Using the methodology and theory discussed in my previous post, I will now analyse my own example in the UK, The Vegan Society.
The Vegan Society: A War of Position?
The Vegan Society is a registered charity and an organisation where anyone can join… for a cost. Membership is £2/month or annually from £24 (The Vegan Society [no date][b]). On the membership page, it states “Join the Vegan Society to Change Society”. Furthermore, the ‘Go Vegan’ page describes veganism as not just being a diet, but that “compassion [is] a key reason many choose a vegan lifestyle” (The Vegan Society [no date] [a]). In a world that is lacking compassion in many ways, the idea of putting compassion at the centre of a lifestyle is quite radical.
This seems radical, the idea of changing society, and at first, glance would fit into Bertuzzi’s (2022) second category, of the ‘War of Position’ (Bertuzzi, 2022), ergo, The Vegan Society may want to replace the status quo through radical political action. However, this is put into question when you read the website and its blog posts (which do state at the end of each one that ‘these may not necessarily be the views of The Vegan Society]) that are submitted by members.
The Vegan Society: A Passive Revolution?
The rise in plant-based diets has caught the attention of companies, we now see that Burger Kind, KFC and McDonald’s offer a vegan burger that resembles their meat-filled menus. This completely overlooks the fact that the menus of these companies remain meat-heavy and admit to poor animal welfare conditions (Levitt 2020).
Image taken from The Vegan Society's Blog.
Market-driven?
Aside from the blog, there is an entire section of the website dedicated to ‘market insights’. I can empathise with wanting to show their members/potential members how well plant-based products are doing in the market, to encourage its members. However, it makes it very clear that this organisation remains in the ‘passive revolution’ category, as it seeks to be successful in a dog-eat-dog economic system, neoliberalism.
Screenshot of The Vegan Society's 'Market Insight' page
The focus on the ‘market’ shows its focus on consumer capitalism, which is strengthened by its website on ‘Shopping Vegan this Veganuary’ (The Vegan Society’s Blog 2021). I can again empathise with this post to an extent, as it is trying to encourage vegan alternatives for its readers. However, the focus here is on consumption, and moreover, ethical consumption. I would argue that this puts the responsibility on the individual as a consumer (as I argued in my final instalment of the Fast Fashion series), rather than acknowledging the systemic problems that contribute to climate change or animal abuse (main reasons for going vegan).
Concluding remarks
This is by no means an exhaustive study of the organisation and should not be considered an analysis of all vegan organisations or individuals. However, a quick analysis of its website highlights its contradictions. The Vegan Society claims that veganism is largely to do with ‘compassion’, yet it inserts veganism into the neoliberal free market and measures itself against its meat competitors. For a lifestyle that promotes compassion and that is concerned so much with diet, there is no mention of food poverty in the UK. Thus, The Vegan Society posits itself as an apolitical organisation that ignores other social justice issues and is an active enabler of ‘vegan washing’, by praising large corporations, whose main revenue comes from selling meat, for opening one, temporary vegan pop-up. It further shows that veganism is being corporatized, as this organisation is positing veganism as part of the homogenous status quo, and that veganism could become a part of the ‘cultural hegemony’ (Gramsci 1971) on food and lifestyle – what I call ‘culinary hegemony’.
Bibliography
Bertuzzi, N. 2022. Becoming hegemony: The case for the (Italian) animal advocacy and veganwashing operations. Journal of Consumer Culture 22(1), pp. 207–226. doi: 10.1177/1469540520926234.
Gramsci, A. 1971. Prison Notebooks. Hoare, Q. and Smith, G. eds. New York: International Publishers.
Levitt, T. 2020. KFC Admits a third of its chickens suffer painful inflammation. The Guardian 30 July. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/jul/30/kfc-admits-a-third-of-its-chickens-suffer-painful-inflammation. [Accessed: 7 May 2022].
The Vegan Society’s Blog 2021. Shopping Vegan this Veganuary. Available at: https://www.vegansociety.com/news/blog/TM2022/shopping-vegan-this-veganuary [Accessed: 7 May 2022].
The Vegan Society’s Blog 2022. Burger King’s vegan pop-up marks further shift of veganism becoming mainstream. Available at: https://www.vegansociety.com/news/blog/TM2022/burger-king-vegan-pop-up [Accessed: 7 May 2022].
The Vegan Society [no date][a]. Definition of Veganism. Available at: https://www.vegansociety.com/go-vegan/definition-veganism [Accessed: 7 May 2022].
The Vegan Society [no date][b]. Join the Vegan Society to Change Society. Available at: https://www.vegansociety.com/get-involved/join. [Accessed: 7 May 2022].
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