence-based, judgement-free vegan resources:
Talking about it
Persuasion research is consistent and slightly deflating: confrontation entrenches, curiosity opens. The tools on this page exist to make a conversation easier to start, not to win an argument.
Food is identity-adjacent. Studies of moral reproach find that people who feel judged about eating meat tend to derogate the messenger and report stronger commitment to their current diet afterwards — the so-called 'do-gooder derogation' effect. The same information delivered as personal reasoning, without an implied verdict on the listener, produces markedly less defensiveness and better recall a week later.
Three interventions have reasonable evidence behind them: default changes, where the plant option is what arrives unless you ask otherwise; social proof, where people see peers making the same choice; and taste-first exposure, where someone eats a good plant-based meal before hearing any argument. Information alone changes stated attitudes far more than behaviour, which is why cooking for someone outperforms sending them a documentary.
Rather than presenting a case, ask what the other person already thinks — about farming standards, about whether they would visit a slaughterhouse, about how much they trust labelling. Questions surface the inconsistencies people are willing to examine, which are the only inconsistencies that matter. Listening also buys the right to be listened to, which lecturing does not.
A specific, sourced fact with a link outperforms a graphic image for everything except attention. Images of suffering generate engagement and avoidance in roughly equal measure; sourced data invites a reply. If you post something, be prepared to answer the first honest objection well, because that exchange — not the original post — is what other readers actually weigh.
| Context | Effective | Ineffective |
|---|---|---|
| Family meal | Bringing a dish everyone can eat | Commentary on what others are eating |
| Colleague | Answering a question briefly, then stopping | Unprompted statistics |
| Partner | Cooking three good meals a week | Ultimatums or moral framing |
| Social media | One sourced claim plus a link | Graphic imagery without context |
| Children | Answering honestly at their level | Fear-based framing |
| Strangers | A visible, unremarkable example | Unsolicited advocacy |
The question 'why are you vegan?' is an invitation. Almost nothing else is, and answering it in under a minute keeps the door open.
A single concrete reason is remembered; a list reads as a prepared case and triggers counter-argument.
Acknowledge cost, convenience and cultural difficulty honestly. Credibility is worth more than a clean argument.
Offer a recipe or a meal. Behaviour follows experience far more reliably than it follows agreement.
Rarely on its own. Information tends to shift stated attitudes while leaving behaviour intact; pairing a fact with an easy, pleasant alternative is what closes the gap.
Take it seriously and follow it through: farmed animals eat many times more plants than people do, so any concern for plants argues in the same direction. Answering the strongest version of an objection earns more than dismissing it.
Bring one excellent dish, eat what you can, and do not make the meal a forum. Consistency across the year persuades more than any single dinner.
For the person you are replying to, usually not. For the readers who never comment, sometimes yes — which is why tone matters more than the rebuttal.
Only if asked. Unsolicited graphic material tends to produce avoidance of you rather than of animal products.
Why animal rights belong to no party — and what political capture cost the movement.
Continue →