Whenever anyone (vegan or not) even remotely suggests that being vegan is hard, they are bombarded with comments from other vegans stating how 'cheap, easy, and effortless' it is to be a vegan. Moreover, they are sometimes attacked for being so stupid that they don't know how cheap, easy, and effortless it is to be vegan.
What does it mean to be a vegan?
"Veganism is a way of living that seeks to exclude, as far as possible and practicable, all forms of exploitation of, and cruelty to, animals for food, clothing and any other purpose." -
The Vegan Society
By definition, 'animals' include humans. In this sense, being vegan doesn't just mean not eating and using animal products. It means to reduce any exploitation (human or non-human) occurs in production of the food, clothes, or anything else we consume. That is actually kind of difficult, and more often than not, expensive.
Some might argue that "
Terrible jobs are better than no jobs," but why should the question be no job vs. terrible jobs? Why can't it be good jobs vs bad jobs instead? We can, and must, achieve that by supporting ethical labour.
A lot of plant-based snacks and foods that people consume for pleasure, such as chocolate, coffee, and process foods containing palm oil, are notorious for being destructive and exploitative, and most people don't want to give them up. However, at least we
could live without them. What about the types of foods that we
need to eat in order to live? A lot of inexpensive produce that vegans love, such as
bananas, come from human exploitation and environmental destruction. "Fair trade" alternatives for those things exist, of course, but they are usually more expensive and often harder to find. Making sure that what you eat is ethical isn't easy at all, because it's much more than just avoiding meat, seafood, dairy and eggs. I try to confine myself to domestically grown produce from family-owned farms. It's usually possible (for me at least) but it gets frustrating.
Another thing I noticed is that vegans usually focus on food aspect of vegan lifestyle. There are so many aspects of our lives that doesn't involve food. One example is clothing. Most affordable clothing and even expensive clothes are made in sweatshops with awful working condition. Clothes and other items are easier to avoid because you can buy second hand, but that is not always an option.
When it comes to consumables like toiletries and stuff, it's harder because the sources of ingredients are not clearly labeled. Depending on the region, cruelty-free vegan products in general might be harder to access before we even begin to concern ourselves with the sources of the ingredients. For example, the only brands that are cruelty free and available in bricks-and-mortar stores across South Korea are Beyond (owned by non-CF company), Lush, Burt's Bees and The Body Shop (also owned by non-CF company). A lot of their products aren't vegan. Lush, the only brand with significant number of vegan products with items clearly marked if they are vegan, is overpriced. There are few online-only vegan brands, Urban Decay (owned by non-CF company) has 1 offline location and a web store, and that's it. Except Beyond, all of them are on the more expensive side. These vegan-friendly brands have a very limited selection of makeup except UD, so it really is frustrating, especially because South Korea has this misogynistic perception that a woman not wearing makeup is rude and unprofessional. I have to order most of my products internationally, which is more expensive and time-consuming.
When I present this opinion of mine I am often confronted with the "as far as possible and practicable" part of the definition. They are confusing "possible and practicable" with "cheap and easy". The thing is, my lifestyle is possible and practicable for the most part. I think it's possible for most middle-class people. It's just difficult. Actually, doing anything to the extent of as best as you possibly can is almost always difficult, so if you really are doing everything as far as possible and practicable, you should know how difficult it can be. If we brushed these issues off just because it's difficult, then how different are we from those who refuse to cut out animal products because it's 'difficult'?
My conclusion is that:
It is cheap, easy, and effortless to be plant-based, but 'vegan'? Not so much.
I do understand that it is impossible to cause zero harm as long as you live in an industrialized society. Moreover, I am not saying that people who consume non-fair trade products are not 'true vegans' or anything. I do believe that only exploiting humans is better than exploiting humans and killing animals. Nonetheless, we shouldn't be okay with settling for that. We should strive to reduce suffering even further, as far as we possibly can. It's not easy, it's not cheap, but it's only right.
It's okay to make mistakes, it's okay to have compromises, but it's not okay to never try at all. If non-fair trade items really are all you can afford, you have no choice. I understand that that is the case for many people. However if you could be reducing exploitation even further and you just aren't, then you should, well, stop whatever you're doing and try harder.
I understand why vegans (including myself) want to portray vegan lifestyle as cheap, easy, and effortless; we want more people to go vegan. We don't want people to brush it off because it's "too hard and extreme". However, pretending that we don't have to avoid human exploitation and its products is not the right way to spread this message.
