Annual Review 2019
From the CEO
From the Chair of Council
The bigger picture
In 2019 I reached a personal milestone – 10 years of working for The Vegan Society. The progress that has been made in the charity and in the wider vegan movement during this time is truly outstanding and serves as a testament to the hard work and dedication of all of the individuals who make up our community.
As The Vegan Society celebrates its 75th anniversary, we look back with pride and gratitude for the progress that the organisation has witnessed in seeing so many turn to an ethical way of living.
The wider vegan movement has again gained traction and awareness throughout the year. The increase in conversations about the climate emergency has sparked new interest in plant-based diets, helped by activists such as Greta Thunberg. Younger generations in particular are embracing veganism for environmental reasons.
The life of Donald Watson, one of the founders of The Vegan Society, was celebrated by the unveiling of a blue plaque that has been installed at his old primary school. It will always stand as a sign of what can be achieved by a few through conviction and determination.
New documentaries detailing the multifaceted benefits of veganism again grabbed headlines, including the documentary The Game Changers, a feature-length film launched on Netflix which shone a spotlight on some of the phenomenal achievements of plant-based athletes.
The Vegan Society grows through the continued success of the Vegan Trademark and VEG 1 supplement, and we gain in our impact through new campaigns such as Vegan and Thriving alongside our ongoing activity.
Vegan athletes made headlines, including racing driver Lewis Hamilton and Vegan Society ambassador Fiona Oakes with her documentary Running for Good, which tells the story of her ultramarathon success.
Our staff numbers continue to grow as we invest in the people who make so much of our work possible. We ended the year with around 50 staff members, and we plan to continue this growth.
The year also brought celebrations for the 10th anniversary of CEO George Gill’s work with the organisation. He continues to lead an exemplary group of staff and volunteers with the support of our trustees for his vision and commitment to the organisation and to veganism.
Surge’s Animal Rights March took place in 49 cities around the world, comprising over 41,000 activists – almost double that of 2018.
Together, we can make significant steps towards veganism during the next decade.
Thank you to everyone who is helping to make our vision a reality.
George Gill
Menna Jones
In 2019 our campaigns Plate Up for the Planet and Grow Green found new audiences keen to learn more about green diets. World Vegan Month, our 75th anniversary, saw us commemorate Vegan Society co-founder Donald Watson and launch Vegan and Thriving, a campaign highlighting the fact that veganism and health can easily go hand in hand.
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Veganism continues to become more accessible, helped by the near constant release of ever more affordable products to the marketplace. The Greggs vegan sausage roll became a cultural phenomenon and motif of 2019, much to the consternation of a certain morning-TV show host.
75 and Thriving
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ovember 2019 marked an important Vegan Society landmark – 75 years since the organisation was founded. One of the ways we marked this important occasion was by launching the new Vegan and Thriving campaign, which highlights the fact that The Vegan Society has been helping vegans to flourish for 75 years. We were very proud to collaborate with ITN to produce a short documentary to showcase the health benefits of vegan diets. The film was first shown at the College of Medicine’s Food on Prescription conference, where health professionals gathered to hear the latest in nutrition news. Featuring four interviewees all enthusiastic about the role veganism has played in their health, the documentary has so far accumulated several thousand views on social media. Keen to provide evidence-based research and to amplify the voices of professionals, we produced six short videos featuring dietitians speaking positively about vegan diets and giving their top tips on how to get the most out of your food. A bank of over 40 fantastically delicious plantbased recipes – all of which meet a range of health criteria created by our in-house dietitian – was added to our website. It features gluten-free and high-calcium recipes, quick to make meals and some fancier options for impressing your friends and family.
Communications Manager Danielle Saunders shares the message that veganism can support a healthy pregnancy
Well-planned vegan diets follow healthy eating recommendations and they can provide all the nutrients our body needs. Some research has linked plant-based diets with lower cholesterol and blood pressure, as well as lower rates of heart disease, type 2 diabetes and some cancers. Elena Tsompanaki, dietitian who worked on the Vegan and Thriving campaign 2
Play Fair with Plant Milk
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he Vegan Society has been encouraging the government to add vegan options to public sector menus for several years. As of 2018, this work has come under the Catering for Everyone campaign. After an impressive response to our Catering for Everyone government petition, we are in conversation with several decision makers. The campaign goal is now cited as part of the environmental solution in an independent report commissioned by the Committee on Climate Change. In 2019 we launched an offshoot of this campaign, Play Fair with Plant Milk, to focus
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specifically on the lack of provision of fortified plant milks in nutritional public health initiatives for children. We created template letters for people to write to either their local or national governing bodies. The letters state, “The existing scheme currently restricts the purchase of milk to cow’s milk only. As vegans do not consume dairy milk, this amounts to indirect discrimination against them, as it excludes them from accessing the benefits of this scheme and puts them at risk of missing out on valuable nutrients every day.� So far, almost one thousand letters have been sent to, among others, the Department of Health,
the EU Commission and the Department of Education. Media response to the campaign was positive, with the story being featured in the Sun, Metro, Independent and more. Staff members were interviewed on various regional radio stations, where they highlighted the importance of catering for vegan and lactose intolerant children. As a result of the campaign, we are now in conversation with the Department of Health in regard to the Nursery Milk and Healthy Start Scheme.
Plate Up for the Planet
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he environmental campaign Plate Up for the Planet exists to increase awareness of veganism as a key solution to the climate crisis. In 2019 we took the campaign on a roadshow around the country, visiting large workplaces and environmental organisations to encourage people to eat vegan for a week, in a bid to
show them how easy it can be and how much of an impact we can have collectively. The roadshow kicked off at Friends of the Earth headquarters in London, also visiting Greenpeace, WWF, the BBC, ITV and more over the summer months. Offering advice, recipe booklets and free products from
some Vegan Trademark holders, we had meaningful conversations with hundreds of people who decided to give a vegan diet a go. Visitors also had the chance to use our scales to find out their ‘carbon foodprint’. By balancing the foods which most regularly appear in their shopping basket, they could see that animal products have a heavy toll on the environment, whereas many plant-based foods are far more planet friendly. We ended 2019 with over 21,000 people having committed to a vegan week since the launch of the campaign. That’s the equivalent of 1.5 million km flown on a long-haul flight!
Several people in the public eye added their voice to the campaign. Newly vegan TV presenter and naturalist Chris Packham tweeted: “Did you know you can reduce your food-related carbon footprint by up to 50% with a vegan diet? #PlateUpForThePlanet” The Plate Up team bringing veganism to ITV’s offices
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Lacing up for change
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he year 2019 was a big one for high street fashion launches, with Topshop and Marks and Spencer bringing out non-leather shoe lines in early 2019. Our Business Development Team witnessed this shift first-hand, with highprofile product registrations from the likes of New Look, Gola, Blowfish and Accessorize. Registering shoes and fashion items isn’t new for our Trademark Team, and we’ve celebrated independent vegan brands such as Will’s Vegan Shoes, Beyond Skin and Freerangers clearly labelling their footwear with the Vegan Trademark for years.
Vegan fashion is becoming mainstream, widely available and affordable. We worked closely with New Look over the course of the year, auditing their supply chain and reviewing everything from raw materials to finished products, in one of the largest registration projects we’ve undertaken. Through working with us, New Look were able to strengthen their internal processes and honour their spot as one of the top 15% companies for transparency in the fast fashion industry. New Look’s 600+ product registration with the Vegan Trademark, and commitment to registering more, has had a wider influence
on other high street brands, raising the bar for their labelling of vegan products. This shift for vegan fashion becoming mainstream is helping to achieve our strategic aims by making veganism more accessible and affordable than ever before. It is an important reminder to everybody who sees our trademark on a registered product that the vegan lifestyle is about so much more than food and cosmetics.
New Look is thrilled to have the Vegan Trademark on over 60% of our footwear and bags. Having launched our vegan range in August, we believe this is a step in the right direction for veganism and being able to offer our customers products which are completely free from animal products. We want to make vegan fashion affordable and accessible for our customers. New Look spokesperson
New Look have registered 600 products (and counting) with the Vegan Trademark
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Veganism in politics
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s our Campaigns, Policy and Research Team grows, we are able to engage with politicians and decision makers more regularly, in a bid to get vegan solutions on the government’s agenda.
vegan options across the public sector. At the Labour Party Conference we organised a panel event with various speakers, including Shadow Defra Minister Sue Hayman, where we discussed the role of plant-based agriculture in tackling the climate emergency.
The Vegan Society was present at the Labour, Liberal Democrat, Conservative and Green Party conferences in the autumn. We shared the message to “Fix Food and Farming” by supporting vegan agriculture and promoting
The vegAPPG – the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Vegetarianism and Veganism headed up by The Vegan Society and Vegetarian for Life – met several times throughout the year. One meeting focused
on the debate around the use of ‘meaty’ language, following an EU proposal to bring in new legislation to restrict the use of terms such as ‘sausage’ and ‘burger’ on non-meat products. Campaigns Manager Mark Banahan was later invited to give evidence on this topic to a House of Lords sub-committee. He made the point that the proposal had little to do with consumer protection and was instead motivated by the economic concerns of the meat industry. He added that policymakers should be supporting vegan products, not trying to undermine them with ill-thoughtout regulations. Following the meeting, the sub-committee recommended against the UK adopting similar legislation post-Brexit.
A highlight from the political party conference season was winning the Best Stand Award (Delegate’s Choice) at the Labour Party Conference, which was presented to us by Eddie Izzard. Dawn Butler MP gives her support for vegan environmental solutions
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Volunteers Volunteering at a glance
90 Office volunteer applications
100 Community Network volunteer applications
680 Requests for leaflets
2000 Total hours of volunteer time Volunteer Zanele hard at work at Vegan Society HQ
Volunteering with The Vegan Society has been an awesome experience both personally and professionally, influencing my future career opportunities to include social media and digital content.
around my job. Being part of such an inclusive organisation has given me new career development opportunities, and combining my educational experience with my veganism is life-changing for me.
I think it’s fantastic that The Vegan Society reaches out to the local community in Birmingham and offers people like myself structured, office-based volunteering that fits
I am filled with gratitude to The Vegan Society for widening participation for graduates like myself to enter the world of digital marketing. Staff have been the epitome of kindness and
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compassion. I’ve had a wonderful time and loved working in an office with like-minded people. I would like to thank Digital Content Officer Jennifer Jones for putting together a comprehensive training program. Zanele Dlova, Social Media and Digital Content Volunteer
Grow Green
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he adoption of plant-based buying habits is skyrocketing in the UK – but currently, our agricultural system does not support this transition. The Grow Green campaign was established in 2016 to encourage a shift towards plant-based agriculture.
Several attendees were inspired to join our Grow Green working group to bring people together to overcome the barriers to transitioning to vegan agriculture. Including
farmers, food policy and sustainability NGOs, the group has since met twice – once at Iain Tolhurst’s stock-free organic farm to share practical knowledge about vegan farming.
Such an enormous and complex issue requires input from many different sectors of society. From farmers to government, academics to NGOs, productive and solutionfocused discussion is much needed. With this in mind, in 2019 The Vegan Society ran the inaugural Grow Green Conference, a packed day of speeches and panels featuring key stakeholders across diverse sectors in the first event of its kind. Over 200 attendees gathered at the British Library to discuss the transition to a more plant-based future and its implications. Dr Helen Harwatt opened the conference launching her paper ‘Eating Away at Climate Change with Negative Emissions’. The report envisions a UK agricultural system that is compliant with key climate commitments, by modelling the greenhouse gas reductions from repurposing current pasture land to woodland. A panel of farmers spoke about their personal experience diversifying away from animal farming and the realities of this kind of transition culturally and financially.
Dr Helen Harwatt presents her findings on improving the current agricultural system
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Vegan rights
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he Rights service offered by The Vegan Society is critical to the development of practices, policies and regulations that can help dismantle prejudice against non-human animals. It may not at first seem obvious, but to speak of animal rights as a moral imperative means that we humans must develop and put in place the social regulations that give effect to the rights of other animals. This means developing policies that normalise veganism and give us the right to practice veganism in all aspects of our lives.
with dead animals or animal ingredients. Our children deserve educational policies that give them the right to practice veganism. Giving effect to animal rights means that we must normalise veganism and obtain institutional support for the vegan way of life, and the work of our Rights service functions to this effect.
Taking action against employers is a brave and courageous thing to do, and the result is that the convictions of vegans are taken more seriously than they previously were.
For example, in 2019 a high street bank paid compensation to a vegan for discrimination with the help of our Rights service. This particular bank has 33,000 employees and will now ensure that veganism is respected and included in its diversity and inclusion policy and briefings. A vegan who suffered discrimination in the workplace also used our service this year to bring about an out-of-court settlement. Taking action against employers is a brave and courageous thing to do, and the result is that the convictions of vegans are taken more seriously than they previously were. We regularly support vegan parents who are trying to obtain good quality vegan food in schools and pupils who are told that in order to pass assessments they must work
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Part of our work is around protecting the rights of vegan children to nutritious school meals
Veganism in the spotlight
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eganism is currently receiving an unprecedented amount of media attention. Even though vegans still constitute just 1% of the population of Great Britain, one in three Brits consciously reduce their consumption of animal products, leading to a growing interest in plant-based diets. Many media outlets found our legal work interesting in 2019. Our formal letters to
NHS England and Scotland urging school milk schemes to include plant milk were covered by nearly all the national newspapers as well as plenty of regional publications. There is an ongoing fight to ensure vegan children are provided with the plant milk they deserve. A Scottish mother secured vegan school meals for her five-year-old daughter with our help, and as a result the local council now provides vegan food in all its nurseries and schools. The mother was our spokesperson
during a lengthy and hugely positive interview on BBC Radio Scotland, as well as featuring in many articles in Scottish press. We have developed a bank of case studies so that we are able to proactively share strong, positive vegan stories with journalists. The media featured several case studies we put forward, such as an 82-year-old vegan athlete who does 3,000 press-ups every day; the world’s first vegan cricket club; a long-term vegan NHS worker who has given blood 112 times; and a number of parents who talked positively on national radio about raising vegan children. Check the media section on our website to see how you could become a media contact.
In 2019, The Vegan Society appeared in 7,323 print and online articles, an increase of 64% from the previous year. Our spokespeople gave a whopping 144 TV and radio interviews, over 61% more than in 2018. Media Officer Dominika Piasecka promotes veganism on prime-time BBC News
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Coming in 2020
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hank you to everyone who has helped us to achieve our goals in 2019. We’re delighted with the progress made, but we know there is still a long way to go. In 2020, we will run a large public-facing campaign on animal rights and compassion, to help more people than ever to make the connection and go vegan. We will take part in the COP26 climate event in Glasgow and use the opportunity to spread the word about the need for animal
agriculture to be recognised as a major contributor to climate breakdown. We will launch a vegan supplement for children, to help them to reach their nutritional requirements. We will attend more public and trade events to continue to bring veganism to new audiences. Building on Vegan and Thriving, we will work with health organisations to support people with existing health conditions to go vegan. We look forward to your continued support.
The Vegan Society, Donald Watson House, 34–35 Ludgate Hill, Birmingham B3 1EH t: +44 (0)121 523 1730 e: info@vegansociety.com w: vegansociety.com Registered Charity No. 279228 (England and Wales) and SC049495 (Scotland) Printed on 100% recycled paper