Anyone who wants to give their family a healthy diet and play their part in drastically reducing environmental damage, climate change and global hunger, places value on ethical consumption and wants to raise their children to be responsible citizens cannot afford to ignore the benefits of a lifestyle that excludes animal products to the greatest possible extent. Whoever is aware of the facts but wilfully ignores them must be ready to accept the accusation of indifference – and for parents, indifference towards matters as important as nutrition, health and the future of one’s own children is not an option.
 

More and more people are questioning the view that eating meat and other animal products is normal, natural and necessary, and never has there been such an interest in vegetarian lifestyles – and especially veganism. There are estimated to be at least 600,000 vegans in the UK today and this number is on the up. More and more parents(-to-be) are deciding to live and raise their children vegetarian or vegan because they feel unable to live up to their responsibility for feeding and raising their families if they simply blank out what it really means to eat animals and their products. And children from families in which the consumption of meat and other animal products is not (yet) questioned nowadays very often, as early as nursery or playgroup, come into contact with children of the same age from vegetarian and vegan families, which raises their awareness of the fact that a different kind of diet and lifestyle is possible.

As parents, it is in our very best interests to be part of the solution, not the problem. With this in mind, we should be aware that we have the power in our wallets to dictate demand and, in turn, the products on our supermarket shelves. This gives us the capacity to make a powerful statement each and every day about the kind of future we desire for us and for our children.