ABSTRACT
This chapter considers some non-utilitarian, non-rights-based ways of defending veganism, including a virtue ethical argument, an ecofeminist argument, analogical arguments, and a novel epistemic argument. My goal isn’t to show that every single argument for veganism fails, but rather to illustrate some problems that afflict many kinds of arguments for that conclusion. In particular, it’s hard to close the gap between the ethics of production and the ethics of consumption regardless of where we start. I conclude by taking stock of the discussion so far, arguing that in concert with the prior chapters, we have good reason to deny that there’s a general duty to be vegan, as the alternative is maintaining that there’s a general duty to eat unusually.
