Fifteen years ago when I started this very blog, if you wanted to be social as a vegan in London you had to make it happen yourself. There were no vegan pubs and certainly no high street chains with dedicated plant-based menus.
This wilderness forced me to launch London Vegan Drinks, a monthly gathering where we carved out a space for ourselves in a world that barely acknowledged we existed. London Vegan Potluck was another community-driven event I curated, where people cooked and shared food because there weren’t many places to eat out.
Back then, if you wanted a vegan meal, you might get lucky at Pogo Café in Hackney (if they were open and serving something edible) or a measly number of eateries that weren’t always great. Other than that, it was whatever scraps you could cobble together from independent health food stores and Holland & Barrett. There were no vegan ready meals, hardly any supermarket own-brand plant milks, and certainly no Gregg’s vegan sausage rolls.
Then the independent vegan revolution happened. Slowly at first and then rapidly.
Vx shop and boutique opened in Kings Cross and suddenly we had a place to buy junk food and feel like we belonged. Ms. Cupcake brought indulgence to Brixton and showed the world veganism wasn’t about deprivation.
A little while later came Temple of Seitan, a game-changer that proved people would queue down the street for incredible vegan fast food.
It was just before and during this boom that I launched Vegan Beer Fest UK and later Hackney Downs Vegan Market, both of which became wildly successful. These events weren’t just about food and drink. They were about community. They created spaces where small businesses could flourish, where independent makers could showcase their craft, and where thousands of people could gather in a way that had never been possible before. These events helped push vegan consumerism into the mainstream.
But fast-forward to now, and it’s getting harder than ever to keep independent vegan businesses alive.
Rent and business rates have skyrocketed. Brexit has driven up costs and made supply chains more difficult to navigate. And the biggest challenge of all? Multinational corporations have muscled in on the vegan market, producing plant-based products at little or no profit and not because they care about veganism, but because they want people to do all their shopping with them instead of at independent stores.
We’ve lived through seismic shifts in the vegan world, but if we want to keep making real progress, we need to go beyond just buying vegan products.
How about we support independent businesses and also also fight for them? Sign petitions to challenge unchecked rent increases and demand better protections for small business owners from elected officials.
Vote for politicians who care about workers’ rights and small businesses. Make our voices heard at the ballot box, sure, but some of us should also throw our hats into the ring and run for elected positions in order to fight for change.
Let’s protect our social spaces. The places where we gather whether these are markets, restaurants, or grassroots events, matter just as much as what’s on our plates. We are going to be nothing without space to interact with other members of our community. Demand protection from politicians for physical spaces of cultural value.
Join activist groups that are working hard to keep energy companies in check. Your favourite vegan restaurant will not survive multiple tariff increases a year.
It has been incredible to witness and be part of this journey over the last 15 years through this blog and my events. But now we need to make sure the future of veganism isn’t just about big businesses selling us stuff. It needs to be about community, ethics, and resistance.
We need to stop our social capital being stripped away completely.
Are we ready to fight for that? How will you get involved? Put your ideas of resistance in the comments!
Extra note: this is not just a vegan problem. There has been huge news lately about the Prince Charles Cinema being under threat. This fight isn’t just for the protection of vegan food businesses, it is for everything that brings value to our lives and to our community that is being rapidly stripped away by capitalism and greed.
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