VEGAN
BY TOM HARRIS
Anti-capitalism and veganism are two sides of the same coin. Maximum profit from minimal investment is the reason industrial slaughter exists, and for generations being vegan meant avoiding multinationals. Companies like McDonalds hated us as much as we did them; they didn’t even make vegan fries. But the rise of ‘vegan capitalism’ has ushered in a new era, and it poses a new question. Are we adapting, and do we need to? In 2017, I finished a fiveyear Anti-Social Behaviour Order. This followed a fiveyear prison sentence I received during a coordinated attack by the British state to end the anti-vivisection movement. As a result, I had been isolated from other animal liberation activists for the best part of a decade. Dozens of my friends were in the same situation, or worse. As I emerged into the cold light of freedom, the movement I grew up in had all but vanished. Something new, and in some ways better, had replaced it. For the first time since the 1960’s a 12
FORÇA VEGAN
new generation of activists had appeared with little guidance from those who came before. Before my arrest, my activism consisted of deconstructing businesses. I routinely follow the financial press, and in those pages I noticed another change; one which slipped under the radar of many. As my ASBO ended, the western-world’s plantbased revolution began. The catalyst wasn’t the animal liberation movement, but an unusual research project. The Wellcome Trust
and Oxford University are a sinister pairing, responsible for countless depraved and violent experiments on non-human animals. But this time their study took place amid the aisles of Sainsbury’s supermarkets. They placed veggie food on the same shelves as meat, gave vouchers to shoppers who chose vegetarian options, and provided recipes cards to help shoppers eat less meat. Their aim was to increase plant-based eating in an attempt to slow the looming climate crisis. Through this study, influx of plantbased foods onto supermarket shelves had begun.
