Veganuary: has the conversation changed?

There is something refreshingly frugal about January after the excesses of another heavy Christmas – a chance to recalibrate our palettes, energy levels and waistlines. So, our January newsletter is dedicated to fruit and vegetables – in all their glorious forms. Back in the early days (of BFS, not civilisation), in January, that might have been the constituent parts of a Cornish pasty (potatoes, swede and onion with the odd cauliflower if the gods smiled) but things have changed. Without having to tiptoe into the airfreight or heated glasshouses arguments, we can enjoy low impact southern European vegetables together with the increasingly abundant selection of UK grown crops. Various kales, cavolo nero, tenderstem broccoli, hispi cabbage have all found their places in our kitchens. The pre-Christmas freeze might have finished some, but we’re also getting pretty good at winter salads and members of the radicchio/endive family which become more palatable as winter closes in. And then we have the joys of the European citrus harvest, every item individually naturally wrapped to allow for lengthy travel to our shores; keeping us going once the joys of UK grown apples and pears have begun to fade.

What started in 2014 as a conversation with her husband around Jane Land’s kitchen table has turned into a worldwide phenomenon, with over 600,000 people signing-up to Veganuary in Jan 2022. It’s hard to criticise what is, unquestionably, such a worthwhile cause, when I think we all agree that eating less meat is the right way to go. But, but, but… I wouldn’t be true to myself if I didn’t add that a quick look at the Veganuary website took me to  Veganuary Christmas Dinner Guide. It’s more like an advertisement for ultra-processed foods than a celebration of the glories of fresh (or even, at a pinch, frozen) fruit and vegetables. To be ultra-cynical (yes, me), are Asda allowed to call their Plant Based Turkey Crown, ‘Turkey’ because it’s from Turkey or trying to imitate a turkey?

Also, now that you’ve got me started, I can’t deny that I find all the ‘happy animal’ pictures, particularly the one of pigs, a tad duplicitous. We all want happy pigs (don’t we?) but they’re not pets. To be blunt, if we weren’t going to eat them, they wouldn’t be lying around in the field. If you believe in animal welfare you have to have animals in the first place. However, to be the wishy washy liberal that I am, I would have to admit that the onus has changed since 2014 and it’s now far more about climate change. If Veganuary can make us eat less meat, which unless you’re some sort of perverse reactionary, by definition it does, it can’t be a bad thing. It’s just time they updated the messaging on their website.

Image – (‘How To Treat a Pig’ – The Fields Beneath, Kentish Town)

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