Vegan Vegetarian
[This page is in the earliest
stages of development: 7 January
2005 ]
This page is one of two to orientate you around the vegan parts of my website. This page signposts, both within and beyond this website, information about leading a strictly vegan lifestyle. The page is currently a bit of a mess – I am sorry. The other relevant orientation page is the vegan sitemap page, which is much neater, but will move you only around my website.
One page catalogues aspects of my own progress from a lacto-ovo vegetarian diet to vegan vegetarian diet and lifestyle. By default, this page answers the question "What is a vegan vegetarian lifestyle?"
Another page addresses some of the principles underpinning my choice to follow the vegan vegetarian diet and lifestyle. I am a vegan vegetarian for at least three reasons: health, morality and justice.
Three pages offer a smidgeon of practical help: two letters ready for mailmerging, one for veggies and the other for vegans, have been prepared for download and immediate use; to be used in conjunction with a table of names and addresses of some food producers and retailers in the UK. The current list is pathetic, and I must prioritise lengthening the list considerably, including internationally. I require more addresses, and would value receiving information. My campaigning nature would like to compel all food producers:
to
be fully transparent about all the ingredients of each of their products (for
example, it is legally permitted for vegetable oil to contain a proportion of
animal-derived fats and oils), especially, although not exclusively with
respect to their suitability for (vegan) vegetarians;
to
be fully transparent about all the substances used in processing each of their
products (for example, dairy products may be used to clarify vegetable oils),
especially, although not exclusively with respect to their suitability for
(vegan) vegetarians;
to
consider actively ways in which their food products can be made more suitable
for a wider range of diets (especially (vegan) vegetarians), instead of adding
small quantities of substitutable ingredients (e.g. lactose) which make the
product unsuitable for vegans, or people with a nut allergy, or diabetics.
There is an organisation focused on campaigning for the removal of non-vegan
additives to otherwise vegan food. I visit their website occasionally: Vegan Consumer (Including the No
Whey Campaign)
Labelling
The following point does not belong here, and I ought to take the time to
work out where it belongs. It has taken me a long time to realise that living
as a vegan requires considerable attention to labelling. Some years ago it used
to be about reading the labels on products, and I learned about the E-numbers
of additives that were animal-derived (such as E222 [cochineal]), as well as
the E-numbers of additives that may or may not be animal-derived (such as E471)
and therefore could not be relied on unless stated to be derived from
non-animal sources. However, my attitude has hardened, and I no will longer
give my hard-earned income to a manufacturer for any product unless I can be
assured that its production has in no way involved animals, i.e. that the
product is suitable for vegans. Some manufacturers label such products as
suitable for vegans. For example, some Baxter’s soups are vegan-labelled, as
are quite a number of own-brand products at the Co-op, some at Sainsbury’s and
a few at Tesco’s. Even better, but extremely rare, are manufacturers, such as
McCain’s (chips and potato products) which are also prepared to label some of
their products as unsuitable for vegans. However, from the perspective of a
vegan shopper, painfully few supermarket products are adequately labelled.
Consequently, I always shop using printed lists, produced at each supermarket
head office, of own-brand vegan-suitable products. (Note:
Online
Though few, some food producers place nutritional information about their
products on-line. Good examples used to include Sainsbury and Tesco in the UK,
although both of these appear to have withdrawn this information. Sainsbury has
its 2002 online as a PFD file, and its online shopping website provides useful
information about some of its products. Examples of poor information remain
Kellog and Blue Diamond (unsurprisingly both
Further pages give information in support of the vegan vegetarian lifestyle, including an introduction to beers suitable for vegans, and a new list of beers suitable for vegans.
I have given full details of a number of vegetarian restaurants in several European cities. I have listed mostly only those which I have personally visited. In due course, I shall write to many of those listed in published directories, and then work out how to present their written responses on this website.
I have written a poem about factory farming: Animal Factory Fever.
To contact other vegans, and to find out about other vegan organisations, try Vegan Village. To browse other vegan homepages (in Vegan Village): Vegan Homepages. To read about some vegan(-friendly) restaurants in the UK that I have not visited: Vegan Restaurants.
An obvious source of information about the vegan lifestyle is:
The Vegan Society
Donald Watson House,
7 Battle Road,
St Leonards on Sea,
East Sussex, TN37 7AA
01424 427393
email
It is a commonplace that people who feel threatened by my vegan principles
ask me why I wear leather shoes and a leather belt, and have a leather wallet.
I do not wear leather shoes. I buy my vegan shoes from:
Vegetarian Shoes
12 Gardner Street,
Brighton, BN1 1UP
01273 691913
email
I do not wear a leather belt: I wear a canvas belt bought from a high street shop. My wallet is made of fetching red-coloured nylon, also bought on the high street.
I intend, in due course, to provide more links to other vegan and vegetarian resources. These links will include such UK organisations as the Vegetarian Society. There is no reason why such links should be solely UK-orientated, e.g. the German Vegan Society. I hope, also, to offer commercial opportunities to vegetarian and vegan businesses to advertise on this site.
