Status quo, defect description and rationale:
Animal-based products are the cause of unacceptibly high greenhouse gas emissions. Spending public money on products that harm the worldwide public by increasing climate is an abuse of public money. Countless animals also suffer cruel treatment when they are used as products.
Some minority of people have allergies and medical conditions that complicate nutrition and make vegan diets impractical or impossible. These people cannot be marginalised. For the purpose of supporting their human rights, animals shall be sourced from humane suppliers verified to a much higher standard than legal bare minimums for commercial farming.
Lab-grown meat still originates from an animal and also still has significant emissions. But for the purposes of this rule lab-grown meat is regarded as vegan enough (“legally vegan”).
Farmed insects have negligible emissions and negligible cruelty. Insect death is unavoidable in plant farming anyway. Thus insects are also considered “legally vegan” for the purposes of these new rules.
New rules:
- public schools, prisons, and government sanctioned workplace cafeterias shall not serve non-vegan food to people who do not have a medical exemption.
- military MREs (meals ready to eat) and military cafeterias shall not serve farmed meat to service people who do not have a medical exemption. Meat from legal fishing of non-overfished species and hunted wild game is tolerated.
- when government employees and contractors submit receipts for reimbursement (e.g. for travel or temporary duty), non-vegan items shall not be treated as tax-free or reimbursed to people who do not have a medical exemption. Receipts that do not indicate whether the food is vegan or not are unsubmittable.
- per diem allowances that do not require itemized receipts for costs below a threshold remain unaffected. But per diem rates should be adjusted for vegan food costs, which could be more or less than current per diem rates.
- suppliers of farmed animals for medically exempted people shall ahere to a high standard of humane cruelty-free farming and this shall be verified.
- farmed meat/cheese that reaches the day of expiry may pass for “legally vegan” for the purposes of these new rules if and only if the price is reduced by at least 60% (zero waste without incentivizing ecocide).
A landscape consists of all its inhabitants. I don't like this hand-waving away of insect and small mammal deaths - and the obsession with wanting to call an insect-eating or dumpster-diving (sorry expiry-date-based) lifestyle vegan - it's not, full stop. I'm aware that seeing every species (plant, animal, fungus, microorganism) as conscious and with a right to exist is more complex than saying 'I won't eat it because it looks too similar to me' - but that is a complexity I believe we have to face when we decide to be a part of landscape.
I do believe agriculture needs a deep restructuring to the point where we wouldn't recognize it as agriculture anymore. And even as non-vegan I do agree that for the time being your rule would be beneficial for society. Do away with the 'meat is a part of every meal' mindset, get used to some alternatives.
However, as an anarchist who'd rather live in a common-sense community where decisions are taken based on situational context, not rules, I probably shouldn't comment in here, as I don't believe in creating rules. For who anyway? Who's gonna adhere to them? Should we rather spend the time to teach our kids how to be excellent to others and take no shit?
Legal definitions sometimes deviate from layperson’s terms, sometimes to a wild extent. Although perhaps in this case the word vegan should be completely replaced in law with something like “sustainable humane agricultural products” (SHAP), as you’re right to say veganism is a lifestyle and gov spending cannot be regarded as a lifestyle.
I would expect an anarchist to generally be in favor of laws that limit the government more than the status quo. This thread proposes a law that exclusively limits the government’s power and options. No non-governmental civilian can be charged with a violation of the new rules herein.