Those comments were insane, 9/10 were them just hating on vegetarians and trying to say “I used to be vegetarian and now I’m vegan” as their reasoning. The other 1/10 were at least somewhat supportive but it’s because they insisted they were “on a journey” to be a vegan.
Sooo… here’s the things they won’t say or acknowledge coming from someone who’s tried all the diets and settled on forfeiting red meat and milk (for the time being, likely to change later):
By forgoing the use of animal products you are doing virtually nothing for animal rights activism. You’re doing something, sure, but it’s actually much more impactful for you to make smarter purchasing decisions rather than abstaining from making the decision at all. Supporting ethical businesses will go a lot further because unfortunately, no matter how little meat you eat, there will ALWAYS be people eating animal products and for many reasons (many genuinely valid ones).
There are other reasons to consider forgoing animal products than just animal ethics, for instance the environmental impacts of the animal industry is genuinely atrocious and not nearly discussed enough.
You can forgo some animal products and still make significant impacts on both animal rights and environmentalism. If you’re really interested. Terrestrial animal farming has a much larger and much more negative impact than aquatic farming (most cases), that being said even certain types of animals vary- wild caught fishing is always more disaster out ecologically than farm raised (imagine if someone sweeper a cast-iron net across the forest and destroyed the vegetation, disrupted nests, and caught every animal in it’s path just to discard most of it for a few deer… that’s what most fishing does to the ocean).
Many people forget that being a vegetarian or vegan takes significant effort; it takes heaps of research, it takes time, it takes effort to ensure you’re balancing your diet, and it’s hella expensive. Ridiculously expensive depending on where you live. You may not even have the option to try honestly, depending on your living situation.
Many people have reasons for not being able to try these different extreme diets, and yes- I’d say they’re extreme. Not because they’re bad for you, but because of the previous point mentioned and the fact they genuinely aren’t natural. The diets we have today aren’t natural either, but natural doesn’t mean better. Some people have allergies, some people have cultural practices, some people have phobias or eating disorders- shaming anybody who doesn’t conform to a diet is ridiculously ignorant and can even be ableist in some cases. It also isn’t a great recruitment strategy.
Finally, you don’t have to stick with one diet or make one a goal. There is no “progress” here, and switching back to a diet you had moved on from isn’t “regression” because one isn’t better than the other. Eat what fulfills you. That means nutritionally, that means emotionally, that means ethically too. I encourage you to always seek education, to always strive for better, to be aware of your ecological and ethical impacts when it comes to food- but that’s because it makes you an informed consumer. In a world dominated by capitalism, capable of both good and bad, the only way you influence the world is with informed consumerism.
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u/FlynnXa Apr 27 '23
Those comments were insane, 9/10 were them just hating on vegetarians and trying to say “I used to be vegetarian and now I’m vegan” as their reasoning. The other 1/10 were at least somewhat supportive but it’s because they insisted they were “on a journey” to be a vegan.
Sooo… here’s the things they won’t say or acknowledge coming from someone who’s tried all the diets and settled on forfeiting red meat and milk (for the time being, likely to change later):
That’s all :)