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?

It's not just one meal.

You can? You just have to provide it. They aren't going to fire you.

It's a for-profit business in a capitalist economy. Expecting coherent ethics from the company you work for (unless it's an actual charity) is like expecting moral philosophy from your dishwasher. The best we can hope for is that capitalist businesses at least give the appearance of acting in a socially responsible way and promoting good practices, which is what this is.

It wouldn't bother me, though I don't think vegan and vegetarian food is as carbon footprint friendly as people imagine.

It's not about inclusivity as no one is excluded by having veggie options. Its virtue signalling wankery. What's wrong with ordering half non veggie/half veggie? Or cutting out meat if they must and have tuna and egg mayo sandwiches?

I'd be buggered as I don't like avocados and can't eat beans and similar stuff that goes in vegan sandwiches.

Just take your own sandwiches in and eye roll inwardly.

@ChurchOfSeitan

Obviously aware there's naturally vegan unprocessed foods - but in the case of a work buffet, I'd perhaps be edging towards to idea that the corporate catering would be going for both convenience and bulk, so I'd be guessing they wouldn't be the fresh unprocessed options!

Presumably just one meal in your day unless it's a very long event. Eat a sausage for breakfast if you're that worried.

They'd cater for intolerances, allergies etc as standard.

Totally reasonable.

The meat at mass catering events is cheap and nasty anyway.

I'm not vegan or veggie

They would likely be going for convenience and bulk regardless of what food is served.

The whole of my company do this. A few people had a moan, made themselves look silly and got nowhere. One woman still refuses to eat while everyone else enjoys lunch. 🙄

More companies should do this. It's only one meal. If you love meat that much, fill your boots when you get home.

I would be absolutely livid if it involved fake meat or cheese in any way, and really resent capitalist veganism reducing the choice of decent vegetarian food.

How so?
The rule is for work meetings and related events. Does your company have meetings every day where they provide you with breakfast, lunch and dinner? If so, do you mind telling me where you work as I would love to save on my weekly shop.

Sounds OK to me - whenever I've had to organise sandwiches for work events (multiple companies) it's always the meat ones that are left over afterwards. Veggie as well as vegan still means there should be plenty of choice.

Why? Just don’t eat it the fake meat and cheese. Problem solved.

But it's only one meal! Surely you don't eat meat for every single meal?

What would bring livid involve in this scenario? 🤣

Which would be an incredible overreaction.

You aren't being forced to eat anything you don't like. Or does just the idea of a non-dairy cheese get you riled up?

Honestly I feel like a radical omnivore on this thread. I can't be the only person who is happy to accept whatever is given to me free?

Cheese and eggs, since the lunches include vegetarian not just vegan?

Or when pizza is ordered it is always the veggie pizza that gets eaten first.

Other sources are available:

https://www.climateq.co.uk/resources/the-carbon-footprint-of-food/

https://www.economist.com/graphic-detail/2023/04/11/a-different-way-to-measure-the-climate-impact-of-food#

https://www.healabel.com/carbon-footprints-of-food-list/

That's what I would be doing, were I being bullied like this at work, the smellier the better too!

For those people saying the reasoning isn't logical due to the impact of food miles to carbon footprints, I suggest reading the book "How bad are bananas?" by Mike Berners Lee. It's a complete fallacy that "all vegan foods have high food miles". It's also a fallacy that shipping food around the world is worse than eating locally sourced meat. Beef and lamb in particular have really high climate change impact because they are ruminants, so produce a lot of methane. 1kg of beef has a footprint of 99.5kg carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e). 1kg eggs has a CO2e of 1.6 kg. Chickpeas is 0.4 kg CO2e.

If you aren't flying the food around, the added footprint of transport by boat is relatively small. Bear in mind that it's unlikely that the corporate lunch was previously organically grown meat from a farm literally down the road, so it's not as if the food miles would have been low anyway.

Yes it is. Look at Our World in Data and it will tell you. With a few exceptions, locally sourced meat has a much higher carbon footprint than vegetables from far away.