“Free Solo” Climber Alex Honnold Defends Vegan Diet to “Vocal Critics”

Alex Honnold, who conquered the first free solo climb in the award-winning documentary--Free Solo, expresses his feelings about veganism to critics on Instagram. Honnold calls it his "rant of the day" and explains to his followers that folks get "mortally offended" every time he posts about "how vegetarianism or veganism is better for the planet." He suggests it's easier to watch the two documentary films @gamechangersmovie and @cowspiracy, to get a better understanding of this subject matter, and notes, "the overall arguments are sound." Honnold also adds to anyone who's interested in the harmful impacts to read Eating Animals by Jonathan Safran Foer, he says, "It had a big impact on me."

As a public figure and big influence in the free climbing world, Alex Honnold experiences harsh feedback when he mentions veganism and labels these people as the "most vocal critics." He defends his position and explains why each category is wrong and provides small points, read below.

1. "People who don’t want to think about it one way or another, they just want to eat how they’ve always eaten. In some ways this category annoys me the most - it’s intellectual laziness. I grew up eating steak and drinking milk; my family was as middle-class American as it gets. And then I read a ton of books and started worrying more about performance and my carbon footprint. So I stopped eating meat (or at least seriously limited it). We have to change as we learn new things."
2. "Folks who argue that meat can be sustainably raised (or they hunt their own food).I agree that in some cases this can be “sustainable”, but there’s no version of sustainable meat that feeds 7.8 billion people. We have to start by just eating less meat."
3. "People (almost always overly macho young men) who think that I must be seriously light duty to eat mostly plants. I don’t even know what to say to them, but I’ll just leave then with this @jimmychin pic of me soloing the Excellent Adventure, 5.13a (7c+). I think the plants did me well that day, as they have for the last 7 years or so."

At the end of the first rant, Honnold adds another and says, "Oh, and my last mini-rant is reserved for vegans who are all up on their high horse and poo other folks’ good efforts - it’s better for someone to eat meat once a week than to eat it every day. It shouldn’t be a test of ideological purity. Diet is a spectrum and it’s better to do less harm than more."