Questions Regarding Veganism

May 22, 2025 admin activism, vegan, vegan diet, vegan life, veganism, vegans 0

James McWilliams

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A friend of mine is wary of the responsible omnivore movement or pasture-raised, organic approach to producing animal products, saying “they want any excuse to quit.”

But (1) Why would someone want to quit being vegan?

“Could it be that there is no one “right” diet for everyone? Could it be that some people can thrive on a plant-based diet while others can only reach optimum health eating omnivorously?” —Why I Quit Being Vegan

 

 

(2) But as it pertains to ecological integrity and maybe not veganism, per se, how can looking for excuses to quit  make sense, in that the long-term strength of an ecology-based life is that when one embarks on it, there’s likely no turning back, because thru greater awareness we see our former, more egotistic, more materialistic worldview as counterfeit joy?

(3) I value the work of vegan activists in that even if people become vegan and then stop for some reason, they’ll probably never be the same in terms of their mentality toward nonhumans and toward nature in general.

(4) To what extent do some of the people who stop being vegan do so because they genuinely think it’s not the most effective way to maximize the benevolence  and minimize the harm one does?

(5) I myself have gotten upset with at least one former vegan, a person who goes by the name Arragorn! Perhaps it’s arrogant to assume former vegans, or vegans that are less strict about it than we are  are stupid, weak-willed, lazy, or easily misled? That should go without saying, but this has been a volatile issue for some of us.

(6) One of the reasons the ‘responsible omnivore’ crowd interests me as potential allies is that years pass by and very little is being done to stop the torture of billions of sentient individuals. The big companies that dominate our industrial food system and abuse farmed animals can work around, and in some cases even exploit, the vegan niche within the broader market. To what extent might vegans do more to help nonhuman animals if we build common ground with non-vegans ?

(7)To what extent does it make sense to build coalitions for building wide opposition to factory farming and opposition to industry practices that are so egregious that just about anyone would  recognize it as wrong?

(8) Vegans are seen by many in the general public as the lunatic fringe of the environmental movement. I don’t share that view, but that public perception is a problem if we are to build coalitions.

(9) Why not take a two-part approach : further develop the abolitionist perspective among vegan and animal liberationists, whereby we explore in earnest things such as a stock-free organic system for producing food, fiber, and medicine, on the one hand; while, on the other hand, working with animal welfarists to build widespread opposition to factory farming?

(10) A look at Progressive organizations and publications indicates some interest in animal welfarism, as part of the broader approach of anthropocentric social justice, where the concentration of political and economic power is a main concern, along with anthropocentric concerns about climate change, GMOs, and other ‘environmental’ issues.

(11) But animal liberationism isn’t widely embraced within the Progressive movement or the Global Justice Movement, not to mention within Conservative political movements.

(12) Why allow veganism to be a wedge within the Progressive movement that distracts us not only from working together to stop the worst abuses of nonhumans, but also distracts us from working together against various forms of human-on-human exploitation and oppression?

(13) Why not be honest about where we disagree (on animal liberationism), and then, where we do agree (on more immediate, pragmatic animal welfarism), build coalitions to dismantle the big industrial model that abuses countless  human and nonhuman individuals?

(14) To what extent would you say that, without wide public opposition, the big machine, so to speak, that tortures countless individuals is more likeky to keep chugging along, irrespective of vegan niche markets?

(15) Though I see value in vegan Facebook groups, I respectfully ask whether we can do more than talk about shopping, dining out, and meet ups with people who we assume agree with us. To what degree would you say that the vegan movement needs more in-depth discussion on figuring out how to reduce, if not end or prevent, the suffering that abusive systems cause?

 

 

(16) What happens when we look deeply at the entire process of growing food, fiber, medicine, and other things to meet human needs–from how it’s grown, how it’s harvested, how it’s processed, packaged, and transported ? When we do that, how might we thereby further our understanding of veganism?

(17) To what extent can we still call a plant-based product ‘vegan’ when we account for the entire cycle, and account for the affects on living beings, given that much of the ‘vegan’ foods widely available are the products of industrialized agriculture?

(18) To what extent is stock-free organic farming doable ?

[“I’m also not sure how effective purely plant-based fertilizers are compared to those containing bone meal, blood meal and other animal products. After all, in a perfectly natural system, animals die and their bodies decompose back into the earth, thus becoming fuel for plants and completing the circle of life1.”Why I Quit Being Vegan, Niall Doherty

 

[ “I believe you can love and care about animal welfare and still consume them.I believe that a vegan, whole-foods diet saved my life and is a delicious, valid, healthy style of eating for many people. I believe that a vegan diet should be promoted as one of many possible ways to get the body and life that people crave.I believe most people should be eating more vegetables and less processed, chemicalized, processed junk food.I believe we should restructure the way animals are raised so that they live in more natural, comfortable, humane surroundings and stop force-feeding them 80% of all antibiotics used in the US. I believe humans are animals. And some animals need to eat other animals to be healthy. Some do not. And I believe in the innate kindness of people. And that by having compassion for each other, no matter how we eat, we are creating a new food culture, and a better world.”—Alexandra Jamieson

[ “Another reason I don’t think most people will remain vegan is because I don’t think that veganism provides adequate solutions to eliminating the innate problems that exist in our current industrialized food system, a system which is simply untenable, vegan or not. I no longer believe veganism can be practiced in a truly local and environmentally healthy way in most parts of the world because it would necessitate reliance on the same unsustainable pillars that support our current system. To live as locally and sustainably as possible while also maintaining our health will in most circumstances, in my opinion, require the inclusion of animal products in our diets.

“Trying to foist a vegan diet onto every person and every ecological niche in the world is catastrophically ignorant. I don’t think that in a society of humans that truly respected the complexities of a healthy planet, that large-scale global veganism would even be considered an option. It is unsettling how many vegans make claims about farming and the environment without any first-hand knowledge of the subject. The only reason so many people can advocate veganism is because most of those people live in highly industrialized communities and have no notion of what it takes to grow food and no experience living in equilibrium within their local foodways.”

“I think the best thing we can do to confront the problems we, the animals and our planet face is to take part in organized political action. Consumer solutions are not the answer to this crisis. I try to remember that what I buy or don’t buy isn’t enough to fix anything. We need to come together to transform the entire system. If we don’t, no matter how many cartons of soymilk or veggie burgers we buy, we are still headed for catastrophe.

I believe we should grow and produce as much of our own food as possible. It is important to get control over our own food, locally, so we can grow what is right for us and for our land base. We must confront the forces that keep our land and our food in the hands of multinational corporations that threaten our right to feed ourselves and our families. When we do have to buy something, I would aim for it to be local, organic, humane and fair-trade, but to always keep in mind that shopping can’t solve any of our problems.

It sounds very strange and is something that might only be understood by us ex-vegans, but I feel in a way that I’m more than ever living the principles of veganism now that I am no longer vegan. As a vegan I would get so caught up in the label that I would repeatedly make decisions that were not actually the best thing for animals. Buying a carton of soymilk that was produced partly in Europe and partly in South America and then flown to me here in the Middle East most likely killed far more animals and devastated a lot more environment than if I were to purchase a jug of locally and sustainably produced organic goat’s milk.

When we make the choices that are best for our local ecosystem and our planet as a whole, we are doing the best thing for the animals. For animals and for the planet it is better if I eat locally, humanely and sustainably raised chicken eggs than if I buy imported and industrially produced egg replacer. For animals and for the planet it is better if I wear a locally and sustainably created wool jacket than if I buy an imported and industrially produced fossil-fuel-based synthetic coat. For animals and for the planet it is better if I eat locally and sustainably caught fish from plentiful shoals, than if I buy an imported and industrially produced vegan DHA supplement. Now that I’ve moved away from arbitrary dogma and embraced a more holistic and realistic viewpoint, I feel that I am able to live far more sustainably, which is ultimately the best thing I can hope to do.

But as an ex-vegan I have to say that I think one thing it accomplishes very well is to have us focus our time, energy, and money on consumer solutions that only rearrange the deckchairs on the Titanic. Mainstream veganism advocates ‘solutions’ that are at best band-aids over the current crisis, and ultimately reinforce our ecocidal industrialized food system. Arguing over trace amounts of egg whites in a loaf of commercially produced GMO-laden bread while our planet continues to self-destruct is not really an accomplishment to boast about. To heal the planet we need nuanced and adaptable strategies that recognize and respect real world complexities, not arbitrary and myopic moral guidelines that ultimately reinforce the system.”  Let Them Eat Meat ]

[ Cold Antler Farm ]

[Farm Forward]

[“the ‘happy exploitation’ effort has one goal: to make the public more comfortable about animal exploitation.” Gary L. Francione]

[“At Farm Sanctuary, we spend our lives with farm animals, and we wouldn’t eat them or their eggs under any circumstances. We recoil at the abuse of hens in all systems, including cage-free and colony cage conditions. But we also work to abolish the very worst abuses of farm animals, and it’s hard to imagine anything worse than the tiny, barren, cramped battery cages where 250 million hens currently are forced to spend their lives.”- Bruce Friedrich, Farm Sanctuary]

 

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————–No Meat Athlete

Here is a useful site Gentle World

The following links are from Vegetarian Myth Myth :

 

Spiral Seed—Graham Burnett

Busting myths: Veganic agriculture/permaculture/stockfree

Go Veganic

Vegan Organic Network

Stock Free Organic Services

Veganiculture

Books :

 

Regarding specific issues, are plant-based products that contain palm oil ‘vegan’ ? How about clothing and accessories that contain polyurethane, a material that’s harmful to marine life as it breaks down in landfills ?

What the heck is vegan leather ?

How eco-friendly is vegan leather anyway?

Six Truly Eco-friendly Vegan Leathers

Because of these questions, I’ve loosened my embrace of the label ‘vegan.’ I intend to engage people about how we can “meet our needs with as little harm and as much benefit to lifekind as possible.” Can you think of a better formulation ?

To what extent do you think a person can apply that formulation according to her own lights, doing the best with what she has where she’s at ?

To what extent do you think that labels are ‘spiritually’ constraining, leading one to either ignore other social justice issues or requiring one to do mental acrobatics regarding social justice ‘intersectionality’?

To grossly understate, there is merit in regarding nonhumans as beings in their own right. But, to what extent, if at all, might one legitimately argue that if not God, then nature put animals on the Earth so that humans can have food, drink, fiber, medicine, and other materials for meeting our needs?

It might be more sound to argue that nature didn’t “put” this or that nonhuman here so we could use their bodies and their labor, but that instead, humans are in at least some cases acting in harmony with nature by using the labor and bodily materials of nonhumans. I’m working on figuring out my views, and in turn, my actions regarding this issue.

If our goal is to meet human needs with as little harm and as much benefit to lifekind as possible, that presents some questions. To what extent are our moral considerations quantitative in a Utilitarian sense, given all species of lifekind equal consideration?

Assuming we could keep track of that and make a calculation on the total greatest good for the greatest number, considering all species of lifekind, would that mode of ethical decision-making jibe with the reality of human psychology, whereby we seem to unavoidably give some fellow humans greater moral consideration than other humans, while also generally giving human beings greater moral consideration than nonhuman beings?

Let’s set that question aside for at least a moment, to consider another. How can we determine whether we are causing less harm and promoting more well-being for humans and nonhuman sentient beings, when we compare the impact of meeting human needs for food, fiber, medicine, and so on thru locally based ‘organic’ farming that involves ‘raising’ and killing animals, with the impact of an entirely plant-based meeting of human needs for food, fiber, medicine and so on that relies on an industrialized, globalized market where good travel long distances and require a lot of packaging?

To what extent is it a false choose between ‘organic’ and ‘local’ omnivorism, on the one hand, and non-local and possibly also ‘non-organic’ veganism, not limiting our evaluation to food ?

In other words, to what extent would our energies be best invested if we strove for combining, as movements,  the ‘local,’  the ‘organic,’  the ‘vegan,’ the non-GMO, and so on ?

To what extent is it possible or feasible to have permaculture based ‘local’ sources of food, drink, fiber, medicine, and so on without nonhuman animal labor and without otherwise using nonhuman animal bodies?

Worth exploring, critically, is Veganic Permaculture, as an attempt to combine the ‘organic’, ‘local’, ‘non-GMO’, ‘vegan’ and possibly other movements.

Maybe it’s your forte, but I’ve little interest in restaurants and shopping when it comes to the radical challenge of veganism. No offense, but the restaurant talk which dominates the Vegan Facebook group threads seems shallow and  to me it’s glorified consumerism. I’d prefer a deep look at how we can meet our needs with as little harm and as much benefit to lifekind as possible.

As for the plants we eat, how about listing in a guide veganic farms that grow and sell all that—in Central Ohio, in Ohio in general, in the Midwest….?

How about farms growing our fruits, veggies, grains, nuts, and seeds that use no animal inputs, while also using no pesticides, herbicides, and natural-gas-based fertilizers?

Please understand, I’m not being rhetorical. I’m genuinely interested in vegan food, fiber, and medicine that does not depend on the industrialized system of fossil-fuel-intensive, monoculture farming.

Veganic permaculture is worth an honest look and try. Having said that, it might make sense to look hard at the total process, from seed to plate, to weigh the harm we cause by an industrial-ag-dependent ‘vegan’ diet versus the harm we cause via a local diet that involves some organically raised animal products (which, by the way, I generally don’t consume). Thanks

 

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