Why We Must Do More
Print This Post
This is part 3 in a series. Go here for part one, and go here for part 2.
Animal Agri-business knows how to make lifelong consumers of their “products”:
they target children. Here is one example:
The Meat and Dairy Consumer Production Model:
Animal Agri-Business Sells Milk and Meat to American Elementary School Lunch Programs -> American Children Become Accustomed to Consuming Meat and Dairy DAILY -> American Adults Support Meat and Dairy Based School Lunches Despite Overwhelming Evidence That Daily Meat and Dairy Consumption Increases Risk of Heart Disease, Diabetes, and CANCER -> The Cycle Continues…
The Vegan Education Model:
A Small Percentage of American Children and Teens Become Educated About Veganism -> A Small Percentage of Americans Become Vegan
Vegan education generally targets college students, because they are the most willing and able to change their habits and buck social custom. Types of vegan education include: leafleting, virtual leafleting,vegan food fairs, vegan cooking classes, educational and inspiring videos and podcasts, and more.
Nonviolent vegan education creates vegans, vegetarians, and meat-reducers (aka part-time vegans), that is a fact. That makes it worthwhile. It is effective.
However, vegan education alone will not challenge The Meat and Dairy Consumer Production Cycle. As vegan education siphons off some of the animal product consumers, more new animal product consumers are created. And these aren’t just any kind of animal product consumer, they are habitual, excessive consumers. They eat animal products every, single day for virtually every meal. They are, in essence, the kind of consumers that are the most harmful to animals, the planet, and to their own health.
This is why nonviolent vegan education is not enough. This is why we must do more for animals.
The “Do More” Model:
Children and Teens Become Educated About Veganism -> More People Become Vegan -> Veganism Becomes The Standard
The “Do More” Model eliminates The Meat and Dairy Consumer Production Cycle. The “Do More” Model expands The Vegan Education Model. The “Do More” Model creates more vegans, who in turn will do more. The “Do More” Model creates fewer anti-vegans, who will in turn do less.
The “Do More” Model’s goal is to create a world in which veganism is the standard, the default, the norm.
In the “Do More” Model, animal advocates do anything and everything that is
a) ethically justifiable (aka not unreasonably harmful) and,
b) effective (or probably effective) at reducing animal product production or consumption.
The “Do More” Model could include things like: school lunch reform, nonviolent open rescue, legal measures that reduce animal agribusiness’ profit, legal measures that truly reduce animal suffering, public protests, and more. The “Do More” Model doesn’t merely focus on the consumers, it focuses on the “producers,” too. But most importantly, the “Do More” Model focuses on the animals.
The “Do More” Model is up to us to create. We are the ones who DO MORE.
When Congress renews the Child Nutrition Act it must encourage schools to serve healthier meals. Low-fat, cholesterol-free vegetarian foods need to be more affordable, and schools that serve nutritious foods (fruits, vegetables, vegetarian options) should receive additional funding. There is a group that is collecting signatures to try to get vegetarian options in school lunches. You can find it online at http://www.HealthySchoolLunches.org.
Yes, doing more (as long as it doesn’t further ingrain the property status of animals) should be part of activism. For instance, just as a tax-payer, (vegan or not), I think it’s worthwhile to eliminate subsidies to animal agri-business. I think removing the under pinnings of your enemy (on multi-levels) is critical to overall success. But again, only if those “campaigns” are vegan and animal “rights” based.
A really good point and model of how it should work…
~ Recent blog post: Tidy Thinking – Animals Aren’t Food – Go Vegan ~
Yes, we should work to eliminate subsidies to animal agri-business. Agreed
I think honesty, clarity and consistency are paramount to effective campaigning. Even if the majority of people are not fact checkers (a fact that some campaigns exploit), we must still, especially as an ethical movement, not resort to lies. We don’t need them. I’m ashamed of some of the vegan literature I’ve come across, completely rife with misrepresentations and outright lies. We are not a “means to an end” movement.
Educating outside of the community is great, but done by the wrong person, the effect can be counterproductive. I’m not saying we need to halt outreach until everyone is on the same page (as if that were even possible), but I think we can’t ignore education within the community.
Consistency (without irrational notions of purity) will accompany clear understanding of vegan theory, hopefully. We can’t afford to have visi-vegans or other nonvegans believably claiming our movement as their own.
Our message is not unpopular. Many people just don’t realize that their actions are not compatible with their beliefs. Everyone I’ve ever asked has agreed with the statement that unnecessary cruelty to animals is immoral. Many people just don’t realize all of the cruelty is in the unnecessary category.
Nathan Lund