- Location
- NSW, Newstralya
focussing so much on the "militant" vegans shows about the same level of maturity, sophistication & understanding of the situation as did the sausage debate
as said earlier, vegans actually make up a tiny portion of the buying public. I know a vegan, full on vegan, wont eat honey because she thinks its exploiting bees. Lovely, lovely kind girl ( don't know what she'd think about the Mathew Evans post above though ). Doesn't push or force her ideas ( however misguided ) onto others.
The point is, she has to work REALLY hard to stay vegan. It ISNT EASY. It requires a hell of a lot of discipline & self control & a lot of effort to source vegan food. Looking at all the lifestyle & diet related health issues affecting western society ( I don't know figures for here, but I read recently that in the UK more than 30% of the population over 50 yrs old is on regular medication. I find that shocking . . . ) including obesity & heart disease, it is obvious most people don't have that same level of commitment or discipline
No - the REAL threat, the one you SHOULD be countering, such as @Clive suggested, is public perceptions & the slow subliminal messages that we are all receiving.
Look at gluten. Yes, some people are gluten intolerant ( including my wife. Ironic for a grower of milling wheat ), but somehow now people perceive "gluten free" as some sort of healthy choice, like "fat free" or "sugar free", rather than information for people with a dietary intolerance. I even saw "gluten free" ice cream advertised the other day ? WTF ? I cant even think how any ingredients containing gluten are in ice cream ? The perception of this is that gluten is bad. Just like "low fat" of "fat free" is giving the message that all fats are bad, when research now shows that animal fats are not only healthier than vegetable oils, but some are essential to human health. Animal fats have been demonised for 50 years or more & there is another whole story of politics, greed, corruption behind the reason for that - but a LOT of it revolves around the sugar industry & INDUSTRIAL FOOD PRODUCERS
The REAL push behind "fake meat" isn't vegans. They have made that difficult lifestyle choice, they don't want meat substitutes or products that resemble meat.
The REAL push behind fake meat is the massive global industrial food companies, that want to own & control every aspect of food production. Look at the above example someone provide with Quorn ( I never knew that stuff )
There are so many messages out there, from loud militant vegans to subliminal, that present a negative image of meat - from health to factory farms to environmental concerns etc etc etc , that form a part of the consumers sub conscious
When that consumer goes into the supermarket tonight or their way home from work looking for something for dinner, they will be confronted with a mind staggering array of choices & decisions.
They may well choose those vegan sausages NOT because they want to be a vegan, but because they are thinking of all these issues of pigs in cages on factory farms, of cutting down on animal proteins because they've heard it is bad, or animal fats for the same reason. They might think the vegan sausage is more environmentally friendly because they've heard things about pig slurry & nitrates in rivers . . .
So, farmers NEED to get a positive message out there
NOT a lecture
simple, quick, positive
Social media
Look at how farmers in other western countries engage with their consumers.
Establish "connections" with the public
You have a MASSIVE domestic customer base. USE that . . .
It is difficult, the problem wont go away.
I never said it was easy
as said earlier, vegans actually make up a tiny portion of the buying public. I know a vegan, full on vegan, wont eat honey because she thinks its exploiting bees. Lovely, lovely kind girl ( don't know what she'd think about the Mathew Evans post above though ). Doesn't push or force her ideas ( however misguided ) onto others.
The point is, she has to work REALLY hard to stay vegan. It ISNT EASY. It requires a hell of a lot of discipline & self control & a lot of effort to source vegan food. Looking at all the lifestyle & diet related health issues affecting western society ( I don't know figures for here, but I read recently that in the UK more than 30% of the population over 50 yrs old is on regular medication. I find that shocking . . . ) including obesity & heart disease, it is obvious most people don't have that same level of commitment or discipline
No - the REAL threat, the one you SHOULD be countering, such as @Clive suggested, is public perceptions & the slow subliminal messages that we are all receiving.
Look at gluten. Yes, some people are gluten intolerant ( including my wife. Ironic for a grower of milling wheat ), but somehow now people perceive "gluten free" as some sort of healthy choice, like "fat free" or "sugar free", rather than information for people with a dietary intolerance. I even saw "gluten free" ice cream advertised the other day ? WTF ? I cant even think how any ingredients containing gluten are in ice cream ? The perception of this is that gluten is bad. Just like "low fat" of "fat free" is giving the message that all fats are bad, when research now shows that animal fats are not only healthier than vegetable oils, but some are essential to human health. Animal fats have been demonised for 50 years or more & there is another whole story of politics, greed, corruption behind the reason for that - but a LOT of it revolves around the sugar industry & INDUSTRIAL FOOD PRODUCERS
The REAL push behind "fake meat" isn't vegans. They have made that difficult lifestyle choice, they don't want meat substitutes or products that resemble meat.
The REAL push behind fake meat is the massive global industrial food companies, that want to own & control every aspect of food production. Look at the above example someone provide with Quorn ( I never knew that stuff )
There are so many messages out there, from loud militant vegans to subliminal, that present a negative image of meat - from health to factory farms to environmental concerns etc etc etc , that form a part of the consumers sub conscious
When that consumer goes into the supermarket tonight or their way home from work looking for something for dinner, they will be confronted with a mind staggering array of choices & decisions.
They may well choose those vegan sausages NOT because they want to be a vegan, but because they are thinking of all these issues of pigs in cages on factory farms, of cutting down on animal proteins because they've heard it is bad, or animal fats for the same reason. They might think the vegan sausage is more environmentally friendly because they've heard things about pig slurry & nitrates in rivers . . .
So, farmers NEED to get a positive message out there
NOT a lecture
simple, quick, positive
Social media
Look at how farmers in other western countries engage with their consumers.
Establish "connections" with the public
You have a MASSIVE domestic customer base. USE that . . .
It is difficult, the problem wont go away.
I never said it was easy
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