Hmm, I feel this makes some philosophical leaps I’m not entirely comfortable with. There are reasonable objections to veganism beyond “I just want to keep eating tasty things.” For example, veganism can involve health trade-offs. For some people, these are serious enough that I wouldn’t recommend going vegan at all. On top of that, it’s not cost-effective: in many cases, someone could do more good by earning and donating to a group like FarmKind than by giving up animal products.
I’m still vegan, though if I’m honest, that seems mostly driven by virtue signalling at this point. I think factory farming is a genuinely horrific system, but I’m seriously considering reintroducing some animal products — particularly beef and dairy. For me, these would make life significantly better, cause less suffering compared to many other animal products, and I could offset the harm through donations.
Do more good: Veganism isn't about harm reduction. It's an objection to the belief that animals are here for us to use. Here's the original definition: Veganism is the ethical principle that humans should live without exploiting other animals. This is a moral baseline. We should be donating and doing activism as a moral imperative.
You believe veganism is about reducing harm - but that's a misunderstanding of veganism. It's a moral principle against animal exploitation. It's more revolutionary than harm reduction. The principle in itself does lead to harm reduction, but the purpose of it is a mentality shift in the human psyche. You may find my article "Every Vegan Activist Needs to Learn This" interesting: https://stanleybetts.substack.com/p/every-vegan-activist-needs-to-learn
Hmm, I feel this makes some philosophical leaps I’m not entirely comfortable with. There are reasonable objections to veganism beyond “I just want to keep eating tasty things.” For example, veganism can involve health trade-offs. For some people, these are serious enough that I wouldn’t recommend going vegan at all. On top of that, it’s not cost-effective: in many cases, someone could do more good by earning and donating to a group like FarmKind than by giving up animal products.
I’m still vegan, though if I’m honest, that seems mostly driven by virtue signalling at this point. I think factory farming is a genuinely horrific system, but I’m seriously considering reintroducing some animal products — particularly beef and dairy. For me, these would make life significantly better, cause less suffering compared to many other animal products, and I could offset the harm through donations.
Some relevant links:
LessWrong post: https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/Wiz4eKi5fsomRsMbx/change-my-mind-veganism-entails-trade-offs-and-health-is-one
FarmKind offset calculator: https://www.farmkind.giving/compassion-calculator#try-it
Curious to hear your thoughts.
Health trade-offs: there are no essential nutrients you can't get from an adequaltely planned plant-based diet. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/19562864/
It's not cost-effective: A plant-based diet can be extremely cheap if you stick to whole plant foods. https://www.forksoverknives.com/how-tos/plant-based-budget-one-week-vegan-meal-plan/
Do more good: Veganism isn't about harm reduction. It's an objection to the belief that animals are here for us to use. Here's the original definition: Veganism is the ethical principle that humans should live without exploiting other animals. This is a moral baseline. We should be donating and doing activism as a moral imperative.
You believe veganism is about reducing harm - but that's a misunderstanding of veganism. It's a moral principle against animal exploitation. It's more revolutionary than harm reduction. The principle in itself does lead to harm reduction, but the purpose of it is a mentality shift in the human psyche. You may find my article "Every Vegan Activist Needs to Learn This" interesting: https://stanleybetts.substack.com/p/every-vegan-activist-needs-to-learn
I think these are reasonable points -- I don't have capacity to read these atm, but will get around to them!