Philosophical Vegan Forum

My kiva loans have swung back around and for the first time I'm lending as a vegan. For those that don't know Kiva is a website utterly packed with people from all over the world who for one reason or another are 'unloanable' to by a traditional bank. Which is where we all come in and can play banker. Its charity but you get your money back thus encouraging business and economical growth in people and areas which would otherwise be overlooked.

So there really are a multitude of people asking for loans for a multitude of reasons. Avoiding engaging in loans that would result in animal suffering is not hard, but I do have a question. Should I? There are areas where the only business is animal business either in raising animals or serving animals. Normally these are the most impoverished areas. I do feel like I'm sitting on my very high moral horse, with my full belly and firm future and drawing a curtain on those people. I am not saying the loans Ive made today wont help people (A young boy of 21 who cooks sweet breads to support his grandma), I'm just asking have I stepped off a moral cliff by automatically discarding the aforementioned people?

12ebex wrote:So there really are a multitude of people asking for loans for a multitude of reasons. Avoiding engaging in loans that would result in animal suffering is not hard, but I do have a question. Should I? There are areas where the only business is animal business either in raising animals or serving animals. Normally these are the most impoverished areas.

I think you should, and that there's a reason that poverty and animal agriculture as the only businesses are linked. I don't think you're putting dollars to good charitable use by investing in expanding animal agriculture infrastructure.

Is there a way to talk with these people directly, and offer them alternative business models that you will fund?

12ebex wrote:I do feel like I'm sitting on my very high moral horse, with my full belly and firm future and drawing a curtain on those people. I am not saying the loans Ive made today wont help people (A young boy of 21 who cooks sweet breads to support his grandma), I'm just asking have I stepped off a moral cliff by automatically discarding the aforementioned people?

I don't think so, because I see it as counterproductive to invest in animal agriculture instead of education and more efficient infrastructure. Goat herders will always be poor, because they're relying on very inefficient production techniques which provide little added value.

Get those people set up to harvest straw and grow straw or oyster mushrooms, on the other hand, and they're taking an input with virtually no value (and that is often burnt in the fields), and producing a nutritious, high protein output that has excellent margins and helps the environment at the same time. There's also a lot more potential for trade and export.