Veganism, classism and disableism
I’m pretty sure everybody in the UK and a fair few people outside
it will have learned that Greggs – a low cost bakery chain –
released a vegan sausage roll in early 2019. It caused much
consternation amongst some quarters, most noticeably those who look
up to the conservative “political pundit” and former
game-show-host Piers Morgan. Piers’ over-the-top and toddler likerejection of the vegan sausage roll was a rallying cry for those who
hate veganism generally, people who simply couldn’t understand why
vegans might want a budget bakery item. Sadly this criticism and
disbelief wasn’t just limited to those of a more socially
conservative bent. There was also a surprising amount of wailing from
people within the vegan community. It’s not healthy enough? Why
would you want a meat replacement? If you’re vegan why are you
buying from Gregg’s at all.
In some ways this
second wave of criticism was actually more frustrating. After all
anybody who doesn’t belong to the cis-male, white, straight,
“British” group is pretty used to at some point coming in the
firing line of Morgan and his brethren. That’s sadly the way of the
world: stray from the path of what “they” have defined as
“normal” and you will be criticised (or downright discriminated
against). But when you are part of a counter-culture or alternative
lifestyle group, you generally expect a certain amount of solidarity
from within, even accounting for differing opinions and
personalities. So a wave of criticism from your own “side”
especially when you are also being attacked from other quarters can
really knock the wind out of your sails.
photo from wikimedia image shows the store front of a Greggs Bakery. It has a blue and white sign with an orange square logo) |
So now it’s almost
6 months later, and the financial news is reporting that Greggs is reporting soaring profits and steady gains in the stock market almost
entirely attributed to increased sales of and because of the vegan
sausage roll. With that success, Greggs is talking about expanding
their vegan range, which for me is only a good thing. But with that
comes controversy. Remember that criticism from other vegans I talked
about only two paragraphs ago? Right that becomes an issue. You see
there is a perception from non-vegans that veganism should be
“healthy”, and this is a perception that is held up in some
quarters of the vegan community. Vegan food should be “healthy”
natural, full of vegetables, whole grains and other nutritionally
superior goodies. Additionally we shouldn’t want to be mimicking
meat because this is somehow ethically unsound and requires more of
those pesky “unnatural” processed foods. These are the sorts of
people making suggestions for new Greggs products that include lots
of different vegetables and interesting grains, less fats and less
delicious golden pastry.
But here’s the
thing – nobody thinks that Greggs is or ever has been a bastion
of healthy lifestyle. Nobody, vegan or otherwise, goes to Greggs
expecting a nutritionally balanced, “healthy”, whole foods,
natural lunch. You go to Greggs because you are hungry and it’s
there and sometimes a baked good is exactly what you fancy. And
that’s entirely ok.
Initially this
debate may look fairly inconsequential and not something worth
spending much time on. If one group doesn’t like fake meat and
another does what’s the problem? The problem is that this actually
becomes an argument about disablism, classism and food snobbery
within veganism and other lifestyle choices.
So let me tell you
about an experience I had just today. For context, I have been to
Greggs only once since the introduction of the vegan sausage roll
and I wasn’t a frequent visitor before that. Recently my CFS/ME has
been worse than usual and I’ve been having a higher number of high
fatigue days. I’m finding it more difficult to balance out exertion
and rest as needed. So on this particular Thursday I had been to get
my hair done. Due to the timing of the appointment, I hadn’t had a
proper lunch though I had had a snack. My mid afternoon I was very
hungry and my bloodsugar was low. I was also starting to struggle
with fatigue. Due to that difficulty I wasn’t thinking straight and
instead of getting a taxi from the place literally next door to my
hairdresser’s I decided to get a bus half way home and walk the
rest. I was soon really exceptionally fatigued and struggling to walk
much. I was shaking and walking with slower and slower steps. I was
also very hungry. All I wanted to do was sleep and eat, preferably at
the same time. I hadn’t budgeted for lunch out, after all I’d
just spent money on getting my hair done and now had to be
conservative with spending. Luckily for me my route took me past a
small shopping centre. So now I had options. Supermarket, discount
food store, chain cafe and Greggs. In reality due to my fatigue and
my budget I didn’t actually have that many options at all. I did
not have the energy to walk around a supermarket looking for
individual easy to eat vegan items. That would probably end up
costing around £5 too which is more than I wanted. Likewise with the
discount food store – it may be discounted but what they have
available is varied and it would take a lot of energy to search out
and check labels. The cafe would be more expensive and I’d probably
only be able to get a cookie. Greggs and their vegan sausage roll
was looking like some sort of greasy baked good oasis.
I got my sausage
roll (the very last one) and ate it in a very few bites leaning
against the wall and in short order the signs of hypoglycemia
subsided and I and a fraction more energy. I was only £1 down to
boot. It only took a short rest against the wall (because all the
benches were out in the rain) and I judged myself able to make it
home on foot. Thank goodness it was downhill from there. Even then
the last 100m were painfully slow and on getting home I still had to
have a protein smoothie banana and then fall into a solid sleep for
two hours.
But what’s the
point of this not so thrilling look into the average day of somebody
with ME? Well here goes. That slightly greasy, warm, flaky pastry
encases lump of processed fake meat was exactly what I needed right
then. Regardless of what I actually like the taste of what I needed
was something simple, that I could eat right then and there with one
hand, that had protein fat and carbs, that required little thinking,
no checking of ingredients and of course was cheap.
Don’t get me wrong
I love good food. I love home-made-from-scratch food. I love piles of
vegetables and interesting ingredients. I am the sort of person who
makes asparagus and cucumber beurre blanc with pasta as “an easy
simple meal”. I can frequently be found shoving handfuls of fruit
into my face. I love “healthy” “natural” food. But what I
also need is food I can eat and food I can afford.
An awful lot of
vegan food that goes down the healthy lifestyle route just doesn’t
tick those boxes. When I am that exhausted or have brain fog issues I
can’t be checking ingredients to make sure something non-vegan or
something that sets of my IBS isn’t in there – and yes many
common health foods are super incompatible with IBS, which is a
common component of CFS/ME and EDS. I don’t have energy to stand
dithering at a counter figuring out which superfood salad really hits
the spot. I don’t have the energy to go around a supermarket
looking for different items. Sometimes it’s because the things I
need in order to be healthy are things over looked in so-called
healthy food (and I promise not to derail into an entire other
article about notions of “healthy” food) and that is that
carbohydrates, some fats and protein, the big easy things, are really
important to a person’s diet and are often especially important to
somebody with a chronic health condition who just needs fuel. Vitamin
B12 is essential to body function and something I need to be mindful
of on a vegan diet. But it doesn’t matter how much B12 I get if I
don’t get the required number of calories, grams of carbohydrate
and protein into my body to just keep me upright.
On top of that I
don’t have a lot of money. If I want to do things like get my hair
dyed at a salon I budget for it carefully (including taxis when I
remember them) and that means I can’t be spending a fortune on
eating out every time I get hungry (and no I can’t carry packed
lunches everywhere, that gets heavy and energy sapping fast).
Sometimes I just
want easy tasty food that I don’t have to think too hard about and
that I can afford.
Sometimes I just need easy tasty food that I don’t
have to think too hard about and that I can afford.
I am not going to
Greggs because I want nutritionally balanced fancy food. I am going
there because it fills a particular niche in daytime food whether you
are vegan or not. So for everybody suggesting that Greggs start
doing a butternut squash and spinach pastie, whilst yes that does
sound lovely, will you kindly shut up. Go and get that somewhere
else. You can I assure you find that somewhere else. What I want is a
vegan corned beef slice. Or a vegan cheese and onion roll (this is a
flagrant lie, I’ve never liked cheese and onion rolls and onion
triggers my IBS). Or a vegan steak bake. Now there’s choice. Things
so simple the ingredients are in their name. Things so simple you can
get it and a drink and have change out of a fiver.
You may be thinking
“well if you are disabled and have such difficulty finding food
then maybe you shouldn’t be vegan?” or even “Well if you
haven’t got much money then you shouldn’t be fussy about your
food?”.
I’m just going to
give you a few moments to really think about what you are saying
there.
Let me tell you how
those things sound to me: when you say somebody who is disabled,
chronically ill or poor shouldn’t be vegan you are telling me that
somebody who is disabled, chronically ill or poor shouldn’t be
allowed to have their own ethics, morals or beliefs. I don’t care
if you agree with my beliefs or not, but I am very, very concerned
that you would think that a person’s right to their own thoughts,
their own beliefs and ethics should be governed by their physical
ability or health and their financial status. Every single person in
this country is by law guaranteed the right to have their own ethics
and beliefs and to act on them as long as they don’t cause harm to
anybody else. If my beliefs are that I don’t eat animal products
then I should have the right to do so even if I am ill, disabled or
poor. Because on top of that right to hold ethics there is also the
human right that I or anybody else should not be discriminated
against due to disability or socioeconomic status. If non-disabled
people can choose to eat an animal free diet then why do you believe
that somebody who is disabled does not have that right?
If you have the
energy to get “higher quality” food or to look for something more
nutritionally complete or with fresher ingredients. Great, you do
that. And on my good days I’ll be right there with you enjoying
some delicious delicious greens. But on my bad days if that’s all
that’s on offer I won’t be by your side. I’ll be on the floor
crying because my legs don’t move any more.
To insist that all
vegan food should be healthy, natural and conform to a certain narrow
view of what vegan food should look like is classist and disableist.
To level that criticism at other vegans, to tell them they are “doing
it wrong” or aren’t “proper vegans” or should be in some way
ashamed for wanting a mass produced cheap baked good is classist and
disableist and you need to stop. You eat what you want, and let me
eat my dream vegan corned beef slice before I pass out.
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