It's not easy sometimes to maintain a healthy vegan diet because a meat-free diet isn't necessarily healthy. Just a suggestion, search 'whole food plant-based.' There's some really good stuff out there which has been well researched.

Why?

With more production of vegetables for crops, more forests being taken down and the local fauna will suffer. I don't know to which extent I'm right or wrong but that's my train of thought.

I’ve recently changed my diet for the same reasons you cite. Though, I honestly can’t figure a few things out. How would you respond to the notion that animals are inevitably killed in the course of plant harvest? What about how farm animals would not have life to begin with had they not been bred for food. It’s questions like these that keep me wondering about what the most moral diet would be.

@indirect76

Let me address the animals who are bred just to be murdered.
Can you imagine being born with your death date already pre-decided?
Breeding an animal just to murder it and eat its corpse is no different than the slave-traders who sold the children of their slaves to other slave-owners. Is it ok to breed humans just to sell them?
Would it be ok to breed humans just to kill them and harvest their organs for rich people?
Oh, but they wouldn't have even lived if they weren't bred to be sold or killed, right?

The number one way you can determine if something is humane is to ask, would it be ok to do this to humans?

As for the "animals killed during farming" question: It is our responsibility to stop as much death as we can. To this end, most vegans try to grow their own food as much as practical (I personally have a huge garden!) and also buy locally, organic, hand-harvested food when possible.

The official definition of Veganism is: "Veganism is a way of living which seeks to exclude, as far as is possible and practicable, all forms of exploitation of, and cruelty to, animals for food, clothing or any other purpose."

As far as is possible and practicable.

Here's a link that might help:
[theveganspeak.com]

@SkotlandSkye Well, I agree with your usage of the word “vegetarian”. Ultimately that description is the foundation of my motivation. This is good because that means we have the same motive!

Though, I think we have a fundamental disagreement. I don’t believe humans and animals are interchangeable when it comes to moral judgements, as outlined your second paragraph.

@indirect76

The whole "humans are superior" bullshit comes from religion and the "created in the image of god" delusion. If you break free of that societal conditioning, then the truth becomes clear.

All members of the animal kingdom carry equal moral weight.
If it is wrong to kill and eat a dog, a whale, or a human...then it is equally wrong to kill and eat a cow, a pig, and a chicken.

@SkotlandSkye I’ve never been religious in my life, so my view on this definitely doesn’t come from that. It comes from the observation that there is a difference between humans and animals. It’s not that much different than some vegetarians observation that there is a difference between animals and plants.

@indirect76 And what is this significant difference? Do they not have central nervous systems? Do they not feel scared? feel pain? Do they not have plans and purposes of their own? Or do you judge them based on their intelligence relative to humans? If we judge humans by the standards of, say, eagles, then humans are severely malformed and deficient in the ability to fly and see long distances.
It is incorrect to judge animals based on human ideas.

There is a term "speciesism" which is discrimination based on species.
Someone who practices this form of discrimination is called a "speciest".

[thefreedictionary.com]

This meme, with the wise words of Alice Walker, should be considered by anyone who is pondering this issue.

@SkotlandSkye I’d say the significant difference is their ability to conceive of and mourn death.

@indirect76 You need to visit farms and hear the cows and sheep call for days for their murdered children....

Have you really never seen a squirrel run back into traffic repeatedly to try and get their dead companion to wake up?

Animals do mourn -- in their own way and as much as they can understand about the world.
Let's stop judging them by human standards.

There are a lot of humans who don't mourn the death of other humans. Should we go ahead and kill them off?

And, there a billions of humans who have no compassion for animals or mourn the deaths of animals....shall we kill them off too?

Here is an article about how cows mourn the loss of their calves.
[peta.org]

@SkotlandSkye I did not say they have no ability to conceive of or mourn death. I said it is different. I could have been more clear on that though.

Let me ask this, so I better understand your position. Would the destruction of a hornets nest be on equal moral grounds as the destruction of a small town of equal population? Earlier you mentioned the animal kingdom, so I want to be sure we are talking about the same thing here.

Why not? If we personally feel horrible to kill something in our own hands and then process and eat, may be we should not cause the pain in the first place in a living sentient being for the pleasure in our mouth. We probably don't need to breed something that we then subject to cruelty. Probably we are just indoctrinated since our childhood with the lure of taste of meat in a meat culture, just like a baby becomes indoctrinated in a religious home. And why all the greens of the earth need to be processed through these three primary animals (chicken, cow, goat) as intermediaries to provide nutrient where as you can derive that directly from the earth and plants. And why taking the moral responsibility if you can think that way? And why being part of environmental destruction in the process? If we can reduce 90%, we can 100%. And if we absolutely can't get away from this indoctrination, there exists artificial meat to consume which more and more in time will taste exactly the real ones. Hope you get what I am saying.

@AnandaKhan I've butchered and slaughtered my own before. I have no problem with it... I'm doing my part by eating 10% meat. If everyone did this it would be a bigger impact than me going 100% veggie. When I do eat meat its usually chicken and fish. And the only reason I eat mostly veggies is because I like veggies.

@Cutiebeauty Well, that means you very well know the pain in those "you butchered and slaughtered" and the fear in their eyes and the groaning came out of their bodies when you performed the act. I guess you didn't care as you have experienced others doing it while you grew up and your desire for the flesh is much more important for you than the pain you are causing. Anyway, if such pain and suffering in sentient being can't stop you doing what you are doing, all argument of mine will probably fail. Noone can butcher and slaughter their beloved dog to acquire flesh which probably means we can only butcher and slaughter ones we don't love. So, I guess human being has a limited circle of compassion and love and they butchered and slaughtered many other human beings for their own selfish reasons in the past; again I guess they didn't love them, in fact hated them. I hope someday people can expand their circle of compassion and love even more. We already made progress and may be we can make even more progress and keep all sentient beings in our circle of compassion and love. So, I will stop but I will just urge to think and read more. Thank you.