What IS Veganism?
Veganism is a principle and stance against the exploitation of animals for any purpose.
It's about rejecting the belief that animals exist for human use—as property, resources, or commodities. Veganism recognizes animals as sentient individuals deserving of basic respect and freedom from exploitation, whether for food, clothing, entertainment, testing, labor, or any other purpose.
Understanding "Doctrine" and "Principle"
Doctrine means a fundamental belief or set of beliefs that guide behavior—a core teaching or truth that is accepted and followed.
Principle means a fundamental truth or proposition that serves as the foundation for reasoning or conduct.
Leslie Cross used both terms interchangeably because they mean essentially the same thing in this context: a foundational moral position from which actions naturally flow.
Why this matters: When veganism is called a "doctrine" or "principle," it emphasizes that veganism is not a list of rules or practices to follow—it's a belief system about what's right. Once you accept the principle (that animals shouldn't be exploited), the practices (not eating them, not wearing them, etc.) follow logically and naturally.
This is crucial because it means veganism can't be watered down to "reducing" animal use or making it "more humane." A principle is absolute—either you accept it or you don't. You can't be "mostly" against exploitation, just as you can't "mostly" oppose slavery.
When veganism is taught as a set of practices instead of a principle, people focus on following rules rather than understanding why. This leads to endless debates about "vegan products," loopholes, and exceptions—missing the entire point that animals aren't ours to use in the first place.
Understanding "Exploitation"
One of the most misunderstood aspects of veganism is what we mean by "exploitation."
What Does Exploitation Mean?
Exploitation means using someone for your own benefit—treating them as a resource, tool, or means to achieve your ends rather than respecting them as an individual with their own interests.
In the context of veganism, exploitation is interchangeable with "use." When we say "don't exploit animals," we mean "don't use animals."
Exploitation ≠ Killing
This is a critical distinction that many people miss. Veganism is not about "don't kill animals"—it's about "don't use animals."
Why this matters:
- You can exploit animals without killing them: Taking eggs from hens, riding horses, shearing sheep for wool, using animals for entertainment, testing—all of these are exploitation even if the animal isn't killed
- You can kill animals without exploiting them: Accidentally hitting a deer with your car or a mouse dying in crop harvesting isn't exploitation—you weren't using them for your benefit
- Focusing on killing misses the point: If veganism were just about not killing, then using animals for labor, taking their eggs, or riding them would be acceptable. But it's not—because they're still being used
Think of it this way:
Exploitation/Use is about the relationship and the intent—are you treating this being as a resource for your purposes?
Killing is just one possible outcome of exploitation, but it's not what defines it.
A person who keeps backyard chickens for eggs isn't killing the chickens, but they're still exploiting them—using them as egg-producing resources rather than respecting them as individuals.
The Goal: Animal Emancipation
Veganism is not about welfare or making exploitation "more humane"—it's about liberation. It's about ending the master-slave relationship between humans and other animals.
Just as we recognize that human slavery is fundamentally wrong—not just "cruel" when conditions are bad—veganism recognizes that treating animals as our property and resources is fundamentally unjust, regardless of how "well" they're treated.
What Veganism ISN'T
There's widespread confusion about what veganism actually means. Let's clear up the most common misconceptions:
The Misconception: Most people think veganism means "not eating animals" or following a "plant-based diet."
The Reality: Veganism is a moral stance against animal exploitation for any purpose—not just food. A fully plant-based diet is just one outcome of this stance.
Think of it this way:
Saying "veganism is a diet" is like saying "opposition to human slavery is a diet." The stance is about justice and respect, not what's on your plate.
Someone can eat 100% plant-based but still exploit animals through clothing (leather, wool), entertainment (zoos, horse riding), cosmetics (animal-tested products), and more. They wouldn't be vegan—they'd be plant-based.
The Misconception: Veganism is about minimizing animal deaths, achieving "zero harm," or reducing suffering.
The Reality: Veganism is about not exploiting animals—not about preventing all harm. Human existence inevitably affects animals through agriculture, construction, transportation, and countless other activities. Veganism never pretended to eliminate all incidental harm.
Human Analogy:
Humans die in wars, industrial accidents, and natural disasters. Does that justify enslaving humans? Of course not. Similarly, the fact that animals may die in crop harvesting or road accidents doesn't justify deliberately exploiting them as property.
The key difference is exploitation vs. incidental harm. Veganism opposes the intentional use of animals as tools, commodities, and resources—not all instances where animals might be harmed.
The Misconception: Veganism is just "strict vegetarianism" or the end goal of gradually reducing animal products.
The Reality: These are fundamentally different positions:
- Vegetarianism: Rejects eating animal flesh, but still views animals as resources for eggs, dairy, leather, wool, entertainment, etc.
- Reducetarianism: Focuses on reducing consumption for health, environment, or other reasons—not on opposing exploitation itself.
- Veganism: Rejects the entire concept that animals are ours to use. It's a fundamental stance on justice, not a dietary gradient.
Vegetarians and reducetarians still see animals as commodities. Vegans reject that view entirely.
The Argument: "Animals die in crop harvesting, so vegans are hypocrites!"
The Response: This completely misses the point of veganism and creates a false equivalence.
Why this argument fails:
- False equivalence: Incidental deaths during crop harvesting ≠ deliberately breeding, enslaving, and killing animals for profit
- More crops for animal agriculture: Animal agriculture requires far more crops (to feed farmed animals) than plant-based eating
- Missing the point: Veganism isn't about crop deaths—it's about the commodification of animals. What does crop harvesting have to do with leather, zoos, animal testing, horse riding, or the pet industry?
- Solutions exist: Technology like drones, sensors, and no-till farming can reduce crop deaths—but only if we move past viewing animals as resources
Court Analogy:
Imagine defending enslaving a person by saying: "But your honor, people die in oil industries and wars too!" The judge would recognize this as absurd—one wrong doesn't justify another. The same applies to animals.
The Misconception: Vegans think they're "pure" and never cause any harm. If you can't be perfect, why bother?
The Reality: Veganism is about having a clear moral stance—not about achieving perfection. It's about opposing exploitation, not claiming to live without any environmental impact.
Think of it this way:
You oppose human slavery even though you probably own products made in exploitative conditions. Does that make you a hypocrite for opposing slavery? No—your stance matters, even if you can't eliminate all harm from your life.
The question isn't "Can you cause zero harm?" but rather "Do you view animals as yours to exploit or as individuals deserving respect?"
The Misconception: Media headlines like "Vegan parents harm their children" suggest veganism itself is unhealthy.
The Reality: This confuses veganism (the stance) with poor nutrition (the implementation).
The facts:
- Plant-based nutrition is scientifically recognized as appropriate for all life stages, including children, by major dietetic organizations worldwide
- When children are malnourished on plant-based diets, it's usually due to irresponsible parenting—often by people following extreme diets (fruitarian, raw) who aren't even vegan in principle
- Media bias: When non-vegan children are malnourished, their diet isn't mentioned in headlines. But when it's plant-based, suddenly it's "veganism's fault"
- Saying "veganism is unhealthy" is like saying "opposition to slavery is unhealthy." The stance can't be healthy or unhealthy—only dietary choices can be
Bottom line: Bad nutrition is bad nutrition, regardless of whether it includes animal products. Veganism is about ethics, not nutrition.
Why Bearing Witness Matters
Understanding animal exploitation requires acknowledging the reality of what happens to animals in our systems. While it's important to witness this reality through footage and documentation, we must be careful not to become solely focused on their suffering.
Important considerations:
- Symptoms vs. root cause: The horrible conditions we see in footage are symptoms of viewing animals as property. The root problem is the belief that animals are ours to use
- Beyond suffering: If we focus only on suffering, we miss the fundamental issue—use itself. Animals can be exploited in countless ways without experiencing obvious suffering (backyard eggs, wool from "happy" sheep, horseback riding, etc.), but the exploitation is still wrong
- Beyond food: While footage often focuses on slaughterhouses and farms, remember that animals are exploited in countless ways—clothing, entertainment, testing, and more
- Education, not shock: The goal is to help people understand that animals deserve freedom from exploitation, not just "better treatment" within exploitative systems
🎯 The Path to Change: The Tipping Point
Social change doesn't require convincing everyone—just a committed minority reaching a critical mass. Research shows that when approximately 10-25% of a population holds an unshakable belief, it can shift the entire society's norms.
What this means for veganism:
- We don't need to convince 51% or more—a committed minority of 10-25% can trigger widespread change
- This has happened throughout history: the abolition of human slavery, women's suffrage, civil rights movements—all started with small, committed groups
- Every person who understands and adopts veganism brings us closer to that tipping point
- Once reached, the shift becomes rapid and self-reinforcing
This means your understanding and stance matters. Every vegan represents progress toward a world where animals are free from human exploitation.
In Simple Terms
- Veganism = Opposing the use of animals for human purposes (food, clothing, entertainment, testing, etc.)
- Not veganism = Eating plant-based for health, reducing meat for the environment, or trying to cause "zero harm"
- The goal = Animal emancipation—ending the master-slave relationship between humans and animals
- The focus = Challenging the belief that animals are property, not just improving their conditions within exploitation
- The hope = Reaching the tipping point where enough people reject animal exploitation that society shifts toward animal liberation
Important Clarifications
Veganism is NOT utilitarianism:
- Utilitarianism focuses on reducing suffering and maximizing pleasure/happiness. It's a consequentialist approach that judges actions by their outcomes
- Veganism is a deontological stance—it's about justice. It recognizes that animals have inherent value and shouldn't be used as means to human ends, regardless of how "humanely" it's done
- Many "plant-based" advocates mistakenly promote utilitarianism under the banner of veganism, talking about "reducing suffering" or "minimizing harm." This misses the point entirely
Why this distinction matters:
A utilitarian might say: "Backyard eggs are okay if the hens don't suffer much." A vegan says: "Using hens for eggs treats them as resources for human benefit, which is exploitation—their level of suffering is irrelevant to whether we have the right to use them."
Veganism and Other Justice Movements
Veganism possesses historical continuity with movements that freed human slaves. Just as we recognize humans shouldn't be property regardless of how they're treated, veganism recognizes the same for other animals.
Key points about justice:
- We don't need "animal rights" laws to be vegan—we just need to stop exploiting them in our personal lives and advocate for their freedom
- Veganism isn't about granting animals the same rights as humans (like voting)—it's about recognizing their right not to be treated as property
- The goal is abolition of animal use, not "welfare reform" that makes exploitation more "humane"
- This is a paradigm shift: from seeing animals as resources to seeing them as individuals with their own interests
What About "Vegan Intersectionality"?
Some people try to tie veganism to specific political ideologies or other social justice causes. While vegans may care about many issues, veganism itself has a specific focus: opposing animal exploitation.
- Veganism is not inherently left-wing, right-wing, or tied to any political party
- It's not about human health, environmentalism, or any other cause (though these may be beneficial side effects)
- The movement becomes diluted when we make it about everything except the animals
- Focus on the core message: animals deserve freedom from human exploitation
"Veganism is essentially a doctrine of freedom. It seeks to free man and animal from bondage to a false belief—the false belief that man has the moral right to use his fellow creatures for his own ends."
— Leslie Cross, 1951Final Thoughts
If you've read this far, you now understand that veganism is fundamentally different from what most people think. It's not a diet, not about perfection, not about reducing suffering—it's about justice.
The core message is simple:
- Animals are not ours to use—not for food, clothing, entertainment, experimentation, or any other purpose
- This is a matter of basic decency, not an extreme position or a personal choice
- Everyone can understand and adopt this stance, just as everyone can oppose human slavery
- Change happens through education, not through welfare campaigns, "baby steps," or making exploitation "more humane"
The question isn't "Can I be perfect?" or "Will my individual choices make a difference?" The question is: Do you recognize that animals deserve freedom from exploitation by humans? If the answer is yes, then you're vegan. Everything else flows naturally from that principle.
Why the Definition Changed — And Why It Matters
The Dilution of Veganism (1979)
In December 1979, Leslie Cross died. That same year, the Vegan Society changed the definition of veganism from Cross's clear principle of animal emancipation to something far more flexible and accommodating.
Leslie Cross's Original Definition (1951):
"The object of the Society shall be to end the exploitation of animals by man" and "The word veganism shall mean the doctrine that man should live without exploiting animals."
The New Definition (1979):
"A philosophy and way of living which seeks to exclude, as far as is possible and practicable, all forms of exploitation of, and cruelty to, animals for food, clothing or any other purpose."
The Dangerous Words: "As Far As Possible and Practicable"
These qualifying words opened the door to utilitarians, welfarists, flexitarians, and reducetarians like Peter Singer. Suddenly, veganism wasn't an absolute principle anymore—it became negotiable, subjective, and up for personal interpretation.
This is catastrophic for animals because:
- 1. It makes veganism a set of practices rather than a principle
As Leslie Cross clearly stated: "veganism is itself a principle, from which certain practices naturally flow — but it is in itself a principle, and not a set of practices." - 2. It allows endless excuses for animal use
When veganism is about what's "practicable," people decide what's convenient for them rather than what's right for animals. Is it "practicable" to avoid leather shoes? Is it "practicable" to check every ingredient? Everyone draws their own arbitrary line. - 3. You would never apply this logic to human rights
Imagine saying: "We should exclude the exploitation of children, as far as is possible and practicable." It's absurd. We don't add qualifiers to fundamental moral principles. We don't say "don't exploit children when it's convenient." - 4. It invites perpetual compromise
The phrase "as far as possible and practicable" means veganism can never make absolute moral claims. It suggests that sometimes animal exploitation is acceptable—which is exactly what animal exploiters want to hear.
Why We Must Return to Cross's Definition
The original definition was clear and uncompromising: End the use of animals by humans. Period.
This isn't about perfection or purity—it's about having a coherent moral position. When we say veganism is a principle, we mean:
- Animals are not ours to use
- This isn't negotiable based on convenience
- We don't exploit beings when we can avoid it and when we can't — we simply reject the framework of viewing them as resources
The Impact:
The 1979 definition transformed veganism from a liberation movement into a flexible lifestyle diet that prioritizes human comfort over animal emancipation. It allowed people to call themselves "vegan" while still participating in animal exploitation whenever it seemed too difficult to avoid.
"The object of the Society shall be to end the exploitation of animals by man."
— Leslie Cross, 1951No qualifiers. No excuses. Just the simple recognition that animals deserve emancipation from human use — completely.