Abstract
The vegan project is defined as the project that strives for radical legal reform to pass laws that would reserve the consumption of animal products to a very narrow range of situations, resulting in vegan diets being the default diets for the majority of human beings. Two objections that have been raised against such a project are described. The first is that such a project would jeopardise the nutritional adequacy of human diets. The second is that it would alienate human beings from nature. It is argued that neither undermines the vegan project.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Akhtar, A. 2012. Animals and public health. Why treating animals better is critical to human welfare. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
American Dietetic Association. 2009. Position of the American Dietetic Association: Vegetarian diets. Journal of the American Dietetic Association 109(7): 1266–1282.
Atkinson, S., A. Velarde, P. Llonch, and B. Algers. 2012. Assessing pig welfare at stunning in Swedish commercial abattoirs using CO2 group-stun methods. Animal Welfare 21(4): 487–495.
Barnard, N.D., A. Nicholson, and J.L. Howard. 1995. The medical costs attributable to meat consumption. Preventive Medicine 24(6): 646–655.
Bergqvist, J., and S. Gunnarson. 2013. Finfish aquaculture: Animal welfare, the environment, and ethical implications. Journal of Agricultural and Environmental Ethics 26(1): 75–99.
Crawford, M., Y. Wang, C. Lehane, and K. Ghebremeskel. 2010. Fatty-acid ratios in free-living and domestic animals. In Modern dietary fat intakes in disease promotion, ed. F. De Meester, S. Zibadi, and R. Watson, 95–108. New York: Humana Press.
Deckers, J. 2009. Vegetarianism, sentimental or ethical? Journal of Agricultural and Environmental Ethics 22(6): 573–597.
Deckers, J. 2010a. What policy should be adopted to curtail the negative global health impacts associated with the consumption of farmed animal products? Res Publica: A Journal of Moral, Legal and Social Philosophy 16(1): 57–72.
Deckers, J. 2010b. Should the consumption of farmed animal products be restricted, and if so, by how much? Food Policy 35(6): 497–503.
Deckers, J. 2011a. Should Whiteheadians be vegetarians? A critical analysis of the thoughts of Whitehead, Birch, Cobb, and McDaniel. Journal of Animal Ethics 1(1): 80–92.
Deckers, J. 2011b. Should Whiteheadians be vegetarians? A critical analysis of the thoughts of Hartshorne and Dombrowski. Journal of Animal Ethics 1(2): 195–209.
Deckers, J. 2011c. Negative “GHIs”, the right to health protection, and future generations. Journal of Bioethical Inquiry 8(2): 165–176.
Deckers, J. 2011d. Justice, negative GHIs, and the consumption of farmed animal products. Journal of Global Ethics 7(2): 205–216.
Deckers, J. 2011e. Could some people be wronged by contracting swine flu? A case discussion on the links between the farm animal sector and human disease. Journal of Medical Ethics 37(6): 354–356.
Deckers, J. 2011f. Does the consumption of farmed animal products cause human hunger? Journal of Hunger and Environmental Nutrition 6(3): 353–377.
Devendra, C. 2007. Small farm systems to feed hungry Asia. Outlook on Agriculture 36(1): 7–20.
Fairlie, S. 2010. Meat: A benign extravagance. East Meon: Permanent Publications.
Hallberg, L. 1998. Does calcium interfere with iron absorption? The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition 68(1): 3–4.
Keyzer, M., M. Merbis, I. Pavel, and C. van Wesenbeeck. 2005. Diet shifts towards meat and the effects on cereal use: Can we feed the animals in 2030? Ecological Economics 55(2): 187–202.
Lanou, A. 2009. Should dairy be recommended as part of a healthy vegetarian diet? Counterpoint. The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition 89(5): 1638S–1642S.
Lanou, A., and M. Castleman. 2009. Building bone vitality: A revolutionary plan to prevent bone loss and reverse osteoporosis. Columbus: McGraw Hill.
Marsh, K., K. Zeuschner, and A. Saunders. 2012. Health implications of a vegetarian diet: A review. American Journal of Lifestyle Medicine 6(3): 250–267.
Shields, S., S. Park, and A. Mohan Raj. 2010. A critical review of electrical water-bath stun systems for poultry slaughter and recent developments in alternative technologies. Journal of Applied Animal Welfare Science 13(4): 281–299.
World Wildlife Fund (WWF). 2011. Soya and the Cerrado: Brazil’s forgotten jewel. Godalming: World Wildlife Fund.
Acknowledgments
I would like to thank the reviewers of this article and participants in the Newcastle Animal Ethics and Sustainable Food Policy conference (December 2, 2011) for their comments on an earlier version. I am grateful to Beacon North East for funding this conference, where an earlier version of this article was presented.
Statement of Competing Interests
The author is an Associate Editor of the Journal of Bioethical Inquiry but was not involved with the review of this article.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
This article is an expanded version of a paper presented at the Newcastle Animal Ethics and Sustainable Food Policy conference (held at Newcastle University on December 2, 2011), which addressed the following question: “How should the U.K. Government regulate the consumption of animal products?” Presentations of the conference were recorded and can be downloaded, together with their PowerPoint slides, from http://backdoorbroadcasting.net/2011/12/animal-ethics-and-sustainable-food-policy-a-minding-animals-international/
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Deckers, J. In Defence of the Vegan Project. Bioethical Inquiry 10, 187–195 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11673-013-9428-9
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11673-013-9428-9