Marxism + Veganism

As more people take on the vegan lifestyle, I feel compelled to write this piece to bring out the necessity of a Marxist approach to veganism for the growth of the animal rights movement.

The vegan movement is one that believes in non-humans right to life without exploitation. The vegan lifestyle is one that does not use nor consume any product that had come, or has an ingredient, from an animal or animal exploitation. Examples of what is not vegan: honey in tea, an egg and cheese sandwich, leather, horseback riding, going to zoos, etc. As one practices a vegan lifestyle, the more it becomes apparent how many times animal products, and unnecessarily too, are used in everyday products from cigarettes to toothpaste.

Often vegan products or companies trying to appeal to vegans will label their products “cruelty-free” which then becomes very controversial since that is often not true, something or someone had been exploited. The point of veganism has now become to live as ethically as possible under capitalism.

As veganism becomes more popular, corporations that abuse people and animals are taking note of this. We need to remember that they only care about profit, not being ethical. They uphold, protect, and survive from capitalism that exploits all living entities from humans, animals, to our pachamama (Mother Earth). What vegans must never forget is the direct correlation between veganism, environmental racism, climate change, and capitalism.

In late 2017, a Seattle based vegan brand, Field Roast, sold to the Canadian Maple Leafs Food, a meat company, for $120 million. In the summer of 2017, vegan brand Daiya sold its company to Otsuka, a pharmaceutical company that tests on animals, for $325 million (in USD). In 2014, vegan brand Gardein sold out to Pinnacle Foods, another meat company, for $154 million. Also, in 2018, Gardein plead guilty to dumping vegetable oil in a ditch that leads into the Fraser River.

Capitalists are taking advantage of the profitability of selling vegan alternative meat and cheese products, they buy out vegan companies and (knowingly or not) vegans and vegetarians once again fund the meat industry. McDonalds, Burger King, White Castle, and some Dunkin Donuts, four notoriously abusive, exploitative, and all-around disgusting corporate fast-food hegemonies that exploit human and animal bodies and labor, have also begun selling meat alternatives with “veggie burgers” and “veggie bacon” sandwiches. I urge vegans to pay attention to their financing of these companies for they all exploit the land, the people, and the animals at what cost to our movement? The argument some vegans will make is that it’s good for big companies to sell meat alternatives for the accessibility of vegan products. Here’s why this argument is wrong.

Low-income people hardly eat out to begin with, hence the joke “hay comida en la casa” or “theres food at home”. Secondly, buying from these companies only perpetuates the system that does sometimes make veganism difficult to practice. If you are a vegan who can afford to purchase fair trade products, then you have a responsibility to do so. I understand how hard it can be to eat ethically, so we need to cook for at home and at least be mindful of our input into the companies that exploit and counter what we claim to stand for. Many low-income vegans hardly ever buy Gardein, Beyond Meats, Tofurkey, etc. because it can become unaffordable, these products are more like a treat.

The purpose of veganism is to be anti-capitalist. Capitalism is what causes rapid climate change, it caused the shift from sacred hunting to mass industrial farms and grotesque “farming” that kills animals to the millionth a day while replacing them just as quickly. Capitalism is the reason that 51% of the stolen land in the US is used for animal agriculture, capitalism is the reason these companies don’t clean up after themselves for that would cut into their profit. Capitalism is the reason for western imperialism of the global south to exploit them for their rich resources and oil. This has given way for the Pachamama and Kayapo tribes to speak out against the meat industry.

When we say veganism is not cruelty-free, it is because some vegan products have come from harm and exploitation of people and the land from products such as palm oil, sugar, soy, coffee, bananas, and chocolate. However 80% of soy from the Amazon rainforests are used to feed animals in the meat industry, despite their bodies not being able to process this. Though these resources are vegan, they aren’t exclusively produced for vegans. Palm oil is used in dish soap and lotion, coffee and chocolate are widespread. Nonetheless, these lands and people are being stripped down by the capitalist west, I urge anti-capitalists and vegans alike to be mindful and acknowledge this as well.

While vegans and vegetarians are hardly the only ones that consume vegetables and fruits, we are the ones fighting for ethical consumption and cruelty-free agriculture. It is the capitalist that exploits the labor to farm the food we eat. Our plant based movement needs to include labor and racial justice to truly be cruelty free. We also need not to be angry with the exploited slaughterhouse workers. It is a very undesirable job that majorly employs the marginalized folks, and especially immigrants from the Global South. Yale Global Health Review released in 2011 that “slaughterhouse work is unique among major industries due to its innate violence.” One study done by examining a FBI crime report and the US census compared crimes rights to newly opened slaughterhouses and newly opened companies of non meat agriculture business for over 500 counties between 1994 and 2002. The study found that with slaughterhouses, there was an increase of crime overall, but a disproportionate increase in sexual and other violent crimes. Apart from an increase of violence, the study of the psychology of slaughterhouse  from researchers at University of Colorado at Boulder showed that slaughterhouse workers developed a form of PTSD ( post-traumatic stress disorder) known as PITS (perpetration-induced stress disorder). Many slaughterhouse workers were being plagued by causing harm to another living creature that they developed depression, substance abuse, anxiety, and dissociation. Slaughterhouse workers are too being exploited and abused by the meat industry, are paid very poor wages and subjected to horrible conditions.

In 2016, a NBC report revealed that many meat companies, such as Tyson, deny their workers their right to use the bathroom. They were forced to wear diapers during their working hours. One woman named Jean in Virginia who works at Tyson shared this “I don’t drink any water so I don’t have to go [to the bathroom]” though she also shared that she was diabetic. Veganism cannot exclude labor justice and cannot exclude these workers.

A vegan movement that excludes marginalized groups and the necessity of being anti-capitalist cannot abolish the meat industry. It is a bourgeois veganism that foolishly thinks it is not feeding into the meat industry and the capitalist mode that supports harmful industries. It is not revolutionary and will not liberate people and animals.

I do not believe the meat industry has a place in a post-revolutionary world. We cannot stand for a practice that exploits and harms another living being and their bodies. With the work that’s been done as of now to create delicious faux meats and other dairy products, it should be of no concern that under a communist mode, we would surpass even this standard.

I also urge anti-capitalists to start learning about the harms of the meat industry and just like vegans, pay attention to what you consume and be mindful of your funding to these industries. A better world is possible, we all know this to be true.