How to Create a Vegan World: A Pragmatic Approach by Tobias Leenaert

Author:Tobias Leenaert [Leenaert, Tobias]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi, pdf
ISBN: 9781590565711
Publisher: Lantern Books
Published: 2017-06-29T03:00:00+00:00

Larger or more established vegan and animal advocacy organizations may possess in-house expertise that offers businesses consultations that may prove valuable to them. They may be able to help companies extend their range, correct flaws or mistakes in products or packaging, train chefs and buyers, and help in other ways. They can endorse products and present unique insights into the market of “heavy users,” and provide channels to reach them.

ProVeg International has a whole startup department. It offers seminars, videos, and individual coaching for vegan entrepreneurs and has supported hundreds of vegans who wish to open their own businesses. They even provide loans. ProVeg also has its own testing community to help new and more established companies test-market their products and receive feedback.

Another practice through which vegan organizations can help businesses is by informing and educating their own supporters (sympathizers, donors, members, subscribers). Organizations can help supporters open their minds to the possibility that not all meat companies are necessarily enemies. They can encourage them to get over their suspicions about money and investors, and to appreciate the benefits of science and technology. Given the interest of many vegans in natural or organic foods, many of them may be even more distrustful of food they perceive as “unnatural” or processed, or dependent on technology than the general population.

Clean meat offers a case in point. Clean meat is flesh developed from animal cells without slaughtering the animals involved. There are good reasons to be excited about the potential of clean meat. It could be the technological revolution that precedes a moral transformation. The prospects for product growth are good. Researchers are confident that in the next five or ten years they'll be able to overcome most technological barriers. Furthermore, the price of the product should eventually drop enough to make it competitive with conventional meat.

Clean meat can be more sustainable (requiring less energy, water, or fertilizer), healthier (it's easy to control the fat content, for example) and safer (a lower risk of all kinds of contamination and the danger to workers from the slaughtering process) than conventional meat. Beyond the technological and regulatory challenges facing clean meat is public perception. The production of clean meat is obviously more hi-tech and seems less “natural” than what we're used to. “Natural,” however, is a confusing and not particularly useful concept here. Not only are the animals who are trucked to the slaughterhouse full of chemicals and hormones, but they are killed and dismembered using a wide array of electrical and mechanical tools. Where is the inherent “naturalness” of this process? Furthermore, we might add, not everything natural is good for us (namely radioactivity) and not everything human-made is negative (penicillin is a case in point).

Genetically modified organisms (GMOs) are another example of a natural/unnatural confusion. Many people, including vegans, are opposed to their use. In certain circles, it's almost taboo to say that you're ambivalent or agnostic about even researching their potential. In theory at least, GMO products could reduce animal testing and

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