I agree with some of this post and more of the comments, but I want to focus on one thing. The “veganism has tradeoffs” frame isn’t helpful; it’s much too ambiguous.
Three main claims can distilled here. You may be claiming that
Advocacy orgs focusing on diet change should be de-emphasized on the margin.
and/or
2. *I*the reader, the audience of this post should de-emphasize the urgency of diet change in my personal life on the margin.
and/or
3. Systemically and/or individually, some sort of non-vegan diet change should be focused on, eg vegetarianism, no-chicken diet, reductarianism, meat-free mondays, etc
I usually assume that blog posts, unless otherwise specified, are meant to be targeted to their readership. If this was just explicitly directed around 1, I may have a different response.
I don’t think most vegan EAs have the problems listed. I won’t exclude the possibility of a few rare cases, people who have peculiarities of some sort that makes veganism unhealthy, but lets focus on 3 for the next best thing then!
If I was to bet on it, I’d say that +90% of vegan EAs are aware of B-12 deficits and either take supplements or seek out supplemented foods.
Insofar as there are vegan diets not “properly planned” they occur among the health crowd (which outnumber the pro-animal vegans), those who believe it to be some sort of panacea for their ills or distrust the medical establishment. I could be wrong about this general claim, but I think it’s roughly correct. (I agree about the need for better studies which control for supplement use!)
Back to number 3. I appreciate that you mention the issue with concern trolls and you briefly allude to “vegetarianism being much nutritionally closer”, but I really wish people would be more explicit about this. Far, far, to many (purposefully or not) use criticisms of veganism as a way to avoid personal responsibility.
I agree with some of this post and more of the comments, but I want to focus on one thing. The “veganism has tradeoffs” frame isn’t helpful; it’s much too ambiguous.
Three main claims can distilled here. You may be claiming that
Advocacy orgs focusing on diet change should be de-emphasized on the margin.
and/or
2. *I* the reader, the audience of this post should de-emphasize the urgency of diet change in my personal life on the margin.
and/or
3. Systemically and/or individually, some sort of non-vegan diet change should be focused on, eg vegetarianism, no-chicken diet, reductarianism, meat-free mondays, etc
I usually assume that blog posts, unless otherwise specified, are meant to be targeted to their readership. If this was just explicitly directed around 1, I may have a different response.
I don’t think most vegan EAs have the problems listed. I won’t exclude the possibility of a few rare cases, people who have peculiarities of some sort that makes veganism unhealthy, but lets focus on 3 for the next best thing then!
If I was to bet on it, I’d say that +90% of vegan EAs are aware of B-12 deficits and either take supplements or seek out supplemented foods.
Insofar as there are vegan diets not “properly planned” they occur among the health crowd (which outnumber the pro-animal vegans), those who believe it to be some sort of panacea for their ills or distrust the medical establishment. I could be wrong about this general claim, but I think it’s roughly correct. (I agree about the need for better studies which control for supplement use!)
Back to number 3. I appreciate that you mention the issue with concern trolls and you briefly allude to “vegetarianism being much nutritionally closer”, but I really wish people would be more explicit about this. Far, far, to many (purposefully or not) use criticisms of veganism as a way to avoid personal responsibility.