Vegan Speak

It is a common misconception that animals produce B12. In reality, it is bacteria found in animals, excrement, unwashed vegetables and dirty water that produces it. B12 is not exclusive to animal products.

Having said this, in today’s world vegans must supplement B12 with an oral supplement or by eating fortified foods, but this doesn’t invalidate veganism. Stating that because we can’t get B12 naturally from plants implies a vegan diet is bad is a version of the logical fallacy called “appeal to nature“. Not only is it a fallacious argument, but most people that live in modern society supplement their diets in one way or another.

Most of the bread, milk, morning cereals and fruit juices we buy are fortified with vitamins during manufacturing. Table salt often has iodine added, and tap water is fortified with fluoride in some places. All these things are fortified because the vast majority of people fail to get adequate nutrition without them. Even more interesting, a B12 supplement is injected into livestock before slaughter to keep their levels up due to the soil being too intensively used and lacking in certain nutrients.

So the question becomes: would we rather take a B12 supplement and be vegan, or supplement animals with B12, and then kill them to obtain the same B12? The former choice is clearly more desirable.