Why Capitalism Is The Best Worst Thing For Veganism
This is a very controversial view on veganism that I see nobody talking about.
“I think that the biggest proponent of veganism will be economic forces.”
This goes completely against the videos of strategies post-capitalism that you see online. But let me explain.
Capitalism hasn’t served veganism well in the past. It’s one of the main reasons living beings get ruthlessly exploited for profit. Animal cruelty can be linked with capitalism.
While Albert Einstein said that ‘We can’t solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them.’
I think in fact, we might just be able to in this case.
Today you’ll learn why a vegan future is closer than you might think, for 3 reasons that are shockingly new and novel. Let’s hit it.
While it’s hard to guess the actual numbers of vegans globally. The Vegetarianism in America study estimates the population in the US at about 0.5%.
However the global population is distributed quite unevenly. The population of India is 1.4 billion which makes up about 18% of the total human population.
About 30% of India are vegetarians because of ethical or economic reasons.
Let’s just for the sake of simplicity assume that the global population of vegans is about 1%. It might be more, or it might be less.
1. The Forgotten Story of Wool
Wool used to be our fabric of choice to create clothes for over 8 millenia. Yet now, most of the fabric our shirts are made of are cotton.
I think it’s a safe guess that what you’re wearing right now, is made out of cotton.
Why? Because cotton comes from a plant. The production is not easy, but simple. It doesn’t require an animal to be fed, it doesn’t require shelter nor does it require as much upkeep.
Meaning the production of cotton has less overhead. It needs less space, food and workers. Producing cotton is way cheaper and way more profitable than producing wool.
A producer of cotton will kick the ass of a producer of wool because they can charge less and sell more of literally the same product.
You as a producer of wool, which requires animals, are incentivized to switch to the production of cotton, which requires plants, just because you’re looking to maximize profits.
Producing more shirts for cheaper prices in the same amount of time leads to cash, b*tch.
2. The Halal Paradox
5% of the population in the UK is muslim. Yet 51% of the meat, lamb here for example, gets produced in halal fashion. First of all I’m not a big fan of killing animals without stunning but, I think the huge discrepancy of the figures are quite interesting.
We might think that while 5% of the population is muslim, 5% of the meat is produced in halla fashion. Yet the halal production outweighs the Muslim population 10 to 1. Now why is that?
Because of economic forces.
As a meat producer looking to maximize profits you’re incentivized to sell your products to a broad audience.
We essentially have two consumers in the UK:
- Consumer number 1 buys halal and normal meat.
- Consumer number 2 buys only halal meat. Consumer number 2 can also be called muslims.
As a producer that wants to appeal to ideally both of those consumer groups you opt for the common denominator, which is halal meat.
I think it’s safe to say that in the next 10-20 years we will see the same thing when it comes to fake meat.
As the same economic blueprints that applied to wool and cotton will apply to meat and fake meat. Once fake meat reaches economy of scale it will soon be cheaper to produce and better tasting than quote on quote real meat.
We will essentially have two global consumers:
- Consumer number 1 buys meat and fake meat.
- Consumer number 2 buys only fake meat.
As a producer that wants to appeal to ideally both of those consumer groups you opt for the common denominator, which is fake meat.
Producing better food for cheaper prices in the same amount of time leads to cash, b*tch.
3. Predicting the future
The best way to predict the future is to look at the past. Yet as Steve Jobs said, we can never connect the dots looking forward, we can only connect the dots looking backward.
Yet I try to connect the dots looking forward.
Let’s take a look at where homo sapiens comes from:
We originated from the equator and originally shared this planet with 5 other human species. Yet a couple thousand years after we came on this planet all of these other species eradicated. Likely killed by our ancestors.
There was a megafauna in Australia and other continents. Big animals that only a few centuries after we arrived on that scene, perished. Hunted to extinction.
Only 80 years ago we had no rights for women.
And 60 years ago there were still human zoos in European cities. Displaying people with different skin colors as a completely different species with no rights.
Homo sapiens was originally a ruthless, aggressive species. To define our ancestors as morally superior would simply be false. Yet, yet we slowly move into an age of compassion.
While our compassion was first only limited to one species, to one gender and one ethnicity, we finally spread it to all members of the human species.
As the circle of compassion has expanded in the past, it will likely expand in the future.
If you hop on the vegan train or not – it will drive off with or without you. But it nonetheless would be cool to know that you were, on the right side of history.
Conclusion – Why Capitalism Is The Best Worst Thing For Veganism
Unknowingly to most people, a vegan future is closer than we might think.
A change of the global population of only 9% would make a gargantuan difference. And seeing that the biggest milk producer of the US just recently filed bankruptcy makes this prediction even more likely.
Just as cotton took over wool, fake meat will roll over the meat industry with a ruthless power of a bulldozer.
That’s why we see big meat producing companies such as Tyson investing in plant-based alternatives. Not because they suddenly became moral or ethical. But because they all realize that the product that they sell, is becoming obsolete.