to think that the McDonalds protest is a bloody stupid idea that will not get anyone onside?

[PyongyangKipperbang]

Protester are blockading Maccies distribution centres to try and get them to commit to be fully plant based by 2025.

Now I cansee the argument about meat production affecting the environment but.......McDonalds sell what people want to eat! They are a business and are not going to agree to do something that could decimate their customer base!

And this kind of protest just pisses people off, if you want to take the kids for a maccies on the way home from shopping because you cba to cook then finding out that they have no food in then you are hardly going to feel very well disposed to the people who have caused it are you?

I wouldn't even touch most veggie /vegan stuff

Even vegetables?

It’s stupid because if McDonalds didn’t exist, then where would children learn that a lifetime of unhealthy eating is acceptable? Then next thing you know, everyone is at the gym being healthy, and I can’t use the dumb bells. And then bam, the NHS is on its knees because everyone is living until they are 113.

Heart attacks save the planet.

Internet is yours for the day @Doomsdayisstillcoming

They're going volume 11 to force people to talk about it. Look, it worked. The quiet, polite support of animal-product free businesses that goes on every day doesn't make headlines.

Seems they've singled out McDonalds because they're the world's largest food chain?

McD's does have a bad reputation vs its competitors from a vegan/vegetarian customer perspective, but it's mainly because the US McD's makes no effort to be veg-friendly. No vegetarian or vegan "mains" on their core menu - they even held out frying the fries and hash browns in beef fat much longer than the other fast food places, and when they finally switched to vegetable oil, they added (and still do) wheat-based beef flavouring . I guess I'll have the... um... apple slices and a black coffee, then. And nothing's labelled; you have to read the ingredients. McDs UK vegan options may not be delicious, but there are a few and they're easily findable. If I'm stuck in an airport at 3 AM with nothing open but McD's, I'll count my blessings if it's a UK airport!

Loving Hut's a fairly successful vegan fast food chain - they're in something like 50 countries now. They have both weird animal substitutes (in addition to various types of edible veggie burgers, they also have a fake chicken burger AND a fake fish burger) and more normal vegan food.

I support them.

How do you know that someone is a vegan? They bloody tell you and don’t stop going on about it. Eat what you like. Let others do the same.

@HangingOver

They're going volume 11 to force people to talk about it. Look, it worked. The quiet, polite support of animal-product free businesses that goes on every day doesn't make headlines.

Exactly!

Which just proves the rlatively old addage as posted by @PanamaPattie

They're just embarrassing themselves, and trying to force everyone onto a vegan diet. Plant-based options, absolutely, completely plant-based menu, no thanks. It's made me really want a McDonald's though, already had one this week so I'm resisting the temptation. 😩

@newnortherner111

I would be delighted if no-one ever went to McDonalds ever again. I don't want a loved one to have to wait longer in hospital or for a doctor's appointment because someone else has an illness or a medical condition resulting from obesity, which such fast food contributed towards. I dislike the amount of litter from their wrappings which may be able to be recycled, but still seem excessive.

However, the protest and its aims if anything are likely to end up with more sales at McDonalds.

So, it's just MCDONALDS that sell high fat/high calorie food then?

There's just no reasoning with posters who post such batshit statements as this.

I know a few vegans. None of them have ever 'gone on' about it. They simply live by their principles, which can make other people uncomfortable, because their lifestyle takes effort, commitment, perseverance and resilience and goes against the mainstream. Such conviction, in turn, can help highlight issues like the ones raised throughout this thread that many non-vegans would rather not have to face.

And?

I live next door to vegans. We have BBQs together. I usually do all the cooking. It's fine, I can cope and even DH will eat some of the bits made for them!

But they don't make a fuss about the meat I also cook - different griddle. etc. And they trust me to be sure that the food is wholly vegan. They only mentioned being vegan once or twice - once when we first suggested a BBQ and again last year when I went shopping for them!

Their quiet conviction, perseverance and living with their choices has no effect on me whatsoever!

I was responding to the posters, including yourself, who have said or implied how vegans 'go on' about their lifestyle choice, and are forcing it upon others. I made the point that that hasn't been my experience.

And their beliefs and conviction may have no effect on you whatsoever, but for others it will. I count myself among those who might have something to learn from them.

There are posts here that show that those 'implications' hold truth

Apparently vegans ‘go on’ about it.

This thread has shown very little of this, I see very little of it in real life, yet the meat eaters have called these protestors:

Idiots
Stupid
Wankers
Pillocks

Amongst other insults. The posts I’ve seen deleted on this thread and threads in the past were from people who had an issue with vegans.

There are some very sensible posts on both ‘sides’ but some posters just make others not want to get involved further. As well as the insults mentioned above, there has also been a number of posters clearly trying to wind vegans up. Just makes me not want to bother which is a shame as I’d like to engage more, especially with a couple of posters.

It's smart to target distribution centre rather than a single 'restaurant' and it's worked extremely effectively for media attention. It will of course rub a lot of people up the wrong way who don't care to be challenged, but the sheer, increasing amount of cheap meat that we eat is a necessary, and currently missing, part of the wider climate conversation.

Just makes me not want to bother which is a shame as I’d like to engage more, especially with a couple of posters. I REALLY want a vegan poster to start a disussion thread that really goes into all the real life data and future possibilities. Somewhere we can all look at the range of what is liekly to work and the breadth and depth of the current scientific work on reducing meat eating and animal husbandry's impact globally.

A vegan poster because I just want MN to have at least one detailed and long running thread started by a vegan so no other vegan poster can keep on with the "We just get ridiculed" excuse and no non vegan can keep on with the 'lunatic fringe' insults.

If I started it, or any non vegge/vegan poster, then,a s has hppened in the past I imagine it would descend into the usual same old same old, which only entrenches the negativity of both 'sides'.

If I started it, or any non vegge/vegan poster, then,a s has hppened in the past I imagine it would descend into the usual same old same old, which only entrenches the negativity of both 'sides'.

I think whether a vegan or a meat eater started a thread intended for genuine discussion, it would unfortunately go the same way that they all seem to. People just seem intent on hating and being insulting.
I like to think I’m pretty fair as my OH and my kids eat meat and we all manage to respect the others opinions even though we obviously disagree. My family have farmed and I’m a vegan involved with vegan and animal welfare/environmental groups. It’s a really complex subject, interesting too. But the threads just gain attention from people wanting to wind others up and haters from both sides so I don’t think a genuine thread with data and detailed discussion will ever happen. It’s a shame.

Vegans do seem to make people really angry, people are incensed by it!

I worked with someone vegan who did the stalls with all the leaflets about meat production, that was pretty intense, but most people I really didn't know until I have to arrange any catering.

You are probably right. And yes, it is a shame.

Vegans do seem to make people really angry, people are incensed by it

I used to make fun of vegans. Never got angry but took the piss a bit. In my case it's because I'm a massive animal lover and seeing their choices pricked my conscience. I've since apologised to the ones I know that I was stupid remarks in front of. They never rose to it and I understand why now after two years of being vegan myself....you get used to it.

I eat at McDonalds, but pissing people off is a good way to draw attention to your cause 🤷‍♀️... and they have a right to protest. And tbh ... they have a point.

@HangingOver

Vegans do seem to make people really angry, people are incensed by it

I used to make fun of vegans. Never got angry but took the piss a bit. In my case it's because I'm a massive animal lover and seeing their choices pricked my conscience. I've since apologised to the ones I know that I was stupid remarks in front of. They never rose to it and I understand why now after two years of being vegan myself....you get used to it.

Very interesting to read, perhaps this has something to do with it sometimes. I got a lot of grief when I gave up drinking, maybe it is similar, it highlights that we are all making different choices.