Guest Essay on Ecorazzi.com: Veganism as a Matter of Justice: A Short Reply to the Welfarists

Here is a Guest Essay I did for vegan site, Ecorazzi.com:

Veganism as a Matter of Justice: A Short Reply to the Welfarists

When I promote the position that veganism is a moral imperative (veganism is something we are morally obligated to do) and that justice requires that we be vegan, some welfarists respond: “But you buy your vegan foods at a store that sells animal products and, therefore, you are being unjust so you can’t take the position that justice requires veganism.”

The idea here is that, by buying vegan food in the supermarket and thereby giving money to an animal exploiter, I am no different from those who consume “compassionately” and choose cage-free eggs or crate-free pork, or do “meatless Monday” or “vegan before 6,” or who cheat and eat animal foods “now and then” or who eat them all the time but eat “just a little.” The welfarists claim that I have no business saying that veganism is a matter of justice or is a moral imperative because I am being unjust and I am not recognizing veganism as an obligation.

But that argument does not work. It has no limiting principle and leads to an absurd conclusion.

All money is dirty. So even if I buy my vegan food in a vegan store and not in a general supermarket, if that store employs people who are not vegan, or if the vegan store gets deliveries from people who deliver animal products to other stores, or if the vegan foods sold in the vegan store are grown or produced by non-vegan farmers or producers, or by vegan farmers and vegan producers who employ non-vegan workers, I am, following the reasoning of the welfarists, supporting exploitation.

Therefore, the welfarists are committed to the position that until we have a vegan world, we can have no obligation to go vegan because as long as we don’t have a vegan world, no matter what we do, we will be giving money to animal exploiters.

But that is clearly absurd.

The welfarist position is no different from saying that we cannot promote the idea that sexism or racism is unjust if we patronize a business that is owned by people who are sexist or racist. Given that many businesses are owned by corporations, and corporations are owned by shareholders, and given the level of sexism and racism in the population, that means that 99.99% of the time, when we shop, we are patronizing a business that is owned by sexists or racists. And even if that business is not owned by racists or sexists, there are racists and sexists who have some connection to that business into whose pockets our money is going. Therefore, we cannot say that sexism or racism is unjust because we are always putting money in the pockets of racists or sexists somewhere along the way.

But no one would say that we should not talk about equality as a moral imperative because we have not yet achieved equality. Most people would see the complete absurdity of that position. But “animal people” promote this absurd position when it comes to animals. How very speciesist.

The welfarists also claim that we cannot be “100% vegan” because there are animal products in plastics, road surfaces, tires, and many other things with which we cannot avoid being in contact. Therefore, we cannot insist on veganism as a moral imperative and as a principle of justice because there is no difference between a person who has a cell phone that is made of plastic and contains some animal by-product, and a person who eats a bit of cheese, or free-range eggs, or has chicken stock in otherwise vegetable soup, etc.

Again, this position is absurd.

First of all, being vegan means not eating, wearing, or using animal products where practicable—where one has a meaningful choice. We can decide what to eat and wear, or what products to use. Justice requires that we not choose to consume things that contain the body parts of exploited persons—human or nonhuman—whenever we do have a choice. We do not have a choice about what is in road surfaces or how plastics, which are used for almost everything that exists, are made.

Second, the reason that there are animal by-products in everything is that we kill over a trillion animals worldwide on an annual basis. The by-products of slaughterhouses are cheap and readily available. And that will continue as long as we continue to consume animal products.

Third, we would never accept such an argument in the human context. Consider the following: in a racist and sexist society, white people and men benefit because racism and sexism effectively transfers wealth (money, job opportunities, etc.) away from the people who are discriminated against and to those who are in the classes or groups that are privileged. If we applied the welfarist argument to this context, we would have to conclude that white people cannot argue that racism is unjust because privileged white people have no choice but to benefit from racism (just as vegans have no choice but to use the roads provided). We would have to conclude that men cannot take the position that sexism and misogyny are unjust because men benefit from sexism and misogyny just by virtue of being men (just as vegans come into contact with plastics that are in everything).

But no one would take that position in the human context.

It gets worse. The welfarists claim that, because we cannot avoid animal by-products in everything around us, we cannot claim that it is unjust to choose to consume those products when there is a choice. The welfarist position is exactly like saying that, because white people benefit from racism, there is no difference between the white person who opposes racism and the white person who engages in “just a little” racist conduct. The welfarist position is exactly like saying that, because men benefit from sexism even when they oppose it, there is no difference between the man who opposes sexism and the man who actually assaults women now and then.

Again, no one would take these positions in the human context.

We should reject the welfarist position for the blatant speciesism it so clearly is.

If you are not vegan, please go vegan. It is a matter of a moral imperative. It is a matter of justice.

(Ecorzzi.com essay ends here.)

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If you are not vegan, please go vegan. Veganism is about nonviolence. First and foremost, it’s about nonviolence to other sentient beings. But it’s also about nonviolence to the earth and nonviolence to yourself.

If animals matter morally, veganism is not an option — it is a necessity. Anything that claims to be an animal rights movement must make clear that veganism is a moral imperative.

Embracing veganism as a moral imperative and advocating for veganism as a moral imperative are, along with caring for nonhuman refugees, the most important acts of activism that you can undertake.

The World is Vegan! If you want it.

Learn more about veganism at www.HowDoIGoVegan.com.

Gary L. Francione
Board of Governors Professor of Law, Rutgers University
Honorary Professor (Philosophy) University of East Anglia