Abstract
Gary Francione is an abolitionist: he maintains that we ought to abolish the institutions and practices that support the exploitation of animals. He also believes that veganism is the “moral baseline”—that is, he thinks it’s morally required of nearly everyone in the developed world, and many beyond it. Luis Cordeiro-Rodrigues claims that abolitionism is guilty of racism, albeit “racism without racists.” I contend that his arguments for this conclusion aren’t successful.
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Notes
Cordeiro-Rodrigues seems to appreciate this point: he concludes by saying that “it is important to analyze whether the [arguments of] Peter singer and Alasdair Cochrane [have] racist implications” as well (762).
The worry about unfair burdens on the poor needn’t be connected to race: consider, for instance, the case of rural whites.
What’s more, it may even be appropriate to regard the change as “easy,” because in light of the wrong being committed, the costs associated with veganism look trivial.
A quick search on Amazon.com reveals a range of B12 supplements that cost less than $0.10 per day, and multivitamins containing B12 for less than $0.20 per day. Even if we assume that these supplements would cost twice as much at local stores, they are within the financial reach of most Americans. What's more, it isn't entirely fair to blame that entire cost on the obligation to eat vegan, given that omnivores have independent health-related reasons to take these supplements.
Not everyone would agree that it's a mistake to postulate obligations that people can't fulfill; see, e.g., Tessman (2005).
Cordeiro-Rodrigues offers no evidence that it has this effect: instead, he argues that certain racialized groups have been the victims of negative stereotypes in the past, and that this has had, and continues to have, negative consequences for those groups. However, that’s irrelevant to the question of whether this particular ideology would have such consequences.
It's easy to find articles claiming that 1.5 million people in the US live on less than two dollars per day, but the claim is misleading: they are reporting that 1.5 million people spend no more than two dollars per day at some point during the calendar year. However, that figure doesn't represent their total buying power, both because of social services and because it doesn't represent their annual income. By contrast, the one dollar per day figure in South Sudan represents their annual income and their entire buying power.
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Fischer, B. Is Abolitionism Guilty of Racism? A Reply to Cordeiro-Rodrigues. J Agric Environ Ethics 31, 295–306 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10806-018-9725-8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10806-018-9725-8