Why Veg?
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What are the main motivations for choosing plant-based meals?
We can speculate all we want. We can say vegans want to be part of the elitist club that thinks they’re superior to nonvegans. We can say people eat less meat for environmental reasons. We can say meat consumption is driven by the economy and people eat what is cheap. We can say whatever we want, but speculation doesn’t make anything true. Let’s look at the research…
MEAT REDUCERS:
Although most adults in the U.S. are maintaining the same level of meat consumption, those who have made recent changes are three times more likely to have reduced rather than increased how much meat they eat. Meat reducers and semi-vegetarians are significant segments of the adult population, while actual vegetarians and vegans remain a small minority.
Dietary choices — including meat reduction and vegetarianism — are most heavily influenced by a sense of self-interest. Taste preferences and personal health concerns are the greatest influences, rather than concerns about animals or the environment, a finding that presents both opportunities and challenges for vegetarian advocates. Specifically, health reasons are the drivers of meat reduction, while taste preferences are the leading barrier to meat reduction. (source)
VEGETARIANS & VEGANS:
vegetarians are motivated by a primary motivation but that with time, other motives transpire, this confirming that multiple motives do drive behaviour. Nonetheless, motivation for such change in both attitude and behaviour should not be considered in a vacuum, but as part of a complex process which incorporates other determinants such as cultural context, childhood experiences, and other direct sources of influence. (source)
and
research suggests that vegetarians may follow a trajectory in which initial motivations are augmented over time by other concerns, thereby reinforcing the vegetarian dietary choice and complicating its motivations. (source)
Many meat reducers have pretty much given up beef, and to some degree pork, but continue to eat chicken, turkey, and fish. Wonder what would happen if they came to believe that these meats were also bad for their health? I suspect that a few would then make the progression to vegetarianism, but that most would sort of throw up their hands and say, “Oh well, can’t give up ALL meat!”
I think that attitude is a little cynical and frankly I don’t think it’s warranted. I know plenty of people who are “meat reducers” and are on the vegan train. They might not be vegan, but they’re not so scared by vegan food that they’d simply go back to eating cows and pigs if/when they learn the dangers of other animal products like eggs and fish.
I didn’t say they would go back to eating cows and pigs, although I wouldn’t be surprised if some of them did. I think many of them would simply keep eating chicken, turkey, and fish.
Personal health is what first made me give up red meat, and then cut out almost all dairy products (yogourt and cheese were the last to be omitted). It wasn’t until I read about factory farming that I decided to go vegan, and it wasn’t until I went vegan that I started to care about the environment. Now I’m vegan primarily for ethical reasons, but yeah, motivations may be different and they may change, and that’s why I think we need to promote veganism on all the different levels that will appeal to as many folk as possible.
.-= So I’m Thinking Of Going Vegan´s last blog ..trying to be cruelty-free continued =-.