1/2 + 1/2 ≠ 1

It is easy for many of us to buy into the idea that we can achieve just as much by convincing people to eat less meat, as we can achieve by convincing what would be a smaller number of people to stop eating meat altogether. After all, as I've read and heard several times, and as Jonathan Safran Foer recently stated in an interview, if two people each eat half as much meat, than that is the same as one person not eating meat at all, and is presumably a much easier task to achieve. Upon examination, however, there are several problems with this theory.

Anyone who is eating half as much meat is still eating meat. They are still a paying customer of an industry that commits atrocities, which means that they are still providing a profit for the industry, and they are still providing an example to those around them of a person that continues to eat meat, and support an immoral industry.  When someone is a vegan, it makes an impression on those around them, and causes other people to rethink their own actions. Someone eating half as much meat simply does not have this impact.  Could you imagine if someone told you they were working to end sex trafficking by only visiting prostitutes half as much?  Is it any less absurd when someone says we can end factory farming by eating half as many animals?

Meat is also an addictive substance, and people who eat it usually crave more. In the U.S. most people are notoriously bad at estimating portion size, so the chances of someone who has “cut down” on meat actually eating a lot less is not as great as we would like to believe.

Meat is also unhealthy. If someone wants to really gain health benefits by cutting back on meat, they would need to cut back to one to two servings per week.  Both Dr. Ornish and Dr. Esselstyn report that a positive outcome is crucial in increasing adherence to their respective diets.  That is, the better a diet makes people feel, the more likely they are to stick with it.  Since most of those who cut back are not going to experience any health benefits, this makes continued adherence to a low meat regimen less likely over time. By encouraging people to only cut a little we are eliminating the chance of a positive outcome.  Jumping a stream in one leap may seem more difficult, but it is preferable to jumping halfway across, and saving the other half for later.

Vegan is the word most feared by factory farmers. It means they have lost a customer who will now be an example to others of the ability to live a healthy, fulfilling life without eating animal products. As the number of vegans increases, non-vegans will be exposed to more and more vegans, and more and more vegan products. As this happens, veganism will become far more “normal” and accepted, thus serving to increase the number of vegans even more. When I was young I used to make snowmen during the winter, and at first the snowball would be tiny, and you could roll and roll with only a small gain on each roll, but then, before you even realized it the ball would start growing exponentially, as its added weight caused it to put on a thicker and thicker layer of snow with each roll. I can absolutely foresee our country being fifty percent vegan within ten to twenty years, and if you can't, get out of the way of my f**kin' snowball.