The widely-understood definition of veganism is "not consuming animal products", not the definition in that blog. The blog is correct but it's sort of missing that nuance; many people (vegans and non-vegans) don't think that trying to buy less animal products is the same as being fully vegan. At best, I'd imagine people would consider that "going vegan".
this post was submitted on 28 Oct 2025
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The article clearly cites the definition it is using. Anyone who's done the most basic research would have come across the exact same word-for-word definition used in the article. Veganism is compatible with using life-saving interventions that are produced from animals, such as was the case before synthetic insulin was widely available, or COVID vaccines.
Per both the definition and the fine article, "trying to buy less animal products" is not being vegan, fully or otherwise. Not sure if you are just speaking casually, misunderstood the thesis, or are rhetorically couching it to suit your own thesis.
I'm failing to see what your actual criticism is; maybe that the headline shouldn't have used the word "vegan"? I suspect that's not the reason all these people downvoted the article without comment:
Yes, as I said the article is correct based on the definition it is using, but that's not what people associate with being vegan. The highlighted part "as far as is possible and practicable" lends itself to a much more subjective judgment on veganism which could allow someone to be vegetarian (as in, consume animal products but not flesh) while fitting the definition of vegan if they had enough mitigating factors (e.g. lots of dietary restrictions preventing them from consuming most vegan alternatives). You don't see someone drinking (cow) milk and think "that person is vegan".
The article actually covers that immediately below the definition they give. Per the article, "trying to buy less animal products" is vegan as long as they are actually buying only the animal products they can't get alternatives for (see: living in remote area).
It's a blog, it's all casual. I was trying to point out that the definition they use, regardless of where it's from, is not the definition that most people use. Basically gatekeeping, but happening with vegans and non-vegans, if you assume the provided definition is the right one. I was directly criticising the thesis. I suspect any search engine will give you at least a couple other definitions of "vegan" without the pragmatic allowance (I checked quickly with Ecosia, first result is Wikipedia... fourth? result is vegansociety).
I suspect the reason it's downvoted is mostly because veganism has a bad reputation (I'd like to think it's getting better). I won't pretend to know anything about that, at best I'm plant-based but I'm not going to call myself vegan because my motivation for that is not primarily for animal rights. People don't like having their ways challenged; not much we can do about that without larger societal changes.
I can't live without cheese.
you can still reduce your harm to animals by making sure to avoid cheese from factory-farmed cows. Those animals face some astonishing suffering, like living in a Saw movie. Plus, it seems plausible that animal's subjective experience of extreme pain is the same as a human's.
I very much try.
"Happy cows come from California" is such a crock of shit. I've called the ASPCA on several dairies I ended up servicing through various jobs I have had because I know what the laws here requires to count these as humane, and these farms were not even trying. Shit, one of them was producing veal and those calfs were kept in cages I would not even use to crate my chipoo they were so small.
I have yet to try any vegan cheese, tho. I haven't seen any at my grocery stores but I am hella curious if it's good. One brand controversially won, and was disqualified from, a cheese taste contest (disqualified for not being dairy) so that seems like a good sign to me that it's actually good.
I've never had vegan cheese that emulates cheese. Though some vegan cheeses are decent in their own right, but only if they are not really trying to be cheese. (I wish they'd rebrand as more generic spreads.)