Why Veganism Is NOT A Diet
“Veganism is a philosophy and way of living which seeks to exclude — as far as is possible and practicable — all forms of exploitation of, and cruelty to, animals for food, clothing or any other purpose; and by extension, promotes the development and use of animal-free alternatives for the benefit of animals, humans and the environment. In dietary terms it denotes the practice of dispensing with all products derived wholly or partly from animals.”
The quote above is the current official definition of the term ‘Vegan’ as defined by The Vegan Society. The Vegan Society was founded in 1944 by six acquaintances, including Donald Watson and Elsie Shrigley, who were vegetarian for ethical reasons. They were dissatisfied that The Vegetarian Society then, as now, refused to condemn the consumption of animal products other than meat.
After all, the likes of milk, cheese and eggs are all the products of exploitation, abuse and cruelty. It makes little to no sense to eschew the consumption of meat while continuing to support the same abusive industry by eating milk, eggs, cheese, etc.
Watson et al had to come up with a completely new word to describe such a ‘non-dairy vegetarian’. After considering numerous possibilities, they settled on the word vegan.
Before 1944, the word vegan didn’t even exist.
From its inception, the term vegan referred to someone who avoided the use of all animal products, not just meat. The term has evolved a little over the years, but is essentially much the same in principle as it was way back in 1949 when key Vegan Society member and vegan pioneer, Leslie Cross, first defined veganism as the “principle of the emancipation of animals from exploitation by man”.
The raison d’être of veganism was was later refined:
“to seek an end to the use of animals by man for food, commodities, work, hunting, vivisection, and by all other uses involving exploitation of animal life by man”
Over the years, there have been minor changes, but you can see that it is way more than simply a diet. It’s a principle, “a philosophy and way of living” which goes far beyond what we eat and is aimed at tackling exploitation and oppression.
Why, then, do so many people today insist on treating veganism as if it were just a diet, like a keto or Mediterranean diet?
It’s great to hear inspiring stories about people’s health and fitness improving after going vegan and there are tons of world class vegan athletes who are also vegan. This makes total sense when you consider all the harmful crap that’s in meat and dairy — things like cholesterol, saturated fat, triglycerides, antibiotics and other drugs, deadly pathogens… the list goes on.
Plant-based foods have been shown to provide better fuel efficiency, increased circulation, shorter recovery times, reduced inflammation and general all-round improvements in health and fitness over the long term, as this article shows.
But if you only avoid eating animal products for your own health and fitness, if your diet is not part of an overall philosophy and way of life which has, at its centre, the ending of exploitation and the de-commodification of all animals, then you’re not vegan — you’re simply on a plant-based diet.
Why is this important?
Words only have meaning if there is a consensus about their definition. I recently heard about a hunter claiming that his ‘vegan’ friend was happy to eat the animals he shot because it was done ‘humanely’, whatever that means.
Clearly, shooting someone dead so you can feast on their corpse is not vegan — it is an act of extreme commodification, of ultimate exploitation and anyone who partakes in these ‘spoils of the flesh’ is not vegan. If we allow the term to be misused in this way, it becomes meaningless — which I’m sure is what that particular hunter and many more like him would like to see happen.
Animals are people, whether we want to admit that or not. The fact that mammals, birds, even cephalopods like octopuses, are individuals with their own thoughts, feelings, fears and desires has long been known to science (and to anyone who spends any time at all getting to know them). Their legal personhood is now being established in law around the world.
Being vegan is about recognising and respecting the rights of those individuals. It is an issue of justice just as much as any human rights issue is an issue of justice.
It is about ending all discrimination based on such arbitrary attributes as race, gender, sexual orientation or species and recognising that, regardless of how different we all may be, we all share self-interest, the desire to be free from oppression and the right to live a free, self-determined life.
