Tenth International Conference on Food Studies

Abstract

How do moral product markets expand over time? How to the social justice movements adapt in a business environment? My research answers these question by looking at the case study of the animal rights movement and the vegan food market. Decades after establishing a market that did not expand, the animal rights movement changed its problem solving perspective and reframed this market and the terms of membership moving away from the vegan ethical identity to an action based membership - just eat less meat and dairy, and thus managed to expand this market and gain allies in the industry that formally considered themselves enemies. This reframing was a result of a shift in how the movement interacted in the moral market itself created, and by utilizing action for multiple justifications, mainly sustainability, managed to expand a stagnant food niche to a thriving segment of the industry.