Vegans vs. Farmers—blunt advice to the internet grudge match contestants

A few slightly patronising tips following a year of reading online discussions from these two incredibly disconnected groups of people.

Definitions

For simplicity in this post, I’m using Vegans to mean people that choose not to consume animal products because of a desire to lessen animal cruelty. I’m not including people who eat a plant-based diet for environmental or health reasons. When I say Farmers, I’m talking about people that work on small to medium sized rural farms, rather than larger industrial “factory” farms. Those seem to make up the majority of the people I have encountered in online discussion.

1. Language is important

I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve heard the words “militant” and “aggressive” when talking about vegans. Same with the words “rape” and “murder” talking about farming. These are propaganda words. Stop using them. Be accurate.

2. Nutrition discussion goes nowhere

There’s something quite ridiculous about people googling scientific articles they don’t fully understand but that seem to support their desired outcome then posting them as if they prove something. Nutrition is complicated and nobody has a complete picture of how it works — including the leading scientists. By all means read books and learn about the subject but stop acting like an expert unless you actually are one. There are healthy and unhealthy people in both camps.

3. Let’s get to the fundamentals

Figure out your own moral stance. Make it an ongoing process. Listen to other people’s opinions and really think about the subject. Don’t just regurgitate Earthling Ed’s lines without thinking about how they fit with your views. Start a post with, “I choose to eat meat / not eat meat because…”

If you eat meat and dairy, you have to have an answer to why you think killing animals for human consumption is justifiable. If you don’t have an answer for that, you should not be in this discussion. Stop posting. Go away and do some thinking.

4. Don’t assume you understand the other side

If you think farmers can’t be animal lovers then you’ve got it wrong. If you think vegans are hypocrites if their shampoo was tested on animals you’ve got it wrong. The #nosuchthingasvegan hashtag is a good example of getting it wrong. Ask questions before criticising. You have more in common than you think.

5. Don’t argue against their weakest point

If you find yourself reading a post and immediately want to hit reply to attack something stupid they said, stop. Try something different. Try to look for their best point, or (if you’re a jedi), try to develop their best point even further, and then answer to that. The point of this is not to win some minor battle with a random person on the internet; we’re trying to develop the whole conversation.

6. People are at different stages in the discussion, and that’s ok

There are farmers who have never even considered the moral issues behind what they do. There are vegans who have never been on a farm. Similarly, there are people that spend lots of time studying and discussing this stuff and know every detail of every argument. Try to go easy on the vegans that think farmers don’t care about animals, and the farmers that think we have canine teeth because we’re carnivores. Some people are new to this. That’s ok.

7. There’s a bigger story

“Vegans vs. Farmers” raises important questions about how humans should coexist with animals. It doesn’t get to the bigger questions of world food security and land use, environmental impact of farming, the role of government farming subsidies and import/export duties. Once you’ve completed your basic training, you might want to advance to one or more of those subjects.