Veganism needs to be thought of as more than just a boycott.

Boycotts by themselves are not what will solve this issue, systemic changes are. Now here is why veganism is extremely important towards moving towards systemic policy changes:

Policy comes from public opinion, not the other way around

If we ever expect to live in a vegan society we will need a broad moral shift within our culture. If you look back at other big changes it works that way too.

Slavery ended from a war and policy changes, but those changes required an abolitionist movement pushing for a broader cultural shift around slavery and its moral implications within our society. (this is an analogy don't accuse me of calling slaves animals you dumbfucks)

So lets apply that to veganism, what do we need to do?:
1: Highlight hypocrisy, make the moral arguments
2: show and create an alternative to meat consumption
3: normalize that alternative

Going vegan allows you to have many opportunities to do all of what I just mentioned:

1: Makes people more aware of what they are eating and gives opportunities to talk about it and spread the message

2: Sparks demand for vegan products

3: Shows that there is an alternative and helps normalize that alternative

I have had hundreds and hundreds of interesting conversations about interactions from being vegan, and I have personally made around 5 people vegan irl and many, many more have at least recognized that on some level animal consumption is wrong.

tl;dr thinking of veganism as just a boycott misses much of what it is really about. It's a form of activism that helps do the most important bit, which is spark an ideological change around the morality of animal consumption that will be needed for future policy changes

of course it's also a boycott and also leads to less animal consumption, but thinking of it as *just* that is reductive