Chikuku - I’m a vegan of 17 years, animal rights supporter, etc, and i too believe that there is a sound and significant argument to be made for the environmental benefits of such a diet, generally speaking, especially with sensitivity to food selection and shipping, and especially in comparison to the average diets of many countries, including my own US. But such statements as yours do almost nothing to further the cause: asserting a simplistic causality between eating vegan and saving the lives of starving Africans, or between “everyone eating vegan” and there being enough food for everyone, come across like self-satisfying jingoism, and will only result in justifiable ridicule, especially in the typically hostile world of internet comment threads. At best, someone reads the comment, buys in, later feels betrayed when the facts muddy the waters, and often becomes a staunch advocate against veganism.
It’s a big, nuanced, complicated, messy world, and moral clarity is the tempting dark side. Please read a few (well-sourced, balanced) books on the subject of food/diet/politics/imperialism – if you already have, please flesh out your comments a little bit. And thanks for being vegan. :-)
Chikuku - I’m a vegan of 17 years, animal rights supporter, etc, and i too believe that there is a sound and significant argument to be made for the environmental benefits of such a diet, generally speaking, especially with sensitivity to food selection and shipping, and especially in comparison to the average diets of many countries, including my own US. But such statements as yours do almost nothing to further the cause: asserting a simplistic causality between eating vegan and saving the lives of starving Africans, or between “everyone eating vegan” and there being enough food for everyone, come across like self-satisfying jingoism, and will only result in justifiable ridicule, especially in the typically hostile world of internet comment threads. At best, someone reads the comment, buys in, later feels betrayed when the facts muddy the waters, and often becomes a staunch advocate against veganism.
It’s a big, nuanced, complicated, messy world, and moral clarity is the tempting dark side. Please read a few (well-sourced, balanced) books on the subject of food/diet/politics/imperialism – if you already have, please flesh out your comments a little bit. And thanks for being vegan. :-)