Question 2 – 'If you could stop or at least lessen factory farming by providing market competition by consuming or eating free range eggs and meat, would you consider it?'
This is the second question my ‘Paleo Diet’ friend sent me. However, he also added ‘This is my beef about vegans. By you guys deliberately NOT consuming free range eggs, organic meats etc. you make little pragmatic difference to stop this whole (factory) farming of animals.’ He also states that if free range products were more readily available he could make a ‘more’ ethical decision.
So put another way, I should buy into a lesser form of cruelty in order to create more demand, thereby supporting a free range market thereby reducing suffering? The first point I have to make is that free range farming is still cruel and not morally justifiable as the animals die in the same slaughterhouse anyway. Therefore, this would encourage people to still do something that is immoral. By not buying any animal products, animals will never be bred for my consumption to begin with. This is perhaps the most significant difference any one person can make to the lives of farm animals. It is estimated that one vegan saves the lives of well over 100 animals every year. I therefore ask, how is Veganism not a pragmatic approach? If every vegan and vegetarian converted to free range products there would be a significant spike in demand requiring the meat industry to breed more animals. How is this the morally right thing to do? Sure, this may increase the prevalence of free range products but it will not change people's individual decisions about what they're willing to pay. It's like saying that people should buy more humane child pornography to promote child welfare reform. This is simply bizarre. Free range products in fact prolong the abolition of animal exploitation, by making people feel comfortable with cruelty, not encouraging them to think about the moral issues. Abolition will only come about through nonviolent vegan education.
Promoting veganism does not inhibit the meat industry’s move towards free range farming, in fact it promotes it. The meat industry aren’t going to say ‘well were not going to make any reforms because veganism is so unattainable’ instead the meat industry will offer ‘concessions’ to gain our dollar e.g. larger cages, free range farming etc. In fact, the meat industry wants the vegans and vegetarians to convert to free range as they want a larger consumer base and people are willing to pay more for free range. These so-called ‘concessions’ are in their financial interest, they have even found that many factory farming practices are not cost effective. All welfare reform to date has either been cost neutral or financially advantageous to the meat industry, but there is only so far this can go. At a certain point the welfare of farm animals will cost more than people are willing or able to pay. Therefore the only way to stop the cruelty and the exploitation of animals is through veganism. Veganism eliminates demand, encouraging business people to invest in different industries.
For example, if you went to the store to buy chocolate and there were only two kinds, one sourced from 100% child slave labour and the other sourced from 50%. If we are to believe my friend, we should purchase chocolate sourced from just 50% children slave labour. However I would argue that the moral and pragmatic thing to do is to not purchase either.
