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Donald Watson, co-founder of the Vegan Society
I’ve been vegan for more than ten years and, as you can probably imagine, I’ve seen a lot of change in veganism in that time. When I started out, you had to cook almost everything from scratch. There were meat and dairy substitutes, of course, but they weren’t much good and the range was rather limited. You also had to go to specialist health food shops to get them, which was a problem if there wasn’t one nearby. Supermarkets had soya milk, but that was about it.
But the small group of people who founded the Vegan Society back in 1944 had it far worse. They faced the shortages of rationing, and health food shops were a distant dream for them. But they also faced a lack of understanding by medical professionals and the public who were convinced that they would suffer malnutrition and an early death. Fortunately, they were proved wrong. Many of those early vegans have died only in the last decade or so, having lived long and healthy lives.
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Just some of the dairy-free milks now available
I’m glad to say that things are certainly not like that anymore. Medical understanding has improved dramatically and the vegan diet is recognised as being very healthy. And gone are the days of rationing and dry, unappealing vegan products. These days you can find every kind of dairy-free milk you can think of in supermarkets and high street shops – not just soya, but also almond, rice, oat, coconut, hemp and hazelnut milks. Go to the freezer section and you’ll usually find vegan burgers, mince, sausages and ice cream. Some even have vegan cheese and yogurts available. And they’re often actually labelled ‘suitable for vegans’ – something that was almost unheard of even a decade ago when I started.
But it’s not just the availability that’s improved; the quality and range of vegan products is now also light years ahead of what it used to be. It seems that every time I go to a vegan event, something new has appeared on the scene. In recent years I’ve seen vegan ‘fish’ fingers, cupcakes, cheese that’s as good as the real thing and even meringues. There’s now almost nothing that you can’t get a vegan version of.
With vegan celebrities and restaurants popping up all over the place (more on that to come) it seems that we have entered a golden age of veganism – things really have never been so good. So, welcome, you’ve joined us at an amazing time.
