But vegans do harm less. 

Vegans love to claim the moral high ground, right? They go around acting like they don’t harm any animals. Like they live perfect, cruelty-free lives floating on a cloud of kale and smugness.

But hold up.

Have you ever seen a vegan step on an ant?!

Boom. Checkmate, vegans.

Clearly, they’re hypocrites.

The Harvest Death Argument

One of the most common anti-vegan mic drops is this: “What about the animals that die during harvesting?”

We’re talking about insects, small mammals like voles and mice, and whatever other unfortunate creatures happen to be in the wrong place at the wrong time when a combine harvester rolls through a field.

And what about the creepy crawlies vegans step on while walking? The bugs they hit with their windscreen while driving?

Gotcha, again!

Except… no.

The Whole ‘Possible & Practicable’ Thing

The widely accepted definition of veganism is “to cause the least harm and suffering as is possible and practicable.”

Key words: possible and practicable.

Total elimination of harm is impossible in the society we live in.

That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try. Because we do have some power, as a consumer. We make multiple decisions every day about what we eat, drink, wear, and buy. So we have plenty of opportunities to reduce harm as much as we reasonably can.

It’s about minimizing harm, not achieving an unattainable level of perfection.

But I’ve Already Caused So Much Harm, What’s a Little More?

If you got a flat tyre, would you get out and slash the other three for good measure? 

No, you fix the tyre and you move the f*ck on. 

Inconvenient as it may be, past behaviour is not an excuse for crappy future behaviour. 

There are ex-butchers running animal sanctuaries. Hunters turned animal activists. 

We are masters of our own fate, blah blah blah, and yes, every little helps. Wrey!

Anyway, where were we… 

Crop deaths! 

Do Animals Run from Harvesters?

Another thing: Have you ever walked through the countryside? Or interacted with literally any wild animal?

Most creatures—big or small—run away from things that look like a threat.

For example, one of the most common ways to scare off snakes is by stomping on the ground. Some snakes can sense vibrations as small as one billionth of a meter.

Now imagine a multi-ton, 25-foot-wide combine harvester tearing through a field. 

Common sense says most animals are getting the hell out of there.

I’ve driven a combine harvester and a 30-metre-wide boom spray, among other farming machinery, and yeah. They’re not exactly quiet.

But for the sake of argument, let’s say this harvester is silent. We’re in a fantasy land so maybe it’s electric, who knows. It also barely vibrates. It just gently glides over the field like some other-worldly spirit. And, just to really drive the point home, let’s say the farmer has built a giant dome over the field, trapping all the animals inside so they definitely can’t escape.

Okay. Now we can say that harvesting crops probably kills a bunch of animals.

Which means eating a plant-based diet is worse than eating meat, right?

The One Big Problem With That Argument

What do farmed animals eat?

💡 You guessed it—plants.

The cow your steak came from didn’t magically reach 1,400 lbs (over 600 kg) by sheer willpower.

Most of the world’s soy (77%, to be precise) is fed to livestock.

So, if your concern is accidental harvest deaths, eating meat makes it worse. Because now you’re responsible for:

✅ The animals killed during crop harvesting.
✅ The animals raised and slaughtered for meat.

“But Vegans Aren’t Perfect, So Why Bother?”

So fine. Maybe vegans cause less harm, but they still cause some harm.

So what’s the point?

Why try at all if you can’t be perfect?*

There’s a name for that. It’s called the appeal to futility fallacy. 

Well, you can’t single-handedly eliminate pollution either, but you don’t empty your bin out on the street. 

You can’t completely stop racism either, or homophobia, or domestic violence, or gender equality, or a whole host of other social justice issues.

But just because you can’t solve a problem in its entirelty, doesn’t mean you should contribute to it. 

Vegans understand that they can’t hold their philosophical position absolutely, and that’s ok. 

However, there’s no need to throw the baby out with the bathwater. If you can make any significant positive change, why not?

Just because you can’t do something perfectly doesn’t mean it’s pointless.

Aside from saving an estimated 105 animal lives per year (more depending on which data you’re checking), eating plants could reduce your cO2 emissions, land use, and water pollution by 75%.

So, there you have it. Vegans aren’t under any illusions that their lifestyles are perfect. Which doesn’t matter, because veganism isn’t a personal pursuit of perfectionism, it’s an attempt to end animal exploitation. For the animals.

If you’re vegan for yourself, you’re doing it wrong. 

While we’re here, let’s quickly tackle some other misconceptions because, let’s face it, there are many. 

• Veganism is not a diet. (It’s an ethical, moral, philosophical, sociopolitical stance.)
• Plant foods contain all essential amino acids, aka “complete proteins” (like quinoa, hemp, tofu/soy beans/edamame/tempeh, chia seeds, etc).
• Even animals’ diets are supplemented with B12, so even if you’re eating meat, it’s still ‘supplemented’ and not ‘natural’.
• You can quite easily get enough protein from eating plants.
• If you think vegan food is bland, you can’t cook (sorry, but for real…). 
• There is no such thing as humane slaughter; animals do not die willingly. Their last moments are filled with terror and a fight to survive (watch any slaughterhouse footage). 
• Yes, fish feel pain. 
• No, plants do not feel pain. (They are not sentient, they have no pain receptors, no brain, an no evolutionary reason why they would—in fact the opposite—many plants WANT to be eaten to spread their seeds). 

Now that’s out of the way…

The point is: vegans aren’t perfect, but that doesn’t mean the argument for veganism is flawed.

It just means we live in a non-vegan world and must do our best with the choices available to us.

So yeah—shocker, a vegan lifestyle isn’t harmless. But it sure as f*ck shouldn’t stop you from doing less harm.