These Are Vegan Issues
Articles Reflecting a Vegan Lifestyle From All-Creatures.org

Vegan lifestyle articles that discuss ways of living in peace with humans, animals, and the environment.

FROM lauren Ornelas, FEP Food Empowerment Project
April 2021

I am not saying vegan organizations need to change their mission statements or the good work they are doing for non-human animals, but I would like to encourage less resistance to understanding how these issues are indeed vegan issues, and when they see their supporters ask such questions, they should speak up.

Since the inception of Food Empowerment Project (F.E.P.), a huge part of my work has been trying to get vegans (activists, organizations, funders, etc.) to see how our work is about vegan issues. Keep in mind, F.E.P. was started in 2007, and only now is this concept starting to seep into vegan consciousness.

In fact, one vegfest refused to allow us to exhibit as they felt our work was “out of scope” for the event, and we were also refused a grant as the funder felt that veganism was not the only path towards food justice.

Our work, broken down into four programmatic areas (vegan advocacy, farm worker justice, chocolate transparency and access to healthy foods), is all connected by the thread of veganism, which for me is about justice and compassion and working to end the systems that create these problems. In my mind, they all flow together and only imaginary boundaries, such as those drawn by countries, make it seem as if they are somehow separate issues.

Keep in mind, we are not saying, nor have we ever felt, that the definition of veganism needs to change—more that we need to be consistent when we talk about justice and compassion and that it needs to include human animals in our food chain as well. (Just a note: we do not believe non-human animals should be part of the food chain.)

We can’t just talk externally about issues—we need to also address those internally. Maybe that would help with a movement whose true meaning (not wanting to cause harm) is often overshadowed by the reputation that it is made up of judgmental people who feel they are better than others. People need to remember that humans are animals too.

Farm worker justice is a vegan issue.

The way in which our food is produced is a vegan issue—it is vegan food, right? Regardless of what some vegans would like you to think, vegans cannot thrive on only rice and beans or peanut butter and jam sandwiches. We need fruits and vegetables to live our healthiest lives possible. And as I’ve said, unless you grow all of your own produce, you have a farm worker to thank for it.

For those of us who are vegans for the animals, we know we have made this decision to reduce the suffering of non-human animals, so caring about human animals in our food is absolutely consistent and part of veganism. In fact, it would be hypocritical to only speak of the suffering of workers in animal agriculture and slaughterhouse workers and not acknowledge those who grow and harvest our produce.

And even moreso, organizations that are encouraging people to go vegan inherently encourage people to eat more produce (even in the form of pea proteins!).

Again, I am not saying vegan organizations need to change their mission statements or the good work they are doing for non-human animals, but I would like to encourage less resistance to understanding how these issues are indeed vegan issues, and when they see their supporters ask such questions, they should speak up.

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