Because every concept apparently needs to have its own name, “reducetarian” has entered the lexicon thanks to the Reducetarian Foundation, which “aims to improve human health, protect the environment and spare farm animals from cruelty by reducing societal consumption of animal products.” Sounds remarkably similar to the mission of activist groups that are upfront about their desire for a vegan world, doesn’t it?

If you dig deeper into the “reducetarian” world, it becomes clear that using this label is just a way to sound less extreme and work toward taking animal products off of the menu incrementally. The Reducetarian Summit was held here in the DC area recently, and despite an opening welcome with the message that all are welcome and should be able to make their own choices, meat, poultry, dairy and eggs were noticeably absent from all conference menus. More notably, a glance at the conference’s sponsor and speaker lists make it abundantly clear that only one choice – veganism - is really acceptable.

The conference included a session on “How to Win Corporate Campaigns” with speakers from Mercy for Animals, Compassion in World Farming and The Humane League who discussed how they are pushing restaurant and retail brands to adopt certain supply chain policies using PR campaigns and legislative strategies. Speakers discussed how they start by reaching out to companies professionally using platforms like LinkedIn, but move to undercover video campaigns or protests when they don’t get the type of response they want. The push against cages for laying hens was described as a “legislative nail in the coffin” to animal systems overall.

In other sessions, a speaker from ASPCA referenced the “wicked, horrible problem of animal agriculture” while speaking about the “Plant-Based Revolution” and author Jonathan Safran Foer previewed his new book which recommends that everyone adopt a plant-based diet to save the planet. Negativity toward “big agriculture” and the supposed costs of meat consumption (negative health impacts, environmental damage, antibiotic resistance) were common throughout the discussion.

The reducetarian movement is far from the first attempt by extreme activists to appear more moderate in order to push for “incremental changes” toward veganism. Beware – reducetarians are just vegan activists in deceptively moderate clothing.

“Reducetarian” – just another word for vegan?

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