Countering veganuary

[delilah]

Just throwing this out there.

I don't know if TFF has any sort of policy with regards statements on behalf of members (and there's not a snowballs chance of 40,000 people agreeing on something ) so probably not appropriate to mention TFF ?

Anyway, like I say, just throwing it out for comment/addition/ amendment. Because lets face it, you guys and girls have got more commitment than anyone else .


A 2020 vision for food and farming.

Britain's farmers are urging the public to ‘see the bigger picture’ his New Year.

With concerns about the food we should eat at an all time high, many people are questioning what sort of diet they should follow to protect the environment. In response to these concerns, members of The Farming Forum are offering the following advice:

- The diet that is kindest to the planet is a local one with minimal food miles, so reducing the pollution and congestion associated with the long distance haulage of food.

- Livestock play a crucial role in an environment friendly food system. Cows and sheep produce natural fertilizer, utilize land on which crops cannot be grown, and turn food not making the grade for human consumption into nutritious meat and milk.

- Many of the foodstuffs being presented as alternatives to meat and dairy are highly damaging to the environment. Their production involves damage to natural ecosystems and uses high levels of water, fuel and packaging.

- Any extreme diet presents medical concerns, running the risk of excluding trace elements vital to human health.

Make it your New Year resolution to Eat British for 2020.

 

[Dman2]

To be honest this is the first time I have heard it mentioned this time

 

[Gong Farmer]

Completely in support of this, if as Dman says it is required.

Typo in first line (this)

Final bullet, perhaps elucidate on 'extreme diet' (e.g. all meat or all plant)

Also I'd change 'trace elements' to 'nutrients' , more broad brush and understandable by the masses.

Just suggestions.

 

[delilah]

To be honest this is the first time I have heard it mentioned this time

https://veganuary.com/blog/after-225000-sign-ups-veganuary-now-goes-to-parliament/

https://www.awarenessdays.com/awareness-days-calendar/veganuary-2020-2/

 

[Bill the Bass]

I have been thinking the same. You would think after last year the nfu, nsa, nba, AHDB would have pooled resources and have press releases and a social, print and broadcast media comms strategy for every day of January 2020.

Love what you have written by the way.

 

[Bill the Bass]

I think one thing where the majority of British farmers do have synergy with Vegans is in animal welfare. I actually respect vegans who chose the lifestyle on welfare grounds because it’s a sacrifice for them. Most stock farmers are passionate about their livestock and care deeply for their welfare - I think this is a synergy farmers should build on and changing attitudes and influencing behaviour change is all about finding common ground.

We should be also advocating the high welfare of British farms and highlighting the difference between grass fed beef and us style feedlots for example.

 

[Sandpit Farm]

My only concern would be that taking on #Veganuary by using the same hashtag would amplify the animal activist message. In fact, trying to offer balance to any of this, in particular from a welfare perspective, can simply be countered with "well you shoot calves" or "you separate mothers from babies" or "you brutally slit throats". So you can't win as the fundamental perspective between us and the vocal vegan lobby are so different and a simple anthropomorphic spin that they add is hard to counter.

I also think you have to be careful about making claims that cannot be backed up. Companies that produce vegan alternatives will be thinking about balancing their carbon impact and they will need to do this to sell to companies like Tesco etc who have this as a requirement to become a supplier. Making claims that cannot be backed up about water use or carbon displacement is libellous so should be avoided.

I would be more inclined to list a series of broad facts and give permission for people to continue to enjoy meat and dairy. That is the issue, the 'influencable' shouldn't feel guilty as it is ok to enjoy beef burgers etc. That is the reassurance I would want to give as an industry.

 

[SteveHants]

I'd also mention the massive carbon footprint of pre-packaged food as opposed to cooking yourself. I would keep it strictly along environmental lines - If people don't want to eat meat because they don't want to kill things, then that is personal preference and really quite difficult to challenge without coming across as boorish.

 

[Daniel Larn]

I think one thing where the majority of British farmers do have synergy with Vegans is in animal welfare. I actually respect vegans who chose the lifestyle on welfare grounds because it’s a sacrifice for them. Most stock farmers are passionate about their livestock and care deeply for their welfare - I think this is a synergy farmers should build on and changing attitudes and influencing behaviour change is all about finding common ground.

We should be also advocating the high welfare of British farms and highlighting the difference between grass fed beef and us style feedlots for example.

This is a very good point.

My experience is that ALL vegans are vegans because they oppose animal slaughter. Anybody else is just on a plant-based diet, and they are generally no issue (although perhaps even more misguided than true vegans).

I have said in another thread that we should not really see vegans as 'the enemy', and there is quite a lot of common ground to be found if we try. I think one of the biggest problems we have is that we tend to put ourselves in opposition most of the time, which results in people defending their own position, and nobody moves an inch.

I think we could do a lot to explain the need for livestock as part of a healthy ecosystem, and that it is critical that they remain part of our food production cycle. It's difficult to defend the actual consumption of meat directly, as much as it is required as part of a healthy diet, there are still ways around it (no matter how impractical).

Veganism is dependant on emotive reasoning at the core, and then they prop it up with some selective arguments around climate change/health concerns etc. As an industry I think we should look to counter these arguments first and foremost, and try to minimise any discussions around the emotive subjects. This is how we weaken their influence effectively, not trying to argue against them, but by getting ahead of the curve and undermining the rhetoric they present to people who haven't been indoctrinated yet.

 

[Tim G]

This is a very good point.

My experience is that ALL vegans are vegans because they oppose animal slaughter. Anybody else is just on a plant-based diet, and they are generally no issue (although perhaps even more misguided than true vegans).

I have said in another thread that we should not really see vegans as 'the enemy', and there is quite a lot of common ground to be found if we try. I think one of the biggest problems we have is that we tend to put ourselves in opposition most of the time, which results in people defending their own position, and nobody moves an inch.

I think we could do a lot to explain the need for livestock as part of a healthy ecosystem, and that it is critical that they remain part of our food production cycle. It's difficult to defend the actual consumption of meat directly, as much as it is required as part of a healthy diet, there are still ways around it (no matter how impractical).

Veganism is dependant on emotive reasoning at the core, and then they prop it up with some selective arguments around climate change/health concerns etc. As an industry I think we should look to counter these arguments first and foremost, and try to minimise any discussions around the emotive subjects. This is how we weaken their influence effectively, not trying to argue against them, but by getting ahead of the curve and undermining the rhetoric they present to people who haven't been indoctrinated yet.

I know what you are saying Re Common ground but I disagree. They just want livestock farming to end, and will not be happy until it does.

 

[PSQ]

If only someone would point out to the public that the filling in a Greggs Vegan 'sausage' roll is actually a fungus (Fusarium Venenatum) produced in giant heated stainless steel vats by bubbling gas through a nutrient rich soup, before heat-treatment to remove excess levels of ribonucleic acid.
Originally formulated by ICI (Imperial Chemical Industries) the process was designed to produce high protein livestock feed, but now Monde Nissin (Quorn) have built a multi million pound business by convincing consumers that by eating a highly processed fungus mixed with Palm Oil that they are 'saving the planet'.

 

[Chris F]

Once the members have decided on a message, we can happily share it for you. Some points from me personally. Everyone should be encouraged to grow their own veg where they can, it's the ultimate in low miles food. Everyone should be encouraged to buy local, meat from butchers or direct from farms, veg from farm shops, potatoes with actual dirt on them and so on.

As an international forum, I think the final phrase should be eat local food, so if you are British, eat British food and so on. After all, a vegan diet in California carries a lot less food miles than a vegan diet in the UK. These rules apply to all diets.

 

[Tim G]

And eat seasonally

 

[delilah]

Once the members have decided on a message, we can happily share it for you.

Marvelous, Chris, thank you

Thanks for the comments, keep them coming. My proposal will be to give it till the weekend so anyone who wishes to input will have had reasonable chance to do so, then I will put up an amended version.

 

[Fraserb]

I was in Edinburgh christmas market over the weekend, pretty much all the food stalls were very busy with decent ques, the vegan one wasn't so much, so although they're pretty loud with their message im not sure how many people are listening.

 

[kfpben]

#Lambuary

I told someone at AHDB about 5 years ago that they should run a lamb campaign in January called Lambuary.
I was dead serious. They laughed at me.

 

[kfpben]

I was in Edinburgh christmas market over the weekend, pretty much all the food stalls were very busy with decent ques, the vegan one wasn't so much, so although they're pretty loud with their message im not sure how many people are listening.

We’ve been told to eat less chocolate & crisps and do more exercise for at least 30 years and it hasn’t been listened to either. Broadly speaking (and if they can afford to) people will do what the hell they want.

 

[Daniel Larn]

I know what you are saying Re Common ground but I disagree. They just want livestock farming to end, and will not be happy until it does.

Oh for sure, they definitely don't want us farming livestock in the traditional sense.

But they aren't strictly opposed to the keeping of animals though either, and that was where I think some common ground may lie. hopefully build on that and begin to educate them.

 

[Swarfmonkey]

I'm not a farmer, i'm just here because from time to time I manufacture parts for crazy old guys that like restoring vintage tractors and the like so I'm coming at this from a consumers point of view.

I don't believe that farmers can rely on just "eat local" and food miles to get their message across, you're going to have to be a bit controversial to get the column inches. Attack the big money behind the likes of Impossible Foods. Attack the processes used by such companies (IF, for example, holds patents on GMO's for the production of their hyper-processed trash). Attack the influence they have bought in the media (Guardian accepting hundreds of thousands of pounds for anti livestock farming articles from the Open Philanthrophy Project, which is bankrolled by one of IF's major investors, for example). There is of course the nuclear option, attack them for being anti British. Anti the bacon sarnie, the sunday roast, fish and chips etc etc.

Anyway, just chucking a few non-farmer brainfarts out there on my lunch break.

 

[Sandpit Farm]

We’ve been told to eat less chocolate & crisps and do more exercise for at least 30 years and it hasn’t been listened to either. Broadly speaking (and if they can afford to) people will do what the hell they want.

This is hitting the nail on the head. I listened to a good podcast about this type of thing. It was about the CEO of a major US health company becoming paralysed in an accident because he didn't wear a seatbelt. He knew he should wear one but never did. How do you get somebody to take on a message and change their behaviour.

A list of points/statements is fine - we feel like we are doing something and it makes us feel better... but does it actually get through to consumers? "We would say that wouldn't we" and "we have a vested interest".

We have a very powerful marketing prop in our farms. We could all set up a business website and promote our business (it costs about £7/month) in social media doing updates of what we are doing and why we are doing it. To me, this is massively valuable. Those who are keen to, can get trained to speak with media or write blogs etc.... but they should be trained and this is perhaps where the likes of AHDB or the NFU could help. They could do courses that train people in being savvy and packaging messages without tripping themselves up. If you want this, put pressure on the levy board!

I have seen some fantastic videos on twitter. The messages are simple and unconfrontational. They are informative and show how farming is done and why it is done that way. I think if you can get some of the messages (that perhaps this initiative on this thread would obtain) into the videos, it would be a very powerful tool to promote British farming and showing the personal touch. The key is then not to engage in debate with any activist trolls that will bombard the comments with links and ugly videos. You simply stay top line and readdress your point.