A lot of the arguments for this are ones that I would have suggested anyway so I won’t speak to that much other than to say that I broadly agree.
Two main things where I think I can add value:
Often our decisions aren’t mutually exclusive and looking through a single ‘impact’ lens can be a bit myopic and counterproductive. Most of the time going veg*n has virtually zero negative tradeoff with other impact decisions for me, it doesn’t make it harder to work on important issues nor does it get in the way of donations. Most of the time there are ‘buckets’ of resources/decisions that we have that don’t trade off against each other. Where externalities exist with eating animals for me they have mostly been positive (e.g. commitment, compassion, authenticity, credibility etc etc). This differs from person to person. For example, I’ve drawn the line at being something in between a vegan and vegetarian diet (and have allowed for the occasional bivalve). This is similar to donations, sure, someone could have a huge impact (in expectation) if they do some form of direct work, but even after they spend on increasing their own impact they’ll probably have budget to do a heck of a lot of good via donating.
On the health effects: I understand this hesitation (I felt it too) but in most cases this is a nonstarter. I’m incredibly fit and active and that hasn’t changed since changing my diet. The same goes for many regular folk right through to professional athletes. The only caveat is that I might recommend creatine and/or vitamin B depending on your lifestyle/body. It would surprise me a lot if you’d even notice much (I’m not sure about how you currently eat/cook etc though to understand how much you’d need to learn to adapt your diet healthily). I’ve noticed more people get healthier from changing their diet than the other way around.
Personally, I’ve found it to be a positive change in my life for many reasons (impact, motivation, and otherwise) and think it’s a good thing for our community that we’re overrepresented by people taking the wellbeing of others seriously enough to make a relatively minor lifestyle change that has a fairly direct and positive impact. If I were to imagine the reverse (that EA had a lower than average population of people on a veg*n diet) then I’d find it hard to promote our community/ideas because I’d find it hard to expect outsiders to take us seriously (and I’d find it hard to take us seriously too).
One of the main benefits of becoming vegan was that it removed a cognitive dissonance from my life—a sadness at the back of my head because my actions had been different from my values. After becoming vegan, my lifestyle and my convictions were more aligned. This was quite a liberating and joyful feeling.
I think that becoming vegan should be a win-win decision. If a vegan diet feels like a burden, or distracts from more important issues, or causes health problems, then by all means stop and eat whatever you like. But chances are that, after a while, you become a happier and healthier person.
My last bit of advice is to not be too dogmatic about veganism. The animal industry is surprisingly elastic*, and so each egg not bought will reduce demand and cause some fraction of a statistical chicken to not be born and not suffer. You don’t have to be 100% vegan to have an impact ;-)
* I wish I’d have good numbers to back this claim...
A lot of the arguments for this are ones that I would have suggested anyway so I won’t speak to that much other than to say that I broadly agree.
Two main things where I think I can add value:
Often our decisions aren’t mutually exclusive and looking through a single ‘impact’ lens can be a bit myopic and counterproductive. Most of the time going veg*n has virtually zero negative tradeoff with other impact decisions for me, it doesn’t make it harder to work on important issues nor does it get in the way of donations. Most of the time there are ‘buckets’ of resources/decisions that we have that don’t trade off against each other. Where externalities exist with eating animals for me they have mostly been positive (e.g. commitment, compassion, authenticity, credibility etc etc). This differs from person to person. For example, I’ve drawn the line at being something in between a vegan and vegetarian diet (and have allowed for the occasional bivalve). This is similar to donations, sure, someone could have a huge impact (in expectation) if they do some form of direct work, but even after they spend on increasing their own impact they’ll probably have budget to do a heck of a lot of good via donating.
On the health effects: I understand this hesitation (I felt it too) but in most cases this is a nonstarter. I’m incredibly fit and active and that hasn’t changed since changing my diet. The same goes for many regular folk right through to professional athletes. The only caveat is that I might recommend creatine and/or vitamin B depending on your lifestyle/body. It would surprise me a lot if you’d even notice much (I’m not sure about how you currently eat/cook etc though to understand how much you’d need to learn to adapt your diet healthily). I’ve noticed more people get healthier from changing their diet than the other way around.
Personally, I’ve found it to be a positive change in my life for many reasons (impact, motivation, and otherwise) and think it’s a good thing for our community that we’re overrepresented by people taking the wellbeing of others seriously enough to make a relatively minor lifestyle change that has a fairly direct and positive impact. If I were to imagine the reverse (that EA had a lower than average population of people on a veg*n diet) then I’d find it hard to promote our community/ideas because I’d find it hard to expect outsiders to take us seriously (and I’d find it hard to take us seriously too).
My experience is similar to Luke’s.
One of the main benefits of becoming vegan was that it removed a cognitive dissonance from my life—a sadness at the back of my head because my actions had been different from my values. After becoming vegan, my lifestyle and my convictions were more aligned. This was quite a liberating and joyful feeling.
I think that becoming vegan should be a win-win decision. If a vegan diet feels like a burden, or distracts from more important issues, or causes health problems, then by all means stop and eat whatever you like. But chances are that, after a while, you become a happier and healthier person.
My last bit of advice is to not be too dogmatic about veganism. The animal industry is surprisingly elastic*, and so each egg not bought will reduce demand and cause some fraction of a statistical chicken to not be born and not suffer. You don’t have to be 100% vegan to have an impact ;-)
* I wish I’d have good numbers to back this claim...