The World Vegan Project: Early Steps
Senior Fellow Priya Parrotta
A year or so ago, I attended a session at a vegan and animal advocacy conference which, for me, planted the seed of a new idea. The session centered upon the goal and the challenge of making the end of animal exploitation one of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals. Like so many of the UN’s stated values and commitments, this one filled me with a sense of hope—a hope which, admittedly, is rarely transformed into a reality, given the way such declarations are almost impossible to enforce. Nonetheless, I was drawn to the session because I thought that it would lead to a sophisticated conversation about the dense and formidable matrices of global capitalism and other despotisms which we live with today; and the ways in which the vegan movement can provide alternatives to the systemic exploitations of power which we see all over the world now. Unfortunately, I was mistaken.
In the first five minutes, the convenor of the session stated conclusively that most people on the planet have absolutely no interest in the well-being of animals. There are, of course, many reasons to agree with this statement, but the way in which he framed this challenge was, to me, a cause for concern. In a trend that is (for better or worse) mirrored in the perception of veganism around the world, he located this movement firmly in the Global North. His arguments were undergirded by an all-too-widely-held belief that any commitment to animal ethics that we see in the world today originated in countries like Germany and Austria and Sweden. Further, he argued that the biggest barrier to ending animal exploitation in the world is that in the Global South, there is virtually no interest in this cause. An attendee of a conference I attended more recently confirmed for me that in the vegan movement, this is a rather typical point of view. In her words: ‘Many people in this movement truly believe that only white people care about animals.’
Growing up in a multicultural household, with influences from South Asia and Europe and Latin America, I personally tend not to use words and phrases like ‘white’ and ‘of color.’ But the essence of that statement, I am finding, is not without validity. Despite the rich history of plant-based lifeways around the world over the course of millennia, a belief persists in the movement that it is in fact people from Asia, Africa, Latin America, and so on who are holding the cause of ending animal exploitation back. I left the session feeling as though I had just taken a crash course in a bizarre new form of social Darwinism: It was clear from the tone of it all that, to many of the attendees, people’s disinterest in ending animal exploitation is not simply a logistical challenge. On the contrary, it speaks to some essential hierarchy of consciousness that is distributed geographically in clear ways. The idea, it seems, is that people of European and Euro-American origin are more likely to care about animals because they are in some way more spiritually evolved; and in order to get the UN to recognize this as a serious issue, activists need to overcome the hurdle of the ‘backward’ thinking of everybody else.
The truths of history render this point of view rather ridiculous. Until about a century and a half ago, people in countries like England and the US sourced practically everything—from clothing to furniture to food to candles—from animals. With the exception of the tiny but committed minority of people who were part of vegetarian societies in these places, the exploitation of animals was completely normalized, without any kind of philosophical conflict or resistance. (A good source of information on this is Bill Bryson’s book At Home, though most scholarship on European and Euro-American private life confirms this as well.) If plant-based lifeways are now viable in countries in Europe, and (occasionally) in places like Canada and the US, it is in large measure because of the cuisines and spices from elsewhere in the world. (It is important to note as well that Indigenous societies across North America were also so much more plant-based than the dominant culture acknowledges. The assumption that, prior to European conquest, most of these societies were chiefly carnivorous is ideologically convenient but historically inaccurate).
Plant-based meats, cheeses and so on are indeed making an important contribution to this movement, and are necessary in order to get consummate carnivores to transform their lifestyles. But of greater significance, in my opinion, is the much more long-standing richness of global cuisines. In countries across the Global South, people cook with produce, grains, legumes and seasonings that are rich, delicious, and often firmly rooted in traditional medicinal systems and other aspects of cultural heritage. It is true as well, of course, that cuisines in these countries often also contain meat, eggs and dairy—often alarmingly so, especially given how easily (and nutritiously!) these dishes could be made vegan. However, given the complex histories of modern and pre-modern phenomena such as pastoralist settlement, past and present colonialism(s), the factory system, the plantation economy, and a patriarchy which infuses our lifestyles and our politics, it is highly problematic to approach these challenges in the essentialist ways one so often sees in this movement. If our global food systems are heavy with animal-based ingredients, it is not chiefly because of the recalcitrance—or worse, as is often assumed, the ‘backwardness’—of non- Europeans and non-Euro-Americans. Rather, it is because of the structures of exploitation of people, animals and land which have been propagated all too often by those in power, both in the present day as well as over the course of hundreds (and in some cases, thousands) of years.
The fact that so many people believe that all of this is simply a question of culture, removed from any considerations about who has power and influence in our world, speaks to the flaws in our education: the ways in which so many people finish high school, undergrad, and in many disciplines even grad school without an understanding of the historical evolution of the systems within which we live. These omissions, which all too often lead to assumptions that create deep wedges among vegan activists around the world, have led me to a new stage of the initiative (Music & the Earth International) which has been a love of my life for the past nine years: an intellectual and artistic sub-project called the World Vegan Project.
The World Vegan Project is anchored in the following question: If plant-based traditions and philosophies of nonviolence abound in the world (which is unquestionably the case), then why are our global food systems still so firmly predicated upon violence to animals? The oft-heard answer to this question that I summarized above—that the fault lies somewhere in the Global South—is so provocative and inadequate that I can imagine myself devoting years to answering this in a more nuanced, and ultimately more inspiring, way.
What would it mean for our global food system—as well as other systems of exploitation—to become entirely plant-based? How can the cultures of the world aid in this process? What would it take for all the people of the world to truly embrace plant-based lifestyles, and feel like it truly speaks to their hearts and souls? The answers, I believe, lie not only in the avenues which are currently being explored within the vegan movement, but also in an ocean of intellectual and creative work. The ways in which we see history, and the ways in which we see culture, need to be transformed. Doing this requires a critical look at the world today; an understanding of the interwoven nature of historical injustices; and an affirmation of plant-based solutions and sources of inspiration across place and time. We need much more scholarship, and much more art, that enables a plant-based paradigm to take root across the globe. As my work rests at the intersection of these two streams (the intellectual and the creative), I cannot wait to see what this exploration might yield.
If you are interested in following, and perhaps participating in this endeavor, please contact me. May all animal exploitation end, indeed. And may people embrace that process not a challenge that involves culturally asymmetrical and historically dubious accusations, but rather one which can connect every member of the human race, from the deepest wellsprings of our hearts.