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A contentious issue within the vegan community is whether or not herbivores should have relationships with omnivores – and opinions on both sides of the argument are often very strong.
For many vegans, the idea of sharing their lives (and fridges) with someone who does not share the same values when it comes to animal rights, is unthinkable.
But despite the growth of veganism, it can still be hard to find like-minded individuals.
Cue a spate of vegan-friendly dating apps.
Hot on the heels of popular dating facilitator Tinder, is V Love, described by its founder Amber Gouzy as helping ‘vegetarian and vegan singles find like-minded partners by skipping the time-consuming task of filtering out non-vegetarian-friendly dates’. The Australian-based V Love follows the UK launch of ‘herbivorous dating app’ Grazer.
Gouzy is vegan herself – and currently seeking a relationship. She said: “I attended one of the Sydney Vegan Club events and almost everyone had some kind of horrible online dating story about a non-vegan encounter.”
“There’s so much trolling on other dating apps. Some people are just not open to dating a vegan or vegetarian, and as soon as it’s put out into the conversation, we can get shut down pretty bad.”
V Love – which costs $5.99 AUS a month – filters out the meat-eaters – which should cut out these awkward experiences.
The app works in the same way as Tinder and others, tapping into the user’s Facebook profile and generating matches using an algorithm.
Gouzy has big plans for the app in the future, hoping to work with vegan restaurants in Sydney and Melbourne to offer ‘date packages’ to V Love users. In the longterm, she plans to take it worldwide.
