Tuesday, July 11, 2017

Veganism vs Animals

My friend Tobias (whose new book is out) recently explored whether Israel really is the vegan miracle many claim.

Tobias cites claims that Israel is "the most vegan country," a "vegan paradise," and even considered "proof" of the efficacy of certain vegan advocacy tactics.

According to other sources, Tobias shows that Israel's per capita meat consumption is one of the highest in the world. Worse, Tobias notes they are the largest consumers of chickens in the world.

This means that in Israel, the average person eats more factory-farmed animals than anyone else. Although it may be a great country for vegans, it is the exact opposite for animals.


We tend to judge news based on how it makes us (vegans) feel or how it helps us (e.g., more vegan options). But for me, vegans aren't the measure we should use. Rather, the only metric that matters is how many animals are suffering and dying.

In other words, we shouldn't judge something as "good" solely because it's vegan, good news for vegans, or proof of vegan "victories." Instead, we must look at how a new tactic or news actually impacts animals. Given that per-capita consumption of animals is at an all-time high (in the US and Israel), we need to focus on actually helping animals, rather than making vegans feel good.

2 comments:

Brian said...

This concept should be stated in all explanations of Effective Altruism

Vincent Berraud said...

This article describes what I think with 100% accuracy. And its title is spot on.