Veganism Is Not a Purity Contest. It’s a Movement That Needs a Better Strategy.
Thanks for reading. Have a fun Halloween. I'm going to The Refuge for their Tour and Explore on Halloween. The Refuge Gala is coming up on November 14. It's one of my favorite events of the year. They want 250 attendees this year so get your ticket and join us.
Asheville went great. We had a beautiful day and many of our vendors sold out.
I shared this on the Expos Facebook page. This came in an email from Plant Based Mafia and was written by Daniel Costanzo. I met Danny for the first time back in 2019. It was before the restaurant existed, but he did have a space in a food hall in West Palm Beach. We became fast friends. We don't agree on some things, but this we do agree on. I wanted to share it with you and I would love to hear your thoughts.
I will always feel that we are stronger together rather than as a disjointed movement. We need to be kinder to those outside of our movement and to the ones that are in it.
By Daniel Costanzo
Founder, Plant Based Mafia
"There is a fundamental difference between being vegan and developing an effective strategy to convince others to adopt a vegan or plant-based lifestyle. I’ve been involved in the plant-based movement since 2014 and have owned a plant-based restaurant for nearly six years. During that time, I’ve learned something incredibly important: If you want to change someone’s lifestyle, you first have to connect with them.
Unfortunately, a vocal segment of the vegan community seems more interested in ideological purity than actually changing minds. What recently happened to Dope Vegan is a perfect example of why I believe this movement needs a serious change in direction.
Dope Vegan was given an opportunity to operate a concession at Boynton Beach’s Oceanfront Park. This wasn’t an ordinary private restaurant lease. It was a municipal agreement with specific requirements, including limited non-vegan options. My understanding is that these products would largely be prepackaged and sourced from outside vendors, while the business would remain overwhelmingly plant-based.
Consider the significance of that opportunity. A city government welcomed a plant-based business into a public beach concession, exposing thousands of potential customers to food they might otherwise never try. The City of Boynton Beach should be commended for supporting this opportunity, and so should the women behind Dope Vegan for having the courage to pursue it.
Instead, these women of color, working tirelessly to grow their business in an incredibly difficult industry, faced an aggressive backlash from members of their own community. Disagreeing with their decision is perfectly reasonable. Attacking their business without understanding the agreement isn’t.
This raises a fundamental question that I believe the vegan movement needs to seriously consider: Are we more interested in protecting the image of veganism or actually reducing the consumption of animal products? Because those objectives don’t always require the same strategy.
One thing many ethical activists overlook is that operating a plant-based restaurant is itself a powerful form of vegan activism. It might not involve protesting outside slaughterhouses or confronting people on street corners, but its influence can be enormous. Restaurant owners invest hundreds of thousands, sometimes millions, of dollars creating environments where non-vegans can experience plant-based food.
At Plant Based Mafia, I’ve watched countless customers arrive reluctantly, practically dragged through the door by friends or family. They leave amazed by the food, asking questions and excited to return. That’s changing perceptions. That’s introducing alternatives. That’s activism.
Sometimes the most powerful argument for veganism isn’t an argument at all. It’s an incredible meal.
And unlike a protest, we’re doing this while managing payroll, rent, employees, food costs, and the enormous financial risks of running a restaurant. We are putting our money, our livelihoods, and our futures on the line to create opportunities for people to discover a different way of eating.
Yet some of the loudest voices within the vegan movement have appointed themselves the authorities on what acceptable activism should look like. But who gave them that authority? Why is protesting considered more legitimate than investing your life savings into a restaurant that introduces thousands of people to plant-based food?
I also find the selective outrage fascinating. Vegans shop at Walmart, Whole Foods, Target, and Trader Joe’s, all businesses that profit from animal products. Many have non-vegan spouses or family members and live in households where animal products are consumed. Yet some of these same people celebrate traditional restaurants for offering an Impossible Burger while attacking vegan entrepreneurs for making difficult business decisions. Where’s the consistency?
There’s also an unnecessary political element to this movement. Veganism should welcome people across the political and cultural spectrum. Animals don’t have political affiliations, and neither should the opportunity to advocate for their welfare. If we’re serious about reaching the masses, we need a bigger tent, not more ideological gatekeepers.
The modern vegan movement was established in England in 1944 by Donald Watson and fellow pioneers who founded The Vegan Society. That was 82 years ago. Since then, vegan activism has exploded through documentaries, protests, social media, organizations, and educational campaigns. Yet the percentage of Americans who identify as vegan has remained in the low single digits for years.
That’s not evidence that every form of activism has failed, but it certainly raises questions about whether our strategies are reaching the broader population. If I were auditing a business that had spent decades pursuing the same objective without achieving widespread adoption, I’d seriously question its strategy. Why should this movement be any different?
Research into persuasion also suggests that messaging built around moral blame can create defensiveness rather than encourage change. I’ve personally spoken with countless non-vegans who say they’d never consider becoming vegan, not necessarily because of the food, but because of their perception of the vegan community. They describe it as judgmental, politically rigid, and intolerant.
Whether that’s a fair description of most vegans isn’t the point. If the people we’re trying to reach associate our movement with hostility, we have a serious communication problem. We cannot expect to influence people while simultaneously making them feel unwelcome, criticized, or morally inferior.
This brings me to another subject that I know will upset some ethical vegans. I believe new plant-based restaurants should seriously consider business models that include non-vegan options.
Let me be clear. Plant Based Mafia has no intention of introducing animal products. Our existing model works for our vision. But that doesn’t mean another approach couldn’t be effective. The greatest opportunity for plant-based restaurants isn’t the relatively small population already vegan. It’s the enormous population that isn’t.
Imagine a restaurant where non-vegans come in for familiar food, but the business actively encourages them to experiment with plant-based alternatives. Offer them 25% or 50% off to try the plant-based version of their meal. Introduce tastings, educational events, loyalty incentives, and programs designed to help customers gradually incorporate more plant-based meals into their lives.
Some customers won’t be interested. Others might discover something they love. And some might eventually transition completely. Now imagine hundreds of restaurants implementing this approach and thousands of customers replacing animal-based meals every week. Isn’t that an outcome worth exploring?
I understand the ethical objection to selling animal products. But if the objective is reducing animal consumption, shouldn’t we at least evaluate whether alternative strategies could produce meaningful results? Shouldn’t we be open to approaches that introduce plant-based food to people who might otherwise never walk through the doors of a strictly vegan restaurant?
The reality is that restaurant owners face enormous financial pressures. Rent, payroll, insurance, inflation, food costs, utilities, and countless other expenses can overwhelm even the most experienced operators. Plant-based restaurants face those same challenges while serving a much smaller core customer base. In markets like Florida, where the concentration of vegans is generally lower than in progressive cities like Portland, Seattle, or Los Angeles, the challenge becomes even greater.
And here’s something I’ve learned from operating Plant Based Mafia: It’s the non-vegans who make our business possible.
There simply aren’t enough dedicated vegans in our immediate market to support us alone. Our success depends on attracting people who normally eat meat and dairy but choose to enjoy our food. Every time they visit, they’re choosing a plant-based meal instead. That’s progress.
If we want these restaurants to survive and expand, we need realistic business models. Because a vegan restaurant that closes loses every future opportunity to influence another customer. No matter how strong its ethical convictions may have been, a business that cannot survive financially cannot continue introducing people to plant-based alternatives.
This is really the heart of my argument. There is a difference between the ethical standards you personally live by and the strategy you use to influence other people’s behavior.
Veganism is an ethical philosophy focused on avoiding animal exploitation. Plant-based eating generally describes a dietary approach. But when it comes to influencing food choices, both can contribute to reducing animal consumption. Someone doesn’t have to become 100% vegan overnight to make meaningful progress.
If someone replaces five animal-based meals each week with plant-based alternatives, that matters. If someone visits a plant-based restaurant for the first time and discovers food they love, that matters. And if someone gradually transitions to a fully plant-based lifestyle, that’s an incredible outcome.
Different forms of activism will appeal to different people. Protesting, educating, creating documentaries, and opening restaurants can all serve a purpose. No single group has a monopoly on what vegan activism should look like. The objective should be to influence more people, not demand that everyone follow the same playbook.
What happened to Dope Vegan genuinely disturbed me. Here are two women trying to expand their business, introduce more people to plant-based food, and create something positive in their community. Instead of celebrating their entrepreneurial courage, some people chose to attack them over a concession agreement that required limited non-vegan offerings.
You don’t have to agree with their decision. But you also don’t have the right to demand that every entrepreneur follow your personal strategy or face public condemnation.
I believe it’s time for the more pragmatic voices within the vegan community to speak up. We need to support the people risking their money to keep plant-based restaurants alive, recognize that business owners face difficult decisions, and understand that reaching non-vegans sometimes requires meeting them where they are, rather than demanding they immediately become who we want them to be.
After nearly six years in this industry, I’ve become convinced that food is one of the most powerful ways to change someone’s thinking. Not shame. Not intimidation. Not ideological purity tests. Food, conversation, education, and positive experiences.
We don’t need to abandon vegan ethics. We need to rethink how we encourage the rest of the world to embrace them.
Because if the ultimate objective is reducing animal suffering, we should be measuring success by how many people we influence, how many animal-based meals we help replace, and how much meaningful change we create. Not by how aggressively we police people who are already on our side.
The goal should never be to create the world’s smallest group of perfect vegans.
The goal should be to create a world where fewer animals suffer.
And those are two very different strategies."
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