Can Vegans eat Potatoes?

Can vegans eat potato? You might find this question a little strange the first time you hear it. Potato is a vegetable, so why shouldn’t tit be eaten by vegans? Right? But the situation is a little more complicated than you might imagine. Remember that being vegan is not just about not eating meat and animal products.

In our article “What is veganism?” we gave detailed information about what veganism is and why people choose to be vegan. There are different reasons for this. Let’s give a brief reminder.

People choose to go vegan for various reasons, including:

Ethical reasons: Some people choose to go vegan because they believe it’s unethical to use or exploit animals for food, clothing, or other purposes.
Environmental reasons: Many people choose to go vegan because they believe that animal agriculture is harmful to the environment, contributing to issues such as deforestation, water pollution, and greenhouse gas emissions.
Health reasons: Some people choose to go vegan because they believe it’s a healthier way of eating, with a reduced risk of chronic diseases such as heart disease, diabetes, and certain types of cancer. If you want to know more about this topic, take a look at our aticle “Is meat healthy?
Animal welfare concerns: People may choose to go vegan to protest the treatment of animals in factory farms and slaughterhouses.
Religious or spiritual reasons: Some people choose to go vegan as part of their religious or spiritual beliefs.

If your reason for being vegan is religion or health, there is nothing wrong with eating potatoes. But if you are a vegan for ethical or environmental reasons, you will have to think about it a little more. Why?

According to a reddit-user, potatoes are not vegan. In a debate he expressed his thoughts and wrote the following:

“Potatoes and other root vegetables are not vegan

When you pull potatoes and other root vegetables from the ground you kill soil creatures. since soil creatures are sentient this would not be vegan. On the other hand, When you pick a tomato you don’t need to pull out the plant so you do virtually no harm to bugs.
Many vegans don’t use honey since it harms bees. so it would be hypocritical you don’t need to eat rot vegetables to be healthy. Jains don’t eat root vegetables and they have been doing that for thousands of years.
People would say ” this is unintentional harm” when you take milk from a cow wool from a sheep or eggs from a chicken, you are doing unintentional harm too. for example, sheep sheers aren’t trying to kill sheep when sheering their wool, but they can still cause abuse and harm.”

What do you think about it? Do you think that’s a bit exaggerated? Leave a comment and let me know what you think?

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