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?

"Vegan and veggie foods can do plenty of harm to the environment and to people too - mono cropping, highly processed stuff, air/sea miles, slavery used to farm the crops. There's probably more that I just can't think of too!"

So, these vegan and veggie issues with monocropping, air miles (which has already been addressed on this thread several times), slavery and uhp food - I take it that these are only issues for people that don't eat meat? The people that eat meat don't eat ANY of that stuff? And no monocropping, air miles or slavery happens when growing food for livestock?

Because clearly, if any of that happened your argument would lose pretty much any potency.

Let me get this right.

You are only ok with vegan and vegetarian food at a buffet if it hasn't got soya in it, because of food miles.

But you would be ok with beef at the buffet that has probably eaten way more soya than would be at a veggie/vegan buffet?

I must be misunderstanding something, because I can't get this to make sense.

Almost all processed savoury food containing meat will have it in as well.

LMAO at the people on here hand wringing at the thought of vegan & vegetarian UPFs, as if the meat equivalents aren't just as unhealthy & full of additives.

If you have life threatening allergies surely you have to question all food you eat anyway, whatever style of food you're eating? You could equally find the food you're allergic to in meat or vegetarian food? Or it may be less prevalent, but if you have life threatening allergies I'm assuming you still ask? So what's the difference in specifying allergies at a veggie/vegan catered event vs a meat event?

This.
Standard sandwiches are hardly going to be full of wabu beef or organic venison. More likely they'll be ham injected with water, nitrates and additives or chicken from battery hens that have been pumped full of hormones.
Imagine making such a fuss about free food 🙄.
If you're that hyper sensitive and fussy and selfish, then bring your own food with you.

If a vegan dish will literally kill you, presumably you just bring your own food anyway? What's in processed vegan food that you're so sure is never in meat-based food?

What I find amusing about this argument is that there have been threads with vegetarians complaining about all vegetarian options becoming vegan but then there are threads like this with meat eaters complaining about everything becoming vegetarian/vegan and that's no problem at all and they should just "suck it up".

I genuinely won’t eat at a work Buffett because it’s always so cheap. Regardless of being vegetarian or not. The thought of a gristly cheap ham sandwich on cheap white bread makes me want to vomit. I’ve worked for a few different organisations and can’t say I’ve ever had a decent buffet yet. Maybe I need better employers 😁

No food is innately 'vegetarian' - it just doesn't have meat in it.

Same, in the main - or at least I might eat some of it but it's usually not very nice.

It's so weird that posters here are acting as if their human rights are being violated because they mightn't have the option of consuming the typical catering fare of processed bread with 'butter' spread and cheap ham. I've worked in catering and see what goes into those kind of sandwiches.

Oh the humanity of being denied:

Flour, Niacin, Reduced Iron, Thiamine Mononitrate, Riboflavin, Folic Acid, Water, Sugar, Soybean Oil, Yeast, Whey, Salt, Wheat Gluten, Calcium Propionate, Sorbic Acid, Monoglycerides, Malted Barley Flour, Soy Lecithin

spread with

Palm oil, Palm Kernel Oil, Soybean Oil, Water, Buttermilk, Salt, Potassium Sorbate, Soy Lecithin, and Mono and Diglycerides, Lactic Acid, Vitamin A Palmitate, beta-Carotene

and filled with

Pig meat, Water, Salt, Potassium Lactate, Dextrose, Modified Potato Starch, Dehydrated Pork Stock, Sodium Phosphates, Sodium Erythorbate, Sodium Nitrite

yummy....

I know it grinds some people's gears, but veganism under law is not 'a choice' but a protected belief system. As valid as religious dietary restrictions. If a company wants to make sure they are not accused of discrimination, keep costs down and catering simple, they are very wise to ensure people who's dietary requirements are part of a protected characteristic are prioritised. And that's not the people who prefer ham sandwiches.

Battery cages were banned in the UK in 2012 and were used for laying hens not chickens raised for meat.

Growth hormones have also been banned for ages.

No I agree with the premise of making buffets vegan and vegetarian for the environment but also think they have to take into consideration the environmental impact of the vegan and vegetarian food if that is their argument. Either go the whole plant-based hog and look at the environmental impact of the WHOLE thing or don't restrict it at all

Exactly how does it reduce carbon footprint?

Sorry, 'battery' was a bit of a catch-all for low-welfare. That said, battery cages for laying hens were replaced by colony cages which are not much better.

Good to know that disabled people and people with autoimmune conditions are hyper-sensitive, fussy and selfish.

Bollocks. Food shipped in from abroad can be pretty low in carbon, especially if it's shipped in unrefrigerated. Food miles are generally a very minor part of the carbon cost of any food unless it's actually flown in: literal air miles will always bugger up your carbon footprint.

What does the damage with meat is the cost of growing a food crop, processing it into animal food, transporting it to the animals, feeding them, keeping them alive, then slaughtering and transporting them. Unless you're feeding a backyard chicken with potato peelings it's a hugely inefficient process compared with growing a crop and feeding it to humans.
@Abbimae that's the answer to your question as well.

Sounds great to me, but then I am vegan!

Not necessarily. Vegan diets can be much harder to navigate for people with food allergies to nuts/seeds or IBS/bowel disease type diets.

Nobody said that.

I worked in catering for 10 years and part of the company's work involved supplying business lunches and breakfasts.

Not once did someone write 'can only eat meat' on the forms asking for information on allergens or dietary restrictions. People of course stated they were vegetarian/vegan or had allergies to shellfish, dairy, nuts, various fruits, gluten, alliums, egg, soy, sesame etc.

I have never seen anyone state that meat sandwiches are the only foodstuff they can eat.

A poster said they could literally actually die from 'vegan' food. As 'vegan' is basically anything that isn't from animals, then if that's really true, how can they not just bring their own food instead of playing Russian roulette?

All well & good if the chicken in the processed slices commonly found in cheap buffet sanwiches originated in the UK....

Just because you haven't seen it, doesn't mean it can't happen. I don't believe I mentioned sandwiches either (can't eat them, I'm coeliac).

Removing meat would render me unable to eat. Everyone should be considered. Not everyone can be vegan.

Meat eaters, stop being hypocrites. It pisses me off when the meat eaters descend on the vegan/veggie options, ignore the meat based stuff, and leave NOTHING for the veggies.

Do you genuinely only eat meat? That must actually be very expensive.