I have been known to become a bit indignant when talking about Linda McCartney releasing more and more vegetarian products in place of vegan food, but this latest debacle takes the cake.
Is the company being immensely and mind-boggling shortsighted or are they being purposively antagonistic? I honestly can’t tell anymore.
Behold the brand new Linda McCartney Vegetarian pulled pork-style 1/4lb burgers. Yes, the company has borrowed a food innovation that has taken the vegan world by storm over the past decade (made with jackfruit originally) and made it vegetarian by adding one completely unnecessary ingredient.
Honey.
Can you even believe it?!
With veganism breaking sales and growth records all over the world and UK newspapers trumpeting information about huge increases in people who identify as vegan, Linda McCartney made the decision to add one of the most redundant ingredients possible to what would otherwise be a market-changing vegan product. You can see the ingredients list here.
Do they have a marketing team with no critical thinking skills? Does the company not appreciate the potential value of an additional 200,000 or 300,000 retail customers? Is the company deliberately antagonising vegans by adding honey?
I can’t make sense of it. At all. Please put your theories in the comments below or tweet them to Linda McCartney here.
Also… would you like to know why honey is not vegan? Click here.
I was happily cooking my dinner a few nights ago when I flipped over the packet of Gardein beefless tips I was about to pan fry only to be confronted by casual racism.
Check it out.
Can you spot it? Gardein placed an ‘Asian’ meal idea on the reverse of the package.
I wondered from which part of Asia this recipe was derived. Was it the edge of Egypt that constitutes one extreme of the Asian continent or was it the multiple islands lying just to the north of Australia? Or was it China, India, Thailand or Russia?
Gardein has compressed a population of more than 4 billion humans and more cultures than I can comprehend into one easy recipe.
Doris Lin is much more qualified to speak with authority and from experience on the topic of using ‘Asian’ as a blanket term and she kindly agreed to share her opinion with us when I asked.
Doris says:
Asia is not monolithic. In fact, there’s a joke that the only thing that all Asians have in common is geography and rice. Asian countries have a wide variety of religions, customs, languages, and cuisines. We never see recipes called, “European meal idea,” because mainstream western media recognizes that each European country has its own culture and cuisine. Using the word “Asian” to describe a recipe seems a bit lazy and a bit ignorant. It’s very othering because it implies that we don’t need to know anything more about something if it’s Asian. We don’t need to narrow it down to a country, because all that Asian stuff is the same. Seeing it in a commercial setting, like the back of a package, also raises questions about cultural appropriation. Someone is making a profit off of “Asian” cuisine without respecting the culture enough to figure out which country the dish might be from. If it’s a Chinese recipe, call it “Chinese.” Or better yet – call it by the name of the dish, such as “beefless teriyaki” or “beefless pho.” If you’re making up a recipe that doesn’t have any basis in any particular country, which appears to be the case here, it could be called, “Stir-fried Beefless Tips”.
Thank you, Doris.
I especially love your ‘European meal idea’ example. Can you even imagine someone using the term European to flippantly describe German, British, French or Italian food? It wouldn’t happen but this vegan company has casually used ‘Asian’ as a throwaway term that works to diminish widely-differing cultures and cuisines that have been established over tens of thousand of years.
Gardein, you can do better than this. You want to help animals but you should be able to do this without employing casual racism in your marketing.
You all can and should follow Doris Lin on Twitter.
There has been quite a bit of upset in vegan circles this week about the founders and majority owners of Southern California vegan restaurants Gracias Madre and Café Gratitude selling beef products (i.e. dead cows) from their family farm.
I reached out to the PR firm for Café Gratitude to find out a little more information about the situation. One of my main concerns was whether the plant-based menus were ever going to start serving meat.
Here is their response:
“We want to assure all of our supporters that Café Gratitude and Gracias Madre have always served and will continue to serve 100% organic, plant-based cuisine prepared with ingredients sourced responsibly from vendors and farmers who share our commitment to preserving the integrity of the environment.
Founders Matthew and Terces Engelhart do not personally follow a vegan diet. They reside on their privately-owned Be Love Farm in Vacaville, California where they practice regenerative agriculture, and harvest organic produce for personal consumption for friends, family and neighbors in the area.
Given the growth of the restaurants in Southern California, the majority of produce served at Café Gratitude and Gracias Madre is supplied by local farms with the exception of organic peaches in the summer, and organic butternut squash in the fall and winter months, which are both sourced from Be Love Farms.
To learn more about regenerative agriculture practices visit www.belovefarm.com and regenerationinternational.org.”
Apart from the horrible irony of animals being killed on a farm called Be Love, do you see a problem with eating at one of these restaurants? Is it effective to put financial pressure on the restaurant chain because the co-founders raise cows for food on their own farm or is this also putting unnecessary pressure on other co-owners who are are vegan or risking the jobs of vegan workers.
I eat at many vegan restaurants and from many vegan food companies where the owners or CEOs are not vegan. I could name half a dozen or so just off the top of my head. The CEO of Veggie Grill is not vegan. The owner of VegBar in Brixton is not vegan. Not everyone in a management position at Fry’s Family Foods is vegan. Some of the biggest vegan food brands on the planet are making profit for non-vegan investors who spend said profits on animal product consumption.
And what about our 100% vegan businesses with vegan owners? Should we be demanding that they do not buy produce from farms that also raise and kill animals for food?
This post is certainly not an attempt to tell people how to react to the Café Gratitude situation, but to create thought and debate. I would love to hear your thoughts on the topic. Should these restaurants stand alone and be celebrated for their plant-based menus or should vegans be demanding the founders and co-owners change their other business practises by applying financial pressure via a boycott?
I am delighted and honoured to bring you the following interview with Aph Ko, the founder of Black Vegans Rock.
Aph Ko was recently nominated in the VegNews Bloggy Awards 2016 for both Black Vegans Rock and Aphro-ism (all links at bottom of post). Aph writes engaging critical texts that span multiple areas of thought and intersecting realities.
Many thanks go out to Aph Ko for taking the time to answer my questions. I am extremely grateful for the insightful and thought-provoking answers below.
Fat Gay Vegan: Can you give my readers an overview of the Black Vegans Rock website and project? When did it start and why did it start?
Aph Ko: Black Vegans Rock is a new digital project that centers on celebrating and highlighting individual black vegans to dismantle the stereotype that veganism is a “white person’s” thing. The project launched on January 4th, 2016. The site is actually inspired by an article I wrote back in June 2015 called “#BlackVegansRock: 100 Black Vegans to Check Out” which was the first list that spotlighted 100 Black Vegans. I considered it to be more of an activist performance art piece rather than a traditional blog post. I created it to make a point: black vegans exist. The mainstream struggle to make veganism “inclusive” is ironic to me because there are SO many vegans of color.
The article was really successful and I was contacted by SO many black vegans who were grateful for the list. A lot of black vegans also gave me names of other black vegans who should be on the list as well. Rather than adding on, I decided to just create a whole new platform specifically dedicated to this mission. I received a grant from A Well-Fed World as well as the Pollination Project, and I hired EastRand Studios to do the artwork and website creation and they did a fabulous job. I wanted to created a space where black vegans could get their projects and stories out to other black vegans to connect. Community is integral to radical activism, so finding other folks who “get” you and have similar experiences can be life-changing.
Logo designed by EastRand Studios
FGV: Where do you think black vegans fit into the broader vegan scene? Is mainstream veganism constructed to push black people to the fringes?
AK: Well, I think the current mainstream white animal rights/vegan movement employs Eurocentric logic which is why a lot of people of color tend to not vibe with the space. A lot of people of color can’t exactly locate why they’re so uncomfortable in the movement and chalk it up only to representational issues, but i think it’s the Eurocentric logic part. The lack of representation for people of color is merely a symptom of that problem. When we say “mainstream animal rights” or “mainstream vegan” we all already know that “mainstream” is code for “white.” Calling it a “white animal rights movement” is a significant rhetorical move because it calls out whiteness, when whiteness gets its power from being invisible and hard to pin-point. Also, it allows vegans of color to do their own thing rather than having to constantly fight the ‘mainstream’ for inclusion. It reminds me of when white feminism was called out. Rather than feminists of color having to fight the dominant perspective of feminism, we just called it what it was–‘white feminism’–and we moved on and did our own thing. There’s nothing wrong with that. When we don’t call it out, it gives the illusion that the space is for everyone, when it’s overtly not.
So, the white movement just needs to get comfortable with the fact that some black folks aren’t necessarily joining your movement–we’re incorporating veganism and animal rights into our own movements which is why the work looks so different.
The most important thing white folks need to be doing is learning about whiteness and what that really means. We need to stop assuming that the only way white folks can help vegans of color is by making their movements more inclusive. White folks need to learn to see themselves as part of the problem…not only a part of the solution.
For example, we all know what it feels like when someone who eats meat doesn’t realize they are operating through a framework already. They think veganism is a lifestyle and they assume they don’t have a label or need one, however, eating meat is actually a lifestyle as well. It’s not usually called a lifestyle because it’s so normalized, therefore, vegans look “extreme” because we have a label assigned to us. Similarly, when you’re a white person, you are the norm…so whiteness doesn’t need to be marked or called out every minute. That however doesn’t mean that you’re not operating through a racial grammar system every day. So, when people of color use their racial location in their veganism, (like black veganism), white folks get upset because they feel like we’re using a segregationist label, whereas, they don’t see how they are already operating through whiteness every day…it’s just not called out. That’s why everyone laughs when, for example, white folks complain about spaces like Black Vegans Rock or BET. So many folks ask me weekly, “Well, what if I create a White Vegans Rock website?!” I just laugh. I’m like…go ahead and create it and let me know if it looks any different from the mainstream vegan movement…
Photos are from the Intersectional Justice Conference in Washington. Photo Credit for first two photos: Pax Ahimsa Gethen. Photo credit for final photo: JoVonna Johnson-Cooke.
FGV: How do you as a black vegan view the use of slave imagery, language and historical context within the fight for animals?
AK: Personally, I don’t mind the imagery, I definitely mind the context and I mind who is sharing this imagery and why they’re sharing the imagery. Oftentimes well-intentioned activists share it while not completely getting the connection themselves. I would argue a lot of white folks share this type of imagery which again objectifies black activists who are already vegan who are more than capable of talking about the connections between animal oppression and black oppression.
You can’t just slap an image of a lynched black person next to a slaughtered pig (without a proper framework or explanation) and try to act like placing these images side-by-side is going to do anything. We’re relying way too much on imagery in our movements, rather than critical thinking. A lot of animal rights activists don’t even really get how these things connect, so we’re supposed to expect people who eat animals to get it? There’s a proper way to make these connections, but placing two brutalized bodies next to each other without an analysis (especially of the perpetrator) isn’t necessarily making a ‘connection.’ It’s layering them on top of one another and then expecting the public to do the work.
When I see folks sharing “comparison” imageries I get what they’re trying to do which is why I’m not offended, it’s just that they can’t back up what they’re doing with logic that makes sense to people which is why I generally don’t think they’re effective (especially when used on social media sites).
As I always say, people weren’t shocked into eating meat, and they won’t necessarily be shocked out of it. We need to start appealing to critical thinking and invest in changing the frameworks people use to normalize meat consumption, rather than shock tactics that don’t do anything for anyone. There’s a real way to talk about speciesism and racism, but employing sloppy connection-making skills under the guise of intersectional analysis is a disservice to non-human animals as well as the rest of us who are experiencing racial terrorism.
FGV: Why should non-black vegans read the content on Black Vegans Rock?
AK: I think it’s important to be exposed to different perspectives and different ways of producing knowledge. Diversity shouldn’t only be a representational skin-deep superficial thing…we also need to have diversity in terms of knowledge production, so it would be advantageous for anyone to check out what Black vegans have to say in any space or on any platform, not just Black Vegans Rock.
FGV: Black Vegans Rock appears to draw a lot of strength and support from collaborations with other active black vegans. How important is collaboration to the project and did you always plan for it to be a multi-voice approach?
AK: The collaboration is the core of Black Vegans Rock. It’s a community-centered space. I definitely wanted a multi-voice approach because I personally wouldn’t be vegan without some of these advisory board members (who are influential to me). I don’t stand alone–I stand among many brilliant black vegan scholars, activists, entrepreneurs and thinkers. I also LOVE reading the submissions that I get from black vegans. I am currently learning a lot myself from their perspectives. The site focuses on black vegans and their thoughts every single day and that’s how I want it to be. I want readers to be inundated with black vegan thoughts and narratives.
FGV: What can non-black identifying vegans (such as me and most of my readers) do to make the vegan community a more diverse and inclusive space?
AK: There’s no need to try to make the vegan community diverse. Ironically, the movement I’m in is extremely diverse. Non-black vegans (I feel like we’re actually talking about white people here, lol) are more than welcome to read our literature and to have conversations, but understand that representational diversity comes when the mainstream starts to value non-Eurocentric knowledges…and I don’t know if that will ever happen anytime soon because the mainstream has a tendency to co-opt knowledges from people of color. It’s actually happening now. A lot of the ideas that vegans of color are coming up with and writing are being taken and re-packaged by white people which can be a bit irritating.
It seems like only white folks are struggling with trying to make their spaces diverse when so many vegans of color exist which is a bit perplexing, lol. In fact, almost all of my friends are vegans of color so I am usually puzzled when I hear that white folks can’t create or find diverse movements. We don’t necessarily want cosmetic diversity which means white people still run the show and their ideas are prized, and black and brown faces are just superficially added in to make it look “inclusive.” The most important thing is to realize that vegans of color exist and we have been organizing for quite some time. We might not be joining the mainstream movements because we’re too busy organizing our own. So, take the time to spotlight what vegans of color are doing, and discard the narrative that we need to make the mainstream white movements inclusive, because we don’t. What we need to do is have plural movements because the more voices and perspectives we have, the better. Making white movements ‘diverse’ or ‘inclusive’ is a different project–one that has nothing to do with alleviating animal oppression but strengthening white supremacy…and white supremacy harms animals so we need to stop going in that direction.
You can visit the Black Vegans Rock online project here, follow Black Vegans Rock on Twitter and like Black Vegans Rock on Facebook.
This might not mean anything to you, but I have nothing to share with you today other than my reflections regarding Prince. Normal FGV content will resume tomorrow. Thank you for being patient.
Prince was a magical genius woven through every part of my life. Nothing can stop these tears from falling.
My childhood swung wildly between just having enough money to eat and finding out which caravan park would be next on my mother’s list for us.
We settled for a while in an Australian seaside town with little going for it unless you were into violence on the streets at the hands of disenfranchised young people or bucket loads of institutionalised racism.
I was a child with a million reasons to be scared of the world with uncertainty haunting my every turn. Entertainment meant collecting empty drink bottles from around the area and taking them to the corner shop for a small refund.
I would buy a bag of sweets called cobbers. Cobbers were caramel bits covered in chocolate and they were my opportunity to pretend I could afford treats like a normal, happy child. If I had a bumper day with the bottles, I would have coins left over to play a song on the jukebox.
Even back then I understood somehow I was queer, so my song selections were camp and empowering to a kid with nothing to do but hang around the jukebox and daydream about being fabulous. Cyndi Lauper. Culture Club. Kim Wilde. As outrageous as some of these acts appeared to the small minds of my small seaside town, none of my song choices drew as much ridicule as Little Red Corvette by Prince.
This record surely needed to be replaced by the store owner due to the number of replays I insisted upon. Teenagers playing the arcade games nearby would sneer or roll their eyes in my direction. Adults would tell each other loudly that they had heard Prince was a faggot.
Of course the sounds of that groundbreaking single were enough to capture my attention, but the idea that Prince was someone who could turn my small town on its head by shredding, screaming, dancing and cavorting spoke volumes to my tiny queer heart.
As a tearaway trying to escape multiple broken homes a few years after the corner shop, I would cruise around with anyone older than me with a license and a tape deck. A local teenager named John played the Purple Rain album through customised car speakers and I discovered more information than any adult was willing to tell me.
Masturbation. Sex. Religion. Rock and roll. Pop. Purple Rain exploded into my life in the form of scorching guitar solos and personal sexual exploration. It remains one of the defining periods of my life and the album is the definitive soundtrack of my puberty and adolescence.
If you could spy on me a few years following Purple Rain, you would find me and my sister Monique drunkenly serenading random house parties with our versions of Starfish & Coffee and The Ballad of Dorothy Parker lifted from the Sign ‘o’ The Times album. I’m still not sure how my teenage brain processed everything I heard but all I know is Prince was maybe the only person in my pop music magazines and on my radio singing about AIDS, war, famine, sex and partying until you rattled your house to the ground.
The Prince parallels in my life went on and on.
I lived with my sister Juanita in a plasterboard house that was freezing in winter. I had to walk a couple of kilometres to my full time job in a shoe store that I was forced to take after dropping out of school. It was during this time that I played the Graffiti Bridge soundtrack non-stop for weeks upon weeks.
A few years later, I slept on the sidewalk for two nights to get tickets for my home town stop of Prince’s Diamonds and Pearls world tour. I lost my voice on the night of the show from screaming and singing along to one of the greatest spectacles on the planet.
My Prince story goes on. Year after year. Decade after decade. For every terrible or wonderful thing I experienced, there is a corresponding Prince song, album or concert.
I have seen the superstar in mammoth arenas in Sydney, London and San Diego. I have been a paid member of the multiple incarnations of his website. I impatiently waited to download his history-making digital releases via shoddy dial up Internet access. I was ecstatic to witness Prince perform in small intimate gigs around Hollywood, standing shoulder to shoulder with celebrities and movie stars.
As my personal circumstances improved, as I experienced heartbreak, as I fell in love and as I took myself on journeys all over the globe, Prince has been an undeniable thread and a soundtrack like no other.
I experienced the joy of attending his show in London during 2014 and as joyous as that occasion was for me, my heart is broken knowing I will never again witness the genius of Prince live on stage.
I have been crying for hours and nothing can stem the sadness. The knowledge that the rest of my time on Earth is to be devoid of one of the few positive constants I have known is almost too much to contemplate.
Have you ever been presented with an opportunity that is both terrifying AND exciting?
I am THRILLED to announce I have started production on the FGV Nude Calendar 2017!
If you know me well you’ll be aware that I’ve always been more than a bit body conscious. Like many people, I have been confronted and demeaned by the mostly-unrealistic projections of what a good body should look like that are forced upon us.
These images have bombarded me from all directions, from mainstream media all the way to organisations like People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PeTA). My fat, gay and vegan body just isn’t deemed ‘good enough’ by a lot of people with power and big public voices.
So why the change in attitude to showing my body in public?
A photographer approached me a few months ago with the idea of releasing a calendar with nude images of me as a way of confronting body shaming. The idea behind the FGV Nude Calendar is to challenge these damaging stereotypes head-on while also showing a alternative-to-the-ideal body type in positive, natural settings.
I have promised the photographer that all of the locations will remain top secret as we want to make a big splash when the calendar is released later this year, but I was allowed to give you a sneak preview of the shoot we did recently in Mexico.
I’m not looking forward to the snowy location shoot in a few months, but I’m sure knowing the calendar is for such a good cause will help me get through it.
All profits from the FGV Nude Calendar 2017 will be put toward a campaign to persuade PeTA to stop using body shaming, sexism, objectification of women and other forms of negative treatment of humans in their own campaigns.
Following on from our widely-successful New Year’s Eve cruise on the Danube, Vegan River Cruises and I have teamed up once again for a memorable 7 night/8 day journey along the Rhône river from Arles to Chalon-sur-Saône in the south of France.
All of my expectations were blown away on the Danube cruise, so I am delighted to once again join forces with Dirk and Vegan River Cruises to explore a part of the world I’ve never experienced before. I’m especially excited to experience this gorgeous region of France during the autumn with an entire boat load of vegans.
As with all their ships, Vegan River Cruises have chartered a thoroughly modern boat packed solid with all the latest technology and attractions including private balconies, WiFi, spacious bathrooms, luxurious vegan toiletries, electric bicycles for on-shore use and vegan cooking demonstrations.
Passengers on the South of France cruise will be treated to a 100% vegan experience with all meals and drinks included in the journey price. No extra money will be needed to enjoy wine, beer or cocktails and every single meal served during the cruise will be vegan.
It really is a vacation like no other for vegans. I’ll meet you at the bar on the first night!
The cruise departs Arles/Tarascon on October 22, 2016 and reaches its destination of Chalon-sur-Saône on October 29, 2016.
Click here for more information and to make booking enquires. The NYE cruise was booked solid so I imagine these cabins are going to go quickly. Be quick, book a cabin and join me on the Rhône.
Each month I take questions from some of my Patreon supporters and I try to give helpful answers.
Check out the March 2016 video below and be sure to find out how you can get involved with these questions (and get early access to my cooking videos) over on my Patreon page.
To mark International Women’s Day 2016, I have compiled a list of women (some vegan, some non-vegan) who inspire me, educate many people and make the world a better place.
Visit, read, follow, retweet and learn from these women:
Aph Ko – the founder of Black Vegans Rock – invaluable insights into how veganism, feminism and black lives intersect
Dr Karen Martin – my Indigenous Studies lecturer at university and the first person to truly make me understand my privilege – Dr Martin’s papers are essential reading
Associate Professor Jo Lampert – my sociology and Indigenous Studies tutor at university and possibly one of the most influential voices in the development of my social justice understanding
Love Like Hate – vegan band featuring Heather Cheketri and Sonja Ter Horst – powerful independent voices and compassionate social justice warriors who inspire me to do better
Colour Me Wednesday – vegan band with unwavering indie determination and a burning desire to right wrongs
Vanessa Almeida – vegan chef, food educator, vegan cookbook author, independent business owner and unquestionably decent person behind Essential Vegan
Adalita – a person of immense power, talent, strength and dignity – lead singer of Magic Dirt and formidable solo artist with a desire to spread the vegan message
Laura Beck – probably the kindest person on the planet and the genius writer behind one of the most read vegan blogs around – Vegansaurus
QuarryGirl – my buddy and one of the top three reasons why I started writing a vegan blog – a true pioneer in writing stuff on the Internet in order to make people stop eating animals
Mellissa Morgan – founder and owner of Ms Cupcakevegan bakery – the sole reason why London was finally dragged out of the dark ages and into a vegan future
My sisters Michelle, Juanita and Monique – the only people who completely understand what it took for me to get where I am – I love and appreciate them
Terry Hope Romero – vegan food pioneer who turned the world upside down with her partner in crime Isa Chandra Moskowitz – Terry is one of the reasons why veganism is as big as it is right now
Isa Chandra Moskowitz – along with Terry, Isa wrote the book on veganism – actually, she wrote MANY books on veganism and is probably the most famous vegan I’ve met
Colleen Patrick-Goudreau – one of the most impassioned, believable and powerful public speakers in the field of compassion
Sarah Bentley – guiding force behind Made in Hackney– a vegan food kitchen and education centre in London supporting low income, at risk, hard to reach and vulnerable groups
Anika Lehde -founder of The Vegan Score – Anika is a feminist, a vegan, an activist, an organiser and a true hero of mine – she teaches me something every time we speak
Doris Lin – a must follow person on Twitter who constantly makes me aware of important issues relating to veganism and social justice
Jamie J. Hagen – a queer intellectual with many important things to say about gender, abortion, activisim and pretty much anything else you can imagine – a voice I turn to when I need knowledge and understanding
Angela Corcoran – half of the team behind vegan London boutique and shoe store The Third Estate– Ange has dedicated years to promoting compassion, fairness, animal welfare and human rights
Valerie Reid – my mother in law – thank you for being kind to me over these past two decades, housing me when Josh and I had nowhere else to live and for being loving and supportive of our choices in life
To all the women who have loved me, supported me, inspired me, taught me and/or offered me friendship including Janelle Mason, Susan Shaw, Erin Nolan, Aimee Thomson, Melinda Newman, Patricia Pineda, Angela Warrilow, Vicki Lane, Susan Short, Danielle Leary, Lauren Mellor, Mirel Joshman, Anna Green, Louise Wallis, Jordan Bastian, Els Merry-Price, Jo Ballard, Diana Pinkett, Catherine Pace, Bob Humphrey, Valerie Shaw, Kip Dorrell, Amy Thomas, and Indira Jayasuriya.
Thank you.
Extra note: to the best of my understanding, everyone on this list identifies as a woman. If your name is on this list and you would rather it not be for any reason, please advise me at sean@fgvpr.co.uk and I will remove it instantly. Several of my friends and allies who no longer identify as women but have done so during our relationship have been omitted from this list. I hope they know and understand how much their friendship means to me.
