‘Monetizing Veganism’: Ten years later, veganism is more popular but less political
The results of a research study finds a media-landscape that is vegan curious and generally supportive of plant-based living. Veganism is predominantly presented in a positive light, especially with regard to goods to buy, restaurants to visit, and festivals to patronize. The capitalist encroachment on veganism was omnipresent, with approximately half of the articles in the sample related to vegan products or services. On the other hand, critical discussions of non-human animal rights and speciesism were noticeably absent. This media focus on vegan products and dietary practices has created a depoliticized image of veganism; reducing it to nothing more than a normal contender in the marketplace.
COREY LEE WRENN: Veganism has managed to gain a foothold on the popular imagination: vegan options continually increase in availability across stores and restaurants, while, each year, growing numbers of participants register for vegan challenges (such as the UK’s Veganuary and the Afro Vegan Society’s Veguary). The public seems to be considerably more educated about the treatment of other animals in speciesist industries and the relationship between speciesism and climate change…
Having persisted for over a century, veganism has become a cultural mainstay of interest to audiences regardless of the historical misrepresentation or invisibilization of veganism… The results of research conducted in the 2010s, find a media-landscape that is vegan curious and generally supportive of plant-based living. Veganism is predominantly presented in a positive light, especially with regard to goods to buy, restaurants to visit and festivals to patronize. Today’s veganism is a more or less normal contender in the marketplace, at least as presented by British newspapers.
This monetized lifestyle veganism was predominantly detached from the pandemic. Although the sample used in this study encapsulated the COVID-19 crisis, much of the vegan coverage appears to have been following the momentum of the pre-existing normalization of veganism and the substantial upward trend in vegan product development and availability. Some articles did mention COVID-19, but these largely related to the space the pandemic created for testing new products or launching new services…
A few articles mentioned COVID-19 as a motivator for trying veganism or at least consuming more vegan food, and this is consistent with the heightened public attention to health, homesteading and hobbying associated with the pandemic. However, the importance of veganism for preventing pandemics (and strengthening resistance to disease) could have been emphasized, but was not.
Veganism as a solution to climate change actually surfaced more than veganism as a solution to pandemics. The somewhat ambiguous concept of climate change offers a considerably more generic frame than the pandemic and, notably, climate change is also consistent with ‘green’ capitalism’s sustainable growth (consumption-centric) model. Perhaps COVID-19 represents a missed opportunity for campaigners, but it is more likely that veganism understood as a site of resistance to zoonotic disease is considerably more political and thus harder to monetize – at least for the time being.
Ultimately, the focus on vegan products and dietary practices has created a depoliticized image of veganism. Critical discussions of non-human animal rights and speciesism were noticeably absent in the sample, while the capitalist encroachment on veganism was omnipresent. Approximately half of the articles in the sample related to vegan products or services. SOURCE…
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