Veganism - it's all about the animals

A piece in The Guardian caught my eye. Titled The vegans are winning. It's OK to give in – and still eat McDonald's sometimes, it seems to advocate a part-time approach to veganism, cutting out animal food products most of the time while having in a bit of meat now and again.

That may sound like a contradiction but it can be a good compromise. Accessible and achievable, it's not too far off how our ancestors may have eaten: vegetarian (even vegan) most of the time while saving meat for special occasions, carnivals and celebrations.

It seems like a good way not only to cut down on meat while not feeling that you're missing out, but also to encourage a mindful approach that concentrates on provenance and quality, valuing and honouring the animal that gave up its life.

The idea of a world where vegetarian food is the default, rather than the other way round, is a great one. But I'm not going to dwell on that too much here. The reason I refer to the article is because of the comments underneath. For a piece that does not preach, and that does not advocate an extremist approach, some of the remarks in response to it are a bit aggressive and defensive.

That may be understandable. The clickbait headline (written not by the person who wrote the article, but sub-editors with a different agenda) says that 'vegans are winning', as if there's a race or a war, unhelpfully framing the debate in terms of 'us' and 'them'.

As if the subject isn't emotive enough. I've become a vegetarian due to a growing emotional investment triggered by my cat, who has caused me to view animals differently. But we are all emotionally invested in what we eat to some extent.

What we eat is about who we are, our values and beliefs. It is conditioned by the messages we are fed by society, the media and those around us as we are growing up.

We are what we eat – or even what we don't eat. It is influenced too by tradition, market forces and politics. What we eat is political. It sounds pretentious, but it is. Especially because it involves the lives of others.

I'm not a vegan, although I am sympathetic towards veganism, and am heading that way. And one thing that interests me is the way vegans are sometimes perceived.

There seems to be a feeling that vegans are smug, 'preachy' and sanctimonious, that they consider themselves superior to those who aren't, that they are the chosen ones, enlightened. Those who are not vegan feel that vegans judge them.

Like religious zealots, vegans are perceived as militant. "There is nothing more vile than an evangelist, whether it be for Christ, Mohammad or tofu," says one commenter beneath the article linked to above, seemingly unaware of the irony of their own absolutism.

And it's a false analogy. The difference between vegans and religious evangelists is evidence. Whatever your religious persuasion, ultimately it comes down to faith in the existence of a being for which there is little in the way of absolute evidence.

Those who are of a faith – and faith here is the crucial bit – also tend to follow a leader. Veggies and vegans have no one person in particular who fulfils this role (except, perhaps, Morrissey...).

If vegans are led by anything, it's the animals themselves. And there is no amount of absolute evidence, actual proof, of the suffering inflicted on animals by humans. Books, scientific papers, undercover footage, websites, organisations like PETA and HSUS, and films such as Vegucated and Speciesism, all testify.

It's evidence that not even meat-eaters can deny. And while we're on about it, meat-eaters can be pretty 'preachy' themselves, as some of the other comments show. Coming out as a vegetarian these days is still a bit of a deal; you're making a statement that can be taken either way. Certainly, there are those who'd prefer you weren't.

I don't just mean friends, family and those who take it as a personal affront, as if you're out to make life difficult for them (on Come Dine with Me, for instance, it's the veggie who always gets short shrift. God help you if you say you're vegan).

'Miss Granola-Suicide':
Toni Collette as Fiona in About a Boy

The browbeating that veggies are subjected to is shown in popular culture too, which almost seems to revel in perpetuating the myths that surround alternative eating choices; so much so that you start to wonder if film and TV programme makers have a vested interest in terms of advertising revenue. Try to think of characters who are vegetarian and you struggle. Off the top of my head I can think of three – Toni Collette's character Fiona in About A Boy (a film that's shown at least once a week on TV, so it seems), and Lisa Kudrow's Phoebe in Friends, both of which are presented as kookboxes extraordinaire (and in the case of Toni Colette's character, unsympathetic and suicidal – 'mad' as Hugh Grant's character calls her).

It comes to something when the only positive portrayal of a vegetarian in mainstream entertainment is a cartoon, in the form of Lisa Simpson. As well as these three fictional characters there are more 'celebrity' vegetarians making themselves known in addition to Morrissey and Paul McCartney - Russell Brand and Joaquin Phoenix, for example, while Kate Bush, too, has always been open about being a veggie.

They are great examples – and there are probably more I can't think of. We need them to counteract the old chestnut that meat-eaters always love to cite – Hitler – even though it has now been acknowledged as a myth, and the constant negative stereotyping still pushed by popular culture (funny how Leonardo da Vinci and Einstein, who gave up meat at the end of his life, are rarely mentioned as being vegetarian too).

If anything needs a revamp, some good PR, it's veganism. It is evolving away from its 'knit-your-own' image, although it does still have problems, which makes me wonder even more about whether the objections people always raise about going vegan - mainly to do with taste and health, in that order - really are myths pushed by those who benefit from keeping them going.

It's not so much about whether humans can survive on a vegan diet; it's about the way society is set up, market forces and economics, the people who are making money out of getting us to carry on eating meat.

One thing's for sure, it's a bit rich for meat-eaters to accuse vegans of wanting to force veganism on everyone, when we've all had meat forced on us all our lives. 'A meal isn't a proper meal if it doesn't have meat,' is clearly not true.

Although either side getting defensive is not likely to win anyone over. Petty tit-for-tat arguments apart, what this is really all about is the animals. The price we pay for cheap meat is paid for by them. Even if we don't think too much on a conscious level about what we eat, we could at least all start by acknowledging the animal, the sentient being that died in order to feed us.

Animals suffer because they have emotions, intelligence, can perceive, and have rich inner lives. They suffer because they are at the mercy of humans, in whose power they are enslaved.

It's not about me, or you. It's all about the (non-human) animals.