Industrial animal farming: makes no difference 

There’s lots of ink spilled bemoaning the existence and practices of industrial animal agribusiness. From animal welfare, ludicrously damaging environmental impact, loss of biodiversity, and Victorian labour practices, vegans and nonvegans align in righteous indignation of an industry the scale of which is nearly unimaginable. But why do vegans spend any time on this discussion? All animal industries end up in exploitation and death, whether on a small or large scale. And most nonvegans never make that connection. We need this to change

For example, an acquaintance active in labour politics asked about veganism. Unprompted by me and with genuine and true concern in their voice, they declared industrial agriculture to be terrible. I agreed and replied of course it’s terrible as long as one focuses simply on scale. The effects of both industrial or small farm, are the exact same – exploitation and death. I asked whether it would be acceptable to have labour exploitation on a small scale, like serfdom. There was no answer. Despite the number of times this happens, it still surprises me

Insufficient rhetoric

I believe the silence is a result of insufficient rhetoric. Animal welfare rhetoric fails to convey the simple right to fairness we owe to all animals (human and non). It also fails to convey the undeniable truth all animal exploitation is bad and has been since the human species began farming animals 10,000 years ago. And these two things make it easy for most people to distinguish between a mythological idea of farming animals and the current evil of industrial scale, when this is a distinction without a difference

The mythological-nice-past for animals was as much hell for them then as it is now, in all but quantum. And it’s never just animals. Wherever we have animal exploitation there is exploitation of people – then and now. The two co-exist because once we make the distinction someone – animal or human – doesn’t deserve basic fairness, then we can easily apply it wherever it suits us. And then we either treat them poorly, deny them a variety of rights we have or we get them to do unpleasant work. It’s terribly convenient for those setting those differences. And often deadly for those at the receiving end

Historical evidence 

Remarkable evidence of this juncture of exploitation exists in recent excavations in ancient Pompeii, which is the city in Campania, in southern Italy, established in the 9^th or 8^th century BCE and destroyed by the Vesuvius eruption in 79 CE. Archaeologists found a dwelling divided in a few sections, as was often the case (full report here). There is a fine residential area with sophisticated murals, and a productive area, which in this case housed a cereal mill and bread bakery 

The grain mill rooms are prison-like, situated off an internal atrium and without a road-side exit, and small windows with iron bars. There is also a deep channel surrounding the millstone. From this physical evidence and writings by Apuleio, archaeologists believe these types of mills functioned 24 hours a day, powered by blindfolded donkeys who were tied to ropes and forced to walk around in an endless circle around the stone mill (the deep channel) whilst receiving regular beatings. The people living with, and managing, the donkeys were themselves wretched and exploited enslaved people. They too worked all day and night milling grain and making bread, while living with chains, being barely clothed or fed, and beaten and imprisoned 

In that ancient bread making facility, we have animal and human exploitation side by side. And heck, capitalism hadn’t even been invented!

There was no good animal exploitation in 79CE and there still isn’t now. There never will be

And did you notice? Everyone involved in making bread – a vegan product – was exploited. This should also remind us exploitation of people continues to exist even in contemporary fruit and vegetable farming and product manufacturing 

Be a better advocate

We owe it to all those exploited to know history and improve our rhetoric. We must be clear exploitation is always bad, whether it’s a few or many. When we reject animal use on a small or large scale, no one should continue to be surprised 

As vegans, we’re the ones at the forefront of these conversations. And it’s during these conversations we have the chance of being good advocates for a fairer world for animals and, by extension, everyone. It’s there we have the chance to advance the conversation and shift perceived notions. I urge you to be that advocate