Recidivism

Hey, you convinced someone to go Vegan! Good for you! Now here's some bad news: There's at least a 70% chance that person is not going to be Vegan for longer than a year.

As animal rights activists, there will always be a whole assortment of challenges when it comes to convincing people to go Vegan; Whether it'd be terrible arguments and logic, pseudoscience, stubborness, apathy, laziness, all of these things inhibit the spread of Veganism. But without a doubt, the number one reason why Vegans have been consistently only a tiny fraction of the population for so long, is due to recidivism.

The thing with Veganism is that it has something of a spillover effect; Your actions don't exist in a vacuum, and like it or not, what you do has tangible impacts on the material world. Since it's all about changing where you're spending your money (well, unless you're Freegan) and influencing folks, the economic and social importance of the movement shouldn't be overlooked as huge venues for pushing the issue. Vegans buying plant-based foods will shift market focus away from animal products, as well as influencing family, friends, and acquaintences to reduce their meat consumption, who will then influence their family, friends, and acquaintences, and so on.

If everyone who went Vegan stayed Vegan, not only would that mean there would be far less animals being killed, but it would keep the cycle going strong. Someone goes vegan, they help contribute to the market share of Vegan alternatives, which will mean more Vegan options for the general public to try out. And human beings are social animals. We see someone doing something, especially if it's a close friend or family member, we want to emulate that behavior. It would be something of a breaking point, where more and more people would go Vegan faster and faster.

But not everyone who goes Vegan stays Vegan. The overwhelming majority will sooner or later go back to eating meat. Most that do go back within a year, but there are many cases of people who've been Vegan for years, occasionally decades even, and just decide to give it up (We here at PV have met so many people who've been Vegan for years who went back; The writer of this article has been in contact with a person who was vegan for fifteen years who gave it up one day). If you ever meet a Vegan, statistically speaking, they aren't going to be Vegan anymore in a few years (you're going to meet far more people who were vegan or vegetarian than are vegan or vegetarian). So instead of positively influencing society towards Veganism, they go back to supporting a terrible industry, and not saving the animals they could've saved.

Why does it happen?

It happens for a whole slew of reasons, ranging from poor nutrition, not being familiar with anti-Vegan arguments, or simply convienence.

There's also the phenomenon of people just not caring anymore. You know how on Social Media every few months or so there'll be a huge social movement that virtually everyone will throw some lip-service towards? Whether it's climate change, BLM, or even going back to something like Kony 2012, there will be endless hashtags, memes, posts, blogs, Tweets, stories, whatever, talking about the problem and how it needs to be stopped, and if you don't take part in the campaign you're just a priveleged asshole that doesn't care and is fine with letting the issue persist. Ever notice how this will last for a few weeks, maybe a month or so, then after that it's hardly ever brought up again as if it never happened? That's pretty much what happens with a lot of these Vegans, even those who were incredibly passionate about it.

They can see slaughterhouse footage and go Vegan on the spot, and for months or even years dedicate much of their time to the animal rights cause. They protested, gave talks, showed slaughterhouse footage in public, or hell, even participated in ALF activities and other acts of civil (or uncivil) disobedience. One day, though, the flame burns out. They just don't care anymore.

Poor nutrition is unfortunately a very common problem, with many Vegans not knowing adequete sources of protein, or relying on eating too much Vegan junk food. More naive Vegans will have their meals centered around foods that are frankly lacking in nutrition, and a lot of popular Vegans on the Youtubes and DikCoks when they do their "What I eat in a day" videos have usually delicious but unsatiating meals (we see a disturbing amount of them focus far too much on fruit). Since Vegans, often new ones, will look to these videos for reference, it already sets them off on a start on the road to recidivism. Protein is something that's essential for making us feel full, and other nutrients such as iron and magnesium help us feel better in general. When people lack these, they lose the motivation to stay Vegan if it means they feel like crap all the time.

Another huge and unsuspecting factor is Vegans entering relationships with meat-eaters. There have been many, many cases of Vegans entering relationships with meat-eaters who go back to eating meat rather quickly. This happens mainly through cognitive dissonance. Being platonic friends with a meat-eater isn't as damning, since not only are you not forced to spend time with them everyday, but the emotional attatchment isn't on the same level as romantic love. Love in real life ain't how it is in movies: Opposites do NOT attract. When there is such a significant conflict of values, either the relationship will eventually dissipate, or one of the parties will concede and embrace the lifestyle of the other, and given peer and societal pressure, most often, the Vegan is the one that falls.

Who is more susceptible to it?

Given how high recidivism is across the board, pretty much every Vegan is likely to eventually quit and go back to eating meat within a few years. Even among incredibly zealous, passionate, and pompous Vegans. In fact, they might be more susceptible to recidivism, since their reasoning for Veganism is not strongly founded on evidence and logic and more emotion and an urge to be in the right.

What can be done about it?

It depends on why the person quit Veganism in the first place.

Advocating nutrition is massive, and we really should do a better job of talking about Vegan nutrition anyway. While the health argument is probably the weakest one to make as far as advocacy goes, people are not going to want to keep up with Veganism if they don't know what foods they need to be eating. We need to be telling people to consume foods rich in proteins and minerals (legumes are more than abundant), as well as at least try to eat healhier by incorporating veggies, nuts, beans, and whole grains into their daily diets. There's no need to eat like a health freak at every meal, but there is a bare minimum, not to mention how it helps others be more open to Veganism when they see that Vegans can be, and are healthy.

Since Vegans are a group of people taking a significant moral stance and altering a part of their lifestyles, we really should have a passing familiarity with ethics, and not advocate deontology (which not only makes us look dogmatic and uncompromising, but most people will be able to see it as irrational). Understanding ethics helps us be able to understand why Veganism is a good thing, and not just done based on emotional impulse. Similarly, it's also a good idea for those struggling, if possible, to visit an farm animal sanctuary. Seeing and interacting with the species of animals you're saving when you go Vegan is a huge motivation to not want to eat them again, and remember the reason why you're doing it in the first place.

Even though we talked about the concerns of relationships with meat-eaters, even though a Vegan entering a relationship with a meat-eater is dangerous territory, if both people in a relationship are Vegan, that significantly reduces the chances of recidivism. Very few people in relationships where both parties are Vegan go back to eating meat, and this may be due to the sense of obligation to their SO, and the accountability that is set in relationships. Turning a couple Vegan helps ensure staying power. There's also having the Vegan turn their meat-eating parter Vegan, though this again brings up the risk; It's often better when this is done in the earlier stages of the relationship. Helps put the relationship to the test, seeing whether or not someone will commit to a moral action alongside their partner.

Advocating Reducitarianism

Even though Veganism as defined by the Vegan Society has been failing as a movement, that doesn't mean that there is zero hope for animal rights. Things like meatless Mondays, Veganuary, and other types of reducitarianism have been spreading in popularity, and as such the meat, dairy, and egg alternative markets have exploded in popularity, and Veganism and Vegetarianism have become much more socially acceptable (whereas just a little over a decade and a half ago it was met with hostility and ridicule).

Reducitarianism has been branded as a much easier and less radical version of Veganism (not that Veganism's really all that radical but anyway), and it's practicied by a large portion of the population who want to do less environmental harm and want to move towards hurting less animals. No matter how you look at it, it's a huge step in the right direction for society at large.

Given how widespread mock meats and Vegan options at resteraunts are, going Vegan for just one day a week is ridiculously easy for the vast majority of people, or some variation like only eating meat once a day rather than three times a day (Vegan Before 6). Doing things such as encouraging people to buy the Vegan burger when they're at a restaurant, swapping out their dairy for a plant milk (which are stocked to the brim in grocery stores these days, they're bound to like at least one), or hell, even pointing out that the majority of processed animal products (burgers, chicken nuggets, corn dogs, cheeses, ice cream, bacon, deli meats) now have rather tasty Vegan alternatives to them, and replacing what CAN be replaced would make a huge difference, not only in reducing animal suffering and carbon footprints, but also shifting market forces to produce more Vegan options and making them taste even better. This is already true to an extent, given how the majority of people who purchase these mock meats aren't vegan or vegetarian.

Although we've had our share of criticisms of Gary Yourofsky, one thing we give him a lot of credit for is his effective means of activism. If you aren't familiar with him, he's a now retired Animal Rights Activist who did a series of tours for over a decade, lecturing college students all across the United States, advocating for a hardline, no bullshit approach to Veganism, without any mentions of reducitarianism (though in his earlier days he used to advocate for reduciarianism but this seemed to be dropped sometime before 2010). Anyway, when discussing the statistics of the classess, he has disclosed that, even with no real mention of reducitarianism, 50-60% of each class still attempts to make some form of reduction in their consumption of animal products, such as cutting out dairy, only eating meat on certain days, or even going Vegetarian (with roughly 15-20% of them going Vegan). This strongly suggests that, even if you were to advocate for full on Veganism, a huge portion of the audience receiving the message will still make some sort of effort to eat less meat, dairy, and eggs.

You can say this is just one person to have as an example, but Gary has given speeches to over 60,000 students, and even a tenth of that by any reasonable definition that's a pretty good sample size. There are certainly other confounding variables, such as Gary's more abrasive approach and primary focus on ethics, but it's something to think about, anyway.