Economic Arguments for Veganism

While the ethical argument will always be the strongest and most consistent argument for Veganism, along with environmental and health arguments being very strong in their own regards, a sometimes neglected argument in favor of Veganism is the one from economics. While the argument has more nuance and requires a familiarity with the literature and evidence (just as the arguments from ethics, environment, and ethics), they can be a great way to add an extra layer to your activism, and highlight even more the lose-lose nature of animal agriculture.

You wouldn't necessarily use economic arguments on their own, they should complement the health and environmental ones, since they only have weight in light of these other arguments, as will be explained. Primarily, they come down to saving money in various ways, both government and personal. These arguments can appeal to more economically-minded people such as libertarians, who understand the value of a dollar.

This article will also address certain economic arguments that are used against Veganism, and how such issues would be addressed in a Vegan world.

Economic Arguments Used Against Veganism

What about the loss of jobs?

Disregarding the fact that slaughterhouse and meat-rendering jobs rank among the worst jobs on planet Earth (almost certainly much worse than sweatshop jobs in terms of work conditions), leaving workers with PTSD, psychological problems, as well as the risk of personal injury and sickness, keep in mind that progressive social change will come along with requiring some people to find new lines of work. While currently 99% of jobs in society are not harmful and serve as an impetus for economic development and helping out the world, jobs and sectors of the economy that are known to be evils must be eschewed in the name of progress. During the time of slavery, a big concern was the massive economic upheaval that would occur as a result of its abolishment. Did it result in this economic upset? Absolutely. Was it worth it? You probably know the answer to that.

But a lot of lobbyists on behalf of the animal agriculture industry will always be quick to point out how many jobs they are able to provide and how much GDP they add to the economy, hoping you conveniently ignore the horrible and unnecessary working conditions they create and that the dissolution of animal agriculture will not automatically translate to total job and economic loss; ONLY slaughterhouse and meat rendering jobs will be significantly lost, which will be replaced by others. There will still be a demand for food, and we will need people to grow, cultivate, process, etc. that food: This will not change. We will still need people (MORE people now that everyone's Vegan) to farm our crops (fruits, vegetables, grains, legumes, nuts, seeds, which are now all being eaten by humans instead of half of them being fed to livestock) and package and ship them, and people will still buy them with their money instead of meat products, and we will need people to manufacture Vegan foods too, so instead of working in a burger plant, they will work in a veggie-burger factory.

This line is a last resort of lobbyists and marketers trying to make their industry seem like a public good since it's pretty damn hard to deny the harms they cause, though even if they provided jobs that can't be replaced, their industry causes far too much harm to animals and the environment to ever be worth it, and their industries make up a very small percentage of the workforce anyway. ANY sort of busywork is economically beneficial, so it wouldn't be hard to compensate these people with the implementation of a UBI, as well as providing free vocational training and university education to these people, and maybe add some job guarantee in there too for good measure (which will all be useful measures with the rise of automation, which is a far bigger threat to blue-collar job security than Veganism and free trade ever could be). But again, the end of animal agriculture will not spell economic destruction, and as the rest of this article shows, it will lead to economic relief.