Photo: N. Romanenko
There is no doubt that individuals who go vegan are passionate people. The desire to become vegan may stem from a variety of places – and these places can be as diverse as concerns about health to religious choices. Professor of Law Gary Francione supports and lives a vegan lifestyle in the name of justice, and he takes a non-violent approach to animal rights. Francione has an intriguing point of view that can help businesses become more passionate and active in the education of veganism.
Vegan Mainstream: I know you’ve been active in the animal rights movement for many years, and you’re obviously very passionate about the cause. Can you describe your beginnings in this movement?
Gary Francione: Well, when I was in law school—that was in the 1970s—I visited a slaughterhouse, and I was very troubled by what I saw and I immediately stopped eating all flesh except for fish. For some reason, I guess I didn’t think fish felt pain until I read something about a year later that said that they did so I stopped eating all fish. To be frank with you, I had never heard the word “vegan.” I was not aware that there were people who did not eat any animal products at all. I was not really a part of the animal rights movement, per se…
In 1982, I was exposed to veganism through a friend of mine who explained veganism to me, and I immediately stopped [eating all animal products]. [Previously], I honestly didn’t think that you could live without eating some animal products. I thought that you had to drink milk or…eat eggs or cheese or things like that. I was not aware that you could live a very healthy life - indeed a more healthy life – without any animal products.
VM: Vegan Mainstream’s goals include helping vegan businesses move into the mainstream audience, and to help the vegan business community grow. Can you comment on how you have seen the vegan business community change through your years of involvement in veganism?
GF: I’m very very encouraged about the growth of vegan businesses and what not, but what concerns me is some backtracking as a result of this “happy” meat movement.
This is something that has got me very concerned. In the past several years, many of the mainstream groups have taken the position [that it's ok to eat meat if it's 'happy meat']. When I first got involved in the movement almost 30 years ago, the people that I was working with at that time, we were all vegans, and there was no doubt that one ought to be a vegan.
It wasn’t just a question of veganism as a way of reducing suffering (that we were reducing suffering by being vegan); it was a fundamental question of justice that we had no right to take the life of other animals, and so it didn’t really matter how humanely you treated animals or how much you reduced suffering. [We felt that] you had no business killing animals, however humanely they were treated…Now, in fact, they are not treated humanely, but it was really a fundamental question of justice.
[So back to 'happy meat']…many of the mainstream groups [today] have been promoting this “happy” meat, “happy” animal products business, which is very troubling to me. Almost all of the large mainstream organizations are promoting some sort of humane label…humane choice label or animal compassionate label, things like that. I really object to that.
VM: You use a number of formats to reach people. Which one do you find most successful (your blog post, podcasts, videos or books), or is it a combination of these that works well?
GF: Different things reach different people. You know, the books reach a certain audience. Unfortunately, there are fewer and fewer people who read books. I wish there were more…
An increasing number of people will read blog posts, and they won’t even read long blog posts. So you have to watch the length of them…I have videos on the website, which is http://www.abolitionistapproach.com/, and we have videos on theory of animal rights, animal rights vs. animal welfare, animals as property—things like that, those things have been pretty successful.
The podcasts—we get thousands of people. I mean I’m quite surprised at the number of people who listen…So I think it’s a combination of things…for example, there are a lot of translations; a number of my things are being translated into a lot of different languages.
VM: Do you have any advice for individuals interested in turning their animal rights/vegan passions into a business?
GF: Well, I would say this…I would say that we need more people producing vegan products—high quality vegan products.
As a matter a fact, one of the things I was thinking about today is I don’t use razors to shave, because razors have those little strips and those little strips have usually lanolin or some other animal product in them. I find it very very hard to get vegan razors that are made in the way that Gillette makes their razors. Now it must be possible—we need to be putting out high quality products, not products that fall apart when people use them. We need to be coming up with good vegan alternatives whether its footwear, whether its clothing [or any other product].
Through various forms of online and offline tools, Francione is spreading awareness about the vegan lifestyle and the fundamental idea of justice for animals other than humans. He has a positive outlook on vegan businesses and what they will be bringing to consumers in the future. Francione says, “The bottom line is that I think people care about this issue. What we need to do is educate them more clearly, because they do care.”
If you would like to get a better understanding of Francione’s approach and view on animal rights, be sure to check out his new book (coming soon) titled The Animal Rights Debate: Abolition or Regulation? or his recent editorial called “We’re All Michael Vick” (updated in 2009).
