“The Impactful Vegan” by Robert Cheeke (vegan), Part 1 of 2

Robert Cheeke (vegan) from the US is a bestselling author, speaker, and one of the pioneers of vegan bodybuilding. A former champion bodybuilder, he is the founder of Vegan Bodybuilding & Fitness and has inspired countless athletes to thrive on a plant-based vegan diet. After the success of his 2021 New York Times bestselling book “The Plant-Based Athlete,” cowritten with Matt Frazier (vegan), Mr. Cheeke shares what inspired him to write “The Impactful Vegan.” “I’ve always considered myself to be an impactful vegan. What I wanted to do was show, leading by positive example, that I could build my body without animal protein. I put on, in total, 100 pounds (45 kilograms) on a plant-based diet.”

In the book, Mr. Cheeke highlights strategies for effective altruism. “What I wanted to do was take some of the ideas and principles of effective altruism and apply them to helping animals, especially helping farmed animals, because 99% of animal suffering is in the food system. And so we need to change the way that people eat.” “What effective vegan altruism does is that it identifies the most practical strategies that will impact the most animals and reduce the most suffering. And luckily, there are organizations like Animal Charity Evaluators that have already done the legwork in that area.” “Some forms of vegan advocacy are just far more effective than others. For example, sharing positive news stories, positive social media posts, 28-day vegan challenge, some sort of vegan challenge that provides a community, and support, and resources, and knowledge, and consistent actions of compassion, and plant-based food choices, and all of that. And that’s always going to win in the end.”