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A major UK newspaper has asked whether we are ‘entering a new age of meat-shaming’ – and suggested that ‘meat-shamers’ may be going too far.
A video, created by The Telegraph, looks at how more people are becoming aware of the negative impacts of eating animals.
It says that animal products are becoming ‘increasing shunned’, calling this movement a ‘war on meat’.
Meat-shaming
“The vegan movement has been sweeping across the Western world,” says the video. “Sometimes causing meat-eaters to feel guilty.”
It goes on to claim that a global vegetarian diet could have ‘drastic’ consequences, saying that rural communities would be hit particularly hard, facing ‘significant unemployment’.
It also claims that the world’s poor ‘would lose out by not having this high nutrient source in their diet’ before concluding that: “Maybe meat-shamers shouldn’t be so quick to judge.”
Debunked
But Dominika Piasecka, Vegan Society spokesperson, told Plant Based News that vegans don’t want to see thousands of families losing their livelihoods.
“All we want is for people to eat healthy, sustainable, and ethical diets,” she added. “A global move towards a vegan diet will be a gradual change, so it’s not unrealistic to think that farmers can retrain and the industry can evolve to meet the needs of the changing times.
“Other jobs become available because of veganism as the demand for different types of foods, clothing and cosmetics increases. It isn’t the case that when people become vegan they don’t buy any food, clothing or cosmetics; it’s a change in business.”
Nutrition
With regards to the nutritional claims made by The Telegraph in its video, Piasecka said animal products are not necessary for optimal nutrition.
“In fact, they are a very inefficient and wasteful way of getting nutrients as for every 100 calories we feed to farmed animals we only get 12 calories back in the form of their flesh or milk,” she added.
“Anyone who cares about the world’s poor wouldn’t be comfortable eating meat, dairy and eggs while people in other countries go hungry because they have to feed grain to the animals whom we eat in the West.”
