Five trustees quit Vegan Society after a row about amid allegations of institutional racism and transphobia

[FreeBritnee]

I thought this article might be worth a read. I’m intrigued how cultural appropriation and institutional racism got caught up with veganism and transphobia.

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9849251/Five-trustees-quit-Vegan-Society-row-claim-veganism-cultural-appropriation.html

I agree @greenwhiteviolet

I tried reading that resignation letter, so much purity spiral crap and waffle whatever message it was trying to send got lost.

I did roll my eyes at 'when I joined I was 23 and now I'm 25'. Like 2 years is such a profound period of time for growth. I get that the point was supposed to be about people under 30, but just state your age then ffs. You've already said when you joined in the paragraph above, we can do maths More like another whinge that there aren't enough of their under 30s pals to start a mutiny!

And wtf has anyone's names got to do with anything? Also whinging about your jumper.

Racism, bad. Personal attacks of sexuality, bad.

But instead of concisely stating facts, it sounded more like a moan that the society didn't fall over themselves to pander to them or centre their 'lived experience', and 'listen to meeeeeee. Centre meeeeee' didn't work.

They come out woker than woke into the big wide world and have a strop when the world doesn't fall at their feet about how bloody marvellous they are.

They come out woker than woke into the big wide world and have a strop when the world doesn't fall at their feet about how bloody marvellous they are.

Yep - this says it all.

vegan4themany.com/who/eshe-kiama-zuri

"According to the Young Trustees Movement, fewer than 3% of trustees are under 30 (yet 1/12 trustees are named either John or David)"

FACT: nobody under 30 was ever called John or David.

There are clearly issues on both sides. The board doesn't have proper processes, and I can imagine it would be a difficult place for someone with her politics and approach to fit in. I remember being young and idealistic and convinced that I was right, mixed in with a whole load of trauma that affected my views and emotions. If we want boards to be more representative of "lived experience" then we need to expect it to come with these issues. Problem is that lots of our lived experience leads to a place where it's deeply uncomfortable to buy into others' view of their gender and possibly race as well. I really can't see at the moment how this is going to be resolved.

This is all quite confusing. But -

supporting and trademarking companies like Nestlé

Do the Vegan Society really support Nestle? That would be surprising.

The vegan society logo has started popping up on products. Market research must show things are selling better if labelled (before if something was labelled vegan it would be bought less by non vegans)
Possibly nestle applied for this. If you run a scheme like that and pick your criteria, you can't pick and choose who gets certification if they pay and meet the requirements. Look at the RSPCA and McDonald's. (I do recommend looking up the RSPCA certification and what it allows. It allows a lot more unkind practice than you'd expect from the RSPCA. Yet something is better than nothing)

Peta is another one that gives out certification willy nilly, whilst expecting really strict personal ethics from the public.

@ArabellaScott

This is all quite confusing. But -

supporting and trademarking companies like Nestlé

Do the Vegan Society really support Nestle? That would be surprising.

I shouldn't think that they support Nestle, but if Nestle have applied for the sunflower logo for some products and those products meet the criteria for being vegan then they are perfectly entitled to use it.

I really like it when a product has the sunflower logo; it saves me reading through a long list of ingredients.

I'll take other considerations into account when deciding whether to buy the product but Vegan society approval reassures me that the product is vegan; I don't need the logo to tell me anything else.

The symbol is also good for people cooking for vegans unfamiliar with what to look for in the ingredients.

Myself, I have perfected the 'accidentally vegan' double scan.

As a vegetarian it usually is a warning not to buy as I find vegan food often has something in it that makes me feel queasy.

Thanks for clarification. That's not exactly the same as 'supporting' a company, in my view. Agree that if it's just certifying something as 'vegan' it's a factual statement.

I think its hyperbole, the Vegan society state they offer support to companies who use the logo. They clearly mean business support.

The person in the link complains that The Vegan Society is focused on business, but the fact is that until recent decades there were few vegan ready meals, snacks, or pre-prepared foods. People ate mostly wholefoods prepared from scratch, and that didn't encourage many people to try vegan meals.
So they decided to encourage companies to make vegan ingredients and foods, and label them. It the one thing that made veganism as popular as it is today. It was a huge controversy at the time, a lot of people saw it as selling out the ideal.

''We pride ourselves on the support we give to those who register with the Trademark wherever we can, and we love getting feedback!''
www.vegansociety.com/the-vegan-trademark