Wealthy Westerners imposing veganism on poor and 'developing' countries ?

(Quote from Ptolemy Tompkins)Some people have raised the question of how the vegan movement can avoid being something that relatively wealthy Westerners impose on people who have less options than we have and for whom consuming at least some animal products is a part of their cultural identity.(End of quote from Ptolemy Tompkins)

Good point. Abusing humans in other parts of the world as we try to refrain from abusing non-humans would be a contradiction. But there are some gray areas. Consider examples involving human- to- human mistreatment such as bride burning, female genital mutilation, the selling of young girls as sex slaves, and the general lack of women’s rights in parts of Africa and the Middle East.
Someone skimming over the text here, looking for something to quickly refute might jump to the conclusion I’m saying women and girls are on the same level as farm animals.

That aside, is it Western arrogance if governments, NGOs, and perhaps their corporate partners seek to mitigate, if not eliminate, the oppression of women in non-Western parts of the world such as Africa or the Middle East ?

If your answer would be “it depends on how we’d go about it,” well, then, would that necessarily invalidate taking a similar approach regarding animal rights in other parts of the world?

Also, would like to know exactly what wealthy individual Westerners and what powerful governments, NGO’s, and corporations are imposing veganism on poor and ‘developing’ nations.

From what I’ve read, Western governmental aid agencies, NGOs, and corporations have been implementing into poor and ‘developing’ countries industrial agriculture. That involves—along with dependence on companies such as Monsanto for seeds, and chemical companies such as Dow for fertilizers and pesticides—factory farming.

Perhaps to understate, claims about not imposing vegan diets and organic farming on poor and ‘developing’ countries by those invested in industrial agriculture warrant skepticism from the general public here and abroad, don’t you think ?

In at least some ways, animal welfarism, if not animal rights, is compatible with the movement for ‘sustainable agriculture.’ In light of that, shouldn’t we take a closer look at the PR claims of huge multinationals that dominate the global food industry, when they talk about “feeding the world” ?

 

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