30/11/2025
Vegans, You Don't Need a Platform to Speak Up - You Just Need to Use Your Voice
....When I was invited to be one of the five people to go into this business magazine on “The Five Most Influential Leaders Shaping the Future of Veganism”, I questioned whether I was the right person for the job. After all, to be called one of the “Five Vegan Leaders” doesn’t sound quite right.
True, I have and continue to speak out for veganism and animal liberation, but I am standing on the shoulders of giants in bringing the message of compassion to the world. Not only might these contributors be considered luminaries or leaders, there are also the millions of unsung vegan heroes who, every day, speak out in their own sphere of influence on these topics.
Then I thought…..
When business magazines talk about veganism, it’s usually to showcase new plant-based products or services as the four other contributors are doing. They are all bringing solutions to the world to influence change and kinder consumer choices.
However, in contributing here, I have focused entirely on what veganism really is – a philosophy of loving kindness – towards ourselves, other people, all other non-human animals, and ecosystems.
As all ethical vegans know what (or who actually) we eat is just a consequence of that belief system. And to constantly have to defend our beliefs when the not-yet vegan world invariably focuses on what we eat or don’t eat, is disheartening.
In my interview, I have not only invited business readers to grasp what veganism really is, but I have also introduced the concept of vystopia, the term I coined for the anguish of living in a non-vegan world – and it’s not because of anything to do with our taste-buds. It’s the ubiquitous, normalised, institutionalised, legalised brutality, ownership and violence enacted every day (much of which is behind closed doors) against non-human animals.
Haven’t We Come a Long Way?
When I became vegan nearly eighteen years ago after thirty years of vegetarianism, I actually didn’t know I had become a vegan. This was because I thought, like many non-vegans, that vegans are extreme vegetarians. And I was someone who, after thirty years, had become vegetarian on the spot after reading about brutality towards a cow going to slaughter!
How could I be so blind to not see how eggs and dairy are not bi-products of chickens and cows in the modern world, but products of the unimaginable violence and brutality of the animal agricultural industry?
And now……
We have a business magazine inviting me to dispel the myth that veganism is a fussy diet with 'do-gooders' putting farmers out of work and going around telling other people what to do.
The content of my interview wasn’t changed in any way. Instead, the words, “Compassion and Conscious Change" were clearly written on the front of this business magazine.
LINK to read the article on vystopia, as well as the stories from the other contributors: https://theelitex.com/magazines/
