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noisytenant · 1 year ago

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2 - thoughts on veganism?

i will fully admit to ignorance here, i'm not really well-versed in the details of industrial farming, animal welfare, etc.

long post because i am incapable of not having a lot to say

on veganism as ideology:

veganism usually exists in the conversation either as an ideological endpoint--"nobody should eat meat or use animal products" or as a personal choice.

i don't sense that global veganism is a viable political solution due to sustainability concerns (which i will elaborate on momentarily), and i don't feel that the use of animal products or slaughter of animals is innately disrespectful or immoral. so i'm simply not veganpilled, what can i say.

people constantly evoke the specter of the "militant vegan", but honestly, i feel like militant veganism makes the most sense--if you think it's wrong to eat meat or animal products, you would want it to stop happening in general. i disagree with the political stance, but i also think it makes more "sense" than just having it as a personal choice. that being said, i appreciate people who live more aligned with their values, so i feel equal respect for political and choice vegans, though i see them as fundamentally different.

i'm always going to advocate for organized collective action over individual lifestyle choices, and for smaller strategic goals over ideologically pure fantasies. i think that i can work with political vegans on things like improving quality of life for livestock, reducing dietary dependence on unsustainably farmed animal products, investing in alternatives for animal products, etc. but eventually we would have to part ways, because i'm not interested in eliminating animal consumption.

sustainability is my priority. it's my understanding that factory farming is very unsustainable--but so are many vegan alternatives, at least if they were farmed to meet mass demand. the central issue is global capitalism driving land use toward maximum profit.

it's my understanding that one of the more pragmatic solutions for sustainability is a priority on local farming. by reducing the demand for the same foods year-round, we stop running farms that are built to feed the entire world out of one lucky biome. this affects fruits and vegetables as much as proteins. i think this is a more worthwhile goal to strive towards.

when we move toward sustainability, we have to recognize that animal products are a privilege, not a right. i believe the reduced volume of animal products can and should coincide with improved welfare and respect for livestock.

ultimately we all have a limited number of political issues we can go full-send on. i'm content to be someone who will never really take the lead in agricultural sustainability or animal welfare. i'm happy to support initiatives that cross my path, and i hope in exchange some stray vegans will come out in support of my "abolish prescriptions" initiatives (joke)

on veganism as a restricted palette of ingredients:

i grew up in a very meat-eating white (with some caveats) family. i didn't really understand what a healthy and balanced vegetarian/vegan diet looked like. i kinda thought it was just salad until i was about 16 or so, because it wasn't common where i lived. i generally lament the lack of diversity in my culinary palette when i was young, but i especially regret that i was unaware of how easy and good vegan and vegetarian cooking is.

a lot of dishes outside of the narrow white american purview are naturally vegan or vegetarian, or can easily be made so with one omission/replacement. i think the twin veg-isms should be treated like other dietary restrictions--they're as much built from circumstance as they are from ideology.

i like the challenges imposed by cooking for dietary restrictions and think veganism inspires creative solutions. learning to appreciate vegan and vegetarian cooking allows you to better accommodate people's dietary restrictions in general.

tl;dr:

veganism as a political end goal doesn't seem very practical, and i don't think animal slaughter or product use is inherently bad. i think sustainable farming is a more realistic goal that overlaps with certain vegan interests. vegan and vegetarian cooking is diverse and rich, and there are many awesome veg dishes that don't "aspire to be veg". we should explore different culinary practices and learn to accommodate restrictions to become better chefs and more worldly people.

#indexed post #i'm surprised to receive this one but yknow fuck it right. i'm nothing if not opinionated

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