Oxthink

Having been a vegetarian for over thirty-five years, I have often been challenged as to why I don’t go all the way and become a vegan.

For many of those years, I justified the halfway house as mainly a matter of practicality. It was too difficult to be a vegan. Years ago, restaurants didn’t cater for vegans, supermarkets didn’t stock vegan products, and convenient vegan products didn’t really exist.

The food would also have been rather bland and unexciting.

In those days, the few vegans that were out there were sickly looking, malnourished, hippy oddities. They didn’t really inspire you to follow their lifestyle choice.

However, more recently, I have been reconsidering my position.  I have been giving serious thought to taking the next step and becoming vegan.  It certainly wouldn’t be as hard to do as it used to be, and, being vegetarian as it is, I’m most of the way there anyway.

The reasoning for becoming vegan, though, would be very different to the reason why I chose to become a vegetarian.

Quite simply, I am a vegetarian because I do not believe that other living things should die so that I can live.

Now, the normal logic to follow this would be that I should be vegan because I do not accept the cruelty that we inflict on animals in the interests of providing for a diverse and, what is claimed to be, a nutritious diet. However, I struggle to accept this argument. Of course, I condemn unnecessary abuse and cruelty to animals but I cannot accept the wider welfare argument as being a basis for changing my dietary behaviour. I believe – and this will be controversial – that the exploitation of animals for their produce is acceptable. Why? Because this is exactly what we do to people.

Frankly, I don’t mind the using of animals, either in a farmed or a working capacity; I just don’t want them killed. We use and take advantage of people all the time, so it would be rather hypocritical if I had some moral consciousness over animals but then didn’t make a stand against the way we treat our fellow human beings.

And, for the most part, I cannot do that.  The problem is that within modern civilisation, I can only sustain my current lifestyle and comforts by the direct or indirect use and manipulation of other human beings. Long hours at work, poor living conditions, low wages, a harsh working environment… the world survives and prospers on exploitation. There is always somebody somewhere who is disadvantaged, who is suffering for the well-being of others.

We may be able to outlaw the extremes such as child labour or slavery, but more widely and less visibly, exploitation is a common, daily and necessary practice.

I suppose I could make a claim for an idealistic notion that we should live in a world where we are all respectful of each other and no one takes advantage of anyone. But that is just not the nature of either the world we live in or the people that we are. There will always be haves and have-nots, powerful and weak, rich and poor. That’s just life. We have to live with that.

My view is that so long as no creature – animal or human – is killed or injured for my benefit, then that is acceptable.

It would therefore be rather disingenuous for me to justify a vegan lifestyle based on the idea that we exploit animals when we are equally exploitative of our fellow human beings. If my concern is animal welfare, I can and should consider other options that prioritise the animal’s well-being, such as buying free-range or organic products.

Another consideration many people cite when adopting a vegan diet is that it is much more environmentally friendly. It uses fewer planetary resources. This is a very noble justification for changing your lifestyle. However, as an individual action, it is meaningless and insignificant. It can only be relevant and consequential if it is part of a much wider movement. Given that vegetarianism has hardly taken the world by storm, the notion that veganism’s time is ripe seems rather optimistic.

So, I will come clean. The reason why I’m thinking about becoming vegan, like all powerful motivations, is much more self-centred. It is for the health benefits that a vegan diet offers. It should give me more energy, make me feel fitter, help me lose weight, and make me healthier. It purportedly offers both short and long-term benefits.

The only consideration, therefore, is whether or not those benefits justify the dietary sacrifices I would have to make.

For me, adopting a vegan lifestyle would not be a matter of principle. I would be doing it neither for the animals nor for the world. I would be doing it for myself.