Good point. I agree that vegan products can be a lot more expensive. But this can actually benefit your health! If you stick to whole foods (dried beans and rice from the bins at the grocery store, etc) you will have an extremely healthy vegan diet. If you save the Coconut Bliss and Earth Balance and Daiya Cheese for special occasions, you'll have exceptional health!

One quick tip on getting fruits and veggies on the cheap - go to your local Farmer's Market, or if you have one in your area, Trader Joe's. The regular price of Trader Joe's organic spinach is $0.40 less than Safeway's conventional spinach in my town!

Hi Paul,

Sarah here. I re-read my blog, and can see why you would think that I was saying that people can be "percentage vegans," but I'd ask you to re-read it carefully. I have always sided with your complaint, and actually wrote a blog about it back in September called "Vegan-ish", (http://thevegannextdoor.blogspot.com/2011/09/vegan-ish.html) about how I really don't like it when people claim to be partially vegan. As you pointed out (and I agree,) you can't be part-vegan, as veganism is a philosophy. You can be partially eating a plant-based diet, but you can't be partially vegan.

In my recent blog, I point out that there are people who are beating themselves up because they are not 100% vegan. This, which I may not have made clear, means they are now not vegan. So, if you re-read it, knowing my intent, you'll notice several comments:

"...people who USED TO BE 100% vegan but now slip up ..."

"...Just by saying, “I really strive to eat a vegan diet and am about 95% of the way there,” ..."

"Whether you’d like to be vegan, but haven’t yet made the final leap, whether you USED TO BE vegan but have recently fallen to temptation..."

" If and when the time is right for you, you will go vegan."

I believe these comments point out that if you aren't eating a full-vegan diet, you are not technically vegan.

But I believe you missed the intent of my article. My intent, and what I hope you will see too, is that even if a person isn't 100% vegan he or she is still doing amazing work at making a difference. That is what I want people to focus on. You and I may not struggle being 100% vegan, but there are countless people who do. When they are given a hard time because they still put milk in their coffee, they are likely to get discouraged and give up completely. I'd rather take people who are almost vegan and encourage them to keep trying, than to point out their dietary imperfections and have them give up completely and go back to a standard American diet!

I appreciate your willingness to be the devil's advocate. I have a lot of respect for people willing to stand up and speak out.

Regarding cost, while some vegan products are more expensive than the non-vegan ones, we need to remember also what vegans are NOT spending money on. In my area (Florida), Publix supermarket had these sale prices this week: NY Strip $7.99 lb; Porterhouse and Beef Tenderloin both $9.99 lb; 12 oz pack bacon $4.99...of course, chicken, esp. leg quarters are cheaper, but most meat eaters often buy the steaks and bacon.

Also, costs of meat eating, for many, go far beyond the grocery store--these costs often arise when people enter their 50s or even sooner: heart bypass surgeries for clogged arteries is one example. I was raised in Florida on Southern food: fried pork chops and fried chicken, gravy, beef roasts, collards with bacon grease--I am very familiar with the foods that many in my family still eat. But 5 of my cousins have had multiple bypass surgeries; I'm 60, have been vegan over 10 years, and am in excellent health: low bad cholesterol, high good cholesterol, and low tryglicerides (fat in blood).

So, as for cost, I'm not buying meat, and I'm not having to pay deductibles for doctors, hospitals, and surgeries, and I'm paying the cost in personal pain of those surgeries..even more importantly, I am not allowing non-human animals to pay the price in pain and death when their flesh is totally unnecessary for my good health.

Makes sense.