Advocates for animal agriculture and for the meat, egg, and dairy industries are eager to disparage plant-based alternatives of all kinds. They do it by focusing on ingredient lists and the fact that these foods, particularly veggie meats, are “ultra-processed.”
We vegans should be careful that we don’t help them. Too often, people advocating for a plant-based diet support the idea that healthy eating relies on foods made with “clean” ingredients. I see it in the comments on social media when I post about the role of plant-based meats in vegan diets. I see it in the push for a vegan diet that incorporates only “whole foods” and that shuns anything made with oils or isolated proteins.
And I’ve even seen vegan food companies chime in to disparage their vegan competition. One example in my social media feeds comes from the Rebel Cheese company. They suggest that you should buy their products because other plant-based cheeses are “full of garbage.” I’ve tasted several types of Rebel Cheese – made famous through the company’s appearance on Shark Tank. Their products are excellent. But if you want to try this cheese, you may need to buy it online since it’s not widely available in stores. Also, it costs upwards of $55 per pound – plus shipping.
In our advocacy to help people decrease their intake of cow’s milk products, do we really want to tell them that their only choice is between a hard-to-find excessively expensive product or cheese that is “full of garbage?” This kind of rhetoric is unhelpful. It’s also not true.
Rebel is far from the only plant-based company casting vegan competitors as “fake foods.” To no avail, I’ve politely asked a number of companies, like Pegg vegan eggs and Plant Provisions, to consider marketing efforts that don’t promote fear of other vegan foods or harmless ingredients. (Rebel Foods has at least responded to my comments in a friendly way; Pegg just deletes them.)
I get that vegan food companies need to make a profit. But I also hold them to a certain standard, and I don’t think it’s unfair to do so. Plant-based companies, like Tofurky and Treeline were founded on clearly stated commitments to ethical veganism and continue to maintain those commitments. Whether or not the new companies share those goals, I would still ask that they at least not make veganism more difficult. It’s fair to expect that of vegan activists, too.
Here is why more people don’t eat vegan foods: It’s because they like the convenience and taste of meat, milk, and eggs. Why would we vilify foods that give them the convenience and taste they value, but without exploiting animals?
How we talk about vegan food matters. Plant-based meats, plant milks, plant-based cheese – they all help people make the transition to a vegan diet. They make it easier to stay vegan. They make it more fun to be vegan. They allow vegans to recreate dishes and recipes that are part of their culture or meaningful to them in other ways. There are many people in the world – proponents of animal agriculture and conspiracy-minded “wellness” activists – who want us to fear these foods. And the more fear they create around these foods, the more barriers they effectively create to veganism. Don’t help them.
I also think that non-vegans don’t think about the fact that meat is processed in a sense – you’re using an entire animal to process plants into something with a certain taste and nutrient profile! Do you think this is a reasonable point and I should keep making it when people denigrate vegan foods as being “processed”, or is there a difference between processing in a factory and processing in an animal?
I love this.! And yes, all food that’s been touched is processed. It’s a question of degree, and we know the difference between a red bell pepper that’s been sliced and most of the the ultraprocessed foods in the frozen case—-vegan and nonvegan alike.. This is such a timely and much needed blog post. There’s so much confusion about veganism, “processed” foods, and the very definition and meaning of veganism. And also,, Treeline is a godsend—-a delicious vegan cheese that is made without coconut oil. And, like Tofurky, a genuinely nice company that makes life more fun. If I must have a midnight snack, I love me some Treeline cashew-based goat cheese and some fresh celery.
Over the past 35 years, I’ve realized the question is: “Is ‘vegan’ about me, or about making the world better?” For many (especially the loudest) vegans, it is about them – their opinion, their dogma, their definitions. But it doesn’t have to be like that.
And sadly those are the same folks that later go completely carnivore, because they ‘didn’t get enough protein’.
Sigh.
Excellent article, exactly right. Thank you!
Thank you so much for this. It’s quite discouraging to see people jump on the ‘OMG it’s PROCESSED’ bandwagon, along with he ‘seed oils are evil’, etc. bandwagons.
I agree to an extent Ginny, we are held to a punishing standard for vegan processed food. But I also think the health benefits of following a balanced whole foods vegan diet are too often downplayed, almost embarrassingly so, by some vegans who think it distracts from animal welfare arguments. Factory farming is a blight that causes untold suffering, but so does our obesity epidemic. Unfortunately as a long term vegan, I’ve started to see a shift among vegans to excuse very unhealthy eating patterns in the name of helping animals. They stop harming animals only to harm themselves. We need to strike a balance. Vegan cheese is ok in moderation but a junk food vegan diet just reinforces the worst stereotypes of vegans as unhealthy. I’m concerned that if vegans start to near the same rates of cardiovascular issues as omnivores we are going to lose an important plank of our platform.