Opinion: If Vegans Couldn’t Convince People To Give-Up On Meat, Maybe Capitalism Will
The vast majority of humans have not changed their diet or lifestyle for the sake of animal wellbeing. Instead, what has moved the needle and has given many animal activists an optimism, is capitalism.
SUMMER ANN BURTON: ‘Veganism isn’t a diet, it’s a radical ethic that reshapes the relationship between humans and other animals — one that rejects their industrialized commodification and demands their liberation. But in recent years, “vegan” has come to stand in for a much wider array of beliefs and motivations. Many have adopted plant-based diets for their health, to lose weight, or on the recommendation of doctors following a heart attack or a diabetes diagnosis…
This ever-expanding umbrella has led to a general sense that veganism is a growing movement — and movements are made to be capitalized on. Corporations both new and old have shown up to make money from demand for plant-based foods, and judging by the overwhelmingly positive chatter around companies like Beyond Meat and Impossible Foods, they are making a killing…
This puts vegans, who have spent decades advocating for a serious ethical shift regarding our relationship with animals, in a difficult spot. For us, the case for not eating living, feeling beings by the billions should be self-evident: why would you, if you don’t have to? But it’s clearly not at all self-evident to most people. The vast majority of humans have not changed their diet or lifestyle for the sake of animal wellbeing. Instead, what has moved the needle — and has given many animal activists an optimism they’re totally unfamiliar with — is capitalism.
Money from wealthy investors is pouring into these new corporations, money is flowing between these new companies and the fast food brands whose major profit center is still dead chickens and cows, and money is coming in from curious consumers who are lining up for vegan KFC tenders and Impossible Whoppers. This new industry rises not because of us, but in many ways despite us. Money: it still works!’ SOURCE…
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