The Lazy Veg*n Is Welcome
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“I am, as my roommate puts it, a ‘lazy vegetarian’-I cook without meat not out of some deep commitment to animal welfare but because I’m nervous about cooking meat after a nasty bout of salmonella.” (source)
Some abolitionists would disagree, but I’m more a behaviorist. Intention matters, but only to a point. I’m much more interested in creating a world of habitual vegans than a world of people who care about animal rights, but who don’t actually do anything for animals.
How about you? Do you care why people ditch meat or does it matter that they do it for the right reasons?
I agree with you, avoiding meat is a good thing to do, even if you aren’t an animal rights activist otherwise.
However, doing it for the “right reasons” means one might stick with it longer. If that columnist ever gets over her fear of salmonella, she may go back to meat without a second thought.
I wonder if she has a reason for specifically distancing herself from animal welfare concerns.
~ Recent blog post: World Vegetarian Day at [site] ~
I think the impetus ought to be a concern for nonhuman animals – or basic interests more generally – if only because it is this premise that provides the necessary motivation to be a “forever vegan” in a climate that actively opposes doing so. However, if someone chooses a plant-based diet without accepting the premise, I would gladly greet them because, in the end, it’s the animals that matter. I would just hope that their reasons are stabilizing enough. Therefore, in short, the “right reasons” (whatever they are?) do not matter: This is consequentialist reasoning of course, but it follows given the context.
To me, health reason could be considered as a “right reason” too.