Italy's First Travelling Vegan Exhibit!
Sponsor:
As vegans, we are all well aware that our purchasing
decisions are among our most powerful opportunities
to act as a voice for or against animal suffering.
Buying from vegan-owned businesses has the effect
of recycling money into the community. If each of
our dollars is a vote for or against animal abuse,
then we greatly compound the strength of our message
by not only avoiding animal products ourselves, but
by making the effort to pass our money along to other
people who will spend it conscientiously as well.
VeganMercantile.com:
a partnership of vegan owned businesses providing
the largest online selection of vegan, cruelty free
products in one convenient location! Support your
community--BUY VEGAN!
"The owner of a huge egg farm — battered over fly infestations, foul odors, and polluted creeks — gave up control of its day-to-day operations a month after the state began revoking its permits. Buckeye Egg Farm owner Anton Pohlmann was trying to find a buyer for the company, which produces 4 percent of the nation's eggs: 2.6 billion last year, state records show."
"The participants tending toward omnivorism differed from those leaning toward veganism and vegetarianism in 2 principal ways: The omnivores (a) were more likely to endorse hierarchical domination and (b) placed less importance on emotional states."
This article was written in 2002. As of this date (Feb, 2005), the BK Veggie patty itself has been reformulated so as to be no longer vegan.
We've received some critical feedback in response to our articles regarding the BK Veggie Burger (BKV).
It is worth noting that Vegan Outreach has not argued that vegans must, or even should, buy the burger. However, in addition to believing that the BKV is a great step forward for the animals, we think the animals could be helped by moving away from defining "vegan" as someone who cannot eat anything from a certain list of ingredients. Rather, as we write in Why Vegan, we should focus on veganism as "striving to live without contributing to animal suffering." Specific to the BKV, vegans should be allowed to buy the burger without other vegans condemning them.
Of course, the ultimate trick is to get meat eaters to choose the BKV. Gaverick Matheny has already experienced some success:
[BK's] regular customers are exactly the people I hope to persuade to eat the BK Veggie Burger. If vegans believe they can persuade more of such people to eat the BK burger by trying it themselves, I think they should. I took friends and family to Burger King, and at least three of them are now hooked.
We also sympathize with the viewpoint of some vegans who want other vegans to buy the burger in an effort to ensure the success of a veggie burger for the fast-food-eating crowd.
Below are some of the comments we’ve received, followed by our responses.
The last thing these industries would want is for the BKV to succeed.
Because "religion" is a sort of trump card in areas of law, under certain circumstances, it could prove beneficial to have the courts and government respect veganism as a religion. However, in the interest of promoting veganism to the public, we believe the animals are best served by avoiding the label of religion. Anti-racism generally isn't considered a religion; anti-speciesism needn’t be either.
We respect the position that vegans should do everything to avoid all products of animal origin, but we don't agree that, at the present time, this is necessarily the way to reduce the most animal suffering.
There is a way -- though it may be convoluted and confusing to the public -- that veganism can be defined so as to disallow bone-filtered white sugar while allowing plant foods with insect remnants (due to harvesting), plant foods fertilized with cow manure, products transported in boxes held together with glue, etc. However, the avoidance of sugar takes veganism into what must seem to outsiders as the realm of the absurd. Additionally, we do not see how avoiding sugar can, at this time, help the animals whose bones are used (or will be used in the future).
How does one establish necessity?
The question should be: "What is necessary to minimize animal suffering," given the inevitable trade-offs of time, money, and energy spent avoiding nonvegan ingredients, versus our example to others and different means of reducing suffering. We have to keep these trade-offs in mind instead of thinking that avoiding certain ingredients is the end of our moral obligations.
For us, veganism is a tool for reducing animal suffering.We don't want to needlessly offend people by using the term vegan police. However, using the term gets some people (such as those who seek to inform other vegans certain foods aren't "vegan" by their definition) to reflect on their motivations. In most cases, we do not think it is helping animals. If someone asks someone else if something is vegan, then the person who answers cannot be accused of "policing." But if they offer the information without being asked … well, what else can you call it?
If someone is mindful of the end they are trying to accomplish and whether their action will help achieve that end, then that person's actions are not being dictated by dogma. However, when someone avoids something only because it's "not vegan," then they are acting from dogma.
It's not always easy to find out if the bread in a restaurant contains whey, eggs, dairy, sugar, or honey. As polite and charismatic as one might be when questioning the waiter, observers get the impression that to be vegan you must do bold and uncomfortable things. This gives them a welcome excuse for thinking they could never be vegan.
An example of not acting from dogma, so as to reduce animal suffering: Say you’re out with nonvegetarian friends who want to go to BK, and there will be no other options for you for a few hours. In this case, eating the BKV would show your friends that vegans have food choices and do not have to fast. This could reduce more animal suffering – especially if you can convince one of them to get the BKV, too. Saying, “You should eat the veggie burger, but it’s not ethically up to my standards” sends a mixed message.
Do we want respect, or would we prefer results?
Perhaps the best course is to emphasize to our friends that it's not necessary to be "pure"; they can reduce their support of animal cruelty by avoiding obvious animal products. This makes the avoidance of cruelty more obvious and more convenient. Why present veganism as an impossible (to them), idealistic philosophy?
In our experience, for every person who has been turned on to veganism by seeing a shining example of consistency and purity questioning waiters and hosts, a greater number have been turned off by thinking, "I could never do that." A practical vegan example is more welcoming to people who want to help the animals, but fear the slippery slope to fanaticism (or religion) and/or having nothing to eat at times when the only foods available are judged to be taboo.
Purity is great for self-satisfaction. But for persuading others, purity has less force than convenience.
Why Vegan is an excellent publication to provide to academics, as it is well-cited and well-written. I'm happy to distribute them as much as I can.
IM, Washington, DC, 5/7/02I have been completely inspired by you.
If it weren't for Why Vegan, my husband and I would have never gone vegan or become activists. I was a vegetarian for 6 years and he fought me for 3, even shoving hamburgers in my face. It almost broke us up. Then, when going through a junk drawer, he came across a very old, black and white copy of Why Vegan that I had gotten from a friend years back. That long ago, the lifestyle had seemed light years and millions of steps away. I was a content vegetarian addicted to chocolate and cheese pizza. I am happy to say that we ordered our last cheese pizza almost 2 years ago! We got married only 3 months later (in October) The photos in that old, beat up pamphlet completely changed his mind about everything. I might even have considered going vegan before that, but even going to restaurants that offered vegetarian options had been a battle with him. He'd felt I was too picky. The night he found that pamphlet, I came home to find him dazed and disturbed and he didn't touch a bit of meat after that!
SR, 5/4/02I know I would not have thought of being this active in promoting veganism about things without your site, so I thank you very much for giving me the motivation I needed.
CF, San Francisco, CA, 5/4/02
Like Spam? Tell a friend: http://www.veganoutreach.org/spam/
To read previous issues of Spam, please see the summary page.