In the latest Our Hen House podcast, the incomparable Jasmin and Mariann talk about a recent article they saw. In it, the author said how terrible animals are treated by big ag, and how humanity will eventually look back in horror at what we did to farm animals. “But,” the author concluded, “meat is delicious. So I'm going to try to divorce myself from the situation and hope it goes in a better direction.”
Obviously, there is a lot we could unpack here, but the key word is “delicious.” In general, meat eaters eat meat not because they want animals to suffer, but because it is delicious -- and their assumption is that cruelty-free food isn't.
The key take-away from this lesson is to stop judging cruelty-free foods (“Processed!” “GMO!” “Transition!” “Corporate!”) and only promoting our personal diet (“Whole Foods!” “Raw!” “Local!” “Fat-free!”).
Instead, if we really want to help more people stop eating animals, we should promote delicious and familiar cruelty-free foods!
I've seen this work over and over. For example, from the 2015 University of Arizona marketing research:
“On the last day, the students were offered meatless “chik’n fingers.” Despite everything else learned previously during the semester, it was having these that changed one student’s opinion of veg products. Previously a firm “meat lover,” this student was now willing to explore vegetarian options.”
In short: Don't try to force people to eat and believe as you do. Give them what they want: delicious food!
2 comments:
Absolutely. It's so easy to get preachy and turn people off. And on social media I hate seeing videos and photos of cruelty to animals, that's just shocking. But photos of delicious looking food is tantalizing and intriguing. I guess the old saying is true, "the way to a man's heart is through his stomach."
Very good point. It's tasting fake chicken I bought at a store near him that convinced an old friend to go veg years ago. Even though we talked politics and philosophy for hours an hours.
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