In this short post, I tackle the question of what might a “vegan world” really be like.

First of all, a caveat. I honestly doubt that a truly vegan world is possible in all places and contexts, if by “vegan” we mean no animal use at all and everyone eating a wholly plant-sourced diet. While the founders of veganism believed that we might one day achieve a vegan world for the betterment of both animals and human society, I think this is unlikely in every possible place and context. We haven’t even reached that state for human beings so it’s hard to imagine us doing better for other animals.

Also, let me explain what I think “veganism” is really about because that informs what a vegan world would be like. As I see it, veganism is primarily a doctrine of freedom – it’s main goal is to keep animals free. For that to have real meaning, how we think about other animals has to change. That’s really what the principle of veganism is trying to achieve. The founders of veganism saw vegan ethics as leading to a fundamentally changed relationship between people and other animals such that animals were no longer regarded as a mere means to our ends.

To remind readers, I see veganism as having three aims or outcomes:

1. To keep animals free (by rejecting their chattel property status, whenever we can)
2. To prevent their unfair use (where “fair” means only when we have alternatives or can choose not to use an animal for some benefit)
3. To protect them from unnecessary cruelty (where “unnecessary” means we cannot find other viable ways to prevent causing pain and suffering).

This somewhat rights-based perspective is deeply different from the everyday belief of most people that animals are not rights-holders AND are available for any use we regard as valuable to us (even when “valuable” simply means entertainment). The everyday paradigm, if you like, is that animals can be used however we like just because we can.

So, the way I think about this is that a vegan world would be one in which that paradigm is fundamentally challenged. In a truly vegan world, many if not most people would recognise the inherent value and dignity of other species and aim to treat them fairly by their choices whenever they can.

A genuinely vegan world would be one in which most people regarded animals as mattering enough to treat them fairly and with justice, whenever we can do that. Such a general attitude would lead to far-reaching changes to our relationship with other animals, a relationship in which the dignity and interests of other animals share similar billing to our own, whenever we can do that.

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Don’t forget, no-one needs to be a vegan to adopt and apply vegan ethical principles in their daily lives to make a positive difference for other animals. If you’d like to know more, you can read my essay that offers a deeper dive into the meaning and application of vegan ethics at the link below:

Click here to access: Animals Matter – Veganism for Everyone (pdf, 466kb)