The vegans are rising, with a message of animal equality and planetary salvation. Do we all need to turn vegan in order to treat animals well and avoid environmental disaster? Meat-eater Bruce Munro goes hunting for answers.
She is a recent convert. Radicalised, ablaze with a need to share her discoveries, to see change. The text messages fall like rain.
10.47pm: "Even without fossil fuels we will exceed our 565 gigatonnes CO2 limit by 2030 - mostly from farming animals.''
10.48pm: "Seventy billion animals are farmed annually worldwide. More than six million animals are killed every second for food. Eighty two percent of starving children live in countries where food is fed to animals and those animals are eaten by the Western countries.''
10.49pm: "Every day, a person who follows a vegan diet saves 4164 litres of water, 20kg of grain, 3sq metres of forested land, 9kg of CO2 equivalent and one animal's life.''
10.50pm: "Animal agriculture is the leading cause of species extinction, ocean dead zones, water pollution and habitat destruction.''
2.28pm: ‘‘I'm watching Earthlings doco right now. If you can watch this and not cry and know you need to drastically change your lifestyle ...''
I have to pay attention. She is, after all, my daughter.
Within a week, there comes the news that decades of fertiliser use, particularly for dairying, has left large swathes of New Zealand's productive land too contaminated with cadmium to grow food crops.
A couple of days later, New Zealanders are confronted by footage of four-day-old bobby calves being badly mistreated on their way to slaughter.
Could the vegans be right? Their voice is certainly getting louder.
The Dunedin Vegans and Vegetarians Facebook page has 853 members, the most active of whom are vegan. Several telephone calls produce two Otago vegans who agree to outline their case.
Carl Scott is spokesman for the recently formed Dunedin Otepoti Vegans Society (Doves). He used to work at a slaughterhouse. But his diet, furnishings and even his clothes have been animal-product-free for more than five years, thanks to a dog called Jed.
Mr Scott developed a close bond with Jed. That led to a realisation that "what I wouldn't want to happen to him, I wouldn't want to happen to any animal''.
He defines veganism as "reducing harm as much as you can, practically and realistically, while still living a pretty normal life''.
‘‘We acknowledge that we don't need to eat animals. We can be remarkably healthy without eating meat, dairy and eggs. So, we believe if we don't need to, hey, let's not.''
"When I was a freezing worker I figured, you eat meat, someone's got to do the dirty work, why not you? But then, realising you don't have to, that changes everything.''
He believes being vegan is integral to treating animals well. "They are conscious, sentient beings ... they have thoughts and emotions. In all the most important ways, they are the same as us.''
An animal-based diet is proving to be a disaster for the planet, he adds.
Raising animals for food is inefficient, using much more land and water than is required for growing crops. And animal agriculture is contributing to climate change through deforestation and greenhouse gas emissions.
"A rapid shift from an animal-based diet to a plant-based diet would actually reverse climate change.''
Tayla O'Driscoll is one of the founders of the University of Otago-based Veganism and Animal Rights Society (Vars).
The English and philosophy major took the plunge during 2013 after trying to prove a vegan wrong.
"I was online and came across an angry, aggressive vegan person posting about what was going on in agricultural industries,'' she says.
"I didn't believe what they were saying. I thought it was too horrendous. So I did my own research. When I found out what were daily practices in the dairy industry, it didn't even feel like a choice to me. It was something I had to do.''
Veganism has proved to be cheaper, healthier, more social and better for the environment than Ms O'Driscoll expected.
But her driving motivation is still animal welfare.
"What troubles me is viewing someone as something. We depersonify animals, turn them into objects and view them with dollar signs looming above their heads.
"I just feel really positively about not contributing to any unnecessary animal cruelty or unnecessary exploitation of animals.''
Animals more human than not? Animal agriculture driving the globe to hell in a handbasket? Could it be that vegan assertions about animals are correct? Do we all need to become vegan if we want to save the planet from anthropogenic climate catastrophe?
Prof Hugh Campbell is director of the University of Otago Centre for Sustainability.
Global food politics are right up his alley. He is at a conference in Queenstown this week, but makes time to talk by phone during the drive from Dunedin.
Statistics quoted by vegans about the resources used, and damage done, by industrial animal agriculture are "true and horrendous'', Prof Campbell says.
But New Zealand's farming methods are "extensive'' not "industrial'', which is the method used in the United States, he says.
"From an environmental viewpoint, it [US-style industrial livestock production] is a slowly unfolding disaster. There are serious questions about how much longer they can sustain that.''
Not that everything is perfect in Godzone.
While our beef and lamb systems are increasingly sustainable, dairying seems to be moving in the opposite direction, he says.
Polluting waterways and buying palm kernel extract grown on deforested land in Indonesia are ‘‘not a good look'' ecologically.
New Zealand's dairy industry is frustrating, he says.
"We are so close to being the world leader in terms of ecological performance but we have overshot and now have to retreat to that position.''
There are more choices than simply eating meat or not eating meat, Mr Campbell points out. Between those two positions are "weak ethical meat eating'' - buying meat grown sustainably and farmed humanely - and "strong ethical meat eating'' - taking responsibility for killing the meat one eats.
From an ecological perspective, however, we may all have to become vegan, he says.
"We may have to down the track. If the dominant form of meat production becomes industrial, it's just a complete ecological crime, which will be unsustainable in the longer term.''
Prof Campbell suggests a conversation with philosopher Lisa Ellis, of the University of Otago, would be worthwhile.
He also recalls that veterinary scientists at Massey University have been doing some interesting research in the area of animal emotions.
Prof David Mellor, of Massey University, is one of the world's leading animal welfare scientists.
New Zealand's animal welfare codes are on an equal footing with the best in the world, but that does not mean they are perfect, Prof Mellor says.
The codes have gone from voluntary to mandatory and have become easier to enforce. They have focused on ensuring the basic physical needs of animals.
But ongoing research into the way animals experience their lives means welfare codes will need to continue to change to reflect what is considered acceptable, he says.
In 1955, when Australian-born Prof Mellor was a young teenager visiting his uncle's farm, a common expression was "dumb animals''.
Research now shows that is far from true.
"The notion that individual animals have personalities and temperaments wouldn't have been countenanced back then, but we now know that is the case, and they are often very sensitive and have social structures ... Now there is no doubt animals have emotional experiences, and they can be positive or negative.''
To many urban dwellers, disconnected from the source of their food, that might come as a bit of a shock. But not so for farmers, it appears.
Taieri farmer Mike Lord believes veganism, like vegetarianism, is most likely a stage some young people have to go through.
He is also quite sure we can continue farming as we do and feed the world. And he "absolutely'' knows cows have feelings.
"You can quite clearly see the cow doesn't like her calf being taken off her,'' Mr Lord says.
"Some cows, you take the calf off, they just walk out and get milked; it's just routine for them. Others get quite attached. I've even seen cows try to hide their calves; try to push them into a hedge. If you look at beef cows, they love that calf just like a mother loves a child.
"But the thing is, if we didn't take the bobbies off, we wouldn't get the milk. To me the fundamental question is, are you going to look after what you do and do it well?''
For Prof Mellor, knowing that animals have an emotional life means those working with animals need to be thinking about more than just their physical needs.
"We need to offer animals opportunities to have experiences that are positive. These relate to bonding, care of young, play behaviour, sexual activity, exploration of their environment and gathering food.''
It would still be farming, but non-exploitative farming, he says.
Assoc Prof Lisa Ellis is of a similar mind.
The political theorist, who teaches environmental philosophy and economics at the University of Otago, does not agree with "abolitionist'' animal rights activists who say we should immediately end our relationship with domesticated animals.
"That would mean trying to repair an old harm by committing a new one; by failing to care for all those animals for whom we are now responsible,'' Prof Ellis says.
"I think that rather than insisting on perfect justice now, we should work to end obvious injustices ... The clear answer is that we ought to treat domesticated animals much better than we do."
So, do we all need to go vegan? For the sake of the planet, probably not, Mr Scott concedes.
"But we need to come a long way towards there, so why not take the extra couple of steps?'' he asks. "Why cling on to this obsession with meat, dairy and eggs?''
The evidence does support the vegan call to rethink our relationship to animals, taking heed of animals' experiential and emotional life. But the evidence can only take us so far. Deciding not to use or kill animals, even humanely, would require a society-wide paradigm shift, Prof Mellor says.
"The question of whether it is acceptable to use animals for our purposes, which also includes killing them, is a socio-cultural feature of our belief system.
"Maybe, in time, that will build to the stage where enough people in a country like New Zealand will say, well no, we need now to revise the way we treat animals and we no longer think this is justified.''
Mr Scott sees that day on the distant horizon.
"I think it will be decades before it is the social norm. But, personally, I think it will happen. Not just for animals, or just for the environment, or just for health. But if you tie the three strands together, it's a pretty compelling case.''
Healthy as a vegan
Vegans are even healthier than vegetarians and certainly healthier on average than meat-eaters, Dr Anne-Louise Heath says. But there are a couple of things they need to watch out for.
The University of Otago department of human nutrition senior lecturer says studies show there are definite benefits to a vegan diet.
"We know that for people who are vegetarian, they have lower rates of heart disease and cancers, and lower cholesterol and blood pressure, and healthier body weight than the general population,'' Dr Heath says.
"The interesting thing is that vegans have even more benefits according to all those measures than vegetarians.''
Vegans do need to be careful about getting enough Vitamin B12 and ensuring their children get enough energy.
Vitamin B12 is needed for carrying oxygen around the body and for healthy nerve function.
Meat, dairy and eggs are all good sources.
So, vegans need to choose food fortified with vitamin B12 or take a supplement.
And vegan children do not need to follow the low fat, high fibre diet of adults, Dr Heath says.
"As long as people are having a variety of foods across the day then they will be fine on a vegan diet, even in terms of protein intake.''
