Vegan Activism Ideas for Everyone – Non-Confrontational & Easy

Vegan activism can be a bit confrontational. In this post I give some non-confrontational vegan activism ideas. Useful if you love the message but don’t want to join a cube or talk to people face-to-face.

I got this idea from a vegan YouTuber Vegan Pixie, who has a few videos where she interviews other activists. Check her out if you get a chance, there was one video with Mippy Valentine where she discusses that activism can just be little things like leaving notes on people’s windshields and I just really loved the idea.

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The Picture Of An Activist

I tend to avoid mentioning to anyone that I’m vegan when I first meet them. As mentioned in my below YouTube video about What I’ve Learnt 4 Years Vegan. I also wrote a guest post for the lovely Chrissy where I go into more detail about this, you can find it here or on my Featured posts page.

I’m an introvert and generally quite awkward when I first meet people so I don’t like to give off a bad impression. I feel that the word Vegan sometimes feels like a swear word and due to this I just prefer not to mention it on my first meeting with people.

I think this is partly as well because of the stereotyical vegan that people imagine who shouts ‘Meat is murder!’ I’ve heard the terms ‘pushy vegan’ and ‘nazi vegan’ thrown around as well, which is just awful!!

I have experienced in my old work office that people were mostly curious and asked questions when they found out I was vegan. However, there were a few people who rolled their eyes when they found out but overall I’ve had quite a positive reaction. I think this is due to me letting someone get to know me first before mentioning the dreaded swear word.

I remember my cousins partner finding it very amusing to tag me in grass pictures on Facebook etc and just generally commenting on every vegan post I made. I have a fairly good sense of humour but it does get a bit tiring after the first time!

It does seem that if someone has had a bad experience with a vegan in the past, they then label all vegans as the same which of course is not fair. Mind you, isn’t that the issue with stereotypes in the first place?

What Can I Do As A Vegan Activist

So as I’ve mentioned I’m an introvert so on the street vegan activism has never appealed to me. Talking on camera makes me nervous enough let alone speaking to strangers in the street.

I’ve heard from activists that this type of vegan activism is very effective though. You are planting the seed as it were and making people go away and think which does seem to work.

That being said, there are other things that you can do which are non-confrontational.

Examples as follows:

Activism Through Stickers

You can get plenty of vegan stickers from vegan websites or Amazon and Ebay. Stickers are great because you can just stick them on lamp posts on your way to work, stick them on your belongings like lunchboxes etc. Or you can stick them on letters that you send.

You can get them from the following websites that I’ve found:

• Redbubble UK
• Zazzle
• Etsy
• The Vegan Kind Supermarket (Affiliate link)

Activism Through Little Hand Notes

As mentioned by Mippy Valentine, a very good form of vegan activism is to write a short note saying a little vegan fact and perhaps suggesting a vegan documentary to watch and then put it under someone’s car windscreen wiper. The idea behind this is the driver is likely to panic first of all when they see the note and think that someone has scratched their car! They are then likely to be relieved when they realise that is not the case and should be fairly positive when they read the note.

Activism Through Chalk Art

Even before I was vegan I saw some pictures on social media of some amazing Go Vegan messages done in chalk. Outside Mcdonalds and other places like that would generally have the best affect. However even the street outside your house would be a fairly good place to create some chalk art if you’d rather do it somewhere closer to home. Of course it gets washed away so you shouldn’t get told off wherever you do it.

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A post shared by Pixie (@vegan_pixie_warrior)

Activism Through Clothing That You Wear

Another thing that you can do is just wear clothing with vegan messages on such as ‘In Kale we trust’ T-Shirts (The Vegan Kind Affiliate) or a bag saying ‘Vegan, because I’m not a baby cow’ (Affiliate) which is really cute!

This might be quite a subtle method of vegan activism but just carrying round a tote bag or something with a vegan message on might end up with you having a conversation with someone about it.

How Do You Do Vegan Activism Online

I think people do forget that social media is a great form of vegan activism which is only a little bit confrontational if people start arguing with you over things.

You can use social media to share informative posts about veganism, you can join communities of other vegans and you can also use social media to share pictures of the delicious vegan food you’re making.

I have shared various things on Facebook mostly, over the 4 years so far that I’ve been vegan. I’ve had a few friends and family mention that my posts have either really made them think or even convinced them to reduce their meat and dairy intact.

In general I haven’t shared a lot of pictures of the cruelty to the animals but there have been some that I have shared with a huge trigger warning on. One family friend did mention that she could not stop thinking about the pigs from a picture I shared so although she’s not vegan yet I feel like I may have planted a seed there.

For the most part I have shared a lot of statistics about the environmental impact because that was what shocked me when I initially went vegan. The cognitive dissonance (definition -the state of having inconsistent thoughts, beliefs, or attitudes, especially as relating to behavioural decisions and attitude change) means that people claim to be aware of the cruelty usually. Although, let’s face it I think most people just pretend it isn’t happening really.

However, if I didn’t even know how much of an impact the meat and dairy industry has on the environment until I watched Cowspiracy in 2016. That would be mean that not a lot of people don’t know about the impact either.

I have recently also made a friend across the world from Earthful Enlightenment that has watched the documentaries that I mentioned in my YouTube video and decided to go vegan herself! This is amazing and I’m so proud that she decided to take that step.

Even my friends and family who mostly aren’t vegan have been trying to reduce their meat and dairy intact. Although I can’t really take credit for that as they have just decided to do that on their own.

I think sharing activism on social media is probably the most difficult one to do in practice as people do tend to avoid it or unfollow you if they don’t want to see it. It’s a shame though because the cruelty will continue and it can make you feel a bit powerless as a vegan.

Respect For Vegan Activists

Although I have just listed so many non-confrontational alternatives for vegan activism I just thought I would take this moment to say that I have so much respect for activists that put themselves out there to spread the word.

I know a lot of them have to overcome their fears to do it and I have so much respect for that.

If you’re reading this and you’re not vegan. Just remember that the only reason vegans are so passionate about this is usually because it’s just so upsetting for them to know that this is happening to the animals and they truly just feel helpless that they can’t stop it!

They’re not trying to be pushy vegans they just really want people to be aware that this is happening to the animals around the world.

I would never judge someone for not being vegan, it’s not like I’ve been vegan my whole life.

Check out the guest post from Chrissy Grateful Green Life about How veganism transformed her life and if you’re newly vegan I’ve compiled a list of accidentally vegan sweets a bit healthier, the best vegan supplements.

Even just switching a few days a week to meat free days would make a big difference if that’s all you can manage right now.

There’s so many different alternatives to meat in the UK. I obviously can’t speak for the rest of the world. However the Beyond Meat burger that my partner tried earlier on in the year, he said tasted exactly like beef. It’s definitely a good time to cut some meat out, go plant based or even go vegan.

I hope this post has given you some ideas to do for non-confrontational activism. If you’re not vegan, I hope it has helped you to understand why vegans can’t help but talk about it.

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