I’m Not a Vegan... but I Should Be
But I’m doing the best I can in a system not designed for optimal moral choices
At 27, I became a vegetarian because of a spider in my bathroom. It was going about its best spider life. A life I didn’t want to end. And if I wouldn’t hurt a spider, how could I contribute to the suffering of animals in factory farms?
I lasted 18 months. Then I gave it up for someone I loved.
A few weeks ago, scrolling my Substack feed, I felt that old guilt return.
I felt a pang as I clicked… I was sure I had a pretty good idea of the arguments the author was going to make. I wasn’t wrong.
Suffice it to say that the post laid out arguments I already knew: environmental destruction, worker exploitation, animal cruelty.1
Why Vegan?
Industrial livestock is incredibly inefficient. We first grow a huge amount of food to feed to animals. This alone has tremendous impacts on water supplies, carbon emissions, and degradation of the natural world as we take more and more of it for farmland. Then we use that food not to feed people, but to feed animals, losing a huge amount of calories and nutrition in the process while further negatively impacting the environment.
Working conditions in the industry are notoriously terrible. Not only that, but it is an industry that relies on the labor of marginalized and vulnerable people, undocumented migrants who cannot advocate for better conditions for fear of facing further harm from authorities. A trap we put so many people in for the sake of a steak.
The beef, chicken, and pork we consume did not come from the idyllic farm of American myth. They came from factory conditions that subject living beings to the cruelest conditions imaginable in the name of greater yields and bigger profits.
Arguments I’d once cared about enough to change my life.
My Time as a Vegetarian
I managed to be vegetarian for a year and a half. Individually I didn’t find it particularly challenging. I was a gym freak at the time and not only was I able to maintain my six day a week weightlifting routine but also reduced my body fat without losing strength. I was being more intentional about the protein I was eating and managing to eat leaner.
What ended it was… society.
Ok, not that dramatic, but definitely social pressure. I began dating the woman who would become my first wife. She loved to cook for me but made it no secret that it would be easier for her if I ate meat.
I pushed back for a while, but eventually I relented. I gave in and gave the green light for my ex to begin to cook chicken parmesan versus the eggplant parmesan she couldn’t quite master.
But since I’d become a vegetarian out of moral motivation, I was fully aware of the harm I was again contributing to for the sake of convenience.
I have long since moved on from that marriage, that church, and that faith. But I have not turned a blind eye to arguments against consuming animal products.
Abandoning my vegetarianism didn’t change the world. One person won’t shut down factory farms. But over a long enough period, a non-zero number of animals would need to suffer for my consumption, and non-existence certainly is better than the hell of factory farm existence.
Tuesday Morning Scrolling
When I saw that headline, I read it and felt compelled to comment.
The post author was understanding, and we had a particularly good back and forth in the comments. If only all internet conversations were so respectful.
The moral argument for being vegan is unassailable. I finished our exchange by telling the author that I would have a conversation with my wife about changes to our grocery shopping and other consumer choices.
I thought about it for several days, and had the conversation, as promised. Have we become vegan in the last month?
No.
Are we making changes?
Yes.
First Steps
It is difficult to make the changes overnight. Like it or not, we are individuals who operate within systems. And the capitalist farm industrial complex exerts constant pressure to consume.
That doesn’t give moral license to eat cheeseburgers and wear leather. Those are harms, and they support and perpetuate the cruelty that is the factory farm system.
But purity is brittle. Perfect is the enemy of the good.
Accepting a harm when we can do something to mitigate it is an evil of indifference. Making the choice to minimize the destruction of life, that is an active good. Evils accumulate, as does good. They don’t net one another out.
Being more thoughtful about our habits we can begin to reduce the demand for animals we create. My wife and I aren’t going vegan now, but we are reducing our meat consumption. Switching to a mostly vegetarian meal plan. Plant based milk rather than dairy. Choosing to buy clothes that do not have animal products.
And as we adjust to changes, more changes can come.
Capitalism is all encompassing with its corrosion. Full stop.
But being told that holding progressive ideals makes veganism a must is the type of idea that puts people further from making the small changes that over a large enough period can be helpful.
The mom who is too tired to cook and grabs McDonalds could read this and feel vilified for existing. A bowl of ice cream is a respite from the world. A steak is a reward for working overtime and ignoring your family.
Being exploited constantly leaves you exhausted. You are mentally and physically taxed. For people who are worried about making next month’s rent, who are actively ignoring that growing pain in their side because they can’t afford a day off, telling them that they shouldn’t have something they find a moment’s pleasure in is often just one more burden they have no capacity to carry.
The headwinds against change are strong and we don’t get past them by ignoring their power.
I have empathy, and I’ve lived in that world long enough to know what those lives are like. People were angry with me when I was a vegetarian, as if I were hurting them somehow.
It’s because it challenges one of their few pleasures, and it called out the evil in it. We have a lot to do before we can make a real change.
A united working class with unions and strong worker protections, a social safety net that doesn’t turn every trip to the doctor into medical bankruptcy roulette, subsidized childcare and education, these need to happen before a paradigm shifting amount of people can willingly choose to be vegan.
But those changes aren’t needed before I can begin to make minor changes.
When I stopped eating meat it was to reduce net cruelty in the world. And reading this post has me considering going back to that to live a slightly less hypocritical life. But we have so much to do before we can meaningfully begin to end the destructive use of animals.
My personal ethics say that evil is any harm inflicted on one who can feel that harm.
The industry contributes to the destruction of local ecosystems and the global climate. The harm from that damage is evil.
Animals confined in spaces where they can’t move, can’t turn around, can’t be comfortable or live as animals, this is harm. This is evil.
The industry harms animals and people. It contributes to the exploitation of vulnerable populations and pushes back against worker rights. This causes harm. This is evil.
That definitely includes animals. It’s not fair to the animals suffering now, and the future ones who will continue to suffer are ongoing moral debits on me as an individual and on all of us as a society.
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Najana, Pala. “Why All Progressives Must Be Vegan: A Rock-Solid Case.” Vegan Horizon, September 23, 2025. https://veganhorizon.substack.com/p/why-all-progressives-must-be-vegan
I am vegan for many reasons, most of which for health issues. It was a somewhat gradual transition. I gave up meat, eggs and most dairy immediately.
Over time, I do not miss the other foods. I also went mostly salt free.
Check out the SOS diet. Good luck on the journey and definitely worth it.