The Vegan Sell

1990:

What happens to the people who become rich off the backs of animals? Or take advantage of any other resource to the detriment of the ‘greater good’? Perhaps they suffer for it in their own way, but this is the story of the human species itself, where we use resources in an unsustainable way, not to mention sometimes a cruel way. The arguments for restraint and acting for the ‘greater good’ don’t seem to be very convincing to us. It seems that ‘bad’ might just works better for us.

But laying all that aside for the moment, if we are one of those people who can’t forget the part animals play in our lives, who want to drop their own use of them and persuade others to join them, we must sell the alternative. A vegan approach is not perfect but at least it deals with non-violence and doing things for the greater good rather than out of self-interest. That in itself is an inspiring position to take up. A vegan diet doesn’t solve everything, for instance it doesn’t address how plants are grown and how arable farming in the form of monoculture destroys the land, but it’s a start.