How to go pragma-vegan
This is part two of a discussion of pragma-veganism. For part one go here.
There are some people that are "ultra capitalist" (or just selfish for short). These people don't care about other people, and they certainly don't care about animals. They will do whatever they want and to hell with the consequences to others. Another category of people are happy to sacrifice all their personal enjoyment in the belief of some higher cause. Most people however sit somewhere in between these two extremes. They would like to help others and care about animal welfare, but they don't want to sacrifice too much of their own enjoyment in the process. I believe that this group of people can make a substantial positive impact on the environment by making small changes to their diet.
Each person should try as many steps as they can, if you feel that your enjoyment of life is suffering too much, take a step (or half a step) back until your happy again.
Step 1. Stop eating red meat.
It seems like this is the worst offender for environmental impact. I've only linked one article but a quick search found many articles citing how bad beef is for the environment and for mankind in general. Its very easy to stop eating it and you wont miss it at all. If you do, then just treat yourself once every month or two.
Step 2. Go vegetarian.
In Britain this is actually pretty easy. Most restaurants have a good selection of vegetarian options and preparing your own vegetarian foods is super easy with lots of ingredients available from all stores. Vegetarian fast food is also just as easy. If you really miss meat how about just once every few weeks? For cooking at home there is an abundance of meat-alternatives that have the same textures and tastes of meat so you wont miss it at all. Dont stop at Quorn. Whilst OK for some, others might not enjoy the taste or texture. Thankfully there are lots and lots of other choices available readily even from supermarkets. As a bonus they are almost always cheaper than meat too.
Step 3. Migrate to a pragma-vegan diet.
The dairy industry is brutal. You'd have to be made of pretty hard stuff to work in it, mostly due to the industrial factory method of production that the world has had to embrace to deal with the demand. A vegans goal (apart from for reducing environmental impact) is to prevent the suffering of animals and needless waste of life. The dairy industry is currently neck deep in unnecessary suffering and death of animals. (not linking here as its too gruesome and a subject for another time).
Therefore to accomplish the majority of these goals it is only necessary to reduce dairy consumption to levels where factory farming isn't required.
This for most people can be accomplished easily with minimal impact on life-enjoyment, whereas going fully vegan, whilst OK for some, will be too much for many people.
Step 3.1 Switch to a milk substitute for your breakfast.
Some milk substitutes don't work terribly well for some things (like coffee) but pretty much all of them are awesome on cereal. (Also great in tea). Also its rare to eat breakfast outside of your house (for most people) so this is easy to control.
Step 3.2 Don't use eggs at home.
There are plenty of other ways to get the protein you might think you need from eggs. If you like to bake a lot you can use egg alternatives like flax. Other egg alternatives can be purchased from health food stores for less than the cost of eggs and they keep longer.
Step 3.3 Switch to a non-dairy vegetable spread (at home).
A lot of vegetable spreads (margarines) have dairy in them. Whilst they contain less dairy than butter (so are a great choice when eating out as most restaurant won't have a non-dairy alternative) why not go fully dairy free at home? You will probably have to do with whatever they have when eating out, choose non-butter if you have a choice.
Other steps.
Fake cheese.
There are lots of fake cheeses, most of them are truly horrible, however some are very good and perfect for sandwiches that you make yourself. Most of the good ones are sold in health-food stores. Unfortunately you may have to try a few before you find one that is enjoyable.
Coffee creamer.
Its not vegan but it does have a much reduced amount of dairy and it keeps ages. Its also cheaper than milk and tastes even better (IMHO).
Vegan meat alternatives.
I love Linda McCartney meat alternatives (especially their mozzerella burger), unfortunately many of them have dairy in. If your trying to be pragma-vegan (or even vegan) you may have to look in health food stores as a lot of other meat alternatives available from supermarkets have dairy in them (such as Quorn). I'm not paid by any company to name them here but I cant help but make a mention of Frys foods as they are almost all amazing. (If you want to send me a some free samples though, feel free :)).
Pizza.
Its very difficult to find pizza that doesn't have dairy cheese that tastes awesome. (And pizza is treat food so it needs to taste awesome). I have now found a pizza (from a health-food store) that is pretty good, but it has to be said, if you enjoy pizza you will probably want to stick to real cheese. If you can find one without then great, but if not why not restrict this unhealthy but yummy food to once every few months or less? Your body will thank you for it too.
There are some people that are "ultra capitalist" (or just selfish for short). These people don't care about other people, and they certainly don't care about animals. They will do whatever they want and to hell with the consequences to others. Another category of people are happy to sacrifice all their personal enjoyment in the belief of some higher cause. Most people however sit somewhere in between these two extremes. They would like to help others and care about animal welfare, but they don't want to sacrifice too much of their own enjoyment in the process. I believe that this group of people can make a substantial positive impact on the environment by making small changes to their diet.
Each person should try as many steps as they can, if you feel that your enjoyment of life is suffering too much, take a step (or half a step) back until your happy again.
Step 1. Stop eating red meat.
It seems like this is the worst offender for environmental impact. I've only linked one article but a quick search found many articles citing how bad beef is for the environment and for mankind in general. Its very easy to stop eating it and you wont miss it at all. If you do, then just treat yourself once every month or two.
Step 2. Go vegetarian.
In Britain this is actually pretty easy. Most restaurants have a good selection of vegetarian options and preparing your own vegetarian foods is super easy with lots of ingredients available from all stores. Vegetarian fast food is also just as easy. If you really miss meat how about just once every few weeks? For cooking at home there is an abundance of meat-alternatives that have the same textures and tastes of meat so you wont miss it at all. Dont stop at Quorn. Whilst OK for some, others might not enjoy the taste or texture. Thankfully there are lots and lots of other choices available readily even from supermarkets. As a bonus they are almost always cheaper than meat too.
Step 3. Migrate to a pragma-vegan diet.
The dairy industry is brutal. You'd have to be made of pretty hard stuff to work in it, mostly due to the industrial factory method of production that the world has had to embrace to deal with the demand. A vegans goal (apart from for reducing environmental impact) is to prevent the suffering of animals and needless waste of life. The dairy industry is currently neck deep in unnecessary suffering and death of animals. (not linking here as its too gruesome and a subject for another time).
Therefore to accomplish the majority of these goals it is only necessary to reduce dairy consumption to levels where factory farming isn't required.
This for most people can be accomplished easily with minimal impact on life-enjoyment, whereas going fully vegan, whilst OK for some, will be too much for many people.
Step 3.1 Switch to a milk substitute for your breakfast.
Some milk substitutes don't work terribly well for some things (like coffee) but pretty much all of them are awesome on cereal. (Also great in tea). Also its rare to eat breakfast outside of your house (for most people) so this is easy to control.
Step 3.2 Don't use eggs at home.
There are plenty of other ways to get the protein you might think you need from eggs. If you like to bake a lot you can use egg alternatives like flax. Other egg alternatives can be purchased from health food stores for less than the cost of eggs and they keep longer.
Step 3.3 Switch to a non-dairy vegetable spread (at home).
A lot of vegetable spreads (margarines) have dairy in them. Whilst they contain less dairy than butter (so are a great choice when eating out as most restaurant won't have a non-dairy alternative) why not go fully dairy free at home? You will probably have to do with whatever they have when eating out, choose non-butter if you have a choice.
Other steps.
Fake cheese.
There are lots of fake cheeses, most of them are truly horrible, however some are very good and perfect for sandwiches that you make yourself. Most of the good ones are sold in health-food stores. Unfortunately you may have to try a few before you find one that is enjoyable.
Coffee creamer.
Its not vegan but it does have a much reduced amount of dairy and it keeps ages. Its also cheaper than milk and tastes even better (IMHO).
Vegan meat alternatives.
I love Linda McCartney meat alternatives (especially their mozzerella burger), unfortunately many of them have dairy in. If your trying to be pragma-vegan (or even vegan) you may have to look in health food stores as a lot of other meat alternatives available from supermarkets have dairy in them (such as Quorn). I'm not paid by any company to name them here but I cant help but make a mention of Frys foods as they are almost all amazing. (If you want to send me a some free samples though, feel free :)).
Pizza.
Its very difficult to find pizza that doesn't have dairy cheese that tastes awesome. (And pizza is treat food so it needs to taste awesome). I have now found a pizza (from a health-food store) that is pretty good, but it has to be said, if you enjoy pizza you will probably want to stick to real cheese. If you can find one without then great, but if not why not restrict this unhealthy but yummy food to once every few months or less? Your body will thank you for it too.
I absolutely agree with you, Samuel. My wife was vegan and an animal activist long before I was. I watched a few ethical and health veganism documentaries with her and became vegetarian, but at a public screening of Cowspiracy I experienced a melding of two previously wishy-washy beliefs that galvanized into a resolve to do something about it. This was in a room of die hard ethical vegans (including my wife) who were happy to have a new axe to grind to make everybody vegan. The presenters of the screening were both strongly environmentalist as well as animal agriculture abolitionists, and formed a new group called Climate Vegans on the spot. My resolve to become vegan increased, though I resisted identifying myself as such at work. I am building a vegan pledge program for the Climate Vegan webpage, which started out as a "try being vegan for a week." To me, this could be an important tool to get the population, mostly ambivalent to animal ethics but generally aware of humanity's effect on the environment, to make a connection between the two. The abolitionists agreed that it should be changed to a perpetual pledge to become vegan permanently -- there's no time to waste, people need to be committed vegans now to avoid passing eco tipping points more than the ones we may already have passed. I made an argument similar to the one in your first paragraph -- many people will care, but if it's a cold Tofurkey commitment to veganism the answer will be no. True desperation can't accept no, and I don't want to be spending a weekend doing a pledge signup drive and turning away people willing to go vegetarian, or switch to nut milk, or won't make a full time commitment until they try it. For abolitionists and Yoda "there is no 'try.' Do."
ReplyDeleteI gave in, and ultimately I think it's the right choice to stay hardline as an organizational STRATEGY. However, I think it makes for an excellent TACTIC to suggest a transitionary diet such as you've suggested in pragma-veganism. There is definitely a significant "no" crowd that would be interested to listen.