The UK monthly magazine ‘Cook Vegan’ is from now on to be known as ‘Plant Based’ and carries the subtitle ‘The Food Revolution’ .
In the editorial to the first issue under the new name (October 2017), assistant editor Blake Roberts writes “Everything in this magazine is still vegan and we only want to expand and improve upon the content that you’re used to. However, we believe that if we are to make veganism more accessible for all, it is important that everybody feels part of it; under our new title we feel we can encourage seven more people to embrace a plant-based lifestyle”.
In this way he is seeking to reassure readers that this is a magazine that is solely focused on diet, health and recipes. It is still all about cooking, in other words.
But he also raises a more questionable point. Reading between the lines, he is suggesting that the label ‘vegan’ is problematic in that it is automatically connected to lifestyle choices that go beyond what you keep in your fridge or serve up at mealtimes. Continue reading →
I haven’t eaten meat or fish for the past forty years and in all that time I have never been remotely tempted to regress. On the contrary, I am now trying to stop consuming ALL animal related products and switch to a completely plant-based diet.
The wisdom of following a vegetarian lifestyle is, to my mind, beyond dispute and arguments for taking this one step further towards veganism are equally compelling.
Not succulent, tasty or nice.
It is relatively easy to explain why I don’t eat raw steak, ground veal or chicken legs but the processes that lie behind the mass production of eggs, milk and cheese are just as closely tied to barbaric factory farming methods. You don’t have to be overly squeamish or sentimental to see that the routine practices of animal agriculture are increasingly indefensible and unsustainable.
One time carnivores and omnivores might have been able to claim that vegetarian alternatives were hard to find. Now that kind of counter-argument simply doesn’t cut the mustard. Labeling is now much clearer than it was and you no longer have to feed your habit in a back street hippy store or search for food items in a shop resembling a pharmacy. Any supermarket worth its salt will now have sections devoted to those with more enlightened tastes.
If you say you don’t eat meat or fish in a restaurant there’s a greater chance that you will be presented with a more imaginative alternative than an omelette or the kind of salad that looks like a rabbit’s lunch. Also, soya-based products no longer look like ingredients for a dog’s dinner and seem more adapted for human consumption.
I have lived in Emilia-Romagna in Italy for the more than 20 years and the slow but sure sea change has been thrilling to behold. Daily products like soya or oat milk cappuccino, vegan pastries or non-dairy ice cream, all of which would have been practically unimaginable two decades ago, are now both easy to find and more socially acceptable. As a consequence, while there are still many who probably think I’m a crank, there are fewer who will come right out and say it.
Nowadays, if you enthuse about ‘gourmet vegetarian food’ you are less likely to be accused of being oxymoronic. Above all, if you declare yourself to be a vegetarian or vegan, you will not usually be met with expressions of puzzlement or pity.
Like the links being smoking and cancer, it is now broadly accepted by even the most conservative medics that a diet dominated by dead animals is bad for your health. It is also become more evident to the public at large that fast-food nations are also hugely damaging to the environment.
Now,if I am ever asked (either with or without a patronising tone) ‘Why are you a vegan/vegetarian?’, I usually reply with the question: ‘Why are you NOT?’
The UK monthly magazine ‘Cook Vegan’ is from now on to be known as ‘Plant Based’ and carries the subtitle ‘The Food Revolution’ .
