Reading Time: 3minutes Attitudes towards veganism and animals are changing
Reading Time: 3minutes
“First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.” So allegedly said Mahatma Ghandi – and I’m not about to disagree.
When it comes to veganism – which is taking enormous strides towards the mainstream – we seem to be oscillating between the mocking and fighting phases. It seems almost impossible for me to scroll through Facebook these days without seeing some dim friend of a friend mocking the ‘hipster vegans’.
But what are these people doing when they laugh at vegans’ efforts?
Veganism hinges on three things – sustaining the environment, eradicating animal use and abuse, and maintaining the optimum health that a well-balanced plant-based diet can deliver.
When it comes to animal abuse, many seem to see compassion as something to ridicule. This has always struck me as moronic. There’s nothing weak about standing up against something you see as wrong – especially when this goes against received wisdom.
You only need to look back through history to see a catalogue of abhorrent, unthinkable practices that were once considered normal. I hope the abuse of animals as food and entertainment will one day be seen this way by the majority.
The thing is, when you laugh at vegans and their efforts, you are doing the dirty work of the animal agriculture lobby.
When you laugh at vegans, you are effectively promoting the systematic torture and abuse of animals that goes on in so many slaughterhouses. You are propagating a powerful marketing machine.
Workers were filmed putting out cigarettes on the animals, stamping on them, slapping them. Slicing their throats while they were still conscious, throwing them by the ears. Some slaughtered animals show signs of sexual abuse.
Meat eaters frequently bemoan how emphatic veggies are about their lifestyle choices: in fact the opposite is often true. Look at this poll published in Time magazine. While 30 per cent of meaters wouldn’t date a veggie, only four per cent of herbivores would discriminate against omnis.
Many are calling this year, the year of the vegan: there’s certainly fiscal reasons to think so – just look at the market share plant-based companies are now taking in the milk sector for example. Not to mention the huge number of people participating in Veganuary (some 2,000 per cent more in 2016 than in 2014).
High street chains are starting to offer more vegan options – you can see the tide turning.
With more and more plant-powered people than ever, the openly hostile and aggressive meaters are starting to look tired, their arguments cliched, their jokes unfunny.
Maria is the editor of Plant Based News. As a former magazine editor, newspaper reporter, and features writer, her work has been published by The Guardian, The Huffington Post, and various regional newspapers, as well as Vegan Life magazine and Vegan Trade Journal. She has interviewed a huge range of people, from Prime Ministers to authors, activists, pop stars and actors, and enjoys the varied range of topics writing for PBN allows her to tackle.
More by Maria Chiorando