Just when it seemed as though January in Britain couldn’t get any bleaker, along came ‘Veganuary’. Cue loads of puny, blue-haired wokerati spending this month preaching about how we should give up on two of man’s greatest pleasures – meat and cheese.
If you’ve been finding it irritating, you’re not alone. In surveys of public opinion, vegans are hated more than any other group, with the exception of drug addicts. So when a chef tells the newspapers that he’s banned vegans from his restaurant, or a magazine editor jokes that they should be killed, do you feel justified in allowing a smirk of amusement to cross your face? After all, in an era when we are supposed to have obliterated all our prejudices, despising vegans still feels deliciously permissible. Indeed, there’s so much vegan loathing that social scientists are rushing to dissect it.
In an era when we are supposed to have obliterated all our prejudices, despising vegans still feels deliciously permissible
So, in the spirit of enquiry, and with a bit of data to inform us, let’s take a timely look at how hatred of vegans became the last bastion of prejudice we are still allowed to enjoy. Full disclosure at this point: I am vegan, but probably not the type of Gen-Z activist you imagine. I am a mother-of-two and author in her fifties with a mortgage and when I go to galleries, I go see the paintings, not pour orange paint on them.
But first, a question from me: if you have been harangued by a vegan this Veganuary, where on Earth did you find them? I mean, I live in London – probably the place where they are most likely to congregate – and I hardly know any, despite my best efforts, and then only because I occasionally write on the topic.
And if one did track you down to launch into a sermon – or threaten to come for your Camembert – what did they actually say? Or in retrospect, was it actually their plate of plant-based food which silently reproached yours – because yours had meat on it (and you can’t quite square that with the fact you consider yourself an animal lover)?
As a vegan of ten years, I continue to be bemused by the often repeated joke: ‘How do you know you’re speaking to a vegan? Don’t worry, they’ll tell you.’ That’s because over the past decade, it’s always been the meat-eaters who’ve started up the conversation about my food choices when I ask for the vegan option (‘Ooh that looks tasty… NOT!’).
So considering vegans only make up an estimated 4 to 5 per cent of the UK population, why is there such a disproportionate amount of dislike for them? Could the real reason they appear so high on our loathing list be because they amplify a nagging voice that’s already in your head? Is it that they remind you of your own reluctance to make the sacrifices we will increasingly need to make in the years to come to keep this planet pleasantly liveable?
After all, we’ve grown up being told we are free to live our lives however we wish. Many like to believe that their regular consumption of cheeseburgers and cheddar should be a ‘personal choice’. But now, annoyingly, it’s the scientists who are pointing out that eating meat and dairy is anything but a personal matter. Livestock farming on an industrial scale may be raising more animals to be eaten, faster than ever. And an ever-growing pile of research is telling us it’s also killing the planet.
Animal agriculture saps the Earth of vital resources – such as a fifth of the world’s freshwater water supply. In return, intensive animal agriculture spews out toxic greenhouse gases. We’ve become so good at speeding up the process of livestock-rearing and slaughter that it’s now responsible for between 10 and 20 per cent of global emissions.
And sorry to be bothersome again, but while you may be enjoying your personal choice now, the less palatable news is that it could deprive you of some more serious options in years to come. Globally, two thirds of all antibiotics are given to animals to stop them getting infections in the inhumane, overcrowded conditions in which they are kept for maximum profit. This overuse creates drug-resistant bacteria which pass into humans, spreading resistance to life-saving drugs. One study found that antibiotic – and other antimicrobial – resistance is already killing around 3,500 people every day. Over the next 25 years, some scientists foresee it will go up to about ten million deaths every year, matching the current rate of cancer fatalities.
Yet for the sake of some moments of ‘mouth pleasure’ (even though there are convincing plant-based versions of all our meaty favourites these days), we prefer to cling to our entitlement to eat meat and cheese at every meal. We are so wedded to our right to choose animal flesh that consuming it has become a political statement of ‘I will do as I damn well please and no one will stop me’. But the planet is a biological reality, however you choose to respond. The consequences will catch up with us – whether vegans get the flack for being the canaries in the coal mine or not.
So, be my guest. Comment ‘Bacon, tho’ or tell me your favourite meat cuts. Vow to feast on more lamb and stilton to make up for all the meat and cheese others are giving up for Veganuary. I won’t try to change your mind.
But the next time you feel that visceral dislike of vegans bubbling up, see if you dare to pause and wonder why you’re triggered. Is it actually ‘the vegans’ who are bothering you – or the voice of your own conscience?
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