Hello, and welcome to Eight Years In. And if you’re a returning reader, welcome back! As many of you may know, here on Eight Years In, we love veganism. That being said, after nine years of living a vegan lifestyle, I have a lot to say about veganism’s little failures and downsides. And there’s something in the vegan community that I feel could and should be improved. There’s this idea that veganism is essentially bulletproof, infallible, and the be-all, end-all. And well, if you ask me, that’s simply not true.
Veganism is not a panacea
It may seem strange if this is your first time hearing a vegan speak this way. But the fact it is your first time hearing any vegan talk about veganism like it is anything less than sunshine and rainbows all the time is only further proof of the issue here.
I understand the community’s desire to show veganism in a positive light, but I do think it goes too far sometimes. And in fact, I think that it goes too far in general. This idea that veganism is the be-all end-all for everything is incredibly toxic. What happens to those of us who go vegan and find out that our lives are not incomprehensibly better? No, I think that looking at veganism like the carrot on the end of the stick, while it can make more converts in the short term, doesn’t help us in the long term.
If our goal is to get more vegans long term, we need to learn to be honest and realistic with what you can expect when going vegan. And we can’t claim that it’s a cure-all. Because personally, I don’t see the progress in getting more people to “try veganism”. Not just to have the bad experience of having been tricked, lied to, or simply disappointed by their “lack of results”. The fact is, veganism can be wonderful! And I feel it is one of the best decisions I’ve made in my life. But it’s not without its downsides and it doesn’t fix everything.
And with all of this being said, I wanted to make a post today. Because while I’ve talked about all of the best parts about veganism (here) and all of my least favorite things (here), I haven’t talked about veganism’s limitations and where it falls short. So let’s talk about what veganism can’t and doesn’t do!
Veganism is not going to “fix your health”
The first thing I want to talk about is the fact that going vegan on its own won’t make a night and day difference in your physical health. At least, probably not, and not right away.
Veganism is simply the avoidance of animal products in your diet and everything else you consume. And it’s true, every change to your diet has the potential to change your health. But that doesn’t mean that eating a plant-based diet will automatically make you healthier than you were two months ago as a nonvegan.
The reason for this is simple: not all vegan diets are healthy, and not all nonvegan diets are unhealthy. If you swap out your reasonably healthy nonvegan diet for an unhealthy vegan diet, you’re not going to see physical improvements. The people who see improvements in their physicality right away are the ones that were eating unhealthy before and found veganism as a way to eat healthy. And the ones that feel improvements almost immediately are people whose previous diet was way worse than their new plant-based one. Also, when people go on a plant-based diet for their health and talk about the glow, a lot of them also begin to pick up other healthy habits, like hydration, getting enough sleep, and exercising.
I’m not saying veganism will not make you healthier. I’m just saying that they can’t chalk the benefits they get from starting a healthy lifestyle up to veganism entirely. If you want to get healthy, that’s a separate journey than going vegan. And many people find they work together quite nicely—myself included. But if your vegan diet is all french fries, Gardein nuggets and vegan treats, you’re not going to go through some grandiose transformation.
Going vegan is good for the environment but you won’t save it alone
Now another reason people cite for going vegan is the environmental impact. Plant based products don’t need as much water to be produced. And they don’t tend to contribute as much of a carbon footprint. But this isn’t a panacea either. First of all, there is a range within veganism where you might be choosing the kinds of vegan food and products that aren’t really saving much compared to the nonvegan food and products that you were once consuming. But even more than that, your living a more green lifestyle isn’t going to save the world on its own.
I think this is something we have to come to terms with when it comes to a lot of different issues. Your lack of participation in a problem doesn’t inherently solve it. And I think it’s something many vegans are able to see and wrap their heads around when it comes to the ethics of eating animals. It’s much more straightforward when you’re dealing with individual lives.
Supply and demand means that the more you don’t contribute to animals being consumed, the less animals will be killed and packaged up for consumption. And while that’s quite simplified, it is, at its base true. If you can save just one life through your supply and demand, you can reason for that one life you’ve saved, it’s worth it. Not to mention that it is worth it not to participate in the demand for the end of that life even if you can’t save it. As far as ethics and morality go.
It’s harder when we’re looking at something a little less straightforward, like our planet’s survival. I mean, sure, the earth is alive in some sense of the word. And most of us would agree with that, but it’s not like it’s alive or dead like an animal. This can make it difficult to quantify our own impact on the world. And while it still makes sense for us to make the best impact we can (or at least the smallest bad impact we can), it’s important to keep in mind that it’s not your job to save the world alone. Not only that, but you can’t.
If you’re trying to go vegan (or do anything) for environmental reasons, you have to keep in mind that you probably won’t directly see the fruits of your labor. That doesn’t mean that it’s not worth doing. But it does mean that you can’t think of it in those terms.
There are still animal deaths in the production of vegan food
While I mentioned that you can’t save all the animals just by going vegan, there’s further to be mentioned. The fact is that some animals are killed in the production of vegan food. The main way that people will cite is the animals that are killed during the harvest or crops, as in insects and field mice (etc) when the big machines come in and do their thing. And this is true. These animals exist, they count, and it is not “too much” to worry about their well-being. It also makes sense to want to search for reform to consider how to stop or at least lessen the amount of animals that fall to such a death.
That being said, these figures don’t compare to the amount of animals killed for a non-vegan diet. The insects and field mice are still killed on accident (or by negligence) during harvest of the plants. And then these plants go to further fatten up the animals that are then slaughtered on purpose on the behalf of us humans and what we believe to be normal and nice customs. Veganism will not solve all animal death for the production of our food. But it doesn’t make any sense to use that as a sort of “gotcha” for veganism.
If we had a vegan world, we would find that the amount of animals killed in the process of making our food would go down significantly.(Although not automatically to zero.) We should definitely care about all the animals killed. But that doesn’t mean we should place the accidental deaths in front of the purposeful deaths when we order our priorities and our actions. That would be illogical.
Veganism doesn’t solve human exploitation
And we hear further from mostly nonvegans about the human exploitation side of the production of vegan food. And I think it’s important to bring up exploitation of workers. Whether they are in the factory or field or anywhere else. Going vegan certainly does not mean that nobody was harmed for your food.
Whether we’re talking about lack of unions, child-labor, or horrific harvesting conditions of cashew-based products (to name a few examples), it’s important to learn to be more aware of what our tastes are necessitating in terms of suffering. I do think that my interest in veganism helped me raise my awareness of these issues within our food system, even in vegan products. But it’s true that veganism itself doesn’t address such things. And if we want to be ethical, it’s imperative that we open ourselves to keep learning and doing what we can to mitigate our participation in atrocities. Also, to help change them if we can.
There are always other issues
And I think this last point really gets to the heart of what I’m trying to say here. There are always going to be other issues to care about. I remember when I first went vegan, I had a conversation with someone who was quite close to me. I couldn’t understand how when I told them about the atrocities of the animal agriculture industry, they were so shut down and uninterested in taking away their participation in them. What they said to me was this: “I think that certain people are just meant to pick certain issues to care about. And I don’t think this is mine.” To this day, I truly cannot understand this as a justification to keep participating in something you know is wrong.
The longer I’ve lived as a vegan the more I realize that it doesn’t make sense to be a single-issue person. Whether that’s veganism, racism, ableism, feminism, classism, climate change or any of the issues that face our lives today (in no particular order). A full, well-rounded person is going to care about more than one thing. There’s not an end to the amount of issues that you can care about. Your activism might be limited to a couple of areas at a time. But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t attempt to amend your habits to not participate in the problems that you’re aware of.
But the thing is, this attitude goes both ways. For nonvegans, they view veganism as what seems to be an all-consuming issue. They don’t want to pick it up for fear that their whole life would have to revolve around it. And with vegans, I find many would like to push away other issues they’re made aware of. It’s due to this “I’m vegan, that’s enough” idea. And what I’m saying is, don’t sell yourself short. You are a full person with the ability to care about multiple things at once. It won’t crumble you. And it won’t crumble the world. There are many things that you could (and arguably should) care about. No single action is a cure-all. Not even veganism.
Veganism isn’t perfect, but it is valuable
It doesn’t take anything away from veganism to admit that it isn’t going to fix everything. In fact, in my opinion it adds to veganism’s strength. If you’re able to be realistic about what veganism does and cannot do (instead of being defensive and trying to paint it as a cure-all utopia), then it shows just how valuable it is. Because veganism isn’t going to fall like a house of cards at the slightest little poke. It’s a philosophy and series of actions that stands up to scrutiny on the simple basis of trying your best to be an ethical person.
Veganism wasn’t ever meant to fix everything. We don’t have to be so guarded about that fact. And furthermore, I think that if we are able to be more open about that, many people will respect us and our veganism more than they have in the past. I don’t want to get more short-term converts by being intellectually dishonest with people. Personally, I just don’t see the value in it. It makes more sense to show the true value of veganism. While we may attempt to persuade others, we should do it in a way where they’re able to make an informed decision. Them going vegan will reduce their negative impact on the world. But it’s not going to save it all on its own. That, dear reader, is quite a bit more complicated.
Thank you for reading my thoughts. If you are vegan or interested in vegan content, consider subscribing to the blog. I talk a lot about the social and emotional aspects of veganism, as well as simple lifestyle tips and ideas for improving our impact on the world around us. And whoever you are, I hope you have an awesome day. Bye for now!