As I've learned more about capitalism, I've been less enthusiastic about market effects and paying more attention to social effects. Being vegan or vegetarian is FAR more acceptable than it was a few years ago. One of my friends sought out my advice before going vegetarian and I think I provided a good example leading up to his decision. We're building groundwork for a movement; animal welfare activists made it socially unacceptable to wear fur, leading to less demand (and less tortured minks) and a number of countries outright banning fur farms.

[–] FumpyAer@hexbear.net 14 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (2 children)

Covid spread among minks has all but killed the industry in Europe, last I read. The main mink producing nations banned it.

[–] Civility@hexbear.net 5 points 2 years ago

covid-cool

[–] macerated_baby_presidents@hexbear.net 4 points 2 years ago

yeah mink was probably a bad example, they're just emblematic of the industry in my head. Fur farming in general was banned in a bunch of countries before COVID zoonosis concerns: Austria 2004, Croatia 2007 (effective 2017), Norway 2018 (effective 2025), U.K. 2003, soft ban in Switzerland. These tend to be countries with weak fur industries before the ban. But they sometimes enact import bans as well which helps the struggle internationally. I would expect that as the movement builds steam socially it reduces demand for fur, which weakens the fur producers, so they're less able to resist legislative demands.

[–] WideningGyro@hexbear.net 3 points 2 years ago

That's a super good point, actually. At the risk of committing sacrilege in a thread meant to spark a struggle sesh, that could also be key to finding common ground between the vegan movement and people who aren't ready (for whatever reason) to go full vegan. Tell them that the next best thing is to be positive about veganism anyway - provide vegan options for your vegan friends, talk about how cool it is that they are vegan, speak out when people scoff at vegans etc. I dunno, probably some people think that's a dangerous half measure, but I genuinely think there are a lot of potential allies who are scared away by the "all in" approach to veganism (which I get - once you internalize that killing animals for food/products as murder, it's hard to accept a little murder). Maybe they could, if nothing else, be put to work talking up veganism and vegetarianism to less receptive people - who might be even more inclined to turn out vegan voices anyway.