The quintessential book about how a vegan can have even more impact

I had the pleasure of seeing Robert Cheeke hit up the dance floor at Vegan Women Summit before we met about a month later at the Planted Expo in Vancouver. I knew he had written a new book, but it wasn’t until I saw a post on his Instagram account when I bought it to do a review.

Published by BenBella Books in 2024, The Impactful Vegan: How You Can Save More Lives and Make the Biggest Difference for Animals and the Planet is more than just about being vegan, but having the most impact possible as a human.

Robert wastes no time in the intro talking about the health impacts of animal consumption and how the industry is wasteful and inefficient. He writes, “I wrote this book to be a useful tool for you to incorporate proven strategies into your approach to effective animal advocacy.” Or what I like to call, What’s next if you’re already vegan?

In Chapter 1, he defines a term he developed based on effective altruism (EA): effective vegan altruism. I was briefly introduced to the concept of EA shortly before reading this book. To paraphrase, it means giving back in the most effective way possible. It’s a controversial concept, with people like Sam Bankman-Fried attempting to exude it with not always an outstanding track record of success.

Robert defines effective vegan altruism as using our time, energy, skills, talents, and resources to make the greatest impact for nonhuman animals and the planet.

Other highlights I thought were worth mentioning:

• Throughout the book, Robert gives lots of examples of people and businesses alike that exude effective vegan altruism. Farm Sanctuary, which was founded in 1986, is an example of an organization that developed out of a desire to help hundreds of farmed animals. It became the model for subsequent sanctuaries throughout the country. 
• Additional people/organizations he highlights include The Vegan Gym, which only trains vegan coaches and staff, Josh Balk, who led the California Prop 12 campaign to ban the production & sales of caged hens, pork, and veal in 2019, and Vegan Strong, a nonprofit that promotes plant-based diets at fitness expos across the USA.
• It’s important to know your “why” as a vegan and he listed 10 questions you can ask yourself. He referenced the studies and surveys by VOMAD and Faunalytics that I referenced in my blog on why people go vegan, so I was pleased about that. Faunalytics stressed the importance of social media posts, news articles, and talks/vegan challenges like Veganuary.
• There are roughly 100 million vegans in the world. Robert shares examples of how they can use their skills, talents, resources, and network to further the movement. I started wondering to myself whether I should be a vegan coach!
• He talks about the power of donations and how Animal Charity Evaluators can help you discover which nonprofit organizations are the most effective, listing the top 4 charities in 2022.
• He talks about Kaizen, a term that describes small, incremental changes for continual improvement.
• Did you know Oprah once promoted X (formerly Twitter)? Social change movements take off when influencers and celebrities get on board. However, everyday people can use social media for good (they can also host podcasts, volunteer, write, and use their careers for good).
• I like how Robert mentioned that running a business can be harder than ever, because there’s more competition now—so it may not be the best way to be impactful. (I agree—yes, you can throw up a website and use social media for free, but you still gotta work to get clients & customers!)
• I also like that he said not to open a sanctuary unless you’re aware of what’s involved. I know several people who have said they wanted to open sanctuaries and I don’t understand how they could if they also have full-time jobs or businesses to run. Juliana of Juliana’s Animal Sanctuary said that education is more important than opening more sanctuaries, because it’s much easier to prevent animals from being bred for food in the first place than finding sanctuary for all the rescued animals.

This was the first time I learned about Juliana’s—check out a video of their work.

• As shared during my talk at Planted Expo Vancouver, Robert shares that 80% of household purchases (it’s actually over 90% now) and 70% of meals are made by women. 80% of vegans are women, so we should target younger women (and of colour) to become vegan. However, younger people are desensitized to violent footage. The solution? More plant-based foods in colleges and communities of colour. Amen!
• To close the book, Robert discusses how he’s doing his part, pros and cons of labels like “vegan,” working toward being impactful vs. perfect, and how to remove attachment from animal products (because 9 out of 10 people who go vegan return to eating animals 🙁 ).
•  He says, “Determine why you want to be vegan and always keep those reasons at the top of your mind.”
• There is also a hefty resource list at the end of the book, many items on which I added to my documentary watch list and vegan resources page.

There are 3 things I would have recommended related to this book:

1. Lower the ebook price. I bought the Kindle book for nearly the same price as the hardcover, which I would normally never do had the author not posted on social media. I don’t see many people buying an ebook unless the publisher lowers the price. I hope they do by 2025.
2. Market the book closer to launch date. Robert said he was marketing pre-sales 7 months before the June 2024 launch date, which I think is too long for people to wait. There’s nothing wrong with pre-sales, but unless you have a large audience (100K minimum social followers), it’s unlikely people are going to want to buy a book that far in advance.
3. Pick an ideal reader. The description of the book is misleading as it implies the book is for anyone who wants to reduce animal suffering, but to me, this book is primarily for those who are already vegan, as it goes beyond how to transition into the lifestyle. For folks who aren’t yet vegan, they’ll pick up a lot of ways they can be impactful, but on a practical level they might need to read another book about why they should be vegan and how to transition. (Books in that realm I recommend include The Food Revolution, Living the Farm Sanctuary Life, Ageless Vegan, This is Vegan Propaganda, Protein Inc, and Badass Vegan.)

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