Is Tofu for Toffs? How ‘Vegan’ Became a Dirty Word

The word ‘diet’ has rather lost its meaning in modern times. Trendy diets come and go as the population continually judges itself as too fat, too thin, the wrong thin or unhealthy. Whilst none of the diet trends have solved the worlds body image problems, there is one that might be more divisive and rage inducing than any other. Veganism has received celebrity clout and theatrical tantrums from health freaks and gym bros alike. I’m not about to go on a ‘Game Changers’ length lecture about the benefits of reducing the animal products we eat. The evidence for the benefits to human health and the environment are overwhelming and readily available. I want to find out how plant-based diets have gained the stigma of being a symbol of the middle classes and why people are so ready to defend meat consumption with their last breath. As ever big business can be found shamelessly blowing the trumpet of the highest bidder.

I’ll briefly summarise the argument that humans have evolved to live primarily from plants. Our teeth, our eyes and our guts are evidence that we are built to find and process tough plant tissue. Carnivores and omnivores have stomachs that can handle the bacteria present in raw meat, we do not. All protein originates in plants and there are no micronutrients that we get from meat that the animals do not consume in nature. The single biggest change an individual can make to reduce their carbon footprint is cutting out meat and dairy. These are all provable facts so why don’t they match our modern psyche? Meat is marketable and the way we see it has shifted dramatically within just a few generations.

Here in Britain cattle have been reared since the Neolithic period. Hunting and fishing date back as far as archaeological records can demonstrate. The difference today is that people believe that it is healthy and natural to eat meat and dairy three times a day, every day.

The industrialisation of the global food supply is a very recent development. Before this, only the wealthiest would have eaten meat as a regular part of their diet. As recent as the childhoods of baby boomers, meat was a luxury that might be bought once a week. The developed world today exists in general abundance. We produce so much food that obesity is a greater killer than starvation. In America, one third of all food purchased is thrown away. The US also eats three times the global average of meat. In this world of abundance, choices are endless. There is big money in manipulating these choices for profit.

A German chemist called Justus Von Liebig may have founded the concept that muscular energy comes from animal protein. He suggested that vegetarians are incapable of prolonged exercise. He also founded a meat substitute concept for boiling down fat and meat particles into a paste. The reason he did this was because meat was expensive and inaccessible to most people. With this context, it is clear that he used his scientific stature to boost the sales of his product. However, people the world over bought into his ideas hard. Countless examples of marketing meat as a manly, primitive staple of the human diet exist with little change to this day. Fast food chains regularly exploit this idea that meat sits in the same camp as fire and loud noises as things all men resoundingly think are kick ass, dude. The same marketing that made meat accessible now makes it a necessity.

Since Von Liebig’s death, global population has quadrupled. This is not sustainable, so why do we think it is normal?

We have seen this before. Tobacco and sugar lobbying are now both resoundingly condemned. We know they are bad for us and it would therefore not be appropriate to market them aggressively. The problems with meat go so much further than health yet it can still be advertised to children without restriction. Lobbying groups such as Exponent Research have challenged the health risks of asbestos, arsenic and pollution from oil production. They accept industry money to fund studies that deny the evidence. Trade groups for pork and beef hired Exponent to dispel fears that consuming their products could increase the risk of cancer. The International Agency for Research on Cancer classifies processed meat as carcinogenic, and red meat as “probably” carcinogenic. Exponent claimed that “lean pork makes important nutritional contributions to the diet” published on behalf of the National Pork Board. Coronary heart disease is the most common cause of death in the western world. A plant-based diet reduces a person’s risk by 55% and has even been shown to reverse the condition. In the US, the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics which grants the qualification for a registered dietitian is funded by the National Dairy Council. Funnily enough, the educational material suggests three servings of dairy a day. According to Dr Walter Willett, former chair of the Department of Nutrition at Harvard there is a direct causation link between dairy consumption and prostate cancer.

People complain that veganism is preachy, yet we are bombarded with industrialised preaching that contradicts hard evidence.

It shouldn’t be a surprise that with this history of big money backers for the meat and dairy industry, their narrative has prevailed. The artificial reality of humans being designed for regular meat consumption is now entirely normalised. Since meat is so ubiquitous, the prospect of a vegan telling people that what they have eaten for decades is unhealthy and inhumane is enough to send many people into a spluttering tirade. An all too common retort at this point is that a plant-based diet is an elitist pursuit. I’ve mentioned the historical precedence that disproves this but let’s look at a more practical example. Tesco’s is the largest supermarket chain in the UK with almost a third of the market share. If we look at their own brand ‘Food Cupboard’ essentials list, all of which is affordable, easy to store and easy to use we find that of the 1,020 items; more than half are vegan and around 85% are vegetarian. That is before we account for the simple fact that a packet of meat will cost more than the equivalent fresh vegetables to feed a family.

The common misconception here is that the word ‘vegan’ is somehow synonymous with ‘organic’ which is a simple deception. Sceptics also claim that a vegan diet relies on ‘superfoods’ like quinoa or avocados that they like to remind us are devastating South American farms. They conveniently forget to mention that cattle ranching is the number one cause of deforestation in every single Amazonian nation. Animal agriculture accounts for the vast majority of deforestation globally. The most popular example of this kind of misinformation is the idea that soya poses an equivalent environmental threat to meat and that therefore, everything is terrible and we should just all eat whatever we want. Firstly, no it doesn’t and secondly, upwards of 80% of the soya produced globally is fed to animals, returning far less calories and protein than it could provide in the first place.

We’re told all the time that no one likes a preachy vegan. People don’t like being told what to do. Why not? It wasn’t so long ago that the best way for a person to make themselves heard was telling stories at their local meeting place with some shouting. Most of us would like to think that we follow the guidance of science, but most of us don’t question or even realise who pays for those experiments and whether they might have less than altruistic motives. Big industry has big money and big lobbying power when it comes to questioning their practices. They can afford litigation and they can afford to pay for favourable studies that contradict the risks their products pose. If the risks make us feel like we’ve done something wrong, that is when we play our preachy card to the side that sounds the alarm. The very real threats of the agricultural industry have been stifled amongst insults and accusations of removing choice. Maybe we ought to back track; it’s all too easy to argue and rant mindlessly on the internet. From now on if you really believe in something and you’ve got the stats to prove it, go to the town centre, stand on a box and let the fuckers know.