Like others I find the question to present a false dichotomy.
Similarly, I find it much easier to take someone’s commitment to animal advocacy seriously if they’re vegan, and I think it’s the best way to be internally consistent with your morals. I also think that anyone who is buying meat is contributing to harm, even if they offset. In that sense it’s a ‘baseline’, but I still think offsetting is good, and I don’t want to exclude anyone from being animal advocates, because I know veganism is hard and people are motivated by different things.
I think of it like anti-smoking campaigns: smoking is not good. If you donate and smoke, well that’s good overall but still I’d rather you didn’t smoke. And your smoking shouldn’t stop you from being able to fight the tobacco lobby!
So: yes, a baseline, but not a requirement. Offsetting is good, but not a legitimate stopping point.
Like others I find the question to present a false dichotomy.
Similarly, I find it much easier to take someone’s commitment to animal advocacy seriously if they’re vegan, and I think it’s the best way to be internally consistent with your morals. I also think that anyone who is buying meat is contributing to harm, even if they offset. In that sense it’s a ‘baseline’, but I still think offsetting is good, and I don’t want to exclude anyone from being animal advocates, because I know veganism is hard and people are motivated by different things.
I think of it like anti-smoking campaigns: smoking is not good. If you donate and smoke, well that’s good overall but still I’d rather you didn’t smoke. And your smoking shouldn’t stop you from being able to fight the tobacco lobby!
So: yes, a baseline, but not a requirement. Offsetting is good, but not a legitimate stopping point.