Do You Have to be Vegan to be an Environmentalist?
I’m an environmentalist and I’m not vegan. This may come as a shock to you. Didn’t I used to claim to be? Yes and honestly, I never got to that 100% perfection.
It’s weird that I’ve always been anti-perfection about zero waste all this time but not about veganism and I think it comes down to the vegan community being often harsh, mean, and judgmental.
So this is going to be a post about my “vegan” story and a discussion about how judgement gets us no where for any movement.
My early vegan days
Again, to be clear, I never was fully vegan. I misread labels, I ate chocolate with milk in it that was a gift from my dad, I ate baked goods with eggs in it that I found unopened in the trash, and I never quit buying wool socks.
I “went vegan” for the planet. A lot of the actions I just listed revolve around the planet, too. I didn’t want to throw the chocolates away and create food waste, so I ate them. Wool is much more sustainable than plastic, so that’s what I go for for socks.
All that said, I still used the vegan label for years. Why? Well, I never really thought you had to be perfect. In the same way that you can call yourself zero waste even when you consume things like fruit stickers, receipts, and medications in plastic. You don’t have to be perfect to be zero waste so why would you have to be perfect to be vegan when the entire ethos is simply about harm *reduction.*
Not only this, but it was easier to explain to folks in my life. No one really knows what plant-based is so it was just easier to say “vegan” since I have always been closer to being vegan than vegetarian.
But, even in my peak vegan days, I was never perfect due to simple things like misreading a label or forgetting to ask a friend what ingredients they used in their baked goods.
1.5 years ago
In the late fall of 2023, we separated from the Air Force, packed up our RV, and drove to Ohio to stay with our families for 4 months before Dan began his career as a park ranger. Not only is it hard to be vegan in Ohio (not impossible), it’s even harder when people in your life are unwilling to accommodate your needs. We had some people who literally refused to buy vegan swaps when they cooked for us nor would they eat when we were the ones to cook.
I’m not saying everyone has to drop everything and treat me like a king, but it sure is nice to be accommodated for. It shows that people care about you.
As often as we could, we stayed as close to vegan as possible. But in some instances, it was eat a small bit of dairy or go without a meal. Call me “not dedicated enough” but I didn’t want to do that.
Then, we moved to rural Minnesota for Dan’s first ranger gig. And when I say rural, I mean RURAL. We lived 1 hour from a grocery store and our only town. This town had a few restaurants, none of which had vegan options.
Once again, as far as I could, I ordered as vegan as possible such as eating a salad and fries. But, not every place used vegetable oil for frying and sometimes even salad dressing was not vegan. Again, maybe I wasn’t dedicated enough. I could’ve just said no to going out with friends and joining cookouts, but I didn’t want to sacrifice community and friendship.
This entire time, I’ve been 100% meat-free and nearly 100% vegan at home when I remember to read labels
That brings us to now
I’m making this post because…*gasp* I’ve started eating goat cheese. Why in the world would I do this? Well, a friend makes it from milk from her backyard goat who lives a happy life. Not only this, she collects enough milk and makes enough cheese that she has a surplus. So, I’m her last resort before the landfill.
I’ve pretty much always been a “freegan” or “flexitarian.” If it’s to prevent food waste, yeah I’ll eat some honey, dairy, goat milk, eggs, etc. I would rather it be used as energy for myself than end up in the landfill, going to waste, creating emissions, and meaning that that animal gave part of itself in vain.
My take on perfection
Just like zero waste, I would rather every single person just try to be a tad bit more plant-based today than they were yesterday than just a handful of people try to be perfect vegans. If everyone cut just one piece of meat out of their diet per week or even per day, this would have huge environmental and animal rights benefits!
I just watched an excellent video from Unnatural Vegan in which she states that we give so much grief to people who used to be “perfect” vegans but now eat some animal products. Meanwhile, we give no grief to omnivores. To be clear, I don’t think anyone deserves ANY grief, but I hope you see what she means.
Maybe you see this as me just making excuses, but at least I tried. At least I am still actively trying to reduce harm and reduce my impact on the planet. The vegan ethos does not say you have to be perfect and reduce 100% of harm. That’s impossible. It’s about reducing as much as you can.
I still order my lattes with oatmilk, I still eat 99% vegan at home, I still order the vegan option at restaurants and so forth. While our tiny town doesn’t have too many vegan options, I feel so loved being in a community that accommodates not only my diet but the diets of my friends, too. It’s not that hard to make a small swap to make your meal inclusive.
The vegan movement
Just like any movement, there is going to be extremists. I know not every vegan is hardcord and judgmental. But, the few loud ones do tend to ruin things. It’s the same in the eco space! The few off-the-wall environmentalists put a bad taste in everyone’s mouth about all of us.
This is why we all need to let this go. I do think there is a line, of course. I think we should call out deliberate acts of animal abuse in the same way we call out acts of pollution in the eco space. But, the problem with animal rights is not your friend ordering dairy milk instead of oatmilk. The problem is the industry.
There are so many parallels with the eco movement and the vegan movement and the biggest one is we need to remember who the real culprit is. It’s not me, it’s not you, it’s not the ex-vegan, it’s the industry.
In that same Unnaturally Vegan video, she talks about how inconvenient it is to be vegan. Been there, done that. So, work to make veganism more accessible. Encourage your grocery stores to carry more vegan food, share recipes with friends, cook for them and show them how good it is, show them how to do it on a budget, and do all of this without shame. Shame gets us nowhere.
Not to mention, veganism is a privilege. I do think that you can be vegan on a budget. You don’t need an impossible burger or mock yogurt to survive, but these items can bring joy and give you a taste of what you may miss. But, these swaps for their animal-based products are quite pricey.
Plus, food deserts are a thing, people may have allergies that make a vegan diet hard or impossible, people may simply live rurally and their grocery store doesn’t have good options, restaurants are not always willing to add vegan options and if they do, they can oftentimes suck.
You get the idea. Not everyone can be fully vegan but I think it’s entirely possible that every person on the planet be just a little bit plant-based. Let’s focus on that. 8 billion people cutting out one piece of meat every day does so much more harm reduction than an approximate 80 million people being perfectly vegan. Let’s focus on the industry and find ways to make vegan food taste better and make it cheaper and make it more widely available instead of criticizing someone for choosing meat and dairy when they simply don’t have access to vegan swaps.
Maybe I’m just making excuses, you can make that assumption if you want. But I just want to be honest.
Thanks for reading along. I appreciate your time and I appreciate your kindness in advance (don’t make me regret saying that by being mean, I’m just going to delete any harmful comments anyway (yes, critiques are fine, but harm and bullying is not tolerated)).
As always, remember that your small actions make a big difference in the long run :)
Emma
