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An agriculture insider has claimed vegan activists spread ‘warped truths’ about farming practices online.
Agriculture student – and sheep farmer – Josh Dowbiggin made the claims in an opinion piece called Don’t waste time arguing with vegan campaigners online published by Farmers Weekly.
Issue
According to Dowbiggin: “[People trying Veganuary] has understandably posed an issue for the farming community, and many of us in that community, myself included, have found it hard to listen to many of the accusations coming from the other side.
“As hard as it is to listen to the warped truths that have been constantly spouted to the public through the media and online, it is important to take the high road in these situations.”
He advises fellow farmers to refrain from engaging with people asking questions about agriculture, saying: “As Michelle Obama once famously said, ‘when they go low, we go high’.
“This is exactly the approach we should take on this issue.”
The dairy industry has been accused of spreading untrue health messages about its product
Februdairy
The piece follows the dairy industry’s attempts to promote its products through online initiatives including Twitter campaign Februdairy and website tellitlikeitis.
The Twitter scheme – which invites farmers to spread positive messages, using the hashtag – has been hijacked by vegans.
At any point during the campaign, only one or two of the top 20 #Februdairy tweets has been pro-dairy.
Truth?
Vegan activist Earthling Ed said: “The tellitlikeitis.co.uk website is not telling the truth about dairy.
“The industry is cherry picking information it thinks will increase sales and make a profit, whilst ignoring the important negative environmental impact dairy has and the everyday cruelty that it normalises.
“It’s also failing to acknowledge that there are other ways of gathering the nutrients humans get from drinking milk, or that there is evidence that drinking milk can increase the risk of developing prostate, testicular, ovarian and breast cancer.”
