I didn’t want to go out. I wanted to go home and have a ‘normal’ evening which involved making something simple to eat, putting the washing on, and watching some nonsense on the telly. I was starting to get tired of newness, discovery and exploration, but I also wanted to complete the quest. I reassured myself that I only had a third more to go, and that I was on the home straight. I suddenly had another thought: I wondered whether I was becoming more comfortable and accustomed to the idea of the ‘random night out’? It certainly was getting easier, but there was no denying that I needed a break.
I shut down my office computer and reached for my phone. I opened the app, scrolled down, found a group and joined the London Vegan group. I was then confronted with a challenging question: ‘what is my favourite food?’
I put my head in my hands.
My favourite food is chicken. I love its difference, richness and flexibility. I love that you can have the rich textured dryness of a roasted breast, accompanied with the crispy skin from a leg and wing. I love that you can use so many different herbs and spices, and that you can make a simple yet amazing soup by adding pasta, some simple root vegetables and a dash of soy sauce.
I didn’t want to go to the London Vegan Meetup.
I caught a tube train to King’s Cross and then another to Russell Square. After five minutes of walking, I discovered a passage between some modern terraces. The passage led me to a dark walkway that zig-zagged its way to a room that seemed to be a cross between a nursery and an old people’s home. Inside, people were chatting: the kitchen was serving food by a catering company who seemed to be some kind of sponsor. Visitors were giving their names; people had apparently pre-ordered some ‘tasty vegan food’.
‘Hello! My name is Chris…’ I was chatting to Dave, who was in his fifties. Dave seemed surprised that someone was speaking to him. ‘Hello Dave, erm, I’m new here, do you know who the organiser is?’
‘The organiser of the lecture, or the group?’
From the Meetup description I learnt that there was going to be a lecture by the founder of the Vegan Lifestyle Society. After a few minutes of chatting, Dave gestured towards a chap called Jeff who was giving out stickers whilst holding a collection tin. The tin, it turned out, was to cover the costs of the room rental.
I wandered over to Jeff, who was tied up in conversation, and gave him my subs before finding a seat. A women on my left, eating what I took to be a vegan lasagne, was chatting to other members about hiking. I glanced over to my right and saw a number of other people who were patiently waiting for the lecture to start. This struck me as a little unusual: I was used to seeing members enthusiastically chatting, laughing and networking. Towards the back of the room a chap had set out a stall that was displaying a whole series of vegan products and a wide variety of leaflets.
I felt reluctant to chat, mainly because I knew nothing about veganism. I made a conscious decision to ‘hang back’ and observe, to see what happens. I didn’t want to make an idiot of myself; I was worried that the exposure of my own ‘food choices’ might raise more than a few eyebrows, and I might be forcefully escorted out of the nursery.
After ten minutes of people watching, the event organiser encouraged everyone to take their seats. We were offered a welcome and a short explanation: I learnt that the meeting was a joint meeting between the London Vegan Meetup and the London Vegan group (which had been founded approximately thirty years ago). We were then collectively regaled with a series of announcements: we learnt about social events, a big event in Brighton called VegFest, links and connections between other organisations, and were told of cookery classes, which included a class about eastern inspired ‘root free plant based cuisine’. Finally, it was time for our speaker, Kim. Kim pushed a few buttons on her computer and showed her introductory PowerPoint slide. It was a photograph of one of her chickens.
Kim had a story to tell us: it was a story of how she changed from being a non-vegan to a vegan. It was a story of realisation, and she said that her presentation was usually presented to ‘non-vegans’. Kim began by saying that she had a traditional upbringing, that she ate meat as a child, kept pets, wore leather shoes, and baked cakes and biscuits with butter and cream. Her story was punctuated by a number of turning points; she adopted some rescue hens, stopped eating meat and had to confront some health worries. The biggest problem, she said, wasn’t so much about food, it was more to do with other people’s attitudes, particularly those of friends and family.
Kim was a brilliant speaker. Her society was all about promoting ‘full lifestyle veganism’. At the start of her speech she was cautious about using the word ‘convert’, but by the end of her talk she clearly said that she was ‘in it to convert people’. Her speech, however, wasn’t preachy; it was measured and controlled. She was rewarded with a resounding round of applause.
The discussion that followed was interesting. One subject was how to go about raising the subject of veganism to non-vegans, and attitudes surrounding the term ‘vegan’. An example was given: a shower gel that was described as ‘vegan’, but having the term on the front of the product led to a measurable drop in sales; the point was made that ‘vegan’ simply means ‘plant-based’. Another related discussion was that references to animal rights also can be a turn-off to some non-vegans.
The discussion moved onto the Vitamin B12 issue, which everyone (apart from myself) seemed to know about. Vegans, it seems, need to be mindful about taking sufficient amounts of this vitamin. I later discovered that The Vegan Society website (which is an entirely different society to the one that Kim spoke about) published an ‘open letter’ from a number of health professionals offering the following advice: ‘if for any reason you choose not to use fortified foods or supplements you should recognise that you are carrying out a dangerous experiment’.
I hold the view that if you eat sensibly, then you shouldn’t need to use any food supplements. Does the fact that you need to consume supplements suggest that the vegan diet is remiss in any way? The Vegan Society doesn’t believe so. It states that B12 supplements come from the same source as everything else: micro-organisms. Their point is that it’s possible to eat a healthy diet without exploiting animals.
In addition to the ethical and health perspective, there’s also the environmental perspective. Another perspective that wasn’t mentioned is the amount of labour (and labour conditions) of people who work in the meat production industry. Food is, of course, a political and philosophical issue, and coming to this group emphasised a bunch of different debates that I don’t regularly pay much attention to. My own philosophy is one that is pretty simple: I eat to live, rather than living to eat. I do enjoy a good meal but since I live alone I don’t get much pleasure from cooking. When I do cook (which is pretty regularly), my meals tend to be pretty simple; I try to eat healthily and I don’t tend to eat a huge amount of meat. In essence, I don’t worry too much about what I eat, and I certainly don’t think too much about the politics of food.
The vegans that I met that night were not food crack pots or cranks as some aspects of the media like to portray them. They were thoughtful, interested and respectful. Towards the end of the night, I went to find both the organiser of the London Vegan Group, and the organiser of the Meetup to come clean as to why I was there.
‘Kay, I’ve got something to confess…’ I said to the woman who ran the Meetup group.
‘What’s that? You’re not a meat eater are you?!’ she challenged, starting to laugh.
‘Yes, I am… and also this is number sixty seven out of one hundred randomly chosen Meetup groups’.
‘Sixty seven?’
It turned out that Kay ran another vegan group that was based in Brixton, South London. I was invited.
I love also chicken!
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