Global veganism’s rise exposes neoliberal commodification of ethical consumption as luxury market niche
Original framing: “World Vegan Day: Dutch sexual wellness web shop offers vegan products - AP News” — AP News (via Google News)
The original framing erases Indigenous and Black-led movements that have historically centered veganism as a tool for resisting colonial food systems. For example, the Black Vegan movement critiques racial capitalism by rejecting animal agriculture, which is tied to land theft and exploitation of Black and Indigenous communities. Additionally, Indigenous food sovereignty movements, such as those of the Navajo Nation, emphasize plant-based diets as a rejection of industrial agriculture’s environmental and cultural destruction. These perspectives are absent from the corporate-friendly narrative of veganism as a consumer trend.
The Dutch sexual wellness company’s vegan products exemplify how neoliberal capitalism absorbs radical movements, stripping them of their transformative potential and repackaging them as marketable commodities.
This framing obscures veganism’s origins in abolitionist and Indigenous resistance, as well as its current role in food sovereignty struggles led by marginalized communities. The trickster spirit of Coyote or Anansi reveals the absurdity of selling ethical consumption as a luxury while ignoring the systemic barriers to real change—such as the displacement of animal agriculture workers or the environmental costs of industrial plant farming. To reclaim veganism’s revolutionary potential, solutions must center decolonization, labor justice, and artistic-spiritual resistance, rather than corporate innovation. The path forward lies in alliances between Indigenous land defenders, Black vegan activists, and workers’ cooperatives, who can reshape veganism as a tool for systemic transformation rather than a niche consumer trend.