My Issues With “Internet Vegans”

Vegans on the internet have a reputation for being very aggressive and harsh about their views. Some of these so-called “internet vegans” argue that eating any animal products is immoral and that everyone must go vegan in order to have a moral lifestyle. This includes, for example, the former tik toker with the username “That Vegan Teacher,” who compared the current conditions of animals to the Holocaust. 

While many vegans do not share these views, the rhetoric of these extreme vegans who argue that non-vegans are immoral is extremely problematic for a wide range of reasons.

It’s Classist

When internet vegans argue that everyone can and should go vegan, they ignore the fact that not everyone has access to the same food options. Vegan food can be expensive and hard to come by, creating barriers for lower-income people and people without access to a variety of food options.

Many people face food insecurity, which the USDA defines as “a household-level economic and social condition of limited or uncertain access to adequate food.” According to Feeding America, 11.5% of Americans are food insecure. Individuals who are struggling to find food, in general, are very unlikely to be able to choose to only eat vegan options; when the choice is between eating and going vegan, it makes sense that individuals would not pick veganism.

This is heavily impacted by the sheer number of food deserts in the United States. A food desert is defined as an area with limited access to affordable and healthy foods. The USDA found that there are over 6,500 food deserts in the U.S., both in urban and rural areas. It is very difficult for people in these areas to go vegan because finding food, in general, is difficult.

Additionally, a recent study that looked into the demographics of food deserts found that areas with high poverty rates and higher percentages of minorities are more likely to be food deserts. It is also important to note that people who are struggling financially also do not have the same amount of time to prepare food. Some people have to work two or more jobs or take care of children and may have to resort to takeout on a regular basis, which may have fewer vegan options.

It’s Harmful to people with health issues

A vegan diet means your food options are very restricted, which can be extremely difficult for individuals who need to eat certain diets or avoid certain foods for health reasons.

For example, someone with an allergy to soy and nuts could struggle to go vegan. It would be very hard for them to get enough protein, especially if certain conditions or lifestyle choices (like weightlifting) make them need a high protein intake.

Conditions such as irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) could also be difficult to manage while eating a vegan diet. Legumes contain small fibers that, if consumed, can worsen IBS symptoms. Since legumes are such a valuable source of vegan protein, people with IBS may struggle to get the protein they need if they go vegan.

Another example of a condition that could prevent someone from going vegan is anemia, particularly anemia caused by an iron deficiency. When you consider that medical conditions can also intersect with economic factors, it makes sense that certain people with anemia may not be able to access or afford iron supplements or high-iron vegan foods and must instead resort to eating animal products in order to stay healthy. 

It Disregards the Environmental Harms of Vegan Foods

One of the huge arguments people make against consuming animal products is that they’re bad for the environment. While this is accurate - factory farming, in particular, creates large amounts of air pollution and contributes to climate change - the rhetoric that a vegan diet is the only environmentally-friendly option obscures the environmental harms of many vegan foods.

Palm oil is one vegan product that is horrible for the environment despite being completely plant-based. The agriculture to produce palm oil causes vast amounts of deforestation. As of 2018, plantations producing palm oil covered roughly 19 million hectares of the land, much of which was once rainforest. The destruction of these rainforests to create plantations releases tons of CO2 into the atmosphere, contributing to global warming. These plantations also support far less biodiversity than rainforests.

Additionally, it is important to note that the growing, processing and transportation of vegan foods can still have high greenhouse gas emissions. While livestock and fisheries produce 30% of greenhouse gas emissions from food production, crops for human consumption still produce 21%. On top of that, global emissions from food supply chains (which includes transportation, processing, packaging, and retail) add another 18%. While this does not mean that vegan foods are worse for the environment than non-vegan foods, it is important to note that vegan foods still impact the environment. Buying heavily processed vegan food that is shipped from halfway around the world is probably worse for the environment than eating eggs from chickens you raise in your backyard. 

It Disregards Human Rights Violations

People who argue that being vegan is the only moral diet often say so because it does not appear to harm animals (though given deforestation this is still arguable). However, what about harms to people?

Human trafficking is very prevalent in the agriculture industry. While it is extremely difficult to get accurate numbers counting trafficking victims, of the people who called the National Human Trafficking Hotline in 2019, the second largest industry labor trafficking victims were enslaved in was agriculture. However, because farms are typically in isolated, rural areas, it is likely more difficult for trafficking victims enslaved in the agriculture industry to seek help and be counted in these statistics.

Human trafficking victims are forced into the agriculture industry around the globe, including in the United States. Part of what makes human trafficking prevalent in the agriculture industry is that, due to the seasonal nature of the work, many workers are moved frequently from one region to another. This makes it less likely for trafficking victims to be aware of the available support systems in the areas they are trafficked to. Additionally, many agricultural workers are not U.S. citizens, so factors such as immigration status and documentation can be used as leverage to keep them enslaved.

The reason this has to do with internet vegan rhetoric is, when vegans argue that their diets are completely moral because they do not harm animals, they ignore the harms their diets cause to humans. Many foods we eat daily, including vegan foods like vegetables and fruits, are possibly produced using slave labor. By claiming that a vegan diet is moral, vegans obscure the issue of human trafficking in agriculture and elevate the wellbeing of animals over the wellbeing of people. Unless someone specifically knows that their food is not produced by slave labor, it is inaccurate for them to claim their diet is completely moral and does not cause harm.

It Promotes an All or Nothing Mentality

It is true that eating animal products is bad for the environment and is typically worse than eating vegan products. However, saying everyone must go vegan does not help the environment because it can discourage the people who can not go vegan from taking smaller steps to reduce their meat consumption.

People do not need to go fully vegan or vegetarian in order to dramatically reduce the environmental impacts of their diets. A 2019 study found that, if Americans reduce their consumption of beef, pork, and poultry by 25%, there would be 82 million metric tons fewer greenhouse gas emissions per year. 

Reducing meat consumption is often far more achievable for most people than going fully vegetarian or vegan, particularly for reasons like food insecurity or health issues. It is also far less daunting for someone to start eating less meat than to go fully vegan, especially if they do not slowly transition to veganism. 

Therefore, when vegans claim that the only way to benefit the environment through your diet is by going vegan, they not only ignore the benefits of reducing meat consumption but also push the idea that the only change that matters is 100%. This can be extremely discouraging for people to hear if they want to reduce their carbon footprints but can not or do not want to go vegan. There are so many other options, like going flexitarian or pescetarian, that are completely ignored by the internet vegan community. This is extremely harmful because, instead of helping people find environmentally-friendly diets that work for them, it pushes them to give up on reducing their meat consumption.

Going Vegan is Great, But Not For Everyone

This article is not meant to criticize all vegans or a vegan diet. Veganism is a great option for many people that is extremely beneficial for the environment and works to combat the other harms of animal agriculture, such as inhumane conditions. The overall point is that problems arise when vegans start to argue that everyone can and should go vegan.

It is important to remember that people have a wide range of backgrounds, identities, life experiences and struggles that impact their lives. When working in environmental activism (or any form of activism for that matter), it is vital to consider how broad, blanket statements like “everyone should go vegan” may apply differently to people in different situations or how claiming “veganism is the only moral diet” erases other ethical issues.

While, in the future, maybe everyone will be able to go vegan because of factors like advancements in plant-based meat alternatives and reductions in food insecurity, we are not quite there yet. Until we reach a point where our food system functions in a way that is perfectly sustainable and equitable, saying that everyone should go vegan and that veganism is the only moral diet is simply not true.