Vegans on the farm…..

[PassingCloud]

Sounds like a troll. It’s not, I am just curious.
Just wondering how the vegans that attend the festival are at peace with the event taking place on dairy/livestock farms?

There seem to be, although I’m sure a minority, a lot of vegans who are quite militant in their cause (personally, I think promoting yourselves this way is counter-productive). Given the population of GF I would think that there must be some amount of them on site? 

For clarification: I’m a vegetarian, sometimes bordering on vegan (and admit that I very occasional fail and eat meat). 
I have no judgment of others, although I think people should be giving serious consideration to their food sources (and that includes vegetarian/vegan options). 

Lastly — the food options are like any other event I’ve ever attended. Superb. 

[poison69]

I guess it's the same way vegans have to be at peace visiting a supermarket.

One of the major Vegan festivals in the uk used to be held at Newark Showground!

For clarification: I'm not vegan but very vegan friendly 😉

[stereodista]

I’m vegan, and have no qualms with it whatsoever. (To clarify, far removed from the militant end of the spectrum and put it down to personal choice, so can only speak for myself!) 

[moogster]

Maybe there would be more cows/more intensive farming if there was no festival there? I have no clue how the worthy cows are treated though.

Most vegans I know are not the preachy type and quite understanding ("yeah it's fine you can grill that Tofu on the common BBQ" - type) I have to say.

My food habits are very close to OP and I have to say the 90% vegan Glasto diet I had was amazing!

[Quark]

I've always found interesting, and certainly a snapshot of how Michael Eavis' worldview seems to work, that he's happy to have veganism promoted at Glastonbury.  Clearly he doesn't agree with it as a dairy farmer, but he's not shown any inclination to have the criticism of his own livelihood kept quiet on his own farm. Fascinating.

[Quark]

1 minute ago, moogster said:

Most vegans I know are not the preachy type and quite understanding ("yeah it's fine you can grill that Tofu on the common BBQ" - type) I have to say.

Yep, we're like that. Similar approach to food as well, although I don't have the meat exceptions (Mrs Q does as sometimes we eat out and her dietary issues take precedence).  I'm not eating the stuff, but got no beef (ha!) with a bit of contamination like that. Plus I figured out that's how you stop getting invited to places 😄

[CurlyPutz]

Went vegan this year mainly for health issues with dairy, been vegi for years and have no issues as other posters state. Not fussy about it, just don't eat meat or dairy really. 

[moogster]

(Warning: Coronabrain thought incoming)

It's actually better it's a dairy farm and not a wheat or veg farm. Then the festival would be in the middle of growing season and would reduce the production of good veg food. OK it could be a wildland for otters and owls too.

 

[Scrump]

I'm veggie not vegan but find this a really interesting topic as it opens up the contradictions of the festival. For example it's a proud supporter of environmental issues (quite right!) But the event itself is an environmental disaster!

Now I'm not saying this should mean the festival should stop supporting these issues or shouldn't  have environmental ambitions (these online lines of thought can quickly become oppositional and simplistic) but it makes me wonder if there's any rationalisation about it by the GFL team. E.g we know our event causes environmental harm but we're sowing seeds of activism , demonstrating to other festivals that they can go plastic free etc (plus having a good old knees up!)

To bring it back to the OP... I would hope a vegan attendee would see it in similar terms. Ok it's on a dairy farm but my meat eating mates have spent a week seeing delicious vegan food and realise that its not as bad as they think and are more open to the positive arguments etc.

Food for thought. (Sorry! Couldn't resist that one!)

 

[Sku]

Going to a festival surely helps support the repurposing of land traditionally used for dairy cattle. It gives the landowner a different line of income. Indeed, surely the existence of the festival already results in a less intensive dairy farming operation than would otherwise exist on such a large amount of land.

And as already mentioned, when you go to the supermarket, you don't buy the dairy milk as a vegan, but you do buy other products from the same store, and thus unavoidably support a non vegan business. Equally, when you visit Glastonbury, you only buy plant based products/tickets, not any dairy milk, but of course you are still unavoidably supporting a non vegan business.

There are extremely militant vegans that won't even go to supermarkets, but they are few, and I assume they don't go to Glastonbury either.

Edited July 7, 2022 by Sku

[Quark]

6 minutes ago, Scrump said:

I'm veggie not vegan but find this a really interesting topic as it opens up the contradictions of the festival. For example it's a proud supporter of environmental issues (quite right!) But the event itself is an environmental disaster!

Now I'm not saying this should mean the festival should stop supporting these issues or shouldn't  have environmental ambitions (these online lines of thought can quickly become oppositional and simplistic) but it makes me wonder if there's any rationalisation about it by the GFL team. E.g we know our event causes environmental harm but we're sowing seeds of activism , demonstrating to other festivals that they can go plastic free etc (plus having a good old knees up!)

To bring it back to the OP... I would hope a vegan attendee would see it in similar terms. Ok it's on a dairy farm but my meat eating mates have spent a week seeing delicious vegan food and realise that its not as bad as they think and are more open to the positive arguments etc.

Food for thought. (Sorry! Couldn't resist that one!)

 

If you can go back and watch the documentary that was on BBC just before the festival, they do actually talk about this (can't remember if it's Michael or Emily). Short version is that they acknowledge the impact of the festival, but hope that the good it does through fundraising, awareness, promotion of charities etc outweighs the bad.

[balti-pie]

I had a completely vegan thursday at the festival, and it was banging - vegan brekky from the fat belly puppets cafe in the greenfields, had tikka daal and rice from the goan fish curry place (which is a regular i have every year, cos its gorgeous), a vegan box from one of yer street indian places, and a VFC from the markets area - all good, everything i ate was delicious, would vegan more often - EXCEPT - and forgive me for bringing the conversational value down a wee bit here- the farts were absolutely monstrous 😇 i had to share a tent with my own bum, and it wasnt fun. I can only presume this was an adjustment thing and itd settle down? i could not be that windy all the time! 

[Suprefan]

Morrissey never had an issue so its perfectly fine. Case closed.

Do any Vegans have any issue with partying in a venue called The Meat Rack? Didnt think so.

[moogster]

4 minutes ago, balti-pie said:

I had a completely vegan thursday at the festival, and it was banging - vegan brekky from the fat belly puppets cafe in the greenfields, had tikka daal and rice from the goan fish curry place (which is a regular i have every year, cos its gorgeous), a vegan box from one of yer street indian places, and a VFC from the markets area - all good, everything i ate was delicious, would vegan more often - EXCEPT - and forgive me for bringing the conversational value down a wee bit here- the farts were absolutely monstrous 😇 i had to share a tent with my own bum, and it wasnt fun. I can only presume this was an adjustment thing and itd settle down? i could not be that windy all the time! 

Well sorry for going off topic a bit but I DID notice there was a lot of farting at GL. At first I thought it was maybe due to the high amount of carbonated beverages consumed but NOW I KNOW. So much for offsetting cows methane production.

[Sku]

2 minutes ago, balti-pie said:

I had a completely vegan thursday at the festival, and it was banging - vegan brekky from the fat belly puppets cafe in the greenfields, had tikka daal and rice from the goan fish curry place (which is a regular i have every year, cos its gorgeous), a vegan box from one of yer street indian places, and a VFC from the markets area - all good, everything i ate was delicious, would vegan more often - EXCEPT - and forgive me for bringing the conversational value down a wee bit here- the farts were absolutely monstrous 😇 i had to share a tent with my own bum, and it wasnt fun. I can only presume this was an adjustment thing and itd settle down? i could not be that windy all the time! 

Yes, it would settle down over time.

It's not really a vegan thing, it's normally a fibre thing. Suddenly switching to a higher fibre diet does cause digestive issues. Generally the advice is to increase fibre intake gradually, so your digestive system can adjust. Generally when people "go vegan" it means they very suddenly increase their fibre intake.

On the whole, higher fibre is good for you, but it can potentially come with being gassy. Over the few years I've been vegan those initial issues have certainly subsided, and now I have less gas than when I did when I wasn't vegan. But it was an adjustment at first for sure, not going to lie.

[PassingCloud]

Edit: I meant unlike!

[blutarsky]

1 hour ago, Quark said:

I've always found interesting, and certainly a snapshot of how Michael Eavis' worldview seems to work, that he's happy to have veganism promoted at Glastonbury.  Clearly he doesn't agree with it as a dairy farmer, but he's not shown any inclination to have the criticism of his own livelihood kept quiet on his own farm. Fascinating.

What a man. Tolerant and respectful of others' views to the last. Apart from Nazi Punks, hopefully. 

I was genuinely talking about going Vegan last month, then ate a vegan hot dog at a wedding which contained a product that triggered a previously unknown allergy, I went into anaphylaxis, and could have died. It's put me off veganism somewhat...

To be fair though, the hot dog was like a lot of vegan products, in that it was highly processed. If I were to go vegan I'd try to keep it as simple as possible and not resort to imitation products containing additives and lots of processed ingredients. 

Interested in how vegans feel about these sort of products. For reference, this was what I ate:

https://www.google.co.uk/shopping/product/10457961403621989230?lsf=seller:8225840,store:13132391554319129404,lsfqd:0&prds=oid:5670521616499058496&q=Moving+Mountains+Plant-Based+Hot+Dogs&hl=en&ei=gZrGYvC7O5aShbIP1piZ2AU&sts=14&lsft=gclid:CjwKCAjwiJqWBhBdEiwAtESPaNaNLYW7EvSVEn8ZFC8tU2PHKKHKrIeTqTeQKAXgVhnKuIECGIRr5BoC7c8QAvD_BwE,gclsrc:aw.ds

[Sku]

Just now, blutarsky said:

Interested in how vegans feel about these sort of products.

For me, I consider these highly processed fake meat products as "treat" items. Yes I do eat them, but not daily. Typically in the pub, or at Glastonbury, you are going to end up eating these things. And maybe we buy something like this for a Friday evening, or going to a BBQ. But generally, we stick to a "non processed" diet on a normal day.

Of course, everyone will be different. I feel the issue of "processed food" goes beyond veganism, as there are plenty of processed foods of all types, vegan or otherwise. It's a personal choice to eat processed food or not.

[tarw]

32 minutes ago, Scrump said:

I'm veggie not vegan but find this a really interesting topic as it opens up the contradictions of the festival. For example it's a proud supporter of environmental issues (quite right!) But the event itself is an environmental disaster!

Now I'm not saying this should mean the festival should stop supporting these issues or shouldn't  have environmental ambitions (these online lines of thought can quickly become oppositional and simplistic) but it makes me wonder if there's any rationalisation about it by the GFL team. E.g we know our event causes environmental harm but we're sowing seeds of activism , demonstrating to other festivals that they can go plastic free etc (plus having a good old knees up!)

To bring it back to the OP... I would hope a vegan attendee would see it in similar terms. Ok it's on a dairy farm but my meat eating mates have spent a week seeing delicious vegan food and realise that its not as bad as they think and are more open to the positive arguments etc.

Food for thought. (Sorry! Couldn't resist that one!)

 

Not too sure that the festival is an environmental disaster tbf. The figures say that the festival is actually carbon negative as the attendees use less resources at the farm than they would do if they stayed at home. There was a report on it on here but I cba searching for it. Also the recycling is better than most local councils so there is much less landfill produced (Indie bands excepted) than if people stayed at home. 
As for farming less intensively I’m pretty sure that Worthy Farm uses a Spring Calving method. Which means that there is no need to feed with grain and protein supplements. The festival might impact on this as they will not be able to graze during the build and the festival and will need to be fed sileage stocks that would normally be saved for winter. 

[Quark]

42 minutes ago, Sku said:

Yes, it would settle down over time.

It's not really a vegan thing, it's normally a fibre thing. Suddenly switching to a higher fibre diet does cause digestive issues. Generally the advice is to increase fibre intake gradually, so your digestive system can adjust. Generally when people "go vegan" it means they very suddenly increase their fibre intake.

On the whole, higher fibre is good for you, but it can potentially come with being gassy. Over the few years I've been vegan those initial issues have certainly subsided, and now I have less gas than when I did when I wasn't vegan. But it was an adjustment at first for sure, not going to lie.

Agreed. When I first switched to veggie it was a noticeable impact!  Tarka dal still does it to me know, love those lentils!

[moogster]

26 minutes ago, blutarsky said:

To be fair though, the hot dog was like a lot of vegan products, in that it was highly processed. If I were to go vegan I'd try to keep it as simple as possible and not resort to imitation products containing additives and lots of processed ingredients. 

Interested in how vegans feel about these sort of products. For reference, this was what I ate:

https://www.google.co.uk/shopping/product/10457961403621989230?lsf=seller:8225840,store:13132391554319129404,lsfqd:0&prds=oid:5670521616499058496&q=Moving+Mountains+Plant-Based+Hot+Dogs&hl=en&ei=gZrGYvC7O5aShbIP1piZ2AU&sts=14&lsft=gclid:CjwKCAjwiJqWBhBdEiwAtESPaNaNLYW7EvSVEn8ZFC8tU2PHKKHKrIeTqTeQKAXgVhnKuIECGIRr5BoC7c8QAvD_BwE,gclsrc:aw.ds

I am EXTREMELY intolerant of mycoprotein (don't want to use the word allergy lightly there but a visit to the emergency room has happened). If I see the word Quorn on a menu I will not even eat there. I check veg processed foods labels automatically. I live in the fear of someone not fully understanding what they serve. But then being able to go veg junk food once in a while makes it worthy. (I checked the ingredients on that hot dog, quite puzzling indeed).

I know that the VFC at glasto is not "healthy" but then that's one less dead chicken because I couldn't stop my urge for something greasy/crunchy/savoury.

[balti-pie]

My vegan mate is hopelessly addicted to VFC - that's two glastonburys in a row he's eaten there a minimum of once daily. They don't even take his name any more 😄 if you're wondering where he might be, no point in texting him - just breeze on by VFC! It is a very satisfying greasy treat, and cos its fresh as possible, its not sitting there smouldering in wrapping, getting soggy. I got quite partial to it meself, though obvs not daily - so many potential alternatives wiped out - but i can definitely see the appeal for late night salty greasy goodness, its the classic

[incident]

2 hours ago, moogster said:

(Warning: Coronabrain thought incoming)

It's actually better it's a dairy farm and not a wheat or veg farm. Then the festival would be in the middle of growing season and would reduce the production of good veg food. OK it could be a wildland for otters and owls too.

I looked at this a few years ago, and I couldn't find a decent sized (10k+) camping festival in the country that doesn't use pastoral land to some degree - the closest being Wilderness which has the arena and campsites in the grounds of the Cornbury Estate, but just fails the test because the Car Parks use farmland outside the boundary of the park.

Obviously, as you say, arable land is largely incompatible with festival season.

[fred quimby]

2 hours ago, Scrump said:

 For example it's a proud supporter of environmental issues (quite right!) But the event itself is an environmental disaster!

 

 

 

There has been debate about that before, and articles written. Not as much impact as you may think. One research shows carbon natural and possible benefit, not sure a disaster,whatever that neans But probably not the thread 

[blutarsky]

27 minutes ago, incident said:

I looked at this a few years ago, and I couldn't find a decent sized (10k+) camping festival in the country that doesn't use pastoral land to some degree - the closest being Wilderness which has the arena and campsites in the grounds of the Cornbury Estate, but just fails the test because the Car Parks use farmland outside the boundary of the park.

Obviously, as you say, arable land is largely incompatible with festival season.

Beautiful Days would be the same. Festival site is in the grounds of Escot Park, but I think the campervan fields are on pasture.