Preface
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This briefing explains, with six key points, why one person can make a difference.
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| Key Points | 7 |
| Counterclaims | 2 |
| Advocacy Notes | 3 |
| Footnotes | 5 |
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Summary
A concise summary of the briefing (see below for citations).
Individual actions can impact animal suffering because choosing veganism may save over 25 land animals and many aquatic animals annually while encouraging the production of plant-based alternatives. Beyond sparing animals, veganism promotes better health, reduces environmental impact, and fosters a more sustainable food system. By living ethically, individuals inspire others and demonstrate how personal choices can lead to meaningful societal change, as seen with leaders like Martin Luther King Jr. and Mahatma Gandhi.
Context
Places this topic in its larger context.
With the commodification of animals being so pervasive, it’s easy to see why you might believe that you can’t make a difference. Here we show you are already making a difference, for better or worse, and that you can make a difference for the better.
Consider this: if you have adopted this objection to veganism and animal rights, it would seem that you have implicitly and subtly acknowledged that there is a difference to be made.
Key Points
This section provides talking points.
You are already making a difference.
Buying products made from animals makes a difference, but not a positive one. It contributes to suffering because it involves paying others to breed, abuse, and slaughter animals. It also helps ensure the suffering will continue by reinforcing the belief that it’s OK to do so.
Everyone makes a difference. The question is not, “Can you make a difference?”; the question is, “What kind of difference will you make?”
The laws of supply and demand virtually ensure you will save lives and spare suffering by going vegan.
While animals already in the production system cannot be saved, going vegan reduces future suffering by preventing more animals from being bred, abused, and slaughtered. This shift occurs because of supply and demand: buying animal products drives the market to produce more, while reducing consumption signals the market to produce fewer animal products and more alternatives. By choosing not to buy animal products, you impact the demand, leading to fewer animals being exploited.
How many lives will you save by going vegan?
- Using data from the USDA and the Census Bureau, Counting Animals calculates you save, on average, over 325 animals per year by leaving animals off your plate—25 land animals and over 300 sea animals.1
- This is congruent with an analysis by the National Resources Defense Council (NRDC) that determined each person in the United States eats 26 land animals per year.2
- Other estimates are higher. Of course, exactly how many animals you personally save will depend on your patterns of consumption before you became vegan.
Imagine that every year, you rescued 25 dogs, cats, or wild animals. You would be lavished with praise as a champion for the animals, and you would justifiably feel better about yourself for it. Yet the animals we exploit and slaughter for food and other uses are no less deserving of their lives than wild animals or the pets we adore and protect. They are the same in all the ways that matter morally.
It’s a matter of principle.
Even if you were the only person refusing to participate in a particular form of mass suffering for humans or other animals, and that lack of participation resulted in no discernible benefits for the victims, you should still not participate as a matter of principle.
Setting a powerful example will have influence.
When you set a powerful example, you will likely have more influence on others than you realize. When you go vegan, it begins a ripple effect. Over time, some of your friends, family, and acquaintances, having observed you, will go vegan or at least begin reducing their demand for animal products. That will influence others to do the same, which will, in turn, influence even more to do the same.
If everyone believed that one person cannot make a difference, there could be no progress.
Imagine if Martin Luther King Jr. or Mahatma Gandhi believed that they, along with their fellow activists, could not make a difference.
Margaret Mead is credited with saying, “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.”3
The difference you make goes beyond reducing the suffering of animals.
The science is clear that going vegan will reduce your risk of chronic disease, diminish your footprint on the planet, and promote a more efficient food system better capable of feeding the world’s starving, hungry, and impoverished.4
The assertion that you are powerless is, at worst, an excuse.
Consider whether you are subconsciously making an excuse because you are unwilling to change your behavior.
Counterclaims
Responses to some yes but retorts.
Claim: One person can’t impact demand because billions are slaughtered every year.
Some might say that in a large market, the action of one individual could not possibly impact demand because it is such a small percentage of total demand.
This may be true, but the fact that millions are not buying products made from animals5 does reduce demand—and, consequently, supply. Any one of the millions not buying such products logically and necessarily accounts for a portion of that reduction in demand.
Claim: One shouldn’t be given credit for saving lives when they stop eating animals.
One could argue that you are not saving any lives, because you should not have been complicit in the slaughters in the first place. If you would have otherwise contributed to the slaughter of an animal and then decide not to, you shouldn’t be credited with saving a life.
Point taken, but when the societal norm is paying others to slaughter animals, one could argue that it’s not entirely disingenuous to think of it as saving animals.
Supplementary Info
Additional information that may prove useful.
An inspiring starfish story…
Once upon a time, there was an old man who used to go to the ocean to do his writing. He had a habit of walking on the beach every morning before he began his work. Early one morning, he was walking along the shore after a big storm had passed and found the vast beach littered with starfish as far as the eye could see, stretching in both directions.
Off in the distance, the old man noticed a small boy approaching. As the boy walked, he paused every so often, and as he grew closer, the man could see that he was occasionally bending down to pick up an object and throw it into the sea. The boy came closer still, and the man called out, “Good morning! May I ask what it is that you are doing?”
The young boy paused, looked up, and replied, “Throwing starfish into the ocean. The tide has washed them up onto the beach, and they can’t return to the sea by themselves,” the youth replied. “When the sun gets high, they will die, unless I throw them back into the water.”
The old man replied, “But there must be tens of thousands of starfish on this beach. I’m afraid you won’t really be able to make much of a difference.”
The boy bent down, picked up yet another starfish, and threw it as far as he could into the ocean. Then he turned, smiled, and said, “It made a difference to that one!”
Adapted from The Star Thrower, by Loren Eiseley (1907–1977)
Further Study
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Other Resources
This video by Colleen Patrick-Goudreau sheds light on the topic:
Advocacy Resources
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Advocacy Notes
Tips for Advocacy and Outreach
Realize that if someone asserts changing their behavior will not make a difference, the may be implicitly admitting that the behavior is ethically problematic. Otherwise, they would have just said “it’s not wrong.” It might be helpful to point this out.
You can also point out that they are saying, in effect, that if most people commit a wrong it’s ok for me to commit a wrong. If they assert that’s not the case, the ask them to explain why that’s not the case.
Point out that when millions of people have chosen not to eat animals it does reduce demand. Each of the millions not contributing to the suffering logically and necessarily accounts for a portion of that reduction in suffering.
Footnotes
Our sources, with links back to where they’re used.
- Harish. “How Many Animals Does a Vegetarian Save?” Accessed December 29, 2018. ↩︎
- Susan Cosier. How Much Meat We Eat.” NRDC. Accessed December 29, 2018. ↩︎
- Never Doubt That a Small Group of Thoughtful, Committed Citizens Can Change the World; Indeed, It’s the Only Thing That Ever Has – Quote Investigator.” Accessed December 29, 2018. https://quoteinvestigator.com/2017/11/12/change-world ↩︎
- Our introduction to veganism and briefing on hunger provide citations for these assertions. ↩︎
- “Vegan Statistics: Why The Global Rise in Plant-Based Eating Isn’t A Fad.” Food Revolution Network (blog), January 18, 2018 ↩︎
