A blog post on celebrating supermarkets for “spreading veganism”.
I have come to notice that it is mainly the “single issue vegan” that takes offence when this type of “pragmatic veganism” is called into question. Single-issue vegans tend to focus only on the suffering of animals, as though that suffering happens in a vacuum.
It does not. The suffering of animals is a direct consequence of their oppression, that oppression being a consequence of a system built upon white supremacy, the patriarchy, colonialism and capitalism. It is a system in which animals, certain groups of humans and Mother Earth are reduced to mere commodities to be used for making a profit.
If and when supermarkets promote plantbased foods, they do so by referring to the harmful impact of animal agriculture on the climate. They mainly focus on meat, framing meat replacements as the environmentally friendly option. In doing so, they reduce animals to “products” that are harmful to the environment. This does not only perpetuate the mindset in which animals are commodities, but further normalizes and legitimizes it.
All that is being focused on and promoted is the mitigation of the consequences of the oppression of animals. There is no recognition that it is the system that leads to their oppression and exploitation that is the problem, and that said system needs to be broken down.
A system is not dismantled by celebrating those who benefit from it and who therefore have an interest in maintaining it. By celebrating them for mitigating the consequences of the system without critiquing the underlying issues, they are presented as saviours, rather than what they are: agents of exactly the system that leads to the oppression and exploitation of animals, humans and Mother Earth alike.
They are agents of a system that needs not be reformed. It needs to be dismantled.