This blog post will annoy all of you. I apologize in advance. Annoyance is the usual response I get when I talk about my food choices. Vegans get annoyed when I admit that, while I often order vegan in restaurants, I’m not a vegan. Non-vegans get annoyed when I attempt to order vegan. Depending on the venue, this tends to be a social and logistical nightmare. Sometimes I give up; but most of the time I try hard enough to be a real nuisance. This article will answer the question “Should we all go vegan?” from the standpoint of moral philosophy.

Should we all go vegan? A towering work of nonfiction by Peter Singer

Just kidding—answering “Should we all go vegan?” from the standpoint of moral philosophy is waaaay too big of a topic for a blog post! Instead, I’ll give you a preview of the famous and fabulous book Animal Liberation Now, by Peter Singer. This book is where you can find an answer to that question.

Originally published as Animal Liberation in 1975, Singer’s book is a towering monument to animal rights, moral philosophy, and the cruelties of those peculiar animals we call humans. I own the 2023 edition, titled Animal Liberation Now, and I was expecting to dive into the world of the 1970s.

I was pleasantly surprised to learn that Singer has completely revised his old classic. The 2023 edition is modern in every way. It contains information on modern agriculture and fisheries, current laws of various countries around the world, and recent events in animal rights. It also contains the moral and philosophical arguments originally presented in the original 1975 edition.

Should we all go vegan? What does vegan mean, anyway?

The definition of “vegan” varies, depending on whom you’re talking to. It always means abstaining from the meat of large animals like cows, pigs, and chickens. It always means abstaining from eggs and dairy products obtained from large animals. It almost always means abstaining from fish and shellfish. Most vegans also avoid clothing and accessories made from leather and fur.

The definition of vegan gets tricker when the animals get smaller. Some vegans abstain from honey because bees use it themselves. Some vegans abstain from eating insects, which are consumed in some cultures. Singer has a long section about the question of whether vegans can or should eat oysters.

To say it simply, vegans eat plants and plant-based foods and avoid eating animals and animal-based foods.

Should we all go vegan? What’s the moral argument for going vegan?

Singer quotes the philosopher Jeremy Bentham in the opening pages of Animal Liberation Now. Bentham writes:

“The question is not, Can they reason? nor Can they talk? but, Can they suffer?”

Right. The point is not whether animals are exactly like humans. The point is that if you know you can suffer, and you don’t want others to feel the awfulness of suffering, there’s no reason why you should focus only on trying to help other humans, and not also other animals.

So for Singer (and this is not necessarily true of all vegans), the issue is not necessarily the killing of the animals, though that is definitely a factor, especially when it’s not done humanely. The bigger issue is the suffering of animals throughout their lives, from birth to death.

There is a second moral argument for going vegan, which is environmental. The amount of plant food grown to feed animals is many, many times larger than the amount of animal food that results. It would be more efficient if humans ate the plant food, instead of feeding it to animals and then eating the animals. Also, vast numbers of animals cause damage to the environment, such as poisoning the water supply and releasing gasses that contribute to global warming.

Should we all go vegan? It is safe and healthy to go vegan?

Singer says it is safe and healthy to go vegan. He mostly leaves it at that. However, other reputable sources give important caveats that every vegan should be aware of. The following information does not come from Singer’s book but from the Mayo Clinic:

• Vitamin B12. Vitamin B12 is an essential nutrient that can only be found in animal products. However, many vegan foods in grocery stores are fortified with vitamin B12. Vegans can also take vitamin B12 supplements to meet their body’s needs. According to the Mayo Clinic, vitamin B12 deficiency can cause “anemia, fatigue, muscle weakness, intestinal problems, nerve damage and mood disturbances.” Vegans will be fine as long as they ingest this vital nutrient from fortified foods or supplements.
• Protein. Vegans get their protein from vegetable sources including beans, lentils, nuts, seeds, and whole grains. According to a Mayo Clinic article by Alisa Bowman, “If you follow a plant-based diet that partially or entirely restricts meat and dairy, it’s . . . difficult—but not impossible—to reach [your] protein milestones, says Dr. [Andrew R.] Jagim. To get there, you’ll need more planning and effort and possibly a protein powder supplement.” Another tricky thing, the article explains, is that many plant protein sources offer only some of the nine essential amino acids that the human body needs. Animal products tend to contain all nine essential amino acids, all at once. But vegans who rely on plant protein must mix and match plant-based foods to meet their essential amino acid needs.

Should we all go vegan? Animal rights are super low, and human animals are super cruel

This is the part of the blog post where I’m supposed to tell you about the horrors of factory farming. If you eat meat, eggs, and dairy, you really need to know the facts. Even though you can’t see any animals being tortured in your day-to-day life, every time you spend money on meat, eggs, or dairy that came from factory farms, you are supporting cruelty to animals.

Only about one-sixth of Animal Liberation Now is dedicated to detailing the extreme trauma that nonhuman animals undergo for the benefit of humans. I don’t want you to think that disgusting facts are the entire book; they are not at all. Five-sixths of the book is dedicated to easy-to-understand philosophical arguments, historical information about the treatment and rights of animals and the progress of the animal rights movement, and the choices we make and their ramifications.

But the awful details are important. I won’t dwell on this, but keep in mind the following facts as you enjoy your lunch today:

• Overcrowded, filthy, toxic living environments. Animals are regularly kept standing on their own toxic stenchy filth, unable to see sunlight, in such crowded spaces that they can’t even barely take a step or, if they are chickens, spread their wings.
• Tampering with biology ruins legs. Animals are bred to grow so quickly and be so fat that their legs fail and literally can’t support their weight, and if they sit they are forced to sit in their own sh*t and risk getting trampled.
• Rampant death. Animals regularly die of maltreatment, and periodically a human goes in and removes the rotting carcasses; but no changes are made, because it’s financially cheaper to have a certain number of the animals die, as long as others survive in the cheap, horrendous conditions.
• Mother-baby separation. Mother animals and their babies are separated from each other, causing extreme distress.
• Physical confinement. Some animals are kept in stalls or cages so small that they can’t walk, turn around, or get any exercise at all.
• Extreme boredom. Animals get bored just as humans do. It’s incredibly boring to live in a cramped, disgusting, sunless, airless place with nothing to do—no foraging for food, no friends because you’re either isolated or tightly packed in, no roosts or dust baths for birds or places to romp around for pigs, etc. Animals often display odd behaviors like repetitive tics as a result.

Okay, that’s enough for now. And that’s just factory farms. The parts about animal experimentation and fish are also horrendous. Gosh, those poor monkeys, mousies, and salmon. It’s disgusting.

Should I go vegan? Should you go vegan? Should we all go vegan?

I don’t agree with everything Singer writes in Animal Liberation Now, but he’s absolutely right in many ways. My stance on food choices is that I make my own decisions, and I let other people freely make theirs, no judgment. It’s impossible to live without harming somebody sometime! On the other hand, that’s not a good excuse to do absolutely nothing in this world. Every little bit of good you can do counts, even if you can’t be perfect or anything close to it. In fact, Singer himself makes this point:

“Depending on the circumstances and your relationship with your host, there may be more at stake than worrying about such details as whether the cake you are offered at a party contains eggs. We are more likely to persuade others to share our attitude if we temper our ideals with common sense than if we strive for the kind of purity that is more appropriate to a religious dietary law than to an ethical and political movement.”

Here’s the personal compromise I’ve been making lately: I try not to support factory farms. I can’t save all the animals of the world, unfortunately. But I can do my part. Here are some of the things I try to do, with the admission that I don’t always succeed:

• Purchase meat directly from local farms. Prioritize farms I have visited, with pasture where animals freely graze, and farmers I have met personally, since food labels are often misleading. My favorite local farm offers free delivery to my home, or I can visit their booth at a farmers market.
• Purchase beef and dairy from stores only when labeled GRASS-FED. This means the cows graze on grass in pasture 100% of the time. The term “pasture-raised” is misleading on beef and dairy products; it means the cows spend 120 days per year eating grass in pasture.
• Purchase eggs labelled PASTURE-RAISED, CERTIFIED HUMANE, or AMERICAN HUMANE CERTIFIED. The terms “cage-free” and “free-range” are misleading on eggs because the hens are still subjected to extremely nasty conditions, only slightly better than before.
• Support stores that prioritize ethical, sustainable food. If I trust the store to make ethical choices, I buy meat, eggs, and fish there, as well as other foods.
• When eating out or ordering in, order vegan. However, if the restaurant demonstrates a real commitment to local, sustainable family farms, I order meat but not eggs or dairy.
• Don’t waste food when an animal suffered or died for it. I try not to let food go bad, and I bring a reusable container to restaurants. If a meal arrives in front of me and it contains something non-vegan for any reason, it’s better to enjoy it than cause it to be thrown away. (For a fictional take on this idea, see my recent post about the inquisitive one.)

Yes, these choices mean I pay more for my food than the average person. I believe there should be more laws and regulations to prohibit companies from profiting off cruelty to animals. We should invest, as a country and world, in making things better for all of us creatures on earth.

I know it seems like we are moving backward in this regard, but there is real progress. For example, all eggs from McDonald’s are now cage-free. Of course, that’s only a tiny step forward, and it’s not even close to enough, for those cage-free hens are still suffering; but it’s way better than nothing.

So don’t complain about the price of eggs. Nice things cost money. When you don’t pay, the poor hens do.

What’s for dinner?

Featured in this article: Animal Liberation Now by Peter Singer Buy it now