Written by Deborah Schimberg
This past November was World Vegan month! But that isn’t the only reason we’re thinking about what it means to be vegan. With the launch of our new certified vegan Glee Gum, we wanted to share why we felt it was important to feature not only the Non-GMO Project Verified logo and Kosher certification, but also, our new vegan certification, on our packages.
Plant-based diets are becoming more and more popular these days- in fact, since 2004, there’s been a 3000% increase in the number of vegans in the USA! Today, almost 10 million people, or 3% of the population eats no meat, fish, or other animal by-products, like milk, eggs, or honey.
Generally, people choose a vegan lifestyle for one of 3 reasons: they are concerned about the animal cruelty and human labor in the meat and animal processing industries, they are concerned about climate change, and/or they feel that a plant-based diet is healthier.
Meat production accounts for as much as 15 percent of all greenhouse gas emissions, and clear-cutting for pasture land destroys 6.7 million acres of tropical forest per year. So eating lower on the food chain helps food more people and protect our natural environment. Also, the conditions for workers in slaughterhouses and industrial agriculture industries are routinely exposed as being inhumane. There is also lots of evidence that eating more nutrient-rich plant-based foods is good for our hearts, helps protect against some cancer, etc. 3 pretty major justifications for changing what we eat.
But isn’t all gum vegan? No! In fact, Glee Gum until recently had both beeswax and resinous glaze in the colored gum coating to make it shinier. Not any longer- we believe that going vegan means living more lightly on the Earth. Our certification makes it easy for vegans to recognize that Glee Gum has had all its ingredients verified. Change what you chew!
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