Achievements

World Vegan Day On 1 November we celebrated World Vegan Day and The Vegan Society’s 75th anniversary. Staff members and volunteers spoke on numerous national and local radio stations, and the new Vegan and Thriving campaign was unveiled to the public.

Alongside this activity we honoured Donald Watson, a founder of the society, with a blue plaque in his hometown of Mexborough, Yorkshire. Donald’s nephew, Tim Cook, unveiled the plaque at Donald’s former school in front of assembled family, Vegan Society staff and the press.

The Mexborough and District Heritage Society said that Donald “played a significant role in founding the modern vegan movement that is now this amazing worldwide movement”. They added, “Veganism has never been more popular than it is today, and all vegans owe a huge debt of gratitude to Donald Watson and the pioneering early members.”

Dietitian Manon Williams supporting Vegan and Thriving

Vegan and Thriving Health professionals agree that it is possible for people of all ages to thrive on a vegan diet. The Vegan and Thriving campaign has been created to help share this message, and also to provide people with the information they need to ensure that they are clued up about vegan nutrition.

Electronic billboards featuring the campaign appeared in several locations in London and Birmingham during the first two weeks of November. Throughout November and December we released short videos featuring dietitians on our website and YouTube channel. Covering topics such as supplementation and vegan diets for older adults and children, these videos are a resource for anyone wishing to learn more about veganism and nutrition.

On our website we shared over 40 delicious new plant-based recipes. These have all been checked by a dietitian and nutritionally analysed to ensure that they all meet certain health requirements. If you haven’t yet explored these recipes, they are a treasure trove of creative and tasty ideas.

Thank you to all of our followers who submitted your own photos holding a sign reading #veganandthriving. It was wonderful to see so many of you engaging with the campaign and sharing your personal stories of what thriving on a vegan diet means to you. If you have not yet shared your picture, please do so – there is no bad time to spread the word about veganism and health!

Nutrition outreach It has been another busy season for Heather Russell, Vegan Society Dietitian. Among other speaking and educational events, Heather spoke on a panel about antibiotic use in non-human animals in front of assembled members of the agriculture and veterinary industries. Heather made the point that moving towards a plantbased food system would reduce the need for antibiotics and have numerous other benefits for non-human animals and the planet.

In December, Heather spoke to health professionals about vegan nutrition and bone health at an osteoporosis conference in Dorset. You can access information about this topic at vegansociety.com/nutrition.

Vegan Society podcast We are very excited to announce that in the next few weeks we are launching a new monthly podcast. The podcast will be hosted on PodBean and will also be available to stream and download on Google Podcasts, Apple Podcasts and Spotify, as well as on our website at vegansociety.com/podcast.

This podcast is all about constructive conversation around highly debated topics in the realm of veganism. We have some fantastic interviewees lined up, and some very interesting topics to cover, including ‘Should vegans support fast food chains and supermarket vegan options?’ and ‘Is veganism for the privileged?’

Please do look out for the podcast, give it a listen and rate and review. The more positive ratings we are given, the more other people will find the podcast.

If you have ideas for topics or contributors, please email us at podcast@vegansociety.com.

VegFest London In October, members of Vegan Society staff and some of our fantastic volunteers exhibited at VegFest London. It was a fantastic opportunity to speak to members of the public at all stages of their vegan journey, to raise awareness for the society and our work and to sign up new members.

Campaigns and Policy Officer Tim Thorpe presented on our Grow Green campaign to an enthusiastic crowd. Tim spoke about the impact of animal agriculture on the environment and the need to transition towards a plant-based food system.

Thank you to our wonderful volunteers, new and long-standing, who as ever helped to make the event a success.

Trademark on the high street The Vegan Trademark took Veganuary 2020 by storm with several new launches available in retailers across the UK. In the food aisles you can now find Chicago Town’s first vegan offering – a tomato-stuffed sticky BBQ jackfruit pizza. The supermarkets are also upping their game – you can find ASDA’s Plant Based range, and a new vegan range by ALDI (including their pizzas!) Two new vegan toothpastes by Colgate also made their way into the toiletries aisle. Costa Coffee launched their Ham and Cheese Toastie and in the cosmetics world, Illamasqua have registered a huge range of cosmetics with yet more to be added to its growing Vegan Trademark registered range.

Food labelling The Vegan Society has recently hired for a new position – Louisianna Waring has joined us as our first Insight and Commercial Policy Officer. The role has been created to research the latest trends, consumer insights and market data on veganism. This work supports The Vegan Society through research, policy and business development, as we’re able to understand the vegan landscape from a data-driven perspective. Additionally, Louisianna will handle policy issues that affect our trademark clients, such as proposed changes to vegan food labelling. We are now also able to offer personalised insight reports for our trademark clients. If you are interested in this service, please get in touch at louisianna.waring@vegansociety.com.

Louisianna recently presented at the Campden BRI seminar: Food Labelling Update, where she discussed key topics in vegan labelling such as certification schemes, cross-contamination and ‘meaty’ language. The event was well attended by food professionals including manufacturers and brands, and discussions throughout the day were informative, positive and lively.

Vegan Vote In the run-up to last year’s election campaign we contacted candidates, in order to find out their views on vegan issues and to ensure that veganism and animal rights were front and centre of their minds.

We also put together some resources to help the public to contact their local candidates. Thank you to everyone who took part in this. It is vital for us to keep reminding those in government that they represent people who care deeply about vegan issues.

We received almost 200 responses from those we contacted, with several giving supportive comments. We are following up with those candidates who showed an interest in our cause with the hope to work together more closely in the future.