living vegan has never been easier!
this post was submitted on 26 Nov 2023
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Some people unfortunately do not have access to good vegan options. That being said, people can reduce their consumption of red meat significantly and make an impact.
Don’t let perfect be the enemy of good.
vegan options? like produce, grains, and legumes? are you in a food desert yourself?
the "vegan options" you're referring to are at the supermarket, and they are the cheapest items in there.
I have plenty of friends who are vegans. I also have a few who tried it and failed because it’s not a switch you just turn off.
Giving the advice “just go vegan” is bad advice and counterproductive. There should be research into what it means and how to eat healthy vegan meals. You don’t just turn off the meat, which is what a lot of people assume they should do.
As a matter of fact I’d give the advice “go vegetarian, keep the milk eggs and fish, and if you like it and want to go further look into replacing those with some good vegan options.” It should be a process. Unless you start buying Soylent (the product not the movie), but that’s disgusting.
Consuming meat doesn't automatically make you have a balanced and nutrituous diet. If you cared about that, you should inform yourself even if your not vegan.
Also "go vegetarian, keep the [...] fish", lmao.
I went vegan on a random Thursday a few years ago after learning about the ethical reality here, that harming animals for pleasure or convenience is unjustified.
It didn't happen all in one day (the learning that is), but I didn't do any meal planning. Didn't even order vegan food before I decided to go vegan. Next time I went to the store I only bought vegan things. Since then anytime I have the ability to buy vegan goods, I do (which has been 100% of the time because I live in the west in the 21st century).
If you're homeless in the middle of Palestine being bombed relentlessly by a genocidal state, yeah I'm not going to complain about you eating eggs that were given to you from a homeless shelter. If you're rich enough to drive to the store and buy groceries yourself in the U.S or Europe, you have no excuse.
cost, convenience, and culture are the three reasons im not actively vegan. i drink soylent and huel. i do (a lot of ) my own baking. i have lots of vegan friends.
but nothing quite hits the convenience/cost equilibrium like 2/$1 gas station hot dogs. 500 hot calories available 24 hours a day literally on my way anywhere to do anything.
and i'm a community organizer. part of that is meeting people where they are. if i refuse to eat what they're eating, it sets me apart. so i can't very well turn down culturally relevant foods like burgers or hotdogs or whatever is at the picnic.
these aren't excuses. they're reasons. to overcome them, you've got to beat gas station hotdogs on cost and convenience, and convince my region to go vegan. i'm not spending my time on that.
I understand the reasons why people aren't vegan. I also understand the reason why slaughterhouse workers have far higher rates of violence (domestic and non-domestic). I understand why people do terrible things, people aren't born evil. Even Nazis weren't born with some disposition to be evil. It's not like literally millions of Germans just had some natural predisposition to be unbelievably evil and that went away once they lost WW2.
These are learned behaviors. I understand the reasons. They're still not an excuse. You're failing to do what you need to do, and just because I understand why you're failing doesn't mean you're not failing.
Maybe you don't care, maybe you like animal abuse, maybe you know you're doing something wrong and see yourself as a failure. No matter your own views, the mass torture/genocide is still happening, and you're supporting it. Hopefully one day you grow enough as a person to stop.
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Oh no, I'm so sorry for your poor friends. It must have been so hard to not abuse animals. I understand, not abusing animals is hard. When I stopped beating my dog with a rolled up newspaper every day, I was so depressed. I'm sure your friends are going through the exact same thing as me now that they aren't paying for companies to put animals in cages and kill them.
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carbon tax wouldn't fix this, meat tax?
Have you met a rich person who can't avoid taxes? No but seriously even if every steak cost them $1000 it would not deter them because of the current wealth concentration.
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