In the UK 24 out of 61 foods marked as VEGAN contain elements of dairy products.

According to a Guardian UK front page, "Egg and dairy found in a third of 'vegan ' products".

Another example of the woke being fooled; often by the super faux-woke corporations who want to be loved by everyone and profit from contemporary woke mania.

I think its possible to be vegan and still each dairy and eggs. There are all flavours of vegan from those who just skip meat to fanatics who won't each anything with red colouring because its derived from insect wings or won't each fruit unless it is harvested AFTER the fruit has fallen from the tree.

A strict vegan will not eat any animal products, nor wear leather shoes or other bits of animals. Very strange people, in my view.

However, food labels should reflect the actual contents of the container; particularly when the woke business community is telling everyone what we should think about everything from race, to homosexuality to transgenderism. Governments are loath to regulate businesses while they are doing their dirty work for them.

Dear Mhaze,

Vegans do not eat dairy and eggs - vegetarians do.

I have been vegetarian for 45 years: how old is this "woke" movement?

I do read the ingredient list of any food I buy, including the colouring, or ask those who prepared it in detail. Some make innocent mistakes and honestly believe that what they prepared is vegetarian, so I ask them about the ingredients and they may tell me that there is glazed-fruit in there, so I ask about the ingredients of the glazed fruit and they might say they don't know, they just bought that pack, then I tell them, look, glazing is usually just sugar, but sometimes they use gelatine which is a product of animal bones, so sorry I cannot have this now, but please check that pack before next time I see you.

This is all down to the work of a rogue communist counter revolutionary old cow named Tinkerbell, who has been going around poisoning good Greenie folks, like me, our lentil burgers, with vanilla custard! How dis-custard I am! To think that such an abomination is taking place in the year 2023! BTW, I had a bottle of non dairy milk the other day, made from chicken peas, tasted like crap, but one must make sacrifices if one is going to save the planet! I drank the whole bottle, one planet saved. Agree?

Not much of a greeny are you Paul, or don't you realise there is gallons of diesel in every chick pea?

This woke garbage really is getting beyond a joke.

I just had a motoring sight X out most of unmolested to uxxxxxxxx.
Surely this is a legitimate word to describe a car that has not been mucked with by some back yard hotroder, & a word still suitable to use in polite society. They make fools of themselves.

Hassy,

I'd accuse you of a lot of things, but never being a Greenie, given your track record as a petrol freaky, for a gas guzzling, bitumen burning rev head, like you, that would be beyond the pale!

It should now be clear that 'reading the ingredients' is of little use in some cases.

I always check the labels to make sure that the product doesn't come from China, or New Zealand. Reason for the former is obvious; the reason for the second is that China 'washes' a lot of its human-ordure-fertilised rubbish through NZ, where the stuff is merely packed or used by NZ manufacturers.

We have to do our own research and be cautious while
purchasing items if we are vegan. I'm not. I love
all kinds of food far too much.

Checking ingredients may help - but even that could
be deceiving. For example - I only recently found out that
gelatin is made of leftovers of meat, such as bones, horns,
et cetera and is obtained by boiling parts of animals to
make productive use of them. It's used in marshmallows,
Jello, gummy bears, and so on.

Then there's lard. This is fat derived from the abdomens of
pigs.

Did you know that honey is derived from honeybees - which is
their secretion and not vegan.

Lecithin can be animal as well as plant-based and is found
in baked goods, breakfast cereals, and even vegetable oil
sprays. These should be marked - from plant-based sources.
Of course not all are.

Interesting discussion.

I have been vegetarian for some time and know people who are vegan or on plant-based diets (preferred title for some). It is a not something that has come from recent times.

I also see no link to being woke either and being vegetarian or on a plant-based diet. After all, we have around 10-12% of people in Australia on vegetarian or plant-based diets combined and that is an increase from 2-3% of vegetarian/vegan diets in earlier days which has come from people signing up to plant-based diets for health reasons.

This article gives a good overview of the history of vegetarianism in Australia.

As the article points out:

"In the early 1800s, Seventh Day Adventists held "a general belief that [meat and alcohol] mutually worked together to cause various forms of social ills and promiscuity."

I would hardly call Seventh Day Adventists woke or anything close to that.

If you want to read the article go to: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-07-30/the-200-year-history-of-vegetarianism-in-australia/100310038. It is a very interesting article to read and very informative.

Finally, in terms of taking in certain animal products you don't want to as a vegetarian or person on a plant-based diet, simply cut down on processed foods. An apple from a tree or something from your vegetable garden won't be a problem. One glaze for example on some chocolate comes directly from insect secretions, hardly something that is overly appealing!

http://www.eatingwell.com/article/7833340/chocolate-shellac-bug-secretion/

Nathan

There is a great difference between vegetarians and vegans. And vegans are definitely woke. The post is about woke vegans, not vegetarians. Vegetarianism is OK for reasons of health, religion or whatever. Vegans and their ridiculous attitudes to animals and animal products are off the planet.

I'll bet it is hard for a greenie to admit that the best definition of a weed is "a plant growing in the wrong place". Thus I have removed a few trees. However I have planted many multiples of those in suitable places.

A new neighbor said recently that they didn't realise there was a house in there, as there were so many trees & bush in there that they couldn't see one. I have the photo of that house I took from the road to send to my lady 33 years ago for her opinion.

Meanwhile I have planted hundreds of trees on the place, which was previously a turf farm. Not all of this has gone well. I planted 100 Paulownia trees in 1992. Spent a great deal of time & money watering them through the extreme drought years of 93 & 94, only to have them die of root rot in the very wet 1996.

Others such as Silky Oak grow like weeds, once helped above the grass. I do have to control the gum trees, or this area quickly becomes useless thicket scrub. The previous owners the aborigines would never have let it get so thick, they would have had the fire stick in there very quickly.

My neighbors 10,000 acre paddock is becoming useless with scrub, even the roos have moved over here. He used to burn the rubbish regularly, doing an area each year, but has given up now. He couldn't stand the complaints of smoke from the know nothing new chum greenies on their 1.5 acre blocks in the new sub development.

How many trees have you planted Paul?

Really another useless post from the poodle.

Cross contamination is the principal source rather than deliberate inclusion.

Stricter rules including a formal definition of vegan is likely to assist in better regulating food processing facilities and the EU is already considering such rules. Little hope for the UK though since after Brexit, which was largely about industry being able to force less prescriptive regulations, will have zero intention of changing the rules.

"Vegans and their ridiculous attitudes to animals and animal products are off the planet.

I say hang em', hang em high, but not before force feeding em' a couple of kgs of rump steak!

This is the typical attitude to anyone who in the opinion of an arch conservative, dares to be different. ttbn, if they are not hurting YOU, why are they off the planet?

ttbn,

<<There is a great difference between vegetarians and vegans. And vegans are definitely woke. The post is about woke vegans, not vegetarians. Vegetarianism is OK for reasons of health, religion or whatever. Vegans and their ridiculous attitudes to animals and animal products are off the planet.>>

Well if you actually read the article, (have you?) you will find out that:

"For many white Australians (in earlier times), dinner looked pretty monochrome. "Basically, you had potatoes and cabbage, and people would grow their own, but there wasn't really [a fruit and vegetable] industry,"

This would easily apply to easily to people living in poverty and living very basic lifestyles. They were essentially eating very little and couldn't afford meat. I wouldn't call them woke at all and they were living on plant-based diets.

Overseas at present where many are starving, they are also living on plant-based diets (or nothing) and dying of starvation. I'd hardly call that woke either.

I'm also vegetarian and care about animals too by the way.

Finally, it looks like you are trying to stir the pot here, something another poster here does now and then (you'd know their name and it ends with a why?). Please don't be a replica of that person!

Here we go again. (Groan)

Wikipedia describes 'woke' as meaning "... alert to racial prejudice and discrimination". So now the right wing nutters are using the word to describe people who don't agree with what said nutter claims we should or should not eat. Where does the right wing get off on judging everyone else about everything?

So a capitalist pig unscrupulous corporation is lying to vegans. What a strange world it is when the vegans are painted the 'strange ones' by RWNs and not the corporations.

But I guess that 'woke' is just another of the de rigueur comments spat out by unimaginative lemmings of the right. Add it to "Left wing Marxist", "Marxist plot", "Rainbow agenda" etc. etc. etc. Yawn!

Nathan

What article are you talking about? My source didn't mention Australia; it was all about the UK, which has enough stories of its own without referring to Australia.

You go to the trouble of announcing that you are a vegetarian - again - continuing to ignore the fact that the post is about VEGANS.

I'm pleased to hear from you. I respect your opinions, but I will be sticking with mine. Vegetarianism OK. Veganism off the planet; but they deserve to get what manufacturers on labels claim that they are getting, just like everyone deserves to, no matter that they are as woke as can be - not to mention sickly looking. Some, like the mob attacking a restaurant in Perth recently are lunatics.

ttbn,

<<What article are you talking about? My source didn't mention Australia; it was all about the UK, which has enough stories of its own without referring to Australia.>>

Mine. I can read it and so you can you. Do so, you might learn something!

You refer to an article I cannot see or read, nor anyone else. Please provide a link, so we can be better informed.

Secondly, I referred to people living off a diet of cabbage and potatoes, from the article I provided a link to, most likely due to being poor. They are not woke, despite being on a Vegan (or plant-based diet), two terms essentially though they mean the same thing.

Some don't like the term vegan and use 'plant-based' as they don't want any association with vegan animal rights activists, and I understand why. I wouldn't though put vegans or those on a plant-based diet though in a woke grouping. They wouldn't get on together at all. They'd disagree on so many things!

See this article and find out why: http://www.litwi.org/blog/its-time-we-decolonized-white-veganism

The article cares more about people, more than animals and goes against everything I stand for as an animal rights person. I would question if the writer is vegan or on a plant-based diet at all!

"They'd disagree on so many things!"
- Everybody disagrees with everyone else on so many things anyway, what's the big deal?

Your article 'It’s Time We Decolonized White Veganism'
- Interesting choice of words this 'decolonized' idea, and interesting that I heard it elsewhere earlier today...

I shared this link earlier for Canem Malum, but now I'm going to share it with everyone, because everyone should hear what the man has to say.

A must watch!! James Lindsay explains how woke = Marxism
http://twitter.com/EITC_Official/status/1653621600468766721

Listen carefully and you might hear that word 'decolonized' explained in further detail.

One thing multiculturalism has brought to Australia is a diversity of food, and a whole new look at what we eat, and enjoy. I've eaten everything from African to Indian, and I realise how much past generations missed out on with their Pommy "meat and three veg", night after night, fish and chips on a Friday night, and a pie (surprise box) at the footy on a Saturday afternoon, for exotic dinning out. To be fair there was that special night out at the local chows to celebrate Uncle Fred's 60th with Chicken Chow Mein, and the piece de resistance, chocky cake with 6 candles (not 60 don't want to burn the join down) made by Aunty Flo. A couple of beers for the men and 'Fanta' for the ladies kids. (that weirdo fella Uncle Bruce, brought a bottle of some kind of wine, "Char-d-nay" me thinks, everyone suspected Uncle Bruce was bent, that wine crap confirmed it).

Thanks AC, interesting James Lindsay and his thesis, Wokeism = Marxism in a peculiar way. If you entirely reject Marxism, then you must reject Wokeism, and any notions of social justice. For example if you believe gay rights is Wokeism, and therefore undesirable, then you must reject all notions of gay rights and maintain the status quo. Is that what people like Lindsay are calling for? For me its a bit like saying we must reject the colour red, because red is associated with Communism, Communism is bad, so therefore the colour red is bad, and anything red is bad, strawberry's are bad, it doesn't make sense.

If you were sacked from your job at the 'Lolly Shop', because they found out you were gay, and you now find yourself destitute on the streets, being bashed by the Bovver Boys every night, because you are gay. Do you think its acceptable, or should you call for some form of social justice, even if you considered it Wokeism, which you have totally rejected previously.

The violence of some vegans against the Perth restauranter continues to be aired on social media well after the event. Vegans who quietly eat grass or whatever sustains them will be tarred with the same brush as those ratbags. Who would have thought that what people eat would have caused such acrimony!

But, that's Wokestralia now: division, hatred and violence - just what totalitarians like Albanese want - divide and conquer. Racism (the Voice); big spending to cause inflation; cost of living rises; environmental destruction via windmills and solar panels; threats to remove cash; threats to shut down freedom of speech; threats against religion, particularly Christianity; removal of property rights (ACT Green/Labor government obliterating Calvary Catholic hospital because they refuse to commit euthanasia and abortions; destruction of the education system in favour of political and gender brainwashing; support for perverts; threats to supplies of prescription medicines by outsourcing to China; gagging doctors from telling the truth to patients; non-acceptance of Covid outrages and refusing to exert justice against those responsible; a virtual one-party system.

Wokestralia, soon to become Shitstralia.

Oh, and if you want to object to the Albanese's proposed Bill to quash freedom of speech on social media, you have to include your name and address, and take the chance of getting a knock on your door in the early hours. And, who knows what tips Albanese will pick up during his upcoming trip to China.

WTF?
ttbn initially says: "In the UK 24 out of 61 foods marked as VEGAN contain elements of dairy products.

According to a Guardian UK front page, "Egg and dairy found in a third of 'vegan ' products"

ttbn then describes this as the "woke being fooled".

I think most people have missed the point.

These people, for what ever reason, have in good faith purchased products that have been falsely, perhaps fraudulently, labelled.

Rather than comment on the behaviour of those companies some on here seem gleeful that another group of consumers has been misled and paid for products that are not what is advertised.

What a sad bunch of commentators.

WTF

That's right. But, many posters twist any subject around to get the dirty water of their chests, which often has no bearing on the subject. Everybody, no matter who or what they are, should be able to rely on food labels.

Armchair Critic,

My point is with the posted opinion put about white veganism and decolonising, is it refers to vegans, but then goes against many things people who are either vegetarian or on a vegan/plant-based diet stand for if they support the rights of animals (non-human species), like myself as a vegetarian.

So, they will not be getting me on board, nor a lot of people who are on vegan or plant-based diets who support the rights of animal species (non-human). If anything, they will not connect with these people.

They want to use veganism to push an opinion, but then want to avoid why people go that way. It's not all cultural. Referred to are people (religious/cultural) from places like India who are vegetarian. I have respect for the people there, with about 30% of the population vegetarian. For me though going vegetarian was not cultural/religious, but about awareness and a lifestyle choice. Since then, about animal rights.

Yes, there are people who find vegetarians/vegans who stand up for animal rights off putting. I understand that, but it's not a case for bringing colonialism/white veganism into the debate. They are going after the wrong people, want to be selective and oppose change.

Referred to are white vegans and lack of food for people of colour, but it is my vegetable garden where someone with nothing can get something to eat, not the neighbour with no cow so the authors reality is simply not there.

The writer refers to people from old times who have lived on plant-based diets and a clash with more modern vegans, but yet again avoids people are on vegetarian/vegan/plant-based diets for so many reasons.

The author says: "It is impossible to preach about saving the earth without first caring for the lives who make your righteous white veganism possible." Well, sorry it is. I will care for animals when I feel it appropriate. I was forced out of my home place beyond my control, and I take on a new level of awareness where I reside as a result.

Dear Nathan,

I also don't like the aggressiveness of vegan organisations.
I don't like their idea that everyone must become vegan (or even vegetarian). I think that being vegetarian is a privilege, not an obligation, I think that most of the world is not ready for it.

However, I must remark that veganism has made my life so much more comfortable.

When I first came to Australia, finding food to buy was a struggle.
There was no awareness, there was no labeling, products from dead animals could be found arbitrarily in any processed food - even bread and crackers had "bread improver" or E471, which was at the time often derived from animals (one batch from China was found to be derived from human hair). There were practically no alternate products. The only cheese which was assured to be without animal rennet was Philadelphia and there was no yogurt of any kind without gelatine. Restaurants that had any dish I could have were a rarity and social events/parties left me hungry, ridiculed and embarrassed.

Thanks to all the vegans around I now have plenty to eat, labels are friendly, many explicitly stating "suitable for vegan and vegetarians", almost every restaurant has some vegetarian/vegan dishes/options and Australians now readily accept my diet and offer quite a few alternatives.

I think we should be thankful.

Yuyutsu,

Thank you for the comments. I agree with everything you've just said.

I remember the times when nearly all cheese had rennet in just about every batch, but now you can get a lot that are rennet free. This has come from some activism and awareness raising. The only exception being places like France. I went to a cheese shop with lots of French cheese and realised that was the case, so some places are still so different. I don't know how the French actually cope with the limitations.

We are so lucky to have food and other diversity here in Australia. We can choose to live our own lifestyles and select what we want, whereas in many places one culture is prevalent and if you go outside that you are seen as a minority and are likely to be targeted by groups or the government.

ttbn's argument that vegans are woke or politically correct as some would call it is flawed, as highlighted in the article link I provided. I would argue that the writer is woke/politically correct, but if you take that view, then you are not true to some of the basic principles of being on a vegetarian/vegan/plant-based diet. The two cannot work together.

I like being able to live each day knowing I am not part of the meat industry, one that kills innocent animals every day. It is good for my personal and physical health and I'm glad we have so many freedoms here in Australia. Such freedoms do clash with the cultural approaches of others, but personal freedoms are better than having to live dated, cold lives based on culture.

As pointed out I will support animal species that are non-human over humans when I want to, despite the writer's position about modern vegans. I'd rather support native animals in Australia and ones from overseas over the Russian president any day, in fact all year round.

Some of these old conserves like their dinky-di Aussie meat pies, they think they are eating beef, well have I got news for them, kangaroo, buffalo, the occasional bit of @%$#%$@*! Beef, hardly ever!

Vegan food is starving brain cells what other explanation can there be for being a Vegan ?

"starving brain cells" that coming from the brainless!

Those with no retort have only one option, ridicule !

WE MAy Not be ABLE TO CHOOSE what food we eat at all soon-

Evidence of ASIC colluding with the Labor Government to attempt to
by-pass the Australian SENATE to introduce ESGs (a score for your environmental compliance.)
Meaning-a down score if you buy too much petrol, meat, eggs, dairy. Etc.own a petrol car. Who knows what the hell choices they'll legislate to take choice away from us.

https://youtu.be/rgC293aGKic
Link to video. In the Interests of the People with John Adams