Why Personal Diets Matter

Connect For Animals is focused on ending factory farming globally. Why might our personal diet matter as part of that?

First, there's supply and demand to consider. If I refuse to buy something (like products made from killing animals), there's less incentive for a company to sell that product. The more people who boycott a product, the less of that product is made. When we're talking about factory farming, that means fewer animals born into terrible conditions and fewer animals killed. This reduction in suffering and death is a good thing.

But there are other effects that our personal diet has, above and beyond the supply and demand considerations.

First, there's the effect on other people—our social influence. By publicly behaving in a certain way, we can provide social incentive for others to behave in that way as well. We can influence our friends to go to vegan restaurants, or to eat more plant-based dishes. And we can bring up animal ethics in conversation, prompting people to think about and care about animals, when they might not otherwise. These social effects can go on to impact animals: through additional diet change, or donations to advocacy groups, or direct action to help animals, etc. We can help shift the dominant cultural narrative about animals.

(Of course, we have to do these things in effective ways that lead people to take steps in the right direction. There are many ways we could behave that wouldn't help animals.)

And then there's the effect that our diet has on us—our identity, psychology, beliefs, and thoughts. If we consciously choose to boycott eating animals for ethical reasons, that has an effect on how we view ourselves and the world around us. Our commitment to helping animals may deepen, as we are regularly reminded of our purposeful choice. We may start noticing suffering and violence elsewhere where it was previously invisible to us, such as other ways in which humans harm animals, or the suffering of wild animals; but we may also start noticing a beautiful "other" in every animal, where previously we didn't acknowledge the existence of another being. In a profound way, we become the change we wish to see in the world. If we lean into it, this can result in a deep personal transformation.

Our actions have many effects: on us, on those around us, and on the animals caught in our systems.

Never think that an action is just one thing; it is usually many.