I'm An Intersectional Environmentalist: We Need To Change The Way We Talk About Veganism

People gravitate toward plant-based, vegetarian, and vegan diets and lifestyles for a variety of reasons. Regardless of individual motivations, plant-based eating is on the rise globally, and there's no doubt that this trend has positive implications for the environment1.

When you Google "vegan" or turn to social media to learn more about veganism, representation of people of color is scarce. This trend carries over into documentary and film projects, social media influencers selected for partnerships, and how veganism is represented in education, environmental movements, and media. The lack of representation is concerning and doesn't reflect reality; communities of color have practiced plant-based lifestyles for centuries, and in the modern day have actually adopted plant-based lifestyles at higher than average rates. A Pew Research Center study found that 8% of Black Americans identify as strict vegans or vegetarians, as opposed to 3% of the general population. A 2020 Gallup poll found that people of color in the U.S. reported reducing their meat consumption at a much higher rate than white Americans (31% versus 19%). 

When we look globally, the countries with the largest increase of vegetarian populations between 2016 and '17 are (ranked from highest growth to lowest) Nigeria, Pakistan, Indonesia, the Philippines, Germany, Brazil, Turkey, Kenya, Thailand, and Italy. Many of these countries are in the global south, although mainstream representation of plant-based diets is largely centered around perspectives from the Global North.

By some estimates, these countries have the most vegetarians overall per capita: India (31 to 42%), Mexico (19%), Brazil (14%), Taiwan (14%), Switzerland (13%), Israel (10.3%), New Zealand (10%), Sweden (10%), Canada (9.4%), the U.S. (5 to 8%), and Russia (3 to 4%). Three out of the top five countries are concentrated in the global south, and while the U.S.'s vegan population is growing, it has a significantly smaller vegan population per capita than the top countries.

When I searched "vegan documentaries" on Google, I found that the top 30 results featured either a white narrator or a primarily white cast.

Most of these documentaries had been made in the U.S. or U.K. Some of the stories also felt historically incomplete, with narratives focused on the "newness" of veganism or plant-based living, even though the earliest records of vegetarianism date back to ancient India.

The problem with centering primarily white, wealthy vegan perspectives from the global north is that this approach fails to acknowledge the pioneers of this practice and their reasons for their choice, and it doesn't credit these populations with reducing their environmental footprint (for decades and sometimes centuries!). Even if the vegetarianism that dates back to ancient India predates the climate crisis, India's more than 30% vegetarian population is contributing positively to the health of the environment with this choice. Instead of rebranding solutions from a Western perspective, environmentalists should seek to amplify the cultural practices of BIPOC communities globally and also give them credit for inspiring the ideas for what modern veganism and vegetarianism look like in the first place. 

BIPOC perspectives matter, and these nuances should be explored to advocate for inclusion and equity within the plant-based conversation.