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GCMEMT Blog
23.03.2018

Spinoza for a #PlantPoweredCommunity

Habits are a key component of our daily life.
Our habits are all those actions that we
perform so often and so regularly that we
almost do them automatically and without
thinking. Now, no habit was a habit in the
beginning. But because habits are so
interiorized and deeply rooted within us, we
tend to forget about and be ruled by them.
We establish habits and we need habits in
order to make easier the activities and
practices that we think are conducive to
living better with less effort. Anyone who
practices a sport, plays an instrument or leans a new skill is familiar with this. Habits are indeed a
wondrous component of human psychology.

However, habits are not necessarily sustainable. A sustainable habit is one which can be
maintained for a long period of time without producing side effects that will make the habit itself
dangerous or counterproductive for the agent who performs it, or for the society in which the
agent lives. It is not always easy to recognize whether a habit is sustainable or not. This is because
(1) the side effects of a habit may not directly affect the agent who performs it; (2) the agent may
resist the acknowledgement that her habit is the cause of certain side effects. We are usually too
attached to our habits to assess them with an impartial eye.

Moving from non-‐sustainable habits to sustainable habits is a key factor in significantly improving
our life and the socio-‐ecological environment in which we live. This transition takes two steps: (a)
knowledge (at either the collective or individual level) of the reasons a certain habit is not
sustainable; (b) action directed at establishing a more sustainable habit.

Now… you might wonder: sure, but what does Spinoza have to do with transitioning towards
sustainable habits? Short answer: Spinoza’s moral philosophy is mainly concerned with step (b),
i.e. how individuals can be determined to reorient their interactions and habits in such a way to
make them consistent with what is (known to be) best for them. Spinoza suggests an interesting
strategy to achieve this transition: focusing on how to get more individuals to enjoy the more
sustainable habit(s) together. This social and relational dimension (the doing it together) is the key
to Spinoza’s approach.

According to Spinoza, asking individuals to improve themselves on their own, or blaming them if
they fail, is not going to produce any improvement. Usually, individuals are determined to
embrace certain habits (especially unsustainable ones) because certain external causes (aka social
conditions and conditionings) determine them and contribute to constantly strengthening those
https://www.rug.nl/filosofie/organization/history/gcmemt/blog/blog-‐23-‐03-‐2018-‐spinoza-‐for-‐a-‐
habits. Nonetheless, individuals are stronger and more rational when they cooperate. Being
rational is usually understood as a rather individualistic faculty or capacity that each individual
enjoys in her own private mind. I’ve become convinced that Spinoza ended up with a very
different account of what it means to be rational. Rationality has to do with being able to act on
the basis of those common features (Spinoza calls them ‘common properties’) of reality that
capture the fundamental structure and regularities of the (physical and/or social) world we live in.
Individual minds are able to know these features when they experience them by acting and
interacting among each others– by cooperating. By cooperating, individuals become more capable
of assessing their habits rationality, of detecting whether they are unsustainable and ultimately of
resisting the power of those external causes that support unsustainable habits.

If you’re interested in knowing why Spinoza thinks so, stay tuned. I’ve a book manuscript in which I
deal extensively with this issue. The book will hopefully come out at some point in the future.
Here, however, I’d like to do something different, I’d like to show how a Spinozistic approach may
be used to help remedy one of the least-‐sustainable habits we have, and this concerns... food!

Most of the world follows an omnivorous diet. Yet, animal-‐based foods consumption in particular
is growing worldwide, with a consequent increase in meat-‐and-‐dairy production.[*]

Now, there’s a number of reasons which show that meat-‐and-‐dairy based diets are not
sustainable. Here are some of the main ones:

(1) meat-‐and-‐dairy consumption is positively correlated with a number of health issues;[**]
(2) meat-‐and-‐dairy based diets tend to be significantly less resource-‐efficient and to produce
significantly more waste;[***]
(3) the meat-‐and-‐dairy industry alone accounts for around 15% of total greenhouse gas
emissions (equivalent to the whole transportation sector taken together), and has a direct,
devastating effect on the environment, by directly causing deforestation, ocean
acidification and depletion, species extinction and desertification;[+]
(4) the meat-‐and-‐dairy industry operate with procedures that any cat or dog owner would find
simply outrageous and inhuman if implemented on their pets instead of cows, pigs and
chickens.[++]

Meat-‐and-‐dairy-‐based diets are also habits. Following a diet based on animal foods is the habit of
getting most of one’s nutrients from animal products on a daily basis, around three times per day,
every day. What makes animal-‐foods consumption non-‐sustainable is not the barbecue you had
last summer. The problem is the daily and regular habitudinal consumption of meat-‐and-‐dairy on
a long term basis.

Now, from a rational point of view, the solution is pretty clear. Most people are omnivores, which
means that they don’t eat meat and dairy exclusively. The problem is the proportion between
meat-‐and-‐dairy and plant-‐based food. For an omnivore, switching to a predominantly plant-‐based
diet would mean getting most of one’s daily nutrients from plants rather than from meat and
dairy. Is this possible? Of course it is: consuming predominantly plant-‐based diets is not only
healthy, but in most (West and East) countries this was the norm prior to the mid-‐twentieth
century, and it is still the norm in some parts of the world.[#]

Now consider the two habits – meat-‐and-‐dairy-‐based vs. plant-‐based diets – face to face. From a
purely rational point of view there are very good reasons to switch to a plant-‐based diet. However,
the contrary is happening and meat-‐and-‐dairy consumption and production are increasing rather
than decreasing around the world. Why?

Here, Spinoza can help. To move towards a sustainable habit, some knowledge is required.
Obviously, replacing all your meat, eggs and dairy with lettuce alone won’t do the work and may
even be counterproductive. As with any habit, establishing a new habit or changing an old habit
requires some effort and some study. We’ve forgotten that even becoming meat-‐and-‐dairy eaters
in the first place required that effort and study, when we were kids and were learning how to eat
and what to eat (yes, we had to learn that, like any other animal!). However, the point is that
knowledge alone obviously won’t be sufficient to create an actual change.

Acting rationally (‘under the guidance of reason’, Spinoza would say) is matter of sharing practices
and cooperating with others. If lowering meat-‐and-‐dairy consumption and production can be
recognized as a rational choice, then the problem is to make this choice a common and shared one
that individuals can make together (rather than individually). Spinoza’s suggestion here would be
the following: in order to make individuals act more rationally, you should first let them act
together on the basis of a common intention, goal or plan. In the case of food, there is a
straightforward way of doing this. Sharing food and meals is one of the oldest and most convivial
activities in human society. Human society grew up, indeed, around food – and in order to make
the obtaining and sharing of food easier and possibly more enjoyable. Every day, people still enjoy
their food with others, both in private and public contexts.

When people share food, they form a community insofar as they are sharing and cooperating in
the same activity. Whether this community is large or small doesn’t matter too much: the point is
that individuals are stronger when they share and agree on common values and goals.

Now, sharing a plant-‐based meal has clearly
beneficial consequences, in terms of
sustainability. It’s also relatively easy to arrange.
Most omnivores are already familiar with plant-‐
based food and they enjoyed it in the past
(haven’t you ever eaten a vegetable soup? A bowl
of rice or quinoa with legumes and seasonal
greens? Never tried tofu, tempeh or seitan stir fry
or stew? Never used almond or rice milk with
oatmeal for breakfast? – If you haven’t you’re
missing some very delicious and nutritious foods...). By having a plant-‐based meal, nobody is really
depriving herself of something or throwing herself into the ‘unknown’. Plant-‐based foods are
easily available in most restaurants, supermarkets, canteens and home kitchens. In fact, I bet that
anybody reading this post has at least a few friends with whom she enjoyed a plant-‐based meal in
the last week.

By going for a plant-‐based meal together, we can better see, and demonstrate, that we do have
the power and resources to progressively adopt more rational and sustainable habits. Moreover,
by doing that together with others, we’re arguably going to produce a snowball effect that will
impact and involve more people.

How to take action? It’s easy. Let’s start a #PlantPoweredCommunity campaign. If you subscribe to
it, then the next time (today, tomorrow, this week) you’re in charge of anything that concerns
food (taking people out for a meal, organizing an event, designing the menu at your institution or
facility etc.) then you do two things:
(1) ensure that the food offered is entirely plant-‐based;
(2) ensure that you inform people of why the food is entirely plant-‐based and encourage them
to do the same on the next occasion.
This will create a community of people who share a commitment to lower meat-‐and-‐dairy
production and consumption – a community that is not based on deprivation of things we like, but
on embracing other things that we like as well, which we can share together while being faithful to
our own values and interests.

Personally, I have been adopting this policy (without flagging it so explicitly) in all the academic
events I’ve been organizing since the first Collegium Spinozanum (our Groningen Spinoza summer
school) in 2015. In my experience, nobody ever complained, and the food side of these events
remained delicious and convivial, while also healthier, more sustainable, and more just. And I
found that it actually takes a very little effort to do this. It often just requires ticking the plant-‐
based menu among the options you order. Everyone can do that. But if everyone would actually
do that consistently over time, many of our biggest problems today would be on the path towards
a solution.

If you find this idea reasonable, join the #PlantPoweredCommunity. After all, we’re more rational
together.

PS: subscribe the #PlantPoweredCommunity campaign on Change.org!

Notes

[*] Statistics on meat consumption and production are available here:
https://ourworldindata.org/meat-‐and-‐seafood-‐production-‐consumption

[**] The main diseases positively correlated with high meat-‐and-‐dairy consumption are:
1. Cardiovascular disease – see e.g.:
a. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4597475/
b. https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/2016/10/25/dairy-‐fat-‐
cardiovascular-‐disease-‐risk/
2. Obesity – see e.g.:
b. https://www.adelaide.edu.au/news/news86602.html
3. Diabetes – see e.g.:
b. https://www.harvardmagazine.com/2012/01/a-‐diabetes-‐link-‐to-‐meat
4. Alzheimer’s and dementia – see e.g.:
a. http://www.americancollegeofnutrition.org/content/western-‐diet-‐increases-‐
alzheimers-‐risk
b. https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/08/160825102121.htm
5. Cancer – see e.g.:
b. http://www.medicaldaily.com/who-‐confirms-‐eating-‐meat-‐causes-‐cancer-‐how-‐did-‐
once-‐healthy-‐food-‐become-‐so-‐deadly-‐358944

For a free documentary that summarizes some of these findings:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xl8zNztsoGg

[***] A good synthesis of the main reasons why high levels of meat-‐and-‐dairy production are
unsustainable on a large scale is provided here:
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00139157.2015.1025644.

[+] For data and studies on the environmental impact of the meat-‐and-‐dairy industry (including
fish) see:

a. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Environmental_impact_of_meat_production
b. http://science.time.com/2013/12/16/the-‐triple-‐whopper-‐environmental-‐impact-‐of-‐global-‐
meat-‐production/
c. https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-‐3-‐319-‐18002-‐1_1#enumeration

For a documentary summarizing some of these results, see Cowspiracy:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TgbGGwwUk6c

[+++] Yes, animals suffer when they are slaughtered, and there is no way of ‘efficiently’ raising
billions of animals per year while also treating each of them ‘humanely’ (e.g. as you would treat
your own pet). On this point, see Melanie Joy’s TEDx Talk on Carnism:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=4&v=o0VrZPBskpg

[#] See for instance T. Campbell’s China Study (2005) – for a summary see
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_China_Study

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