No, Veganism isn’t expensive
I was reading a post on Your Daily Vegan today responding to an article by Joel Stein which asserts that becoming a vegan is the new way to buy a Ferrari, a fur coat, or a diamond necklace. Stein claims, Steve Wynn, Mort Zuckerman, Russell Simmons, and Bill Clinton are now using tempeh to assert their superiority….It shouldn’t be surprising that so many CEOs are shunning meat, dairy, and eggs: It’s an exclusive club. Only 1 percent of the U.S. population is vegan, partly because veganism isn’t cheap: The cost comes from the value of specialty products made by speciality companies with cloying names (tofurkey, anyone?). For years, I’ve been telling newly-vegans about this exact idiotic mistake Stein made. Veganism isn’t expensive. In fact, historically, the opposite has been true. The consumption of meat and other animal products has long been reserved only for the wealthy. That you had access to an animal (who needs so much more resources than a plant) meant that you had the wealth to support such a lavish purchase. Historically, plant-based diets were practiced heavily within impoverished areas. Even today in some third-world countries, animal products exist, but are heavily rationed in favor of grains, fruits, and vegetables. So why do Stein and so many others believe veganism is expensive? Well, Joel, listen to what you are saying: So first you’re going to tell your readers veganism is expensive, next you’re going to back this up by pointing to specialty items? They’re specialty items! This is like claiming that rocks are expensive saying, “Just look at diamonds, have you seen the prices of those things?” Don’t make the same mistake as Mr. Stein in thinking that veganism is about eating the same hamburger-and-fries diet as the rest of the omnivore population. Yes, we grew up with that stuff too, so there is a market for animal product analogues to satisfy our nostalgia, but you have to understand that you are looking at the tourist attraction of veganism for omnivores (so to speak). You are not, however considering a diet of whole grains, fruits, vegetables, legumes, and seeds. Would it be any different if Omnivores were trying to make vegan products out of animals? Would you assume celery and peanut butter made only of animal ingredients would be sold cheaply? (Or taste good?) If not, why can we not have the same consideration the other way around? In Stein’s fantasy world, vegans entirely or even mostly subsist on eating omnivore’s food made out of plants. We are unable to make salads, most indian food is left to myth and bedtime stories, and baking powder was a lie made up to crush the egg industry. Veganism is a soy meat diet. I’m also wondering how Steinonomics works; how is it that when I eat my potato with Bush Vegetarian Baked Beans, a Jonathan apple, and a green salad, it is magically more expensive than if an omnivore were eating a similar meal? When I pondered on this for a while, I suddenly got a chill up my spine. I finally understood what Stein had been warning me about. I hurried to the other room where I had left my bag of groceries, receipt still inside. Looking at the itemized form, I skipped over my head of cabbage, bag of apples, can of mixed nuts, and florets of broccoli. ”Where is it?” I wondered aloud. Subtotal…Tax….Total. Alas, there was no vegan tax. As far as I can tell, it costs a vegan exactly the same to buy fruits and vegetables as it would an omnivore. The sad thing about this, however, is that Stein and I don’t just disagree on something like our favorite colors. Stein and others who have slammed veganism for being expensive further encourage the population that our exploitation of billions of animals every year is perfectly acceptable. This kind of education is not only wrong, it’s potentially violent. If you are not vegan, become a vegan. It’s easy, cheap, and good for you.
The cost comes from the value of specialty products made by speciality companies.
