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Reducetarians cash in on veganism without the ethical burden of animal rights

File Image: (c) Photabulous!

The Reducetarian Foundation promotes a "reducetarian" diet, where participants reduce the amount of meat (as well as eggs and dairy) they consume in order to improve their health, protect the environment, and spare farmed animals from cruelty, as described on Wikipedia.

Their slogan exclaims "Aspire to eat less meat? Then you are a Reducetarian!"

The Reducetarian.org website prominently sells and promotes their book "The Reducetarian Solution" a cornerstone of the "The Reducetarian Movement" as they describe and foundational to "Reducetarian Summits" speaker conferences held this year and scheduled for 2018 as well.

The website also solicits donations, encourages volunteers, sells t-shirts and is riddled with endorsements from a wide variety of organizations, from AnimalEquality to Memphis Meats. The Reducetarian machine is so well marketed and promoted, it's surprising to learn they are a relatively new non-profit 501(c)(3) organization. Even Melanie Joy, coiner of the word "carnism" has jumped on board.

In an interview with The Guardian, Brian Kateman, co-founder of the Reducetarian.com movement stated:

" The central premise of reducetarians is that vegans and vegetarians - who have reduced their animal intake so successfully that they're not eating any at all - are part of the same spectrum as people who are dissatisfied with factory farming and so have decided to, say, only eat meat once in a while."

To most vegans, Kateman's statement that vegans and reducetarians are "part of the same spectrum" is a blasphemous marketing message intended to cast equivalency where there is none.

The essence of veganism is animal rights. Vegans didn't stop eating meat, dairy et cetera for the planet or for health reasons. They have done it because ethically it is wrong to enslave, torture and kill any thinking feeling animal, which naturally includes humans. The fact that veganism benefits personal health and the environment is simply a huge bonus, a further confirmation that veganism is a good path.

Veganism is an animal rights movement.

In contrast a reducetarian, as described on their website, is the antithesis of a vegan; whereas personal health is paramount and the environment secondarily so and only because global warming or a smog cloud may affect personal health or that of their grandchildren in some way, some how, some day.

Their mission states: "The Reducetarian Foundation aims to improve human health, protect the environment, and spare farm animals from cruelty by reducing consumption of animal products."

Or succinctly: for health, environment and then animals (sort of).

For vegans it's the animals, the animals, the animals. (Nice it helps people and the environment though).

The founder of the The Vegan Society, Donald Watson, defined the philosophy best:

"We can see quite plainly that our present civilization is built on the exploitation of animals, just as past civilizations were built on the exploitation of slaves, and we believe the spiritual destiny of man is such that in time he will view with abhorrence the idea that men once fed on the products of animals' bodies."

In contrast Kateman states:

"Becoming a reducetarian and pledging to eat less, but better quality meat , is the perfect solution."

How can Melanie Joy support this? How can any vegan?

One has to wonder what is at play here. From GruntVegan's perspective the Reducetarian Movement many simply be a business opportunity to monetize the impact veganism has made over the years. Non-vegans are more keenly aware that they don't have a moniker and may appear to be a moral outsider. The reducetarian flag gives them a rallying point and a painless way to demonstrate (falsely) some ethical backbone without doing the heavy lifting. It is no surprise reducetarian-ism is gaining traction.



In the end, reducetarian-ism isn't a solution for the animals, but rather a feel-good moniker for people who can't cut veganism or those that simply --and selfishly-- don't want to give up meat, eggs and dairy. "Hey I'm a reducetarian!" might raise a high-five in some circles, maybe with book publishers, but for animal rights advocates reducetarian-ism is just another cop-out.







GruntVegan