Veganism Sometimes Isn't Intersectional
Recently I posted an article about my acne and ended up getting a comment from a user suggesting I switch to veganism. I fully understand that they are trying to help but I have my reasons as to why I still need to eat animal by-products.
I’ve decided to make this post about explaining my reasons in full.
Availability of Vegan Replacements
Finding certain vegan favourites can sometimes be difficult. Not impossible, but still difficult.
Due to my location, I am unable to acquire fresh produce through the internet, so as a result, I need to take a trip to a grocery store.
I have been scouring stores for years now as an adult and for some reason I have never seen hempseed and kale for sale.
Vegan Replacements Can Be Expensive
As for vegetables that I can find, often these are imported from elsewhere as my own country may not be able to grow some of these foods.
I am currently only earning RM200-RM300 a month (it fluctuates) so imagine me switching out the following: RM18.90 for almond milk in order to replace RM6 for 1L cow’s milk. Once again, I do not live in the capital city, so there’s no store here selling almond milk in the first place. Plus, I have not even accounted for all my bills. Frankly, if it’s between boycotting meat vs keeping the lights on, I am choosing the latter.
Boycotting Meat Doesn’t Fix the Industry
The Good Stuff covered this topic quite well. Ben Runkle adopted a strict Vegan diet when learned about the horrors of the large scale meat farming but 8 years later, he decided to become a butcher instead. People will probably continue to eat meat so why not work on “better meat” than “no more meat”. Ben suggests to go to your local farmer’s market and support truly free range farms.
On my end, we get our eggs straight from the source, which is cheaper than going to the store. But I admit that these eggs aren’t free range. Once again it’s really because of where I am living, there really aren’t as many options as there are in the West. The few times we do get something free range is “kampung” chicken.
Abused Farmworkers
Al-Jazeera reports of foreign workers labour for 18 hours a day relentlessly processing food. A lot of these food businesses earn billions of dollar, however, little profit goes back to its workers. Instead, food is picked by exploited labour. Often workers are grossly underpaid and face abuse and harassment.
I feel like the day I can afford to live a vegan lifestyle, I will, only if more can be done to fix the food industry inside and out.
If you find veganism easy, then good for you. Go ahead and be a proud vegan activist, just realize the things you say to non-vegans can be quite classist.
Articles of interest:
The Truth About How Food Gets To Our Table and Who Gets Hurt Along the Way
https://everydayfeminism.com/2014/03/farmworkers/
4 Ways Mainstream Animal Rights Movements Are Oppressive
https://everydayfeminism.com/2016/03/animal-rights-oppressive/
Organic Farms Yield 20% Fewer Crops Than Conventional Farms https://www.acsh.org/news/2016/08/25/organic-farms-yield-20-fewer-crops-than-conventional-farms
How To Be An Ethical Carnivore https://io9.gizmodo.com/how-to-be-a-conscious-carnivore-1370968240
11 Ethical Ways To Eat Meat That Won't Kill The Planet https://www.buzzfeed.com/louisegray/ethical-meat
I'm not vegan simply because I have no interest in promoting agendas that aren't important to me. I think humanity should be vegan, or at least, consume animals responsibly, but I have no need to push this forward. When veganism will be accessible, easy, readily available and fairly priced, I'll gladly join in.
I was a vegetarian for many years, tried going vegan, and then decided that my body wanted meat again. I'm grateful that my family has enough money to eat organically and make ethical choices when it comes to meat, often buying from local ranchers whose animals are raised on open ranges. We get eggs from a local farmer as well. Each person needs to do what is best for them, and everyone's circumstances are different. This was a great post to illustrate that point.
As a vegan, I do agree with the overall message. The thing with global platforms like Steemit is that you really do not know much about who you are talking to and their social context. Veganism is not practical in a lot of places yet. It is up to those who can afford to do it. Furthermore, considering the positive impacts on both health and environment, the authorities can contribute to making healthier food not as inaccessible. Even when it comes to stuff like peanut butter, pasta, etc, the cheaper food has always more sugar and more processed, and the more natural is more expensive. If people are paid to live on the poor-quality foods, the responsibility is on the ones with bigger power (in my opinion).
Vegan replacements tend to be too expensive. However, locally, there has been such an increase in demand that some of the products are not as expensive (or at least, they don't import the most expensive brands only). As for farming, there should be a lot more regulations, obviously. I don't like that in many countries, there aren't strict regulations on pesticides and chemicals, which may, in turn, harm the environment directly or indirectly anyway. In itself, fresh produce is in no way bad. It's the human application of farming and abuse of people that makes it immoral.