Home / Weak arguments / Borrowed reason
"Go vegan for the planet."
They talk about health, hunger or the planet instead of the animals. When the borrowed reason falls, the motivation falls with it.
Why it is weak
The problem isn't that the environmental argument is false. It's that it is fragile exactly where it most needs to be solid: if the reason to reject animal farming is its environmental impact, cleaner animal farming would solve the problem without solving anything for the animals.
The industry already invests in "sustainable" versions that hollow out this argument from the inside. "Sustainable meat" and "conscious farming" brands sell exactly that promise: the animal is still property and is still killed.
This argument also reinforces the environmentalist view, in which entities like ecosystems matter in themselves, rather than the sentience-centered view.
How to say it better
The environment matters as a means: preserving or changing an ecosystem makes moral sense insofar as it improves the lives of real sentient beings.
The guide doesn't ask you to drop your environmental concern. It asks you not to mix criteria and, when they conflict, to give sentient beings priority.