Food orders for work related events are to be vegan and vegetarian only

[ValerieVomit]

We all received an email at work to say that when we order catering in future for work related events we can only order vegetarian and vegan food. The management team has imposed this. It's to reduce our carbon footprint. I don't think that this means there is to be no carnivorous food available for the rest of the organisation but our department won't allow us to order any.

Reasonable or not?

I'd be concerned about the unnatural products often found in vegan foods.

I'd hope they would stick to non-UPF as well.

Omg!!
"If a poor sad animal hasn't suffered and died for this meal then I'm NOT eating it!"

People are insane. If the live animals were lined up on the buffet table and people had to kill them themselves you can bet it would be a different story.

It's interesting how many people associate vegan food with UPF. I assume that this is because of the recent trend towards veganism and the growth in fake meat products.

I'm not a vegan but I have had lots of wonderful vegan food over the years that has been made with lovely, fresh, good quality ingredients. It doesn't have to be fake burgers!!

You & I know this, I hope the company management do as well.

Mrs Bennett
In a way I understand that. There are loads and loads of adverts on TV at the moment for fake meat products, so I guess people who don't know many veggies/ vegans might jump to the conclusion that it's what we actually eat, rather than what they're desperately trying to sell us. You don't see many ads for eg pulses- Big Lentil hasn't got much of a marketing budget 😆

Sounds like virtue-signalling stupidity.

And it's not only lunch buffets. Did you not realise that most biscuits at meetings are vegetarian, and some are EVEN VEGAN 😱

Obviously this means that you can't eat them if you're a meat eater.

The woke mob are even coming for our custard creams!!!!!

Big Lentil

Found this on Google.

Livestock farming produces from 20% to 50% of all man-made greenhouse gas emissions. Shrink That Footprint's chart shows that a meat lover has the highest carbon footprint at 3.3 tons of greenhouse gas emissions. A vegan diet has the lowest carbon footprint at just 1.5 tons CO2e (Carbon Dioxide Equivalent)

Yet more pathetic virtue signalling.

Some people only eat meat.
It's a super food. You can survive very well on just a beef cow but you need a wide range of plants to stay healthy.
Also you can rear animals in this country pretty easily whereas veg needs to be seasonal. And livestock farming promoted biodiversity. Veg is grown in monocultures. You can't have insects and animals eating your business.

My sheep eat grass and silage

I’m amazed that so many grown adults can’t seem to countenance not eating meat or fish for the odd meal.

Corporate catering doesn’t cater for fussy eaters (as opposed to those with allergies, who should of course be catered for) at the best of times, so surely if you have such a restricted diet that you won’t eat anything vegetarian or vegan you’d bring your own stuff anyway?

marchintospring
I'm sure if Colin from Accounts is doing some kind of manly ultra- paleo all meat diet, then your average corporate buffet wouldn't have much for him. You don't see many paleolithic cave drawings of sausage rolls, after all.

Eating meat is not good for carbon footprint though so their reasoning is actually spot on

Exactly they eat silage. Where silage is grown we could grow food for humans instead of food for sheep which will only turn 10% of those calories into lamb.

Lentils

i have a high calorie diet and that’s a good way.

Yes I’m always surprised that people jump to UPF.
Vegan food is essentially vegetables, fruit, legumes, grains… most whole foods.

The new “vegan food” is supplementary/optional on top of that and actually very similar to heavily processed non vegan food. UPF is a food issue, not a vegan food issue.

People get very cross about a vegan sausage but we all know meat sausages are horrendous for health, animals and environment.
Vegan cheese is another one everyone gets worked up about, people behaving like cheddar is some kind of pure health food but a cheese spread made from almonds is poison.

Vegan cheese is another one everyone gets worked up about, people behaving like cheddar is some kind of pure health food but a cheese spread made from almonds is poison.

I can understand people getting worked up about vegan cheese. I have quite a few friends who are vegan and most of them avoid it on the grounds that it’s largely horrible.

I found it hilarious! It weren't any "weird" foods, no tofu or even quinoa. It was mainly cheese and egg based. No fake meats. If there was a lump of ham on the table, they would have happily eaten all the vegetarian options there. Apparently we shouldn't force our politics on others - it was OUR wedding FFS!

@Over40Overdating - I like all the component parts but never thought of mixing them together to make a sandwich though. The carrot is grated and by all accounts very soggy!

I can’t grow crops for humans. My land is designated ‘less favoured’. You’re welcome to come and advise me how to covert my land to arable.

Carbon REDUCTION doesn't mean everything has to be grown in the office back garden.

Assuming there's some exotic fruit included in the meat buffet and some exotic fruit on the vegetarian buffet; there is LESS carbon in the vegetarian one.

If the company is paying then they're not being unreasonable. Restricting what company funds can be spent on is their perogative.

They will still need to be willing to accomodate other issues like gluten-intolerance, which can be tricky when paired with vegetarian. But that's something that could be handled as an individual accomodation to the general policy if an employee needed it.

If I were management I would probably pick different changes to reduce our carbon footprint, but they're not in the wrong.

Reasonable. There's so much good vegan and vegetarian food now that most won't care.