The Roadmap to a Vegan Future

What is the ultimate goal of the animal rights movement? What are we trying to achieve? 

We are committed to creating a world in which animals are not exploited for food, clothing, entertainment, or any other purposes. 

But is that really realistic? 

Yes. Read on to find out how.

The Roadmap to a Vegan Future

Veganism is a really unique movement because it touches virtually every aspect of our lives. Food, clothing, entertainment, transportation, product safety … It’s not just a diet. It’s a lifestyle; it’s a moral position. Veganism is truly a social justice movement.

And when we analyze past successful social justice movements, there are four distinct stages: personal transformation, alternatives, mass mobilization, and transforming dominant institutions.

“Personal transformation” refers to a shift on the individual level. For instance, an individual becoming vegan. “Alternatives” refers to the free market innovating alternatives to the dominant system, such as vegan meats, vegan leathers, cruelty-free safety testing, etc.

“Mass mobilization” refers to focused activist groups such as Anonymous for the Voiceless, PETA, etc. However, because veganism is so closely tied to the products we buy, simply being vegan and boycotting animal products is already considered part of mass mobilization. You don’t need to be at a protest to be “mobilized.” Spending your dollars on exclusively vegan products shows companies where the money is.

And finally, the efforts of mass mobilization culminate in “transforming dominant institutions.” This takes the form of changing or ending practices through legislative, judicial, or economic means. 

Legislative and judicial action results in changing laws; for instance, outlawing the sale of meat that came from gestation crates (California’s Prop 12 upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court), animal welfare protections (US Animal Welfare Act of 1966), or hopefully, one day, abolishing animal exploitation altogether (Rose’s Law – Animal Bill of Rights). 

Economic transformation means that certain practices or products are voluntarily abandoned by the industry because they’re no longer profitable or popular. A great example of economic transformation is Apple’s September 2023 announcement that they will no longer use leather in any of their products due to its high carbon footprint. Apple voluntarily abandoned leather to stay relevant with a public that demands sustainability.

It’s important to note that economic transformation is generally a faster pathway than the legislative or judicial pathways. 

First of all, legislation usually follows public opinion; it doesn’t preempt public opinion. The U.S. Constitution’s Thirteenth Amendment outlawing slavery was passed after centuries of abolitionism. By definition, legislators are representatives of the people, so they won’t propose legislation to which the people are opposed. If there’s little or no public support, legislation is unlikely to change. 

The judicial pathway is even slower than the legislative pathway, because it requires that legislation is proposed, written, revised, passed through the legislative body, signed by the executive body, challenged in state court, and forwarded on to the Supreme Court (at least in the US). 

Economic transformation is much more fluid because it’s simply a matter of what people buy. Legislation and judicial action are also limited to individual countries or coalitions like the EU. Economic transformations, however, are global.

Transforming dominant institutions happens in phases. It’s not like one day farming animals is legal and the next day it’ll be outlawed. Even human slavery was outlawed in stages around the world. But these little transformations build on each other. 

Today, Apple bans leather from their products. Tomorrow, the high-fashion brands may decide to forgo leather. Then the cheaper clothes manufacturers follow. Then the industry voluntarily stops producing it because it’s not profitable to produce anymore. Then leather is outlawed by individual governments due to wide public support and lack of resistance from the industry.

Economic transformation is the fastest, most efficient means of creating change. Because money and technology are what drives industry – not laws. Laws simply regulate. Industries will produce whatever will make the most money. 

We need to transform the incentives of the industry. And the more public demand there is for a particular product or sector, the more money is invested into supply chains and innovations to reduce the cost of production, and therefore increase profit margins. It all starts with consumer demand (personal transformation).

When an industry is ready to transform, whether for technological innovation reasons or because of public opinion, change happens very quickly. 

How people got around in cities in 1900.

Consider this example: humans used horses for transportation for thousands of years. At the turn of the twentieth century, horses were still the dominant land transportation for individuals in their everyday lives (trains had become a dominant form of land transportation for long distances). Then, in 1903, the Ford Motor Company released its first automobile (Ford, n.d.). Within ten years, automobiles had become fairly common, and within thirty years, horses were completely obsolete and automobiles had taken over individual transportation. Within fifty years, the U.S. government had constructed highways all throughout the contiguous United States, with nationally unified standards for construction and signage designed for interstate travel, ultimately replacing railways as the preferred means of long-distance travel for individuals. 

Laws didn’t come first – there was no legislation outlawing horses in the streets of cities until the consumer demand had shifted in favor of automobiles and away from horses. When the technology is there, when the demand is there, and when – this is critical – it’s cost-effective for the consumer, industries transform rapidly. Consumer demand is the most powerful and most important factor in transforming dominant institutions.

Now, this isn’t to say that traditional activism isn’t necessary.

Mass mobilization in the form of protests, marches, petitions, campaigns, etc. are incredibly valuable and have a role to play. Those forms of activism often inspire personal transformations, which contributes to shifting consumer demand.

Every form of activism builds on each other. It’s a multifaceted approach. We need everyone doing every type of activism that’s possible for them.

But consumer demand is the single most efficient means of transforming an industry.

Preorder the Plant Powered Persuasion BOOK to learn more about the technological innovations which are already starting to tip the scales toward a vegan society and what YOU can do to accelerate this shift!