Most people assume vegans love animals.
But a handful of vegan companies and their funders actually support policies – like expanded child tax credits – that subtlety push women to have more children. That’s surprising, because these policies push unsustainable growth that is the greatest source of animal suffering and death.
Few people born today will ever be vegan. So one cannot effectively protect animals, from all those meat eaters and habitat killers for example, without reforming family policy too.
These companies and their funders are doing so because it ensures cheap labor and lots of consumers for their products. Moves like this also create political space for things like abortion bans.
Their hypocrisy does more than hurt animals directly, ensuring the growth of factory farming. It’s the biggest driver of the climate crisis.
These companies knowingly undo claimed progress with outdated family policies that disempower most people in order to – per one Nobel laureate – grow economies that benefit a few at cost to freedom and democracy. And even when shown the undoing, many companies and funders have continued on course.
These pro-growth policies reflect a total absence of investment in families and children, ensuring many children are tortured to death by their own parents, more and more animals are subjected to suffering and death, other species are wiped out, the gap between rich and poor widens, and each person has less of a say in their political systems.
TAKE ACTION: If you want to actually help animals, ask any company appearing to benefit animals to disclose their family policies, including how they are protecting women’s right to terminate their pregnancies and whether they have employment policies that avoid wealthy employees passing massive privilege to their children.
If companies or funders cite falling fertility rates as a reason not to make changes, then urge them to be consistent and support policies that actually promote – rather than stymie – the transition.
