The veganism without the class war is only meaningful for those who seek to rest their heads on the pillow in the end of the day without feeling guilty… Because without the class war, the veganism revolution doesn’t change anything.
When you choose to buy goods that reflect your personal values – empowering minorities, supporting the environment, going cruelty-free etc. – you’re practicing ethical consumption. But is ethical consumption actually possible in the society that we live in, i.e. under capitalism?
- Capitalism as a system makes purely ethical consumption near impossible.
Why veganism is a privilege?
A low-income single mother of three will find it easier in many ways to feed her children fast-food, at perhaps an unhealthy frequency, than invest time and money she might not have into daily preparation of nutritious meals — though this may well be her wish. She, by no fault of her own but rather in virtue of the system which veganism condemns but also benefits from, lacks both the financial and educational resources to sustain a vegan diet for her whole family. A tin of chickpeas and a potato might cost less than a McDonald’s meal, but the issue of literal cash wealth and personal purchasing power is only one of many issues around the privilege.
https://www.shoutoutuk.org/2020/08/04/veganism-a-choice-or-a-privilege/
Practicality and convenience are accompanying problems.
Veganism is increasingly popular and it is a place for everyone, rather than just for the wealthy. That said, like the rest of the world, veganism is another thing that is looked at as for the wealthy. People with lower incomes might be welcome, but they aren’t made to feel that.
Some of the poorest communities are vegan by default. For example, some parts of India are predominantly vegetarian and vegan. In other cases, however, people in poorer countries are vegan because they are starving. The problem with veganism as a class issue is that it not only assumes privilege, but also that everyone has the privilege of choice.
People need to have the time to cook, the money to buy the ingredients, and the skills to prepare and cook the food. If someone doesn’t have access to fresh foods, for example, they will struggle to sustain a diverse vegan diet.
https://theveganreview.com/veganism-associated-with-classism/
So how can we mix veganism – as practiced by the universal vegan – with the class war? We start with the manner in which prestige is applied to certain objects to make them desirable, even when they aren’t healthy or necessary. Possession or consumption of these articles of prestige is then used to define who is of what class, or at least who aspires to more elevated social rankings. Yes, commodity fetishism includes propagating the meat prestige – look at the most extreme sorts of hamburgers the fast-food industry invents, or at the Heart Attack Grill.
https://vegansofcolor.wordpress.com/2010/08/18/veganism-and-the-class-war/
https://www.cnsjournal.org/veganism-as-left-praxis/